History Will Absolve Me

History Will Absolve Me (Spanish: La historia me absolverá) is the title of a two-hour speech made by Fidel Castro on 16 October 1953.

Castro made the speech in his own defense in court against the charges brought against him after he led an attack on the Moncada Barracks in Cuba.

Castro managed to have a handwritten note handed to the judge in court asking for special safeguards for his life that he said was under threat in prison.

Along with three others found to have played a leading role in the attack, Castro's brother Raúl was sentenced to 13 years on what was then called the Isle of Pines.

[4] Castro's speech contained numerous evocations of the "father of Cuban independence" José Martí, whilst depicting Batista as a tyrant.

According to Castro, Batista was a "monstrum horrendum ... without entrails" who had committed an act of treachery in 1933 when he initiated a coup to oust Cuban president Ramón Grau.

Historian Antonio Rafael de la Cova suggests that the recorded material outruns the two hours in which it is alleged Castro used to give his speech.

[9][11] Anti-Castro critic Humberto Fontova has alleged the similarity is due to direct inspiration, and that Fidel Castro was a youthful admirer of Adolf Hitler.