Havana's 1952 carnival season had not been a particularly brilliant one up to Sunday, March 9. The concessionaires were not happy about the small amount of confetti and serpentine consumed during the three weeks prior to March 9, and some of the older folk thought the younger generation of Cubans was losing interest in this ancient pre-Easter festival.

But on this particular Sunday-March 9-the crowds seemed to be in a more jubilant mood, and as the evening came on, the revelers threw themselves into the gaiety of the fiesta and kept things whirling until near midnight. All in all, it turned out to be a very pleasant evening, and most of the tired celebrants as well as most, but not all, of the other residents of the happy city of Havana were in bed and fast asleep at two o'clock the following morning.

At that very hour a small group of determined men sat in a brief, hush-hush meeting on a pretty little country estate called "Kuquine," on the outskirts of Havana. The meeting didn't last long. These same men had met before, a number of times, and the subject was always the same. This postmidnight session at Kuquine had been called simply to tie up the loose ends of a plan of action. And the plan had nothing to do with carnivals or fiestas.

Shortly after two o'clock the participants exchanged handshakes and left the estate. Four or five entered an automobile, drove out through a double row of Australian pines to the public highway in front of the place, and waited. A second automobile pulled up to the porch of the main house and four men stepped into the car. Not a word was spoken as the men got into the second automobile. One of them, wearing the uniform of an army officer, slipped in under the steering veering wheel and another joined him on the front seat. The remaining two took the rear seat and the car moved out -to the highway.

The driver of the second car was Captain Luis Robaina of the Cuban Army. His passengers were Francisco Tabernilla, Jr., Roberto Fernández, former junior Officer of the Army, and Fulgencio Batista.

At the precise moment the Batista party left the General's farm and started toward Camp Columbia, seat of the supreme command of the Cuban Army, other groups of Batista followers moved on separate strong points in the Armed Forces establishment. A small detachment moved toward La Cabaña Fortress, another toward La Punta Fortres  still another went to headquarters of the National Police. La Cabaña Fortress, across the bay from Havana, commands the harbor, the Presidential Palace, and a number of other important government buildings. La Cabaña is connected with the famous old Morro Castle, which is so well known to American tourists. La Punta, at the head of the famous Prado in Havana, houses the General Staff of the Cuban Navy and is the most important naval base on the island. The stronghold of the National Police is the National Police Headquarters Building in mid-town Havana.

The movements of the four groups were coordinated, and by previous agreement, the watches of the leaders were synchronized from minute to minute against time signals sent out by a local radio station.

The group assigned to take over La Cabaña was headed by Francisco Tabernilla, Sr., career soldier who, as a First Lieutenant, had gone along with Batista in the famous Revolt of the Sergeants in 1933. José E. Rodríguez Calderón, retired Colonel of the Navy, was assigned to take La Punta, and Police Lieutenant Rafael Salas Cañizares led the group which moved on National Police Headquarters. Nicolás Pérez Hernández, a civilian leader, was to aid in the coordination of the plan.

The revolutionary movement of March 10, 1952, was the culmination of weeks of plotting. The plan of action which sent Batista and his comrades off on a hazardous but successful attempt to unseat the government of President Prio had its beginnings in the crude outline for revolt brought to Batista a month before by a group of young army officers. From the minute the rough scheme was handed to Batista, he had studied it, revised it, and revamped it until it finally met the standards of the master strategist. Once Batista was certain all the details were in order and all unnecessary risks eliminated, he moved.

The zero hour was fixed for two-forty in the morning and once the movement was under way there was no manner of stopping it. The various units broke off all contact with one another at two o'clock and after the contact was broken the movement had to go forward to success or failure. If it failed, every man involved might be shot.

The two cars in the Batista party moved on toward Camp Columbia, through the village of Arroyo Arenas. Meanwhile, Señora Batista and the Batista children were fast asleep at the Kuquine farm, completely oblivious to what the head of the family was up to. As the group neared the military establishment, Batista spoke: "We are changing cars here," he announced, and Captain Robaina stopped the automobile. The Captain was surprised at this maneuver and he told Batista that their friends in Camp Columbia were expecting them to arrive in the car he was driving. There was no time for explanation. The changing of cars was part of the plan. It was done to mislead anyone who might be following the Batista party.

Camp Columbia has a number of entrances, and when a block or two from the post, Batista announced that he was going in through Gate Number Four. Again Captain Robaina demurred. "I understand the arrangement is for us to enter Gate Number Six," he ventured. "Nevertheless," replied Batista, "well go through Gate Number Four."

Just before they reached the gate Batista asked young Tabernilla to pass him an army uniform jacket which Batista had brought along as a disguise. In the darkness and excitement Tabernilla handed Batista a pair of army trousers. He had picked up the wrong garment from the floor of the car, and the General was a bit irked when he found he couldn't get the garment on his back. Once inside the military establishment Batista felt that he had come back home.

Inside the camp, Batista was received by Captain Dámaso Soto, who took him to headquarters of the Sixth Regiment, where other members of the Military Revolutionary junta were waiting. Captain Soto, who was in on the revolutionary plot, was serving as officer of the day.

All of the junior officers of the camp and a number of noncommissioned officers were on hand to greet their former Commander in Chief with wild enthusiasm, and Batista had difficulty restraining his emotions. But there was work to be done.

"We must be very careful that no news gets out until we have this matter properly adjusted," said Batista. "Have you taken care of the radio stations?" He was assured that all radio stations had been occupied. Batista then began to give orders. All ranks had been effectively infiltrated and won over to the revolution by the magic name of Batista, but care had to be exercised in rapidly consolidating the movement. One act of carelessness, one piece of faulty judgment, and everyone involved in the coup d'etat could very quickly forfeit his life.

General Assembly was sounded and the troops hurried with their weapons to the parade ground. Batista spoke to the men and his words were drowned out with the cheers of the men, who had always regarded him as a fellow soldier. Meanwhile, Batista's top leaders were taking the other military objectives, in accordance with the plan for revolt.

Shortly after two o'clock in the morning, Francisco Tabernilla, Sr., who was assigned the important task of taking La Cabaña Fortress, met with a small group of Batista supporters in the home of Lieutenant Pablo Miranda Rodríguez in Havana. After a quick checkup on their instructions, the members of the party entered two automobiles and set out on their assignments. The cars moved through the streets of Havana and around the rim of Havana Bay to the village of Casa Blanca.

Casa Blanca is a busy little village directly opposite the downtown section of Havana but it was sound asleep at twothirty in the morning. The distance from Casa Blanca to La Cabaña is only a few blocks, but the revolutionists had to pass through Tiscornia Immigrant Station in order to reach the fortress. After checking their watches with the radio time signals, the party moved on toward La Cabaña. For several years prior to 1944, Tabernilla had commanded La Cabaña and he knew every stone in its thick, centuriesold walls. He also knew personally many of the young officers and enlisted men serving in the La Cabaña garrison.

The passage through Tiscornia was made without difficulty and as the revolutionists approached the gates to the fortress, Tabernilla whispered final instructions to his lieutenants. As they neared the entrance, the sentry on the gate commanded them to halt. It was a critical moment for the invaders, although they believed the sentry was friendly to the revolution. But they weren't sure. As Tabernilla moved forward to be recognized, he saw the sentry. He was a friend, Corporal Traina, and the Tabernilla party quickly entered the military post. It was two-forty and they were right on schedule.

Once inside the dimly lighted old fortress, Tabernilla whispered orders to his men. The first job was to surround the residences of the commanding officer and other high-ranking personnel. The instructions were that no one was to be allowed to leave the residences. Within five minutes the first phase of the seizure was completed. Then Tabernilla and a few of his aides moved swiftly from company to company, battalion to battalion, passing the word that Batista had returned to power. Sleepy-eyed soldiers tumbled from their bunks to join the invaders and lend their support to the revolution.

When the revolutionists reached the Motorized Division, they were welcomed by another friend, Captain Julio Sánchez Gómez, who put his command under the orders of Tabernilla. As word of the Batista-Tabemilla movement spread through the garrison, the number of adherents increased by the hundreds. Finally, at Battalion Number Two, Tabemilla and his group found the entire organization drawn up in formation, ready to join the invaders.

In less than a half-hour from the time the party had entered the gates the entire garrison had gone over to the Batista cause and the soldiers shouted vivas for Tabernilla, vivas for Batista, and vivas for the Republic. In the midst of the jubilation, Tabernilla called General Batista in Camp Columbia to report: "Mission completed."

While Tabernilla was taking La Cabaa, the retired Naval Colonel, Rodríguez Calderón, was leading an equally successful invasion at La Punta Naval Headquarters on the Havana waterfront. When Rodríguez Calderón moved on La Punta he knew that not a single man inside the naval fortress knew of the revolutionary plans, therefore no inside assistance could be expected. He was accompanied by scarcely a dozen men, several of them naval ensigns. The party caught the fortress off-guard and had no trouble effecting entry. Once the Batista emissaries were inside, the garrison swung over to Batista immediately. Not a single shot had been
fired in any of these daring, pre-dawn revolutionary maneuvers. After taking La Punta, Rodríguez Calderón, acting on orders from Batista, sent Captain Juan Valdés Mendive to the Presidential Palace to offer protection to the family of the deposed President, Carlos Prio.

In downtown Havana, Lieutenant Salas of the Police had taken over the National Police Organization with no trouble, and the movement of March 10 was completed.

Batista telephoned all the military chiefs in the various provinces, summoned some of his closest friends among the civilians, and made sure that the fallen President was still at his country estate, La Chata, which is a short distance from the capital. Among the first of the civilian leaders called in was Dr. Andrés Domingo y Morales del Castillo, who had served in the important post of Minister of the Presidency during Batista's 1940-44 administration. He returned to that post a few days after March 10, 1952.

Recounting the events of the early morning of March 10, 1952, Batista told me that he had little trouble entering the stronghold. "Columbia-Military City-was my creation and the scene of the beginning of my public life," he declared. "When we entered it that eventful morning," he explained, "Camp Columbia was armed and prepared to defend herself against any and all invaders. But she opened her gates to receive the message of the revolution of March 10.

"Let others try, if they will; let them use, if they please, the same arguments; let them pronounce the same words. They could never enter Columbia as we did, because when you enter Columbia you must enter more than its gates awl its barracks. You must enter the hearts of the soldiers."

When word that Batista had staged another coup d'etat reached the Presidential Palace, the Guard was alerted, while Francisco and Antonio Prio hastened to convey the startling news to their brother, the President, who was sleeping tranquilly at his country home.

Some time around five o'clock in the morning, President Prio arrived at the Palace. Members of his cabinet and close political collaborators already had assembled at the Palace and no one underestimated the gravity of the situation. On the other hand, no one, including Prio, seemed to know what to do about it. At least, if anyone had a practical idea, he lacked the initiative to put his idea to work in such an emergency.

One aide suggested that the already fallen President go off to one of the provinces where the garrison was still loyal and fight it out to the end. This idea was quickly abandoned in face of many contrary opinions and Prio looked from one group to the other-and wondered.

Another assistant rushed in to inform Prio that a group of reporters insisted on talking to him. This led to a long discussion and it was finally decided to write out a statement which would put into words the spirit of resistance unto death which may have been general among those present, but which did not quite manage to come to the surface.

Around half-past seven in the morning a commission representing the Students Federation called at the Palace and asked to see Prio. On certain occasions in the immediate past these youths bad been highly critical of the Prio regime, but now they wanted arms and orders as to how they were to be coordinated into the plan of resistance which they apparently believed Prio had developed. Confused and disillusioned, they soon left the Palace. As a matter of fact, Prio's presidential term had already come to an abrupt but definite end.

After a few telephone calls, Prio was convinced that the garrison at Matanzas, sixty miles from Havana, was still loyal to him. Accompanied by two of his advisers, Prio left for the seaport. He had to move with great caution. On one occasion his automobile was stopped by a squad of soldiers. Prio pulled his hat over his eyes and held a handkerchief to his face. "We're taking my old father to see a doctor," said one of Prio's companions.

But there was no doctor in Matanzas capable of prescribing for the political ailment with which Prio was afflicted. By the time he and his party reached Matanzas, the garrison had gone over to the Batista forces. The idea of establishing a point of resistance in another province was considered and abandoned, and Prio returned to Havana, took temporary asylum in the Mexican Embassy, and then flew to exile in Miami.

Fulgencio Batista, aided by a mere handful of men, had again succeeded in overthrowing a government without spilling blood.