September, 2024: On September 5, 1957, a plan of national scope had been planned with the purpose of developing several armed actions against key points in Havana, supported by operations in Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba; but due to lack of communication, only a popular uprising took place in the southern central city of the country.
That day in the city of Cienfuegos, members of the 26th of July Movement and sailors opposed to the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista staged an uprising, with broad popular support, which included the attack of the southern naval district, in Cayo Loco; they also took the stations of the Maritime Police and the National Police, the latter action in which Gregorio Morgan Hernandez, the first martyr of that heroic act, was mortally wounded.
The armed uprising of September 5 was part of a simultaneous plan in several points of the country, which failed to materialize, provoking the regime to unload all its power against the city of Cienfuegos; at mid-morning the Army aircrafts began to fly over the Naval District and the Marti Park, strafing and bombing the area.
Shortly after noon the army reinforcements coming from Santa Clara, began to arrive and the fight became more violent in the San Lorenzo School, the portals of the Tomás Terry Theater, the Police Station, the City Hall, the Cosmopolita drugstore and other nearby points; that day the Batista troops indiscriminately bombarded the neighborhoods, and caused dozens of dead, wounded and mutilated among the population.
Although it did not result as an armed action, the September 5 uprising is one of the most relevant episodes of the struggle against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista; it put the population on a war footing, and represented a victory, due to its tremendous national repercussion and the fact that, for hours, Cienfuegos was a free territory, the first of the Revolution in the country.
