Description:

Castro at a most pivotal time in Cuban history, January 1959, writes "To the Commander of the Rebel Army" to evacuate Cuban naval bases, and to turn them "over to the officers that the Revolutionary General Staff of the Navy may designate."

Autograph Document Signed twice, "Fidel Castro," and again in the heading, "Comandante en Jefe Dr. Fidel Castro," 1 page, 8.25" x 7.25", [Havana], [n.d., but c. January 1959], accomplished on blue Batista-era Navy Department stationery. Two file holes at top, light creases and light scattered foxing, else fine condition.

Castro, in the capacity of Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban Armed forces, orders the rebel army to evacuate Cuban naval installations. The order reads in full (translated): "To the Commanders of the Rebel Army. It is hereby ordered that the naval installations be evacuated and turned over to the officers that the Revolutionary General Staff of the Navy may designate."

Provisional President Dr. Manuel Urrutia named Castro Commander in Chief of the Cuban Armed forces on January 3, 1959, just as the revolutionary leader was en route to Havana from Santiago following the fall of the Batista regime. Judging from the ad hoc nature of the document, accomplished on Batista-regime stationery without even a date, it is quite probable that this document dates from a very early period of the Castro regime. Initially, Castro allowed the established Cuban Navy to continue in existence, believing that the anti-Batista revolt at Cienfuegos Naval Base in September 1957 as an indication of the navy's potential loyalty to him.

Soon afterwards, it became abundantly apparent to Castro that the naval officer corps was only anti-Batista and decidedly not pro-Castro. In response, the Cuban leader began purging the Cuban Navy, stripping it of nearly all of its qualified personnel by the end of 1960. With a small nucleus of loyalists, Castro embarked on reconstructing the naval forces, receiving a good deal of equipment from the USSR. On August 3, 1963, Castro would formerly establish the Cuban Revolutionary Navy (Marina de Guerra Revolucionaria, or MGR), permanently replacing the old Cuban naval establishment.

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