Directorio Revolucionario

A December 1955 offshoot of the Federación Estudiantil Universitaria (FEU) at the University of Havana, the Revolutionary Directorate promoted an insurrectionary response to Batista’s repression, and established contact with other opponents of the regime, including Fidel Castro. Its March 1957 attack on the Presidential Palace failed to kill the president, but cost the life of its leader José A. Echeverría. Most of its remaining leaders began reorganizing in exile in Miami. Early in 1958 they returned to launch a guerrilla campaign in the Escambray mountains: by operating closer to Havana than their rivals, they hoped to be the first to seize power by controlling Havana. Their leaders Faure Chomón and Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo clashed over which of them should direct military operations and in mid-1958 Gutiérrez’s followers started forces with the Movimiento Veintiseis de Julio troops under Che Guevara. In July 1958, Directorio delegates met in Venezuela with other anti-Batista organizations and signed the Caracas Pact. During the Revolution of 1959 the Directorio took over the Presidential Palace, which they threatened not to hand over until the group were represented in the new government, but on the evening of January 2, 1959, they capitulated and shortly afterward merged with the Partido Socialista Popular to form the Organizaciones Revolucionarias Integradas, forerunner of the new Partido Comunista de Cuba.