Battle of Las Mercedes

Part of Operation Verano and the Cuban Revolution

Date	July 29 – August 8, 1958
Location	Sierra Maestra hills, Cuba
Result	Pyrrhic government victory; rebels forced into temporary retreat Rebel propaganda victory

Belligerents

Batista government

26th of July Movement

Commanders and leaders

General Eulogio Cantillo

Fidel Castro

Rene Latour †

Che Guevara

The Battle of Las Mercedes (July 29 – August 8, 1958) was the last battle of Operation Verano, the summer offensive of 1958 launched by the Batista government during the Cuban Revolution. The battle was a trap, designed by Cuban General Eulogio Cantillo to lure Fidel Castro's guerrillas into a place where they could be surrounded and destroyed. The battle ended with a cease-fire which Castro proposed and which Cantillo accepted. During the cease-fire, Castro's forces escaped back into the hills. The battle, though technically a victory for the Cuban army left the army dispirited and demoralized. Castro viewed the result as a victory and soon launched his own offensive.

Earlier in the month, an amphibious assault from sea by the Cuban army Battalion 18 was crushed by Castro's forces at the Battle of La Plata. Battalion 18 was surrounded and sniped at by the rebel forces. General Cantillo ordered Battalion 17 to cross over the Sierra Maestra to come to the aid of Battalion 18. However, Castro's troops were able to block the road and prevent any relief for the surrounded soldiers. After 10 days of fighting, Battalion 18 surrendered.

This left Battalion 17 in an exposed position.

Battalion 17 began its pull back on July 29, 1958. Castro sent a column of men under Rene Latour to ambush the retreating soldiers. They attacked the advance guard and killed some 30 soldiers but then they came under attack from previously undetected Cuban forces. Latour called for help and Castro came to the battle scene with his own column of men. Castro's column also came under fire from yet more Cuban soldiers that had secretly advanced up the road from the Estrada Palma Sugar Mill.

As the battle heated up, General Cantillo called up more forces from nearby towns and some 1,500 troops started heading towards the fighting. However, this force was halted by a column under Che Guevara's command. While some critics accuse Che for not coming to the aid of Latour, Major Bockman argues that Che's move here was the correct thing to do. Indeed, he called Che's tactical appreciation of the battle "brilliant".

By the end of July, Castro's troops were fully engaged and in danger of being wiped out by the vastly superior numbers of the Cuban army. He had lost 70 men, including Rene Latour and both he, and the remains of Latour's column were surrounded. The next day, Castro requested a cease-fire with General Cantillo, he even offered to negotiate an end to the war. This offer was accepted by General Cantillo for reasons that remain unclear. Batista sent a personal representative to negotiate with Castro on August 2. The negotiations yielded no result but during the next six nights, Castro's troops managed to slip away unnoticed. On August 8, when the Cuban army resumed its attack, they found no one to fight. The battle was over.

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Wikipedia