History Will Absolve Me

"History Will Absolve Me" (Spanish:"La historia me absolverá") is the title of a four-hour speech made by Fidel Castro on 16 October 1953. Castro made the speech in his own defense in court against the charges brought against him after he led an attack on the Moncada Barracks. Though no record of Castro's words was kept, he reconstructed them later for publication. It became the manifesto of his 26th of July Movement. The words "history will absolve me" are the concluding lines of his statement to the court.

Though sentenced to terms of up to 15 years for their roles in the attack, all of the rebels were released after an amnesty granted by Fulgencio Batista in 1955. Castro relocated to Mexico, before returning to Cuba on the Granma yacht in December 1956.

Castro made his first court appearance on 21 September 1953 in Santiago, as one of around 100 defendants arrested after the Moncada attack. 65 of these had in fact not taken part in the operation and included leading politicians, among them the nation′s last democratically elected president, Carlos Prío. Castro, a qualified lawyer, took on his own defence, as did two other defendants. All others were defended by a total of 24 attorneys. Castro based his case on the illegality of the Batista regime and the inherent right of the citizen to rebel against what he perceived to be an illegal government. When asked who was responsible for the attack, Castro replied that "the intellectual author of this revolution is José Martí, the apostle of our independence". Castro also took part in the court′s second hearing on 22 September, but missed day 3 (25 September) because the regimental chief had wrongly claimed him to be sick. Castro managed to have a handwritten note handed to the judge in court asking for special safeguards for his life that he said was under threat in prison. The court then decided to proceed with the main trial, instructed for the demands in Castro′s letter to be fulfilled and to grant his separate case a new trial at a later date.

The defence was so successful that only 31 prisoners were found guilty and most were treated leniently. 19 attackers were acquitted along with the 65 civilians. The only two women participants in the attack, who had not been armed, received sentences of 7 months. Along with three others found to have played a leading role in the attack, Castro's brother Raúl was sentenced to 13 years on what was then called the Isle of Pines.

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Wikipedia