ABSTRACT
On March 24, 1952, Fidel Castro filed a brief before the Court of Constitutional Guarantees calling for Fulgencio Batista's arrest. The Cuban court ruled against the motion, which represented the first step in Castro's long road to seize control of Cuba. Castro recruited people for a campaign against Batista. Hoping to spur a mass uprising, on July 26, 1953, 170 guerrillas attacked the Moneada barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Castro and his brother Raul led the attacks, and the weapons were paid for by the rebels themselves. In Mexico, Castro also met with Ernesto "Che" Guevara, an Argentine revolutionary who agreed to join the expedition as a physician. Finally, on November 26, 1956, the revolutionaries set sail back to Cuba on a boat called the Granma. As the M-26 grew more popular back in Cuba, the Partido Socialista Popular, the Cuban Communist Party, which had condemned the original Castro putsch attempt, moved to open a dialogue with Castro and his men.
