From 1956 the Escambray Mountains were the focal point for several guerrilla groups. Early in 1958 the Directorio Revolucionario launched a guerrilla campaign in the Sierra del Escambray against Batista independent of that of Castro’s Movimiento Veintiseis de Julio in the Sierra Maestra. However their leaders quarreled and split their forces, those under Faure Chomón choosing to cooperate with a detachment of the M-26 led by Che Guevara (signing the Pedrero Pact), while a smaller group under Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo continued to wage an independent campaign.
After Castro assumed power in 1959, some 1,000 rebels (some sources say 3,000) unwilling to accept his leadership assembled in the Escambray, but by 1966 had been starved into surrender after Castro evacuated all peasants who might otherwise have fed them. Their defeat is the theme of Trinidad’s Museo de la Lucha contra Bandidos, in a former convent.
