February 24, 2021 marks the 125th anniversary of the beginning of the armed action organized by the National Hero of Cuba José Julián Martí Pérez to achieve the independence of Cuba, which has been called the War of 95, Necessary War or War of Independence of Cuba.
Since the emigration and as the highest representative of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, which he created, Martí had organized the insurrection in the East, as in the rest of the country. To achieve his independence goals, Martí relied on the highest figures of the previous wart (first war of 1868-1878), and managed to structure a movement that responded to his orders without hesitation. The independence outbreak occurred on February 24, 1895.
The Cuban Revolutionary Party was the political organization founded by José Martí due to the need to create an organ or group that would provide a programmatic line to the new war in preparation, and at the same time act as a leadership based on the analysis of the Latin American emancipatory process and the The Cuban case itself, as well as how useful and urgent it was to give coherence and unity to the independence efforts. In achieving this endeavor, it was essential to include the interests and characteristics of the different groups of emigrants, as well as of the various elements that make up Cuban society, in order to create, in the future, a republic without the predominance of any social class and popular in nature.
At the bases of the Cuban Revolutionary Party published in the newspaper Patria, founded and also directed by José Martí, was the call to order a generous and brief war, to found a nation through a war of republican spirit and methods, to open resources for the war, as well as doing everything that will contribute to its success.
In addition, in the first issue of the publication, the article “Our ideas” appeared, as an editorial, which said: “War is a political procedure, and this procedure of war is convenient in Cuba” for multiple reasons that made it the only means to which the Cubans appealed to achieve independence, since Spain had closed any other way.
The new organization did not only propose to put an end to Hispanic colonialism, but to “defend, in the redeemed homeland, popular politics”; it was about carrying out a contest that would make it possible to “complete a revolution”, not just move “an unjust authority from place”. Through the military confrontation, independence would be achieved, and this would make possible the foundation of a new Republic, “with everyone and for the good of all.”
The end of the first war in 1878, brought neither the well-being nor the necessary justice on the island. Therefore, the ideals of the Cuban patriots were frustrated, which was joined by several causes that started the 1995 war.
Economic: The Cuban economy was still in crisis, there were only some changes in the sugar industry. Budgets continued to be embezzled. The Spanish policy of high taxes continued. The United States had become the economic metropolis.
Policies: Tyrannical and militaristic governments remained. Cubans lacked political rights, even to hold government posts. Appearance of political parties that opposed the independence of Cuba. Spain, which had already lost its economic control, increased its repressive policy.
Social: New classes and social sectors appeared: workers and settlers. All social ills were exacerbated.
These objective circumstances were joined by others of a subjective nature, which drove the development of events. The main one was the presence of a leader like José Martí, with a leading political force that was the Cuban Revolutionary Party, which he created. Plus, the consciousness of the masses, which with great effort Martí cultivated in Cuba and mainly in emigration through clubs and financial support. To this is added the validity of the independence ideal and that already in those moments of 1895 in Cuba a revolutionary situation was brewing, expressed in the sharpening of the main colony-metropolis contradiction, where war was seen as the only possible means to achieve the true independence and well-being of the Cuban nation.
For this, the union of the veterans of the first war with the new forces, the new pines that would carry on the fight, was necessary. General Máximo Gomez Gómez was elected head of the liberating army. It was a general opinion in the emigrations and on the island that without the participation of the heroic mambí (Cuban freedom fighter) the complete success of a new fight was impossible. Such was the confidence of the veterans and the new generations in the military and political capacity of the unwavering combatant.
By assuming the task that the Party placed in his hands, the General took over an essential task of the organizational phase: he had to summon chiefs and officers who at some point were under his orders and, with them, set in motion a structure alive in the conscience and patriotic dignity of thousands of combatants. The task demanded maximum stealth, since they were, for the most part, in the territory occupied by the enemy.
Martí and Gómez would share, from that moment, the preparation for war. They were more than two years in which they interpenetrated, exchanging experiences and ideas, wishes and anguish. Disagreements arose on tactical aspects and there were moments of misunderstanding, but all difficulties were smoothed over by the force of shared principles and a friendship based on these.
The war that both had called broke out on February 24, 1895, and the Cuban countryside found them together in the face of danger, with the optimism and joy of those who saw the elements that could lead to victory grow around them. But the life of Major General José Martí was interrupted by his death in combat on May 19, 1895. Gómez continued in the breach, saddened by the loss of his brother’s ideals, although firm in his decision to carry out the objectives that both had drawn.
However, despite all the sacrifices, the true independence desired by the heroes was not achieved at that time.
The North American arrogance in the face of 30 years of independence struggle that materializes in the last moments of the Spanish-Cuban war; and that it is not a coincidence, but the result of a policy of many years in which the United States made an effort to take over the Island, demonstrating with facts such as the refusal of the Cuban troops to enter Santiago and the indolence and apathy towards our people, known in the Brickenridge instructions and the Treaty of Paris where Cuba was excluded achieving its objectives proposed.
The lack of unity of the Cuban military leaders and chiefs, since there were discrepancies between the them, allowed the United States talking separately and convincing Gómez, Calixto García and Tomas Estrada Palma to authorize the intervention of the North American troops, this lack of unity was also demonstrated by being easy on the United States. destroy the representative organs of the Cuban nation.
The lack of a unifying political-military leader, since at that time Cuba had lost important men with leadership and political-military vision such as Maceo and Martí, in addition to the fatal decision of the Cerro Assembly to dismiss Gómez, which was the general with the most political-military authority, they facilitated the North American task of sabotaging independence, politically seizing Cuba and consolidating its economic dependence on the US government.
This war, however, was of great historical significance. It served as teaching in later decades, specifically in the political-military strategy elaborated by Martí, the methods used by him to unite the Cubans. The war demonstrated that Marti’s thought was not the work of an illusionary, but that his vision was real, being demonstrated with the intervention of the United States. It demonstrated the capacity for sacrifice of the Cuban people who endured its rigors and overcame them. It contributed to developing Cuban military art. It served as an inspiration to the fighters of the liberation war led by Fidel Castro, who, following Marti’s teachings, achieved the true independence for the Cuban Nation on January 1, 1959.
