The release from the National Prison for Men in Isla de Pinos, called Presidio Modelo, was possible thanks to a strong pro-amnesty movement that gained strength throughout the country and became the largest mobilization in favor of that cause so far.

The young revolutionaries were released on May 15, 1955 from the prison located in Isla de Pinos -nowadays Isla de la Juventud-, after an unjust imprisonment and a rigged trial for their participation in the armed actions of July 26, 1953.

On May 16, Fidel Castro, after giving a press conference at the Isle of Pines Hotel, delivered to journalists the Manifesto to the People of Cuba, in which he reaffirmed his intention to continue, after his liberation, the struggle “without rest or diversion”, “without truce”, until the freedom of Cuba was achieved.

The country rises formidably against those who mistreat it, a new faith is seen to emerge, an unusual awakening in the national conscience. To try to stifle it is to provoke an unprecedented catastrophe whose disastrous results will fall on the heads of the guilty, he said.

Less than two months later, Fidel Castro left for Mexico, where he prepared the expedition of the Granma yacht, which landed in eastern Cuba to begin the guerrilla struggle in the Sierra Maestra mountains, which ended with the victory of the rebel forces on January 1, 1959.

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