In taking on his own defense in the trial for his participation in the attack on the Moncada barracks in the then eastern capital, and the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks in Bayamo, the revolutionary leader denounced the coup d’état perpetrated by Fulgencio Batista the previous year.

Despite his plea, the young lawyer was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Despite being behind bars, Fidel summarized his nearly four-hour argument before the court in the manifesto “History Will Absolve Me.”

The document, released clandestinely, confronted the tyranny’s distortions by exposing the true motivations for the attack on the military institutions and denouncing the crimes and torture of the attackers.

It also addressed the political, economic, and social ills the country was suffering.

In the document, Fidel listed the main measures the victorious revolution would adopt to address Cuba’s six fundamental problems at the time: land, industrialization, housing, unemployment, education, and the people’s health.

The manifesto, taken from prison and distributed clandestinely, became known as the Moncada Program.

The judicial farce to which Fidel was subjected demonstrated the moral courage of the revolutionary fighter considered one of the greatest statesmen of the 20th century.

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