The interior patio of the Presidential Palace remains marked by one indelible historical moment, more than possibly any other: a nearly successful commando assault and an assassination attempt on the life of dictator Fulgencio Batista by the University of Havana, students on March 13, 1957. Disguised as delivery men and driving a truck with weapons hidden under a false floor, the team blasted their way past security guards and made it as far as Batista’s presidential office. They did not, however, find him there. Only minutes before, Batista had crossed the hallway, opened a door, and climbed the steps that led to the president’s residential quarters on the top floors. According to Batista’s account, he had gone to visit his young son, who was home with a cold from school. Although his assailants died before completing their mission, their plan was to “decapitate” the dictatorship, force the foes of democracy from power, and reinstitute an electoral government that would implement the social and economic reforms of Cuba’s progressive 1940 Constitution. That possibility of “the revolution that might have been” continues to haunt the past for many Cubans who are aware of it. Museum of the Revolution (former Presidential Palace), Havana, 2016.
