Chronology

He sends a letter to Melba Hernández and Faustino Pérez from Mexico, via an employee of the Cuban Aviation Company named Ramón Galeana. The letters did not reach their addressees.

He sends the "Declarations to the people of Cuba" to Melba Hernández, from Mexico City, on the occasion of the next commemoration of the Attack on the Moncada Barracks. He instructs her to give copies of the document to Guido García Inclán, Pardo Llada, Manuel Palacio Blanco, Enrique de la Osa, Carlos Robreño, Ñico López and Max Lesnick, for them to circulate it.

He sends a letter to Melba Hernández from Mexico, in which he expresses his concern about the lack of news from his comrades in Cuba.

He commemorates the second anniversary of the Attack on the Moncada Barracks in the Mexican capital. In the morning he lays a floral tribute at the Monument to the Child Heroes of Chapultepec, and at night, he speaks in an event, at the Spanish Athenaeum, sponsored by the Latin American exiles, where he highlights the revolutionary significance of Puerto Rican independence fighter Pedro Albizu Campos, among other topics.

He visits the apartment in Mexico City of former Cuban navy officer Onelio Pino Izquierdo, who had arrived in the Federal District in 1953, after being removed from his post as commander of Máximo Gómez frigate, for not supporting Batista’s coup d'état on 10 March 1952. Fidel asks Pino for his cooperation in the revolutionary struggle. That same afternoon he visits the house of Orquídea Pino, Onelio’s sister, who had been living in Mexico City for many years with her husband, the Mexican oil engineer Alfonso Gutiérrez. He asks both of them to cooperate with the revolutionary efforts.

While in Mexico, he wrote a short message to Lázaro Ascencio, a prominent figure in the province of Las Villas at the time, in an attempt to enlist new members for the Movement. However, Ascencio declined to join 27th of July Movement.

Replied to a recent letter from Concepción Cheda, also known as “Conchita”, who was a follower of Martí’s ideals. The letter reflected the pessimism of the national political environment.

Meets with Gino Doné, an Italian who arrived from Cuba with messages and money from Faustino Pérez. Fidel takes Doné to stay at the Fornos Hotel, there he introduces him to Ramón Mejías del Castillo (Pichirilo), a Dominican veteran of the Cayo Confites expedition who had arrived the day before to join the revolutionary plans.

Relocated to Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos state, to evade police surveillance. He stayed at the Chulavista Motel for several days, where he continued his organizational work and met with Raúl Castro, Pedro Miret, Faustino Pérez, and Ñico López.

Wrote a letter to the comrades of the National Directorate of the 26th of July Movement, sharing his impressions of the meeting in Mexico with Paquito Cairol, commissioner of the insurrectionary Cuban Revolutionary Party (Authentic). On the same day, he also wrote a letter addressed to Melba Hernández.

In the early hours of the morning, he wrote a letter to María Antonia Figueroa, a professor in Santiago de Cuba and the provincial treasurer of the 26th of July Movement in Oriente. In the letter, he expressed his high expectations for Santiago de Cuba and all the people of Oriente, emphasizing that the success depends on the work of her provincial executive.

In the evening, he and his comrades visited the house of Mexican Alfonsina González Urbina, a friend of María Antonia, who was celebrating her birthday that day.