11 Facts About Eulogio Cantillo

Eulogio Amado Cantillo Porras was a major general in the Cuban Army.

General Cantillo served as a senior Cuban Army officer during the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, but did not participate in the military coup that brought Batista to power.

Eulogio Cantillo was released early in the mid-1960s, and went into exile in Miami where he died on September 9,1978.

General Eulogio Cantillo was Chief of the Army Aviation Corps before he was appointed as Adjutant General of the Cuban Army.

For Operation Verano, Eulogio Cantillo had 14 battalions with about 12,000 soldiers.

Eulogio Cantillo surrounded the mountain range of the Sierra Maestra, and set up roadblocks to prevent supplies from getting to the guerrillas, and attacked from the north to drive the guerrillas down to the south coast.

The offensive failed, largely because Eulogio Cantillo's soldiers fought in unfamiliar terrain and because much of the army was demoralized and unmotivated.

Some argue that Eulogio Cantillo sympathized with the guerrillas, while others claim that Eulogio Cantillo still believed that Castro had over 2000 well-trained and well disciplined guerrillas.

Eulogio Cantillo was left as head of the Cuban Military and the De Facto Head of State of Cuba after Batista fled to the Dominican Republic in the early hours of January 1,1959.

Eulogio Cantillo was later arrested by the revolutionary government, and put on trial.

Eulogio Cantillo was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but was released in 1967 before he served his full sentence, and left Cuba in 1968 to become a Cuban exile in Miami.