"Rural Police" Identification.

[CtahhR]

Here is a really great piece of Cuban paperwork.

The Rural Police existed from March 1959 until 26th October 1959. Their purpose was to ensure the revolution spread through the countryside of Cuba.

This piece is a great example, not only in surviving but also in the fact it was issued by the person carrying it. José Botello Ávila was a leader during the revolutionary war.

"By a letter dated 11th April 1958 Fidel (Castro) gave (Orlando) Lara orders to send a group of guerrillas to Camagüey to extend the war there. On 29th April, Lara sent the first lieutenant José Botello Ávila in front of 60 fighters to Camagüey."

"In the prosecution of agents of Military Intelligence, Vallina René Mendoza went to the city of Cienfuegos and participated in the formation of a task force and sabotage in a rural area. He participated in the popular uprising of 5th September 1957 in Cienfuegos. Insurgents continued to strike until 9th April 1958. Until the harassment of the dictatorship's henchmen forced him back to Camagüey. On 12th August 1958 he joined the group of José Botello Ávila in the Sierra de Ávila Cubitas. At the conclusion of the summer offensive, with the defeat of the Army of tyranny, the guerrillas are ordered to march to the Sierra Maestra."

From September 1958.

"With great difficulty the troops advanced. The encampment in Las 1009 (Río Cauto) heard a shot. Vallina René Mendoza asks:

- "What happened?"

I saw Bruno Zamora Juan Rodríguez, very pale. In his hand he holds, still smoking, a German gun.

Juan Bruno had used the gun as a rake and seconds later came the result of his current reckless: a bullet pierced his left arm as Arturo Maura Mestril at the same instant was going to rebel commanders.

The accident caused a stir in the troops, because you have to judge Bruno. Arturo Maura himself asks Captain José Avila Botello not to be too drastic on the boy:

- I believe that the fact is not so grave as to expel Brunito troop, as requested by Jaime Vega Saturnino. The shooting was accidental. That's certain.

Bruno's responsibility was assessed. Captain José Avila Botello recognised that the act constituted negligence, but defended the right of the combatant to continue in the unit."

"On 29th November 1958, in the early hours rebel army troops entered into the town of Manati, under Captain James Ercilla José Torres, Manolo Vazquez and Juan Giraldo in combination with the forces of Captain José Avila Botello, all members of the 12th Simón Bolívar column, preparing an action plan to launch an attack to oppress the barracks of tyranny in order to concentrate the power of the army and guards centre in the area at dawn, with the objective of extracting a compressor to cut communication between Camagüey East and the centre, to prevent the arrival of reinforcements of tyranny from the eastern part of the island, a goal that was achieved. While failing to surprise, the rebels succeed in taking the town for four days."