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How did Fidel Castro’s guerrilla campaign overthrow Fulgencio Batista’s government in Cuba?

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Shiʿi militia fighter in Iraq — guerrilla warfare A masked Iraqi Shiʿi militia fighter dashing across a street, carrying a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, Baghdad, August 7, 2004.

Fidel Castro’s 26th of July Movement overthrew the Fulgencio Batista regime through a sustained guerrilla warfare campaign that evolved from a small insurgent group into a force capable of conventional military victory.123

After landing in Cuba in 1956, the surviving rebels established a base in the Sierra Maestra mountains. From this stronghold, they conducted a long-term campaign, gradually gaining strength by seizing weapons from government forces and recruiting new supporters. While Castro’s forces fought in the mountains, urban resistance groups organized sabotage and political activities in cities, weakening the regime’s stability.431

By 1958, the government’s combat effectiveness had declined due to an American arms embargo. Castro’s rebels, now well-equipped, began winning pitched battles against government troops. A decisive turning point occurred in December 1958 when Che Guevara captured Santa Clara, seizing an armored train filled with vital arms and ammunition. Facing an untenable position, Batista fled the country on January 1, 1959, leading to the collapse of his government.2