What I said to the messenger regarding surrender, which was not transmitted literally and seemed to motivate the words of his note today, was the following: that if hostilities were broken because the agreement was not fulfilled, we would be forced to attack the Plaza de Santiago de Cuba, which is inevitable, given that we have directed our efforts in recent months in that sense, in which case, once the operation has started, we would demand the surrender of the forces that defend it. This does not mean that we think that they will surrender without fighting, because I know that, even without reason to fight, the Cuban military stubbornly defends positions and has cost us many lives. I just wanted to say that after the blood of our men had been shed for the conquest of an objective, no other solution could be accepted, since even if it costs us dearly, given the current conditions of the forces defending the regime, which are not be able to support that city, it would inexorably fall into our hands. This has been the basic objective of all our operations in recent months, and a plan of this magnitude cannot be suspended for a few weeks without serious consequences, in case the military movement is frustrated, and the opportune moment is also lost, which is this, when the dictatorship is suffering great setbacks in the provinces of Oriente and Las Villas