Three Minutes
Echeverría and his colleagues took part in an assault at the National Radio Station of Cuba on March 13, 1957, at the time of a music program which most of the people in Havana listened to so that Echeverría's anti-Batista speech would be broadcast to the Cuban nation. Echeverría estimated that the rioters could only occupy the radio station for three minutes, therefore he had to prepare a speech that lasted three minutes at most. Echeverría finally managed to finish his speech right at the 181st second. He managed to leave the station unharmed and on the way to the University of Havana, just a few blocks away, he opened fire on a police patrol. He was killed during the shootout on the sidewalk of the north side of the university, where there is now a memorial plaque. Echeverría's speech was mentioned in the poem "Three Minutes of Truth" written by the Soviet-Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko. The Vietnamese writer Phùng Quán also wrote a short story with the same name about Echeverría's speech, and commented: