page_title: Cadets of the Republic
section_title: San Juan Nationalist revolt
hierarchical_section_title: Cadets of the Republic / Historical events (1930 -1950) / San Juan Nationalist revolt
caption_attribution_description: English: The attack of La Fortaleza by Puerto Rican Nationalists in San Juan 1950.
context_page_description: Cadets of the Republic, known in Spanish as Cadetes de la República, was a quasi-military youth organization of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party in the twentieth century. The organization was also referred to as the Liberation Army of Puerto Rico
  The Cadets of the Republic were founded and organized in the 1930s by Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos, the president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Some members of the cadets participated in the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party revolts of the 1950s against United States colonial rule.
  The following is a brief history of the Cadets of the Republic, covering the period from 1930 to 1950.
context_section_description: Díaz Pacheco was in charge of the group involved in the San Juan revolt. The objective of the revolt was to assassinate the Governor of Puerto Rico Luis Muñoz Marín, at his residence La Fortaleza. 
  Early in the morning of October 30, fellow cadets Domingo Hiraldo Resto, Carlos Hiraldo Resto, Gregorio Hernández and Manuel Torres Medina met at the house of Díaz Pacheco, in the San Juan sector of Martín Peña. At 11 A.M., they boarded a green Plymouth and headed towards Old San Juan. The men arrived at La Fortaleza at noon and stopped their car 25 feet from their objective's main entrance They got out of the car with a submachine gun and pistols in hand and immediately began firing at the mansion. Díaz Pacheco headed towards the mansion while the others took cover close to their car, and fired pistols from their positions. 
  The Fortaleza guards and police, who knew of the planned attack thanks to a double agent name E. Rivera Orellana, were already in defensive positions and returned fire.
  Díaz Pacheco aimed his sub machine gun fire at the second floor of the mansion, where the executive offices of Governor Muñoz Marín were located. During the firefight Díaz Pacheco wounded two police officers, Isidoro Ramos and Vicente Otero Díaz, before he was killed by Fortaleza guard Carmelo Dávila.
  Meanwhile, the police continued to fire upon the other Nationalists. Domingo Hiraldo Resto was seriously wounded, but despite his wounds he dragged himself towards the mansions entrance. He was able to reach the mansions main door and once there he was motionless and appeared to be dead. He suddenly turned and sat on the steps and with his hands held up pleaded for mercy, his pleas however, were answered with a fusillade of gunfire.
  Hernández, who was also severely wounded, continued firing at the police from under his car. A police officer and a detective from La Fortaleza with submachine guns approached the car and fired upon Hernández, Carlos Hiraldo Resto and Torres Medina. Both Carlos Hiraldo Resto and Torres Medina were killed, and their motionless bodies were by the right side of the car.
  Hernández was believed to be dead, however he wasn't, and he was taken to the local hospital along with the wounded police officers where they were operated on for their respective wounds. The battle lasted 15 minutes and at the end of the battle there were five nationalist casualties (four dead and one wounded) plus three wounded police officers.
  E. Rivera Orellana, a sixth "Nationalist" who later turned out to be an undercover agent, was arrested near La Fortaleza and later released.
caption: The bodies of Carlos Hiraldo Resto and Manuel Torres Medina lie on the ground, after their attack on La Fortaleza
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