Several hundreds of bandits went on an uprising in the central Escambray Mountain Range and assassinated teachers and volunteer teenagers during the literacy campaign with the intention of creating fear among the people in the countryside.  The atmosphere was also violent in the cities: bombings, fires and sabotage of all type had turned into a daily event.

Due to the elite clients of the El Encando department store located in the heart of Havana it became an emblematic site catching  the attention of the CIA backed terrorists.

The hate of the US backed counterrevolutionaries turned against the store that had been nationalized and was no longer private property.  

An explosive went off in front of the main doors and an anonymous telephone call announced that “this would not be the last”.

On the 13th, at approximately 7pm, fire began on the 5th floor and rapidly spread through the air conditioned tunnels.  An hour later the enormous walls of the building collapsed, the flames increased and the heat was like an inferno.

“When the Encanto was a store of the rich…, said Fidel Castro, and when the earnings did not benefit the people, but only the rich Mister, the Encanto did not have problems.  When all the large industries passed on to the hands of the people, then the CIA became involved”.

A worker named Fe del Valle was buried by the mountain of burned rubble.

When the fire began, she was doing militia guard duty on the 5th floor and actively participated in attempts to stop the flames.  When she saw it was useless, Fe del Valle dedicated her efforts in securing the merchandise in order to avoid any material loses.

Her death provoked the people’s indignation as she was a woman who was identified in favor and dedicated to the Revolution. After the store was  nationalized, Fe del Valle quickly took position in her political vanguard as promoter of all of the center’s activities.

In addition to offering her vast experience to the new management, Lula as she was called by her friends, was one of the founders of the Revolutionary Militias and organizer of the members of the Federation of Cuban Women in the store.

After dying, she was working on the construction of a day care center on the last floor of the building for the children of the workers of the installation that included some 1000 employees mainly women.

Just 35 hours after the fire began in the Encanto store, blood was shed once again when military airports were attacked by US B-26 bombers.

Barely 80 hours had passed after the death of Fe del Valle when the CIA organized, armed and financed mercenary force landed in the Bay of Pigs.