Fulgencio Batista
General Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was the de facto leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1940 and the country's de jure President from 1940 to 1944 and dictator, after a coup, from 1952 to 1959.
Youth and first rule
Batista was born in Banes, Holguín Province, Cuba in 1901 and said to be the son of Mambi (Cuban Wars of Independence fighter) Belisario Batista [2], he was considered socially a mulatto (mixed African and Spanish blood, with additional admixtures some say were Filipino and indigenous Taíno). He joined the army in 1921. Sergeant Batista was a leader of the 1933 "Sergeants' Revolt" which replaced the Provisional Government of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, who had previously ousted Gerardo Machado. It is generally conceded that Sumner Welles approved of this. Ramón Grau was made president and Batista became the Army Chief of Staff and effectively controlled the presidency. (Fidel Castro and Raúl Castro were born in Birán, which is relatively near Banes. The Batista and Castro families had social contact. Batista is known to have given Fidel Castro a large wedding present, and Raúl is commonly believed to be the son of a senior Batista officer.)
During this period Batista violently suppressed a number of attempts to defeat his control. This included the squashing of an uprising in the ancient Atares fort (Havana) by Blas Hernández, a rural guerrilla who had fought Gerardo Machado. Many of those who surrendered were executed. Another attempt was the attack on the Hotel Nacional where Cuban former army officers of the Cuban Olympic rifle team (including one Enrique Ros) put up stiff resistance until they were defeated. Here again Batista troops executed a good number of the surrendered. The irony is that many of these officers had helped overthrow Machado. There were many other often minor and almost unrecorded attempted revolts against Batista. These too were bloodily suppressed. These minor revolts included one in Guamá, a place in the Sierra Maestra south of Guisa, where the followers of an anti-Batista guerrilla leader known as Gamboa (apparently a member, or former member, of the Antonio Guiteras anti-Machado guerrillas) were defeated and dispersed.
Grau was president for just over 100 days before being replaced by Carlos Mendieta y Montefur (11 months), then José Barnet y Vinajeras (5 months), and then Miguel Gómez y Arias (7 months) before Federico Laredo Brú managed to rule from December 1936 to October 1940.
In October, Batista was popularly elected as President of Cuba. During his tenure, he drafted the 1940 constitution (later approved by President Grau), widely regarded as a progressive document with regards to labor, unemployment, and social security, and implemented several liberal economic reforms. In 1944, Batista was forbidden by law to seek re-election by term limits and was succeeded by Grau. Batista retired to Florida, before returning in 1952.
Second rule
Batista staged an almost bloodless coup d'état on March 10, 1952, removing Carlos Prío Socarrás (elected in 1948) and becoming President three months before new elections were to be held. The new government received diplomatic recognition from the United States, the number of American corporations continued to swell in Cuba, and the island became a major tourist destination, creating unprecedented prosperity for the island. This period was marked by considerable construction of private highrises, and public tunnels and roads. It is notable that the "Civic Plaza," now renamed the Revolutionary Plaza, where Fidel Castro often speaks was complete in these times.
The public was somewhat accepting of the coup at first, hoping Batista would restore stability to the island after the political violence, labor unrest, and government corruption that had occurred during Prío's tenure. Batista's ethnicity and origins, plus his ties to Afro-Cuban religions led to support from darker pigmented Cubans who would frequency kill and die for their perceived leader. Despite economic prosperity in the 1950s, Batista's repression and killings plus his corruption, and some say his unsettlingly close relationship with the Havana mafia, saw a rise in general opposition to his regime from the rich and middle class Cubans. At least one of his opponents, William Alexander Morgan [3], who fought against Batista with the non-Castro Escambray forces and was later executed by Castro [4], has been linked to the mafia [5]. Adding strangeness to this episode, Morgan, a Judo expert, may first have been part of Batista defense forces during the failed attack on the Presidential Palace.
Advocates of liberal democracy also viewed Batista's presidency as unconstitutional and unacceptable because he was not elected. Cross-class urban resistance grew despite high casualties and the country folk (guajiros) increasingly turned to irregular armed resistance. The overtly communist party, Partido Socialista Popular, supported Batista until about the middle of 1958.
Opposition
Among the numerous opponents to Batista was Fidel Castro. Castro had first attempted to challenge the coup judicially, but his petition was refused. Then Castro led a disastrous attack on the Moncada Barracks on 26 July, 1953. He was sentenced to 15 years and imprisoned. In an attempt to discourage further rebellion, Batista displayed the corpses of guerrillas killed by the Army on Cuban television. However, rather than frightening the Cuban populace, these actions only contributed to Batista's growing unpopularity.
With pressure from the Jesuits, Batista decided to free Castro early. Castro was released in a general amnesty in May 1955 and went into exile in Mexico and then United States where he plotted another attempt against Batista government. Castro's return to Cuba as head of the 26th of July Movement was marked by another disastrous attack in December, 1956 from the sea. Despite supporting urban actions by Frank Pais in Santiago in the days preceding the landing and rural support coordinated by Pais that included Celia Sanchez, the bandit Cresencio Perez, and the trucks from Huber Matos farm, as well as the sacrifice of two rearguard squads, the Castro invasion was easily suppressed and only Castro and some 11 to 17 others were able to successfully retreat into the mountains and from there wage a guerrilla war.
In May 1958, in response to a failed assault on the presidential palace by other resistance groups, Batista launched a major assault against Castro and the other rebel groups (unaffiliated with Castro). Despite being outnumbered (Castro claims his men numbered fewer than 100; however, there were far greater numbers of pickets or scouts (escopeteros) who saw action in those days), Castro's forces scored a series of victories, aided by massive desertions from Batista's army. During this period, the U.S. broke off relations with Batista, stating that a peaceful transition to a new government was necessary. Against this backdrop of growing civil war, Batista, constitutionally prohibited from continuing as president, organized an election in which his preferred candidate Carlos Rivero Aguero defeated Grau. That wasn't enough, however. On January 1, 1959, Batista and Rivero fled Cuba for the Dominican Republic when it became obvious that Castro forces were winning. Castro's forces took Havana shortly after that. Batista later moved to Portugal and then Marbella, Spain where he lived the rest of his life.