Fulgencio Batista

Fulgencio Batista
Batista in 1938
President of Cuba
In office 10 October 1940 – 10 October 1944
Vice President	Gustavo Cuervo Rubio
Preceded by	Federico Laredo Brú
Succeeded by	Ramón Grau
In office 10 March 1952 – 1 January 1959
Preceded by	Carlos Prío
Succeeded by	Anselmo Alliegro
Born	January 16, 1901(1901-01-16) Banes, Cuba
Died	August 6, 1973 (aged 72) Guadalmina, Spain[1]
Nationality	Cuban
Political party	United Action Party, Progressive Action Party
Spouse(s)	1st Elisa Godinez-Gómez 2nd Marta Fernandez Miranda de Batista
Children	Mirta Caridad Batista Godinez Elisa Aleida Batista Godinez Fulgencio Rubén Batista Godinez Jorge Batista Fernández Roberto Francisco Batista Fernández Carlos Batista Fernández

Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a U.S.-backed Cuban general, President and dictator.^[2] He served as the leader of Cuba from 1933–1944, and 1952–1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution.^[3]

Early life

Batista was born in Banes, Cuba in 1901, to Belisario Batista Palermo^[4] and Carmela Zaldívar González, who had fought for independence from Spain. His mother named him Rubén and gave him her last name, Zaldívar. His father did not want to register him as a Batista. In the registration records of the Banes courthouse he was legally Rubén Zaldívar until 1939, when, as Fulgencio Batista, he became a presidential candidate and it was discovered that this name did not exist. It's alleged that a judge was bribed 15,000 Cuban pesos (about the same amount in U.S. dollars at the time) to fix the discrepancy.^[5]

Of mixed European, African, Chinese and Amerindian descent, Batista was considered a mulatto socially. He was educated in an American Quaker school.^[1] Coming from a humble background, he earned a living as a laborer in the cane fields, docks and railroads.^[6] He was a tailor, mechanic, charcoal vendor, fruit peddler, and an Army stenographer.^[6] In 1921, he traveled to Havana and joined the army.^[7] After promotion to Sergeant, he became the union leader of Cuba's soldiers.

The Coup of 1933

In 1933, Batista led an uprising known as the "Revolt of the Sergeants," as part of the coup which overthrew the government of Gerardo Machado.^[8] Machado was succeeded by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada, who lacked a political coalition that could sustain him and was replaced a short time thereafter.

Initially, a presidency composed of five members, one from each anti-Machado faction, was created Within days the representative for the students and professors of the University of Havana, Ramón Grau San Martín, was made president and Batista became the Army Chief of Staff, with the rank of colonel, and effectively controlled the presidency.^[9] The majority of the commissioned officer corps were forcefully retired or, as some speculate, killed.^[9] Grau was president for just over 100 days before Batista, conspiring with the U.S. envoy Sumner Welles, forced him to resign in January 1934.^[8]

Batista became the strongman behind a succession of "puppet presidents" until he was elected president himself in 1940.^[8] Grau was replaced by Carlos Mendieta, and within five days the U.S. recognized Cuba's new government, which lasted 11 months. Succeeding governments were led by José Barnet (5 months) and Miguel Mariano Gómez (7 months) before Federico Laredo Brú ruled from December 1936 to October 1940.

First Presidency (1940–1944)

Batista won the election in 1940 over Ramón Grau, and served a four year term as President of Cuba.^[10][11] Supported by a coalition of political parties, he defeated Grau in the first presidential election under the new Cuban constitution. Although Batista was a capitalist and an admirer of the United States, he was endorsed by the old Communist Party of Cuba, which at the time had little significance and no chance of an electoral victory. This support was primarily due to Batista's labor laws and his support for labor unions, with which the communists had close ties.^[12] Communists attacked the anti-Batista opposition, saying Grau and others were "fascists", "reactionaries" and "Trotskyists".^[13]

During this term in office, Batista carried out major social reforms^[11] and established numerous economic regulations and pro-union policies.^[13] Under Batista's rule a new constitution was drafted. It called for government intervention in the economy and provided a social safety net.

Post-Presidency

In 1944, Batista's handpicked candidate for President was defeated by Grau. Shortly after the inauguration of his successor Batista left Cuba for the United States. "I just felt safer there," he said. He divorced his wife, Elisa, and married Marta Fernández Batista in 1945; two of their four children were born in the United States.

For the next eight years Batista remained in the background, spending time between the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City and in a home in Daytona Beach, Florida.^[8]

He continued to participate in Cuban politics and was elected to the Cuban Senate in absentia in 1948. Returning to Cuba, he decided to run for president and was given permission by President Grau, whereupon he formed the Unitary Action Party.^[14]

Second Coup and Presidency (1952–1959)

Fulgencio Batista in 1952.

In 1952, Batista again ran for president. In a three-way race, Roberto Agramonte of the Ortodoxos party led in all the polls, followed by Dr. Carlos Hevia of the Auténtico party, while Batista was running a distant third.

On March 10, 1952, three months before the elections, Batista, with army backing, staged a coup and seized power. He ousted outgoing President Carlos Prío Socarrás, canceled the elections and assumed control of the government as "provisional president". Shortly after the coup, the United States government recognized his regime.

Upon his return to power, Batista did not continue the progressive social policies of his earlier term. He was consumed with overcoming his social status and being accepted by Cuba's upper class, who had never allowed him membership in their social circles and clubs. He also concentrated heavily on increasing his own personal fortune.

Relationship with organized crime

Batista encouraged large scale gambling in Havana, announcing that the government would provide a casino license and match the amount invested by anyone making a hotel investment over $1 million. Meyer Lansky, a leading American mobster, took advantage of the offer and became a prominent figure in Cuba's gambling operations.^[8]

Batista established lasting relationships with organized crime, and under his rule Havana became known as "the Latin Las Vegas."^[16] Lansky associate Chauncey Holt described Batista as "always in Lansky's pocket."^[15]

During Frank Sinatra's 1946 singing debut in Havana, a summit was held at Havana's Hotel Nacional, where mobsters Frank Costello, Vito Genovese, Santo Trafficante Jr., Moe Dalitz and others confirmed Lucky Luciano's authority over the American Mafia, with Lansky using the occasion to order the murder of Bugsy Siegel.^[16]

Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution

Just over a year after Batista's second coup, a small group of revolutionaries attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago on July 26, 1953. The rebellion was easily crushed and many of its leaders executed, while others were jailed. Among the jailed was Fidel Castro, a young attorney who had run for parliament in the cancelled 1952 elections. In the wake of Fidel Castro's Moncada assault, Batista suspended constitutional guarantees and increasingly relied on police tactics in an attempt to "frighten the population through open displays of brutality."^[8]

Batista held an election in 1954, which the opposition boycotted. Just before the election his opponent, Grau, withdrew from the campaign, charging that his supporters had been terrorized. Thus, Batista was elected president with 45.1% of votes. Grau received only 6.8%.

The distinguished Colonel Cosme de la Torriente, a surviving veteran of the Cuban War of Independence, emerged in late 1955 to offer compromise. A series of meetings led by de la Torriente became known as "El Diálogo Cívico" (The Civic Dialogue). Writes Hugh Thomas: "This Diálogo Cívico represented what turned out to be the last hope for Cuban middle-class democracy, but Batista was far too strong and entrenched in his position to make any concessions."^{[citation needed]}

By late 1955, student riots and anti-Batista demonstrations had become frequent. These were dealt with in the violent manner his military police had come to represent. Due to its continued opposition to Batista, the University of Havana was temporarily closed on November 30, 1956.^{[citation needed]} (It would not reopen until early 1959, after a revolutionary victory.) Student leader Jose Antonio Echeverría was killed by police outside a radio station he had taken over to make broadcasts, in concert with an attack on the Presidential Palace on March 13, 1957.

In April 1956, Batista appointed Barquín as General and Chief of the Army.^[18] However, Barquín's Conspiración de los Puros had already progressed too far. On April 6, 1956, Barquín led a coup by hundreds of career officers but was frustrated by Lieutenant Ríos Morejón, who betrayed the plan. Barquín was sentenced to solitary confinement for 8 years on the Isle of Pines, while many officers were sentenced to death.^[18]

These measures broke the backbone of the Cuban army that would no longer be able to sustain a fight against Castro and his guerrilla army. ^[18][19] As popular unrest in Cuba intensified, Batista's police proved adept at torturing and killing young men in the cities, however his army proved singularly inept against Fidel Castro's rebels, who were based in the Sierra Maestra and Escambray mountains.^[8] A more indicting observation is that of author Carlos Alberto Montaner: "Batista does not finish Fidel out of greed ... His is a government of thieves. To have this small guerrilla band in the mountains is to his advantage, so that he can order special defense expenditures that they can steal."^[8]

Batista's rule became increasingly unpopular among the population, and the Soviet Union began a secret campaign of support for Fidel Castro.^[20] In an effort to find out information about Castro's army, people were pulled in by Batista's secret police for questioning. Many innocent people were tortured, while suspects, including children, were publicly executed and then left hanging in the streets for several days as a warning to others who were considering joining Castro's insurgency.^[15] The behavior of Batista's forces backfired, and actually increased support for the guerrillas. In 1958, forty-five organizations signed an open letter supporting the July 26 Movement. National bodies representing lawyers, architects, dentists, accountants and social workers were amongst those who signed. Castro, who had originally relied on the support of the poor, was now gaining the backing of the influential middle classes.^[15]

Up until spring of 1958, the United States had supplied Batista with planes, ships, and tanks, along with the latest technology such as napalm in his battle against the insurgency.^[15] However, by March 1958, the atrocities carried out by Batista’s forces led the United States to announce it would stop selling arms to the Cuban government.^[21] Moreover, the U.S. soon imposed an arms embargo and recalled their ambassador – weakening the government's mandate further.^[22] Land owners and others who benefited from the regime continued to support Batista,^[12] but his government would soon be overthrown.

In March 1958, President Eisenhower, disillusioned with Batista's performance, suggested he hold elections. Batista did, but the people showed their dissatisfaction with his government by refusing to vote. Over 75 percent of the voters in the capital Havana boycotted the polls. In some areas, such as Santiago, it was as high as 98 percent. The election placed another Batista puppet, Andrés Rivero, in the president's chair but Batista knew that losing the support of the U.S. government meant his days in power were numbered.^[15]

On December 11, 1958, U.S. Ambassador Earl Smith visited Batista at his lavish hacienda, "Kuquines". There Smith informed him that the United States could no longer support his regime. Batista asked if he could go to his mansion in Daytona Beach. The ambassador declined his request and suggested instead that he seek exile in Spain.

On December 31, 1958, Batista raised a New Year's Eve toast to his cabinet members and senior military officers and wished them "hasta la vista." After seven years of building Havana's tourism industry by inviting gangsters to construct casinos and run nightclubs, helping to fund their enterprises and taking a large chunk of the proceeds for himself, Batista knew his presidency was over. Reviled by many as a "corrupt tyrant", Batista decided to flee the island in the early morning hours as rebel forces entered Havana.^[23] At three A.M. on January 1, 1959, Batista boarded a plane at Camp Colombia with one hundred and eighty of his supporters and flew to Ciudad Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. With him went his personal fortune of more than $300,000,000 amassed through graft and payoffs.^[24] Critics accused Batista and his supporters of taking as much as $700 million U.S. dollars in fine art and cash with them as they fled into exile.^[25][26]

As news of the fall of Batista's government spread through Havana, The New York Times described the scene as one of jubilant crowds pouring into the streets and automobile horns honking. The black and red flag of the 26th of July Movement waved on automobiles and buildings. The atmosphere was chaotic.

On January 8, 1959, Castro and his army rolled victoriously into Havana.^[27]

However, Batista was unwanted in the Dominican Republic, and he tried to seek asylum in Mexico and the United States, which refused to allow him to enter those countries, due to his cruel and reckless policies of the past in Cuba. He settled in Portugal. on the condition of dictator Salazar, that Batista had to stay completely out of politics forever, which he did.

Personal life and death

He was married to Elisa Godinez-Gómez (1905–?) on July 10, 1926, and they had three children: Mirta Caridad (April 1927), Elisa Aleida (1933), and Fulgencio Rubén Batista Godinez (1933–2007) ^[28]). He later married Marta Fernandez Miranda de Batista (1920–2006), and they had two sons: Jorge and Roberto Francisco Batista Fernández.

Marta Fernandez Miranda de Batista, Batista's widow, died on October 2, 2006.^[25] Roberto Batista, her son, says that she died at her West Palm Beach home. ^[26] She had suffered from Alzheimer's disease^[26] and had a heart attack on September 8, 2006.^{[citation needed]} Batista was buried with her husband in San Isidro Cemetery in Madrid after a mass in West Palm Beach.

Batista later moved to Madeira, then Estoril, outside Lisbon, Portugal, where he lived and wrote books the rest of his life. He was also the Chairman of a Spanish life insurance company which invested in property and mortgages on the Spanish Riviera.

He died of a heart attack on August 6, 1973 at Guadalmina, near Marbella, Spain,^[29] two days before a team of assassins from Castro's Cuba could carry out a plan to kill him.^[8]

Cuba portal

Books written by Batista

• Estoy con el Pueblo [I am With the People]. Havana, 1939.
• Repuesta. Manuel León Sánchez S.C.L., Mexico City, 1960.
• Piedras y leyes [Stones and Laws]. Mexico City, 1961.
• Cuba Betrayed. Vantage Press, New York, 1961. ASIN B0007DEH9A
• To Rule is to Foresee, 1962. ASIN B0007IYHK4
• The Growth and Decline of the Cuban Republic (translated by Blas M. Rocafort) Devin-Adair Company, New York, 1964. ISBN 0-8159-5614-2
• unfinished autobiography and archive in the University of Miami’s Cuban Heritage Collection [1]

Further reading

• Argote-Freyre, Frank. Fulgencio Batista: Volume 1, From Revolutionary to Strongman. Rutgers University Press, Rutgers, New Jersey, 2006. ISBN 0-8135-3701-0.
• Chester, Edmund A. A Sergeant Named Batista . Holt, 1954. ASIN B0007DPO1U
• Gellman, Irwin F. Roosevelt and Batista: Good neighbor diplomacy in Cuba, 1933–1945. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM, 1973. ISBN 0-8263-0284-X
• Valdés Sánchez, Servando Fulgencio Batista: El poder de las armas (1933–1940) Editora Historia, 1998. SBN 597048051.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fulgencio Batista

• Fulgencio Batista from The History of Cuba