Fulgencio Batista, the
son of a labourer, was born in Cuba in 1901.
He joined the army and as a sergeant-major took part in the successful
army coup against President Machado.
In 1952 elections the Cuban
People's Party was expected to form the new government. During the
election campaign General Batista, with the support of the armed forces,
ousted President Carlos Prio and took control
of the country.
In 1953, Fidel
Castro, with
an armed group of 123 men and women, attacked the Moncada army barracks.
The plan to overthrow Batista ended in disaster and although only
eight were killed in the fighting, another eighty were murdered by
the army after they were captured. Castro was lucky that the lieutenant
who arrested him ignored orders to have him executed and instead delivered
him to the nearest civilian prison.
Following considerable
pressure from the Cuban population, Batista decided to release Castro
after he had served only two years of his sentence. Batista also promised
elections but when it became clear that they would not take place,
Castro left for Mexico where he began to plan another attempt to overthrow
the Cuban government.
After building up a stock
of guns and ammunition, Castro and eighty of his followers returned
to Cuba in 1956. This
group became known as the July 26 Movement (the date that Castro had
attacked the Moncada barracks). Their plan was to set up their base
in the Sierra Maestra mountains. On the way to the mountains they
were attacked by government troops. By the time they reached the Sierra
Maestra there were only sixteen men left with twelve weapons between
them. For the next few months Castro's guerrilla army raided isolated
army garrisons and were gradually able to build-up their stock of
weapons.
When the guerrillas took
control of territory they redistributed the land amongst the peasants.
In return, the peasants helped the guerrillas against Batista's soldiers.
In some cases the peasants also joined Castro's army, as did students
from the cities and occasionally Catholic priests.
In an effort to find out
information about Castro's army people were pulled in for questioning.
Many innocent people
were tortured. 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. The behaviour of Batista's
forces 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.
Batista responded to this
by sending more troops to the Sierra Maestra. He now had 10,000 men
hunting for Castro and his 300-strong army. Although outnumbered,
Castro's guerrillas were able to inflict defeat after defeat on the
government's troops. In the summer of 1958 over a thousand of Batista's
soldiers were killed or wounded and many more were
captured. Unlike Batista's soldiers, Castro's troops had developed
a reputation for behaving well towards prisoners. This encouraged
Batista's troops to surrender to Castro when things went badly in
battle. Complete military units began to join the guerrillas.
The United States supplied
Batista with planes, ships and tanks, but the advantage of using the
latest technology such as napalm failed to win them victory against
the guerrillas. In March 1958, President Dwight
Eisenhower, disillusioned
with Batista's performance, suggested he held elections. This he did,
but the people showed their dissatisfaction with his government by
refusing to vote. Over 75 per cent of the voters in the capital Havana
boycotted the polls. In some areas, such as Santiago, it was as high
as 98 per cent.
Castro was now confident
he could beat Batista in a head-on battle. Leaving the Sierra Maestra
mountains, Castro's troops began to march on the main towns. After
consultations with the United States government,
Batista decided to flee the country.
Fulgencio Batista lived
in the Dominican Republic until 1973.
(1)
In 1977 the Central
Committee of the Cuban Communist Party produced a book on the history
of Cuba.
US investment in Cuba, totalling 50 million dollars in 1896, went
up to 160 million in 1906, to 205 million in 1911, and 1.2 billion
in 1923, which included the ownership of three-quarters of the sugar
industry. The corrupt governments and the repeated Yankee interventions
in the first few decades of the neo-colonialised republic did their
job of handing over the country's wealth to foreign masters.
(2)
David Detzer, an American journalist, visited Cuba in the 1950s.
Brothels flourished. A major industry grew up around them: Government
officials received bribes, policemen collected protection money. Prostitutes
could be seen standing in doorways, strolling the streets, or leaning
from windows... One report estimated that 11,500 of them worked their
trade in Havana... Beyond the outskirts of the capital, beyond the
slot machines, was one of the poorest - and most beautiful - countries
in the Western world.
(3)
Senator William
Fulbright of Arkansas made a speech
in Congress on United States policy in Latin America.
Most Latin Americans have seen their neighbour to the north (the United
States) growing richer; they have seen the elite elements in their
own societies growing richer - but the man in the street or on the
land in Latin America today still lives the hand-to-mouth existence
of his great, great grandfather... They are less and less happy with
situations in which, to cite one example, 40 per cent of the land
is owned by 1 per cent of the people, and in which, typically, a very
thin upper crust lives in grandeur while most others live in squalor.
(4)
Arthur Schlesinger, was asked by the United States government to write
a report on Batista's Cuba.
The corruption of the Government, the brutality of the police, the
regime's indifference to the needs of the people for education, medical
care, housing, for social justice and economic justice... is an open
invitation to revolution.
(5)
Chauncey
Holt
was interviewed
by John Craig,
Phillip Rogers and Gary
Shaw for
Newsweek magazine (19th October, 1991)
We went to Cuba many
times. At that point in time Carlos Prio was President of Cuba and
Batista was in exile. It was Lanksy who was instrumental in getting
Prio to allow Batista back into the country. He came back into the
country and one day he just walked into the Presidential Palace apparently,
and made Prio an offer he couldn't refuse... Batista was always in
Lansky's pocket. So we were back and forth there in regards to the
casinos.
Later on,
when Castro started kicking up a force, and of course after he had
landed there in the Escambay Mountains, Lansky, to hedge his bet,
began offering assistance to Castro in the form of money and arms
that were flying in. So although he was a very close friend of Batista,
he was still assisting Castro. Around that time flying arms to Castro
was no problem. The State Department didn't bother you at all. They
just tolerated it.
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