Page 53 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Cuba

THE HIST OR Y OF CUBA  51

Batista’s Dictatorship
After World War II the Orthodox Party led by
Eduardo Chibás became popu lar, supported
by the more progressive members of the
middle class. This party might have won the
election that was to take place on 1 June
1952, but on 10 March Fulgencio Batista
staged a coup. Protest demonstrations Fulgencio Batista (left) with American vice-president Richard Nixon
followed, consisting mostly of students, which
were ruthlessly repressed. The university was businessmen. However, there was a high
then closed. Batista’s government, having price to pay: Cuba had not only become a
the official support of the US, abandoned its land of casinos and drugs, it had also fallen
initial populist stance and became an out- into the hands of the American under world,
and-out violent dictatorship indiff er ent to which ran the local gambling houses and
the needs of the Cuban people. Vast areas luxury hotels, used for money laundering.
of land were sold to American and British
firms, and the money was pocketed. As the The Cuban Revolution
dictator’s cronies became rich, the population After Batista’s coup, a young lawyer, Fidel
became poorer, and the country more and Alejandro Castro Ruz, an active student
more backward. Cuba was becoming a leader who associated with the Orthodox
“pleasure island” which held an overpowering Party, denounced the illegitimacy of the new
fascination, especially for Americans. government to the magistracy, without
By the 1950s Cuba was famous for effect. Since peaceful means did not work,
glamour – its music and cocktails, its on 26 July 1953, Castro and a band of rebels
prostitutes, cigars, drinking and gam bling, made an unsuccessful attempt to capture
and the sensational tropical life attracted the Moncada army barracks at Santiago
mafiosi and film stars, tourists and (see p234). He was one of the few fortunate
surviving rebels and was tried and sentenced
to imprisonment in the Presidio Modelo, on
Isla de Pinos (now Isla de la Juventud). Thanks
to an amnesty, he was freed two years later
and went into exile in Mexico, where he set
about organizing the revolutionary forces,
and was joined by a young Argentine
doctor, Ernesto “Che” Guevara. This famous
collaboration proved to be decisive for the
success of the Revolution. In 1959, after years
of armed struggle, the island was freed
Dancers at the Tropicana in the 1940s from previous dictatorships (see pp52–5).

12 August 1933 1940–4 Fulgencio Batista 1953–9 The Revolution
At night, Machado flees obtains presidential mandate liberates Cuba from the
with a load of gold to thanks to a coalition of forces Batista dictatorship
the Bahamas
1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955

January 1934 Start of a period
with a series of puppet presidents 10 March 1952
manoeuvred by the Cuban Army Sergeant Fulgencio Coup d’étât by
sergeant Fulgencio Batista Batista Fulgencio Batista

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