In the 1950’s, tourists visited the island of Cuba for its warm beaches, culture and Spanish colonial architecture. But underneath the surface, was a revolution ready to burst through the Cuban people they just needed the right person to lead them. Cuba at this time was run by a Political Dictator named Fulgencio Batista.
Fulgencio Batista was elected President of Cuba between 1940 and 1940. In 1952 Batista declared that constitutional guarantees and the right to strike will be suspended. He became a dictator with absolute power over Cuba. Batista turned the Cuban capital of Havana into one of the largest gambling cities in the world. Batista reorganised the Cuba’s treasury so that political representatives and himself can take freely from the riches. Under Batista’s rule, education and health care wasn’t free to the general public. The Cuban public were not satisfied with Batista and how he was ruling Cuba, the people didn’t have a say in decisions in government, were treated unfairly with high taxes, selling/giving the peoples land to American business owners.
Fidel Castro was the man who successfully removed Batista from his cruel dictatorship. In Castro’s early life, he went to three expensive Catholic schools. He was good at sports, and participated and led camping and climbing exhibitions. Castro fought with the other boys and teachers frequently. “He succeeded in everything. In sports, in studies. And every day he would fight. He had an explosive character.” Raul
Fulgencio Batista, ex-president of Cuba, was a
Castro was a socialist, a leninist and a marxist. His attitude throughout his “dictatorship” was the way he communicated with the United States on military, trading agreements and politics. As he came to control the country, he made the promise to maintain the Cuban constitution of 1940, a constitution which guaranteed certain individual rights to the citizens of Cuba. Also stating that all of the governmental representatives would be held exactly a year from the day he took control. Despite not actually being in office, Castro was the most important force in regards to the post Batista Government. His full control of the country came when the former prime minister Miro Cardona resigned after a month of work with Castro.
On the first of January in 1959, Fidel Castro took over the presidency of Cuba, using his “guerilla army” (“Bay of Pigs Invasion”) to overthrow General Fulgencio Batista, an “American-backed president” (“Bay of Pigs Invasion”). A dishonest and tyrannical dictator, Batista was disliked by his people, yet he was a friend to the United States. He did
On February 16, 1959 Fidel Castro was sworn in as prime minister of Cuba. Cuba was the first communist state on the west side of the world. Castro has had more than 600 assassination attempts on him. His fight for prime minister of Cuba was not an easy task for him. He had to fight for it. Castro led 160 of his men in a attack on Moncada Barracks. His plan was to take weapons and tell of his revolution from the Barracks radio station, but most of his men died and Castro got arrested and put on trial for trying to overthrow the Cuban government. He argued that he was trying to make a democracy in Cuba but he still got 15 years in prison. Then two years later prime minister Batista let him got because he felt that Castro wouldn’t try attacking the Cuban government again. He later went to his brother Raul in Mexico and planned another attack on the Cuban government, but with only had 81 people to fight with him. On December 2, 1956 his 81 men landed on the Cuban coast. All but Castro, Raul, and ten other were killed or captured. Then they retreated and started guerrilla warfare on the Cuban government and caused
Fulgencio Batista, the son of poor farmers in Cuba, was elected president in 1940. At the beginning , he greatly improved the education and economy. However, his term ended in 1944, when he moved to Florida. During that time, corruption made its way back to Cuba, so Fulgencio;s return through an overthrow of the government was widely welcomed by the people. To their astonishment, he returned as an oppressive, cruel dictator, embezzling money, favoring corruption , managing to be hated by the majority of the Cuban population.
Batista knew that he wasn’t going to win the elections the fair way, so he staged a coup on March 10tth, 1952 which removed President Carlos Prio Socarras from power and declared Batista as ‘president’. The 1952 coup was a consolidation of Batista’s power as dictator in Cuba. This coup was backed by military forces, which gave the message to the Cuban people that Batista was no man to mess with. Batista did however receive feedback from Fidel Castro who was angry at what he did, “If Batista grabbed power by force, he must be thrown out by force” he said. Fidel Castro, soon emerges as the leader of the Cuban Revolution. His leadership in the revolution will be later discussed. There was little to no resistance to Batista’s coup because no one dared to confront the country’s new declared dictator. This is where one should ask the question as to why Batista went from being a president to a dictator? Why did Batista began a dictatorial regime in his once beloved
Cuba than fell even farther in a downward spiral due to an increase in corruption and political violence beside the fact that they had a new ruler. The Cuban people continued to search for a leader that would bring them prosperity. Another man emerged from depths of the Cuban jungle to hopefully bring the Cuban people what they want, and his name was Fidel Castro. One of the most iconic figures in Cuban history, Fidel Castro was a self proclaimed revolutionist. His ideas of a communist country fueled him to overthrow the Batista government in a violent fashion in 1952.
For many Cubans the Batista government was simply a puppet regime with the puppet masters being wealthy Americans. This was because his economic policies favoured foreign investors and did little for the development of domestic industries, which resulted in the wealth of the country being concentrated in the hands of a wealthy white minority. Consequently, in the 1950s, this harsh regime caused political resistance to reach to its boiling point. In response to these
Inside a quaint tawny residence planted in Santiago De Cuba, Charlie Ortiz sits in his beige living room fidgeting with his transistor radio awaiting news of the Cuban revolution. Some fellow by the name Fidel Castro is leading a revolution against Fulgencio Batista and he promised to distribute land more evenly, push for industrialization, reduce unemployment, improve the education sector and create a system that would allow all Cuban’s the opportunity to access healthcare, and Charlie is anxious to find out the outcome of Castro’s overthrow status.
Fidel Castro was an important and ruling figure for nearly five decades in Cuba ever since he overthrew the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. In current events, Castro, at the age of 90, has passed away leaving the world in awe and debate about whether Castro was a tyrant or prominent great ruler during his rule. However, Castro and his communistic ideas were able to progress Cuba positively in an economically, politically, and educational way including healthcare. Because of this, Castro remained a great and substantial leader in Cuba along with his revolutionary ideas of communism until recently passing away.
The Cuban revolution was the spark that ignited the flame of communism in Cuba. The developing nation gained independence only as recently as 1898, and was already filled with an atmosphere of distrust and resentment towards the United States. In July of 1953, a revolution began in Cuba between the United States backed President Batista and Fidel Castro. Fidel and his brother Raul Castro lead a series of guerilla warfare battles against the forces of President Batista. “I am Fidel Castro and we have come to liberate Cuba,” stated Fidel Castro. In January of 1959, Fidel Castro became the President of Cuba. With the regime of Fidel Castro, Cuba would fall to communism.
In 1940 to 1944, communist Fulgencio Batista withheld power as the president of Cuba and then from 1952 to 1959, United States backed dictator until fleeing Cuba because of Fidel Castro’s 26th of July Movement. Socialist Fidel Castro governed the Republic of Cuba as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 and then as President from 1976 to 2008. Fidel Castro’s intent was to provide Cuba with an honest democratic government by diminishing the corrupt way in which the country was run, the large role the United States played in the running of Cuba as well as the poor treatment & the living conditions of the lower class.
The first thing that comes to mind when you think of cigars, radical politics, social strife and Fidel Castro is Cuba. Officially known as the Republic of Cuba, it is also known as the Pearl of the Caribbean, a country isolated from the capitalist world. For the last 40 years Cuba has been under the rule of the Castro regimen, a government who brought advances in education and healthcare, brought electricity to the country side however, ruled with an iron fist when it came to dealing with it’s opposition. Castro jailed many of his political opponents, closed down opposition newspapers and made no moves towards elections. Under his rule, the amount of land a person could own was limited, he ended private businesses and controlled consumer goods.
Cuba was one of the last Latin American nations to gain independence. The island won its independence from Spain in 1898, but was taken over by the United States after its victory in the Spanish-American War. In 1902, Cuba won its independence from the United States. In 1940, Batista was elected president but was voted out of office in 1944. From 1944 until 1952, the country was ruled by civilian presidents who had the support of political parties. In 1952, Batista orchestrated a coup after being out of office for eight years and presided over a seven-year military dictatorship. Batista’s anti-communism won him the support of the United States, but his administration was extremely corrupt and his closeness with the United States angered many Cubans. In addition, under Batista
His reign over Cuba is best described as one of deceit and self-interest. His first action was to assure the public that Cuba’s constitution would be upheld, yet the guarantees would have to be suspended while there was still danger of another coup. There was little opposition to this claim because the people of Cuba had lived their whole lives under a corrupt government. To them this was the normal way of politics. In light of this, Batista was easily able to transform the weak government into a dictatorship. His intentions became clear to the public when the announcement of a “disciplined democracy” was made. This so called democracy put an end to all future elections and ushered in a short era of government profiting organized crime. For many Cubans this is where Batista crossed the line. With Batista’s notoriety of harsh punishment, the thought of this regime becoming indefinite was too much.