America’s strong man
American support for dictator Fulgencio Batista led to a failed foreign policy toward Cuba and facilitated the rise of Fidel Castro and communism
How support of Fulgencio Batista fuelled the communist revolution in Cuba and led to the rise of Fidel Castro
From its inception on 20 May 1902, the Republic of Cuba was destined to exist in the long shadow of its powerful neighbour, the United States. In fact, within a year of Cuba’s independence, the US Congress passed the Platt Amendment, asserting the right to intervene in Cuba’s internal affairs as it saw fit.
When revolution came to Cuba in the 1950s, the government of strongman Fulgencio Batista was toppled, and the Marxist regime of Fidel Castro emerged in its place. The outcome, although predictable, was the least favourable for the United States in terms of maintaining a bulwark against communist influence in the western hemisphere. However, it was America’s own failed policy toward Cuba that provided momentum for the revolution. Ironically, the United States – the great bastion of freedom and democracy – had supported Batista, a ruthless, murderous, corrupt and repressive dictator. Could the outcome have been different? The debate rages.
Batista had risen to power initially during the 1930s when the US sought an individual to form a stable government in the midst of the Great Depression and continuing civil unrest. Engineering the 1933 Revolt of the Sergeants, Batista, a well-connected Cuban Army sergeant, ousted President Ramón Grau San Martin and subsequently ruled Cuba through a succession of puppet presidents. He won the presidency outright in 1944 and supported the progressive constitution of 1940 while allowing varied constituencies, including the communists, to participate in the government. When his term expired in 1948, Batista relinquished the presidency peacefully, retiring to Daytona Beach, Florida, and spending time at the Waldorf-astoria Hotel in New York.
The Cuban road to revolution was destined to wind through Washington, DC. Batista had cultivated a strong relationship with the US government while president and maintained close ties to associates within Cuba. While telling reporters that he felt safer in the United States than in his homeland, Batista was elected in absentia to the Cuban congress in 1948. Meanwhile, his connections to American industrialists and business moguls strengthened, along with his ties to organised crime.
Historians have speculated whether
Batista possessed a true long view of opportunities to exploit the Cuban people for personal gain or whether he was an opportunist who laid a foundation of corruption and ruthlessness to line his own pockets, leveraging ever-shifting American foreign policy for his own benefit in the process. Regardless, as the Cuban political situation remained restive, Batista chose to run for president again in 1952. The polls, however, were troubling. By late 1951, he was a distant third behind Roberto Agramonte of the Orthodox Party and Authentic Party candidate Carlos Hevia.
Facing his political Rubicon, Batista acted decisively. His army henchmen forced President Carlos Prio Socarrás to resign and seized military installations across Cuba. Batista cancelled the upcoming elections, suspended the constitution of 1940, and outlawed all political parties.
Turning an apparent blind eye to the means by which Batista achieved power, President Dwight D Eisenhower and the US government recognised the new Cuban regime within days of the coup d’etat. For the United States, Batista represented a loyal friend who brought stability to the troubled island despite actions that contradicted those of his first term as president. He would surely protect American investment in Cuba, and most importantly he would fend off communist inroads in Latin America. Jumbled amid such optimism, the seeds of American foreign policy failure were planted.
Batista elevated corruption to an art form. He invited American investment in hotels and casinos, allying closely with well-known organised crime figures Meyer Lansky, Santo Trafficante and others, skimming up to 30 percent of the take from their gambling enterprises. Drugs, influence peddling and the sex trade were additional sources of revenue for Batista and his cronies, who garnered immense wealth while the average Cuban family earned $6 a week and unemployment hovered around 15-20 percent. Batista’s soldiers routinely kidnapped dissenters, snatching them from their beds, murdering them in the night and displaying their bodies at roadsides at sunrise as a warning.
By 1953, however, a young attorney, Fidel Castro, had fanned the flames of hatred for Batista and the complicit American government. By the end of the decade, Castro and Marxist Cuba would be the sworn enemies of the United States. In retrospect, by the time US officials realised that they had made a pact with the devil, the situation was irretrievable – the proverbial genie was out of the bottle.
“DRUGS, INFLUENCE PEDDLING AND THE SEX TRADE WERE ADDITIONAL SOURCES OF REVENUE FOR BATISTA AND HIS CRONIES”