United Action Party
Which party was Fulgencio Batista a member of from 1948 to 1952?
Fulgencio Batista Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar ( ; ; born Rubén Zaldívar , January 16 , 1901 – August 6 , 1973 ) was a Cuban military officer and politician who served as the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and as its U.S.-backed military dictator from 1952 to 1959 before being overthrown during the Cuban Revolution . Batista initially rose to power as part of the 1933 Revolt of the Sergeants , which overthrew the provisional government of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada . He then appointed himself chief of the armed forces , with the rank of colonel and effectively controlled the five-member pentarchy that functioned as the collective head of state . He maintained this control through a string of puppet presidents until 1940 , when he was himself elected President of Cuba on a populist platform . He then instated the 1940 Constitution of Cuba and served until 1944 . After finishing his term , Batista moved to Florida , returning to Cuba to run for president in 1952 . Facing certain electoral defeat , he led a military coup against President Carlos Prío Socarrás that pre-empted the election . Back in power and receiving financial , military and logistical support from the United States government , Batista suspended the 1940 Constitution and revoked most political liberties , including the right to strike . He then aligned with the wealthiest landowners who owned the largest sugar plantations , and presided over a stagnating economy that widened the gap between rich and poor Cubans . Eventually it reached the point where most of the sugar industry was in U.S . hands , and foreigners owned 70% of the arable land . As such , Batistas repressive government then began to systematically profit from the exploitation of Cubas commercial interests , by negotiating lucrative relationships both with the American Mafia , who controlled the drug , gambling , and prostitution businesses in Havana , and with large U.S.-based multinational companies who were awarded lucrative contracts . To quell the growing discontent amongst the populace—which was subsequently displayed through frequent student riots and demonstrations—Batista established tighter censorship of the media , while also utilizing his Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities secret police to carry out wide-scale violence , torture and public executions . These murders mounted in 1957 , as socialist ideas became more influential . Many people were killed , with estimates ranging from hundreds to about 20,000 people killed . Catalyzing the resistance to such tactics , for two years ( December 1956 – December 1958 ) Fidel Castros 26th of July Movement and other rebelling elements led an urban- and rural-based guerrilla uprising against Batistas government , which culminated in his eventual defeat by rebels under the command of Che Guevara at the Battle of Santa Clara on New Years Day 1959 . Batista immediately fled the island with an amassed personal fortune to the Dominican Republic , where strongman and previous military ally Rafael Trujillo held power . Batista eventually found political asylum in Oliveira Salazars Portugal , where he first lived on the island of Madeira and then in Estoril . He was involved in business activities in Spain and was staying there in Guadalmina at the time of his death from a heart attack on August 6 , 1973 . Early life . Batista was born in the town of Veguita , located in the municipality of Banes , Cuba in 1901 to Belisario Batista Palermo and Carmela Zaldívar González , who had fought in the Cuban War of Independence . He was of Spanish , African , Chinese , and possibly some Taíno descent . 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 in the birth certificates ; he thus had to postpone the presentation of his candidacy and pay 15,000 pesos to the local judge . Both Batistas parents are believed to have been of mixed race and one may have had Indigenous Caribbean blood . Batista was initially educated at a public school in Banes and later attended night classes at an American Quaker school . He left home at age 14 , after the death of his mother . Coming from a humble background , he earned a living as a laborer in the cane fields , docks , and railroads . He was a tailor , mechanic , charcoal vendor and fruit peddler . In 1921 , he traveled to Havana , and in April joined the army as a private . After learning shorthand and typing , Batista left the army in 1923 , working briefly as a teacher of stenography before enlisting in the Guardia Rural ( rural police ) . He transferred back to the army as a corporal , becoming secretary to a regimental colonel . In September 1933 , he held the rank of sergeant stenographer and as such acted as the secretary of a group of non-commissioned officers who led a sergeants conspiracy for better conditions and improved prospects of promotion . 1933 coup . In 1933 , Batista led an uprising called the Sergeants Revolt , as part of the coup that overthrew the government of Gerardo Machado . Machado was succeeded by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada , who lacked a political coalition that could sustain him and was soon replaced . A short-lived five-member presidency , known as the Pentarchy of 1933 , was established . The Pentarchy included a representative from each anti-Machado faction . Batista was not a member , but controlled Cubas armed forces . 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 , effectively putting him in control of the presidency . The majority of the commissioned officer corps were forced to retire or , some speculate , were killed . Grau remained president for just over 100 days before Batista , conspiring with the U.S . envoy Sumner Welles , forced him to resign in January 1934 . Grau was replaced by Carlos Mendieta , and within five days the U.S . recognized Cubas new government , which lasted eleven months . Batista then became the strongman behind a succession of puppet presidents until he was elected president in 1940 . After Mendieta , succeeding governments were led by José Agripino Barnet ( five months ) and Miguel Mariano Gómez ( seven months ) before Federico Laredo Brú ruled from December 1936 to October 1940 . First presidency ( 1940–1944 ) . Batista , supported by the Democratic Socialist Coalition which included Julio Antonio Mellas Communist Party , defeated Grau in the first presidential election under the new Cuban constitution in the 1940 election , and served a four-year term as President of Cuba , the first and to this day only , non-white Cuban in that office . Batista was endorsed by the old Communist Party of Cuba , which at the time had little significance and no probability of an electoral victory . This support was primarily due to Batistas labor laws and his support for labor unions , with which the Communists had close ties . In fact , Communists attacked the anti-Batista opposition , saying Grau and others were fascists and reactionaries . During this term in office , Batista carried out major social reforms and established numerous economic regulations and pro-union policies . Cuba entered World War II on the side of the Allies on December 9 , 1941 , declaring war on Japan two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor . On December 11 , the Batista government declared war on Germany and Italy . In December 1942 , after a friendly visit to Washington , Batista said Latin America would applaud if the Declaration by United Nations called for war with Francisco Francos Spain , calling the regime fascist . Post-presidency . In 1944 , Batistas handpicked successor , Carlos Saladrigas Zayas , was defeated by Grau . In the final months of his presidency , Batista sought to handicap the incoming Grau administration . In a July 17 , 1944 , dispatch to the U.S . Secretary of State , U.S . Ambassador Spruille Braden wrote : Shortly after , 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 in the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City and a home in Daytona Beach , Florida . 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 received permission from President Grau , whereupon he formed the United Action Party . On taking power he founded the Progressive Action Party , but he never regained his former popular support , though the unions supported him until the end . Military coup and second presidency ( 1952–1959 ) . In 1952 , Batista again ran for president . In a three-way race , Roberto Agramonte of the Orthodox Party led in all the polls , followed by Carlos Hevia of the Authentic Party . Batistas United Action coalition 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 took control of the government as a provisional president . The United States recognized his government on March 27 . When asked by the U.S . government to analyze Batistas Cuba , Arthur M . Schlesinger , Jr . said The corruption of the Government , the brutality of the police , the governments indifference to the needs of the people for education , medical care , housing , for social justice and economic justice .. . is an open invitation to revolution . Economy of Cuba . Upon his seizure of power , Batista inherited a country that was relatively prosperous for Latin America . According to Batistas government , although a third of Cubans still lived in poverty , Cuba was one of the five most developed countries in the region . In the 1950s , Cubas gross domestic product ( GDP ) per capita was roughly equal to that of Italy at the time , although Cubas per-capita GDP was still only a sixth of that of the United States . Moreover , although corruption and inequality were rife under Batista , Cuban industrial workers wages rose significantly . According to the International Labour Organization , the average industrial salary in Cuba was the worlds eighth-highest in 1958 , and the average agricultural wage was higher than some European nations . However , despite an array of positive indicators , in 1953 , the average Cuban family only had an income of $6.00 a week , 15% to 20% of the labor force was chronically unemployed , and only a third of the homes had running water . Relationship with organized crime . Throughout the 1950s , Havana served as a hedonistic playground for the worlds elite , producing sizable gambling , prostitution and drug profits for the American mafia , corrupt law-enforcement officials , and their politically elected cronies . In the assessment of the Cuban-American historian Louis Perez , Havana was then what Las Vegas has become . Relatedly , it is estimated that by the end of the 1950s the city of Havana had 270 brothels . In addition , drugs , be it marijuana or cocaine , were so plentiful at the time that one American magazine in 1950 proclaimed Narcotics are hardly more difficult to obtain in Cuba than a shot of rum . And only slightly more expensive . As a result , the playwright Arthur Miller described Batistas Cuba in The Nation as hopelessly corrupt , a Mafia playground , ( and ) a bordello for Americans and other foreigners . In a bid to profit from such an environment , Batista established lasting relationships with organized crime , notably with American mobsters Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano , and under his rule Havana became known as the Latin . Batista and Lansky formed a friendship and business relationship that flourished for a decade . During a stay at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York in the late 1940s , it was mutually agreed that , in return for kickbacks , Batista would give Lansky and the Mafia control of Havanas racetracks and casinos . After World War II , Luciano was paroled from prison on the condition that he permanently return to Sicily . Luciano secretly moved to Cuba , where he worked to resume control over American Mafia operations . Luciano also ran a number of casinos in Cuba with the sanction of Batista , though the American government eventually succeeded in pressuring the Batista government to deport him . Batista encouraged large-scale gambling in Havana . In 1955 , he announced that Cuba would grant a gaming license to anyone who invested US$1 million in a hotel or $200,000 in a new nightclub—and that the government would provide matching public funds for construction , a 10-year tax exemption , and waive duties on imported equipment and furnishings for new hotels . Each casino would pay the government $250,000 for the license , plus a percentage of the profits . The policy omitted background checks , as required for casino operations in the United States , which opened the door for casino investors with illegally obtained funds . Cuban contractors with the right connections made windfalls by importing , duty-free , more materials than needed for new hotels and selling the surplus to others . It was rumored that , besides the $250,000 to obtain a license , an additional under the table fee was sometimes required . Lansky became a prominent figure in Cubas gambling operations , and exerted influence over Batistas casino policies . The Mafias Havana Conference was held on December 22 , 1946 , at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba ; this was the first full-scale meeting of American underworld leaders since the Chicago meeting in 1932 . Lansky set about cleaning up the games at the Montmartre Club , which soon became the place to be in Havana . He also wanted to open a casino in the Hotel Nacional , the most elegant hotel in Havana . Batista endorsed Lanskys idea over the objections of American expatriates such as Ernest Hemingway , and the renovated casino wing opened for business in 1955 with a show by Eartha Kitt . The casino was an immediate success . As the new hotels , nightclubs , and casinos opened , Batista collected his share of the profits . Nightly , the bagman for his wife collected 10% of the profits at Santo Trafficantes casinos , the Sans Souci cabaret , and the casinos in the hotels Sevilla-Biltmore , Commodoro , Deauville , and Capri ( partly owned by the actor George Raft ) . His take from the Lansky casinos—his prized Habana Riviera , the Hotel Nacional , the Montmartre Club , and others—was said to be 30% . Lansky was said to have personally contributed millions of dollars per year to Batistas Swiss bank accounts . Support of U.S . business and government . In a manner that antagonized the Cuban people , the U.S . government used its influence to advance the interests of and increase the profits of the private American companies , which dominated the islands economy . By the late 1950s , U.S . financial interests owned 90% of Cuban mines , 80% of its public utilities , 50% of its railways , 40% of its sugar production and 25% of its bank deposits—some $1 billion in total . According to historian Louis Perez , author of the book On Becoming Cuban , Daily life had developed into a relentless degradation , with the complicity of political leaders and public officials who operated at the behest of American interests . As a symbol of this relationship , ITT Corporation , an American-owned multinational telephone company , presented Batista with a Golden Telephone , as an expression of gratitude for the excessive telephone rate increase , at least according to Senator John F . Kennedy , that Batista granted at the urging of the U.S . government . Earl E.T . Smith , former U.S . Ambassador to Cuba , testified to the U.S . Senate in 1960 that , Until Castro , the U.S . was so overwhelmingly influential in Cuba that the American ambassador was the second most important man , sometimes even more important than the Cuban president . In addition , nearly all aid from the U.S . to Batistas government was in the form of weapons assistance , which merely strengthened the Batista dictatorship and completely failed to advance the economic welfare of the Cuban people . Such actions later enabled Castro and the Communists to encourage the growing belief that America was indifferent to Cuban aspirations for a decent life . According to historian and author James S . Olson , the U.S . government essentially became a co-conspirator in the arrangement because of Batistas strong opposition to communism , which , in the rhetoric of the Cold War , seemed to maintain business stability and a pro-U.S . posture on the island . Thus , in the view of Olson , The U.S . government had no difficulty in dealing with him , even if he was a hopeless despot . On October 6 , 1960 Senator John F . Kennedy , in the midst of his campaign for the U.S . Presidency , decried Batistas relationship with the U.S . government and criticized the Eisenhower administration for supporting him : Fulgencio Batista murdered 20,000 Cubans in seven years .. . and he turned Democratic Cuba into a complete police state—destroying every individual liberty . Yet our aid to his regime , and the ineptness of our policies , enabled Batista to invoke the name of the United States in support of his reign of terror . Administration spokesmen publicly praised Batista—hailed him as a staunch ally and a good friend—at a time when Batista was murdering thousands , destroying the last vestiges of freedom , and stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the Cuban people , and we failed to press for free elections . Batista , Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution . On July 26 , 1953 , just over a year after Batistas second coup , a small group of revolutionaries attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago . Government forces easily defeated the assault and jailed its leaders , while many others fled the country . The primary leader of the attack , Fidel Castro , was a young attorney who had run for parliament in the canceled 1952 elections . Although Castro was never officially nominated , he felt that Batistas coup had sidetracked what would have been a promising political career for him . In the wake of the Moncada assault , Batista suspended constitutional guarantees and increasingly relied on police tactics in an attempt to frighten the population through open displays of brutality . Batista held an election in 1954 , running as the candidate of a political coalition that included the Progressive Action Party , the Radical Union Party and the Liberal Party . The opposition divided into abstentionists and electoralists . The abstentionists favored boycotting the elections regardless of the circumstances in which they were held , whereas the electoralists sought certain rights and guarantees to participate . The CIA had predicted that Batista would use any means necessary to ensure he won the election . Batista lived up to their expectations , utilizing fraud and intimidation to secure his presidency . This led most of the other parties to boycott the elections . Former President Ramón Grau San Martín , leading the electoralist factions of the Cuban Revolutionary Party , participated through the political campaign but withdrew from the campaign days before election day , charging that his supporters had been terrorized . Thus Batista was elected president with the support of 45.6% of registered voters . Despite the boycott , Grau received the support of 6.8% of those who voted . The remaining voters abstained . By late 1955 , student riots and anti-Batista demonstrations had become frequent , and unemployment became a problem as graduates entering the workforce could not find jobs . These were dealt with through increasing repression . All youth were seen as suspected revolutionaries . Due to its continued opposition to Batista and the large amount of revolutionary activity taking place on its campus , the University of Havana was temporarily closed on November 30 , 1956 ( it did not reopen until 1959 under the first revolutionary government ) . On March 13 , 1957 , student leader José Antonio Echeverría was killed by police outside Radio Reloj in Havana after announcing that Batista had been killed in a student attack on the Presidential Palace . In reality , Batista survived , and the students of the Federation of University Students ( FEU ) and the Directorio ( DR ) who led the attack were killed in the response by the military and police . Castro quickly condemned the attack , since July 26 Movement had not participated in it . In April 1956 , Batista called popular military leader Col . Ramón Barquín back to Cuba from his post as military attaché to the United States . Believing Barquín would support his rule , Batista promoted him to General . However , Barquíns Conspiración de los Puros ( Conspiracy of the Pure ) was already underway and had already progressed too far . On April 6 , 1956 , Barquín led hundreds of career officers in a coup attempt , but was frustrated by Lieutenant Ríos Morejón , who betrayed the plan . Barquín was sentenced to solitary confinement for eight years on the Isle of Pines , while some officers were sentenced to death for treason . Many others were allowed to remain in the military without reprimand . The purge of the officer corps contributed to the inability of the Cuban army to successfully combat Castro and his guerrillas . Batistas police responded to increasing popular unrest by torturing and killing young men in the cities . However , his army was ineffective against the rebels based in the Sierra Maestra and Escambray Mountains . Another possible explanation for the failure to crush the rebellion was offered by 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 . Batistas rule became increasingly unpopular among the population , and the Soviet Union began to secretly support Castro . Some of Batistas generals also criticized him in later years , saying that Batistas excessive interference in his generals military plans to defeat the rebels hampered Army morale and rendered all operations ineffective . In an effort to gather information about Castros army , Batistas secret police pulled in people for questioning . Many innocent people were tortured by Batistas police , while suspects , including youth , were publicly executed as a warning to others who were considering joining the insurgency . Additionally , Hundreds of mangled bodies were left hanging from lamp posts or dumped in the streets in a grotesque variation of the Spanish colonial practice of public executions . The brutal behavior backfired and increased support for the guerrillas . In 1958 , 45 organizations signed an open letter supporting July 26 Movement , among them national bodies representing lawyers , architects , dentists , accountants , and social workers . Castro , who had originally relied on the support of the poor , was now gaining the backing of the influential middle classes . The United States supplied Batista with planes , ships , tanks and the latest technology , such as napalm , which he used against the insurgency . However , in March 1958 , the U.S . announced it would stop selling arms to the Cuban government . Soon after , the U.S . imposed an arms embargo , further weakening the governments position , although land owners and others who benefited from the government continued to support Batista . Elections were scheduled for June 1958 , as required by the Constitution , but were delayed until November 1958 , when Castro and the revolutionaries called for a general strike and placed several bombs in civilian areas of the country . Three main candidates ran in the elections : Carlos Márquez Sterling of the Party of the Free People , former President Ramón Grau San Martín of the Cuban Revolutionary Party-Authentic , and Andrés Rivero Agüero of the government coalition . According to Carlos Márquez Sterling , all three were threatened by Castro , and several assassination attempts were made on both Ramón Grau San Martín and Carlos Márquez Sterling . On Election Day , estimates on the turnout range from 30–50% in the areas where voting took place , which did not include parts of Las Villas and Oriente , which were controlled by Castro . Márquez Sterling also stated that the initial results were favorable to him , but the military ordered the counting to stop as they changed the actual ballots for fraudulent ones . However , Grau San Martín , as he had previously done in the 1954 elections , withdrew his candidacy within a few hours of the election day . Batista declared Rivero Agüero the winner . On December 11 , 1958 , U.S . Ambassador Earl Smith visited Batista at his hacienda , Kuquine . There , Smith informed him that the United States could no longer support his government . Batista asked if he could go to his house in Daytona Beach . The ambassador denied the request and suggested that he seek asylum in Spain instead . On December 31 , 1958 , at a New Years Eve party , Batista told his cabinet and top officials that he was leaving the country . After seven years , Batista knew his presidency was over , and he fled the island in the early morning . At 3:00 a.m . on January 1 , 1959 , Batista boarded a plane at Camp Columbia with 40 of his supporters and immediate family members and flew to Ciudad Trujillo in the Dominican Republic . A second plane flew out of Havana later in the night , carrying ministers , officers and the Governor of Havana . Batista took along a personal fortune of more than $300 million that he had amassed through graft and payoffs . Critics accused Batista and his supporters of taking as much as $700 million in fine art and cash with them as they fled into exile . As news of the fall of Batistas government spread through Havana , The New York Times described jubilant crowds pouring into the streets and automobile horns honking . The black and red flag of July 26 Movement waved on cars and buildings . The atmosphere was chaotic . On January 8 , 1959 , Castro and his army rolled victoriously into Havana . Already denied entry to the United States , Batista sought asylum in Mexico , which also refused him . Portugals leader António Salazar allowed him to settle there on the condition that he completely abstain from politics . At the time , it was claimed that as many as 20,000 Cubans had been killed under Batista , but most modern historians agree that the true figure is probably closer to 3,000–4,000 . Personal life . Marriages and children . Batista married Elisa Godínez y Gómez ( 1900–1993 ) on July 10 , 1926 . They had three children : Mirta Caridad ( 1927–2010 ) , Elisa Aleida ( born 1933 ) , and Fulgencio Rubén Batista Godínez ( 1933–2007 ) . By all accounts , she was devoted to him and their children throughout their marriage , and their daughter remembered them as a happy , young couple until their sudden divorce . Much to her surprise , he divorced her in October 1945 against her will in order to marry his longtime mistress Marta Fernandez Miranda . He married Marta Fernández Miranda ( 1923–2006 ) on November 28 , 1945 , shortly after his divorce became final , and they had five children : Jorge Luis ( born 1942 ) , Roberto Francisco ( born 1947 ) , Carlos Manuel ( 1950–1969 ) , Fulgencio José ( born 1953 ) and Marta María Batista Fernández ( born 1957 ) . Extramarital affairs . Batista was an inveterate philanderer who engaged in numerous extramarital affairs throughout his first marriage . He cheated on his first wife with multiple women , and his children eventually became aware of his relationships . His first wife , who supported her husband throughout his political career and found his philandering humiliating , never considered divorce and tolerated his multiple affairs . However , Batista became enamored with a teenage schoolgirl Marta Fernandez Miranda , who became his longtime mistress . He filed divorce papers shortly before his first grandchild was born . His first wife and their children were astounded and devastated by the divorce . In 1935 , he fathered an illegitimate daughter , Fermina Lázara Batista Estévez , whom he supported financially . Biographers suggest that Batista may have fathered several more children out of wedlock . Death . After he fled to Portugal , Batista lived in Madeira , then later in Estoril . He died of a heart attack on August 6 , 1973 at Guadalmina , Spain , two days before a team of assassins from Castros Cuba allegedly were planning to assassinate him . Marta Fernández Miranda de Batista , Batistas widow , died on October 2 , 2006 . Roberto Batista , her son , says that she died at her home in West Palm Beach , Florida . She had suffered from Alzheimers disease . She was buried with her husband and son in the Cementerio Sacramental de San Isidro in Madrid . In popular culture . Actors who have portrayed Batista in film include Tito Alba in The Godfather Part II ( 1974 ) , Wolfe Morris in Cuba ( 1979 ) and Juan Fernandez in The Lost City ( 2005 ) . In literature and movies , Batistas regime is commonly referred to as the greens ( opposite the Communist reds ) , because of the green uniforms his soldiers wore . In Cuban post-revolution books , documentaries and movies Batistas troops were are also referred to as the helmets or casquitos ( in Spanish ) , because of the helmets they used . Books written by Batista . - Estoy con el Pueblo ( I am With the People ) , Havana , 1939 - Respuesta , 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 - To Rule is to Foresee , 1962 - The Growth and Decline of the Cuban Republic , Devin-Adair Company , New York , 1964 External links . - Fulgencio Batista from The History of Cuba - Fulgencio Batista from The Latin American Studies Organization - What Castro Found by Ana Simo , The Gully ( magazine ) - January 1 , 1959 : Cuban Dictator Batista Falls From Power by The History Channel