Fulgencio Batista Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar ( ; January 16 , 1901 – August 6 , 1973 ) was the elected President of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 , and dictator from 1952 to 1959 , before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution . Batista initially rose to power as part of the 1933 " Revolt of the Sergeants " that overthrew the authoritarian rule of Gerardo Machado . Batista then appointed himself chief of the armed forces , with the rank of colonel , and effectively controlled the five - member Presidency . 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 , considered progressive for its time , and served until 1944 . After finishing his term he lived in the United States , returning to Cuba to run for president in 1952 . Facing certain electoral defeat , he led a military coup that preempted the election . Back in power , 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 . Batista ' s increasingly corrupt and repressive regime then began to systematically profit from the exploitation of Cuba ' s commercial interests , by negotiating lucrative relationships with the American mafia , who controlled the drug , gambling , and prostitution businesses in Havana , and with large multinational American corporations that had invested considerable amounts of money in Cuba . To quell the growing discontent amongst the populace — which was subsequently displayed through frequent student riot s and demonstrations — Batista established tighter censorship of the media , while also utilizing his anti - Communist secret police to carry out wide - scale violence , torture and public execution s ; ultimately killing anywhere from 1 , 000 to 20 , 000 people . For several years until 1959 , the Batista regime received financial , military , and logistical support from the United States of America . Catalyzing the resistance to such tactics , for two years ( December 1956 – December 1958 ) Fidel Castro ' s July 26 Movement and other nationalist rebelling elements led an urban and rural - based guerrilla uprising against Batista ' s regime , which culminated in his eventual defeat by rebels under the command of Che Guevara at the Battle of Santa Clara on New Year ' s 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 Portugal , where he lived until dying of a heart attack on August 6 , 1973 near Marbella , Spain . Early life . Batista was born in Banes , Cuba in 1901 , to Belisario Batista Palermo and Carmela Zaldívar González , who had fought in the Cuban War of Independence . He was of mixed Spanish , African , Indian with a part Chinese father . 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 . Some have alleged that a judge was bribed 15 , 000 Cuban pesos ( about the same amount in U . S . dollars at the time ) to fix the discrepancy . Both Batista ' s parents are believed to have been of mixed race and one may have had Indian blood . Batista himself was initially educated at a public school in Banes , later attending night classes at an American Quaker school . He left home at fourteen , following 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 joined the army as a private in April of that year . 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 " sergeant ' s conspiracy " for better conditions and improved prospects of promotion . The 1933 coup . In 1933 , Batista led an uprising called the " Revolt of the Sergeants " , 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 . It included a representative from each anti - Machado faction . Batista was not a member , but controlled Cuba ' s 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 Cuba ' s new government , which lasted eleven months . Batista then became the strongman behind a succession of puppet presidents until he was himself elected president in 1940 . After Mendieta , succeeding governments were led by José Barnet ( 5 months ) and Miguel Mariano Gómez ( 7 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 Mella ' s 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 non - white Cuban in that office . Although Batista supported capitalism and admired the United States , he was endorsed by the old Communist Party of Cuba , which at the time had little significance and no chance of an electoral victory . This support was primarily due to Batista ' s labor law s 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 8 , 1941 , declaring war on Japan the day 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 a decision by the United Nations to go to war with Francisco Franco ' s Spain , calling the regime " fascist " . Post - presidency . In 1944 , Batista ' s handpicked candidate for his 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 his successor was inaugurated , 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 was given permission by President Grau , whereupon he formed the United Action Party . He later founded the Progressive Action Party , on taking power , but 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 Ortodox Party led in all the polls , followed by Carlos Hevia of the Autentic Party . Batista ' s 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 " provisional president . " Shortly after the coup , the United States government recognized his regime . When asked by the U . S . government to analyze Batista ' s Cuba , Arthur M . Schlesinger , Jr . said " 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 . " Again in power , Batista did not continue the progressive social policies of his earlier term . He wanted recognition by the upper strata of Cuban society , which had never accepted him in their social circles . He also worked to increase his personal fortune . Economy of Cuba . Upon his seizure of power , Batista inherited a country that was relatively prosperous for Latin America . Although a third of the population still lived in poverty , Cuba was one of the five most developed countries in the region . In the 1950s , Cuba ' s gross domestic product ( GDP ) per capita was roughly equal to that of Italy at the time , although Cuba ' s GDP per capita was still only a sixth as large as that of the United States . Moreover , despite the fact that corruption and inequality were rife under Batista , Cuban industrial worker ' s wages rose significantly . According to the International Labor Organization , the average industrial salary in Cuba was the world ' s 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 , while 15 to 20 percent of the labor force were chronically unemployed , and only a third of the homes had running water . Relationship with organized crime . In the 1950s , Havana served as " a hedonistic playground for the world ' s elite " , producing sizable gambling , prostitution and drug profits for American Mafiosos , corrupt law - enforcement officials and their politically elected cronies . In fact , 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 . " 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 Havana ' s racetracks and casinos . After World War II , American mobster Lucky 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 regime 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 Cuba ' s gambling operations , and exerted influence over Batista ' s casino policies . Lansky also turned Cuba into an international drug trafficking port . The Mafia ' s 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 Lansky ' s idea over the objections of American expatriate s 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 percent of the profits at Santo Trafficante ' s interests , 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 percent . Lansky was said to have personally contributed millions of dollars per year to Batista ' s 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 island ' s economy . " 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 " that Batista granted at the urging of the U . S . government . Earl 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 Batista ' s regime 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 Batista ' s 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 , described Batista ' s relationship with the U . S . government and criticized the Eisenhower administration for supporting him : Batista , Fidel Castro , and the Cuban Revolution . On July 26 , 1953 , just over a year after Batista ' s 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 Batista ' s 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 % 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 FEU and DR who led the attack were killed in the response by the military and police . Ironically , Castro quickly condemned the attack , since the 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 , Barquín ' s " 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 , 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 guerrilla s . Batista ' s police responded to increasing popular unrest by torturing and killing young men in the cities . His army , however , 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 . " Batista ' s rule became increasingly unpopular among the population , and the Soviet Union began to secretly support Castro . However , some of Batista ' s former generals have also criticized him in recent years , saying that Batista ' s 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 Castro ' s army , Batista ' s secret police pulled in people for questioning . Many innocent people were tortured by Batista ' s 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 , forty - five organizations signed an open letter supporting the 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 government ' s position , although land owners and others who benefited from the regime 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 had previously done in the 1954 elections , withdrew his candidacy within 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 regime . 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 Year ' s 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 three A . M . on January 1 , 1959 , Batista boarded a plane at Camp Columbia with forty 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 Batista ' s 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 the July 26 Movement waved on automobiles 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 . Portugal ' s Prime Minister António Salazar allowed him to settle there on the condition that he completely abstain from politics . By the end of Batista ' s rule , described by U . S . President John F . Kennedy as " one of the most bloody and repressive dictatorships in the long history of Latin American repression , " many claim that up to 20 , 000 Cubans had been killed . Personal life . He married Elisa Godínez y Gómez ( 1900 – 1993 ) on July 10 , 1926 , and they had three children : Mirta Caridad ( 1927 – 2010 ) , Elisa Aleida ( born 1933 ) , and Fulgencio Rubén Batista Godínez ( 1933 – 2007 ) . He later married Marta Fernández Miranda ( 1923 – 2006 ) , 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 . He also had a daughter , Fermina Lázara Batista Estévez , in 1935 . Death . After he fled to Portugal , Batista lived in Madeira , then later in Estoril , outside Lisbon , where he wrote books the rest of his life . He was the Chairman of a Spanish life insurance company that invested in property and mortgages on the Andalusian Costa del Sol . He died of a heart attack on August 6 , 1973 , at Guadalmina , near Marbella , Spain , two days before , allegedly , a team of assassins from Castro ' s Cuba could carry out a plan to assassinate him . Marta Fernández Miranda de Batista , Batista ' s widow , died on October 2 , 2006 . Roberto Batista , her son , says that she died at her West Palm Beach home . She had suffered from Alzheimer ' s disease . She was buried with her husband in San Isidro Cemetery in Madrid after a Mass in West Palm Beach . Batista in popular culture . Batista ' s resignation as president on New Year ' s Eve 1958 - 59 is reenacted in a pivotal scene in the Academy Award - winning 1974 film " The Godfather Part II " , although the Cuban president is not named . The role was played by Tito Alba .