CUBA 1958

Fulgencio Batista assumed leadership of a five-member Cuban presidency in 1933 following a successful coup. He continued in that position until 1940, when he was elected to the new office of President in his own right. He did not stand for re-election in 1944 but went, instead, to live in the United States, claiming to ‘feel safer’ there. This was unsurprising, as his immediate predecessor and successor as President, Dr Ramon Grau San Martin, had first held the office prior to Batista’s coup, and been ejected from it unceremoniously barely three months later. Remaining active in Cuban politics, however, Batista was elected to the Senate in absentia in 1948. In a suicidal failure of judgement, President Grau granted Batista permission to return to Cuba in 1952. Batista, reverting to form, showed his gratitude by overthrowing Grau again. He was quick to establish himself not merely as President, but as a right-wing dictator with absolute power and above the rule of law.

During Batista’s time in America he met Meyer Lansky, a leading member of the Jewish Mafia who held interests in casinos across the length and breadth of the United States. The two became close friends and business associates and agreed that if Batista returned to the Cuban presidency, Lansky and the Mafia could have control of the gambling industry in return for paying substantial kickbacks to Batista.

In 1946 Lansky organised a meeting in Havana of Mafia leaders from all over the United States and sold them the idea of investing heavily in the city. He argued it was a prime potential market, rampant as it was already with gambling, prostitution, extortion and drug trafficking, much of it opportunistic and disorganised.

During Batista’s second term as President, from 1952 onwards, he duly encouraged investment in race tracks, hotels and casinos, and the Mafia moved in, led by Lansky, Frank Costello, Joe ‘Bananas’ Bonanno, Salvatore ‘Sam’ Giancana, Santo Trafficante (Jr), ‘Lucky’ Luciano and others.

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Fidel and Raúl Castro, Che Guevara (an Argentinian Communist) and about eighty other members of the Cuban rebel ‘26th of July Movement’ sailed from exile in Mexico and arrived in a remote part of south-eastern Cuba on 2 December 1956 in the yacht ‘Granma’. They were attacked by Batista’s army and only twenty of them survived to disperse into the inhospitable and virtually unpopulated Sierra Maestra Mountains. For the next year they built up and trained a small rebel guerrilla army comprised mostly of guajiros dissatisfied with their lot under Batista.

Guajiros were the peasants of Sierra Maestra. For most of the year, they scraped a bare subsistence living on land that did not belong to them, or in the small villages. They were illiterate and of black, white and mixed origins. In November each year many of them went to help with sugar cane harvesting to earn a miserable but nonetheless welcome supplementary income.

The poverty of these people, coupled with the remoteness and physical attributes of the territory, made the Sierra Maestra an ideal spawning ground for the revolution.

Che Guevara, the master of propaganda and motivation, took a number of initiatives to show the guajiros how the 26th of July Movement was committed to improving the lives of people like themselves. He built a small hospital, a school, an oven to bake bread enough for hundreds of people, a communal farm with chickens and pigs, another to grow vegetables, and even a small cigar factory to add value to the tiny tobacco crops grown by some guajiros. The last of these may have been inspired more by Fidel Castro than Guevara. The clandestine radio station, Radio Rebelde (Rebel Radio), was also one of Guevara’s ideas. These activities were crucial in the campaign to convert guajiros to join the rebel cause.

There were occasional skirmishes with ill-disciplined Batista soldiers, but in most cases the rebels came out on top. Although Che Guevara was a self-confessed Communist, Fidel Castro insisted that the 26th of July Movement was a socialist organisation and definitely not Communist.

Castro’s rebels were not alone in wanting to oust Batista. On 13 March 1957, the anti-Communist ‘Revolutionary Directorate’ (RD) attacked the Presidential Palace in Havana and tried to kill Batista. It was a desperate, foolhardy venture doomed to failure. The RD assault group was mostly made up of students. Many of them, including their leader, died in the fighting.

The United States government took note of the growing dissatisfaction of Cubans with Batista’s corrupt, autocratic and brutal rule. It recalled its ambassador and imposed an economic embargo on Cuba.

Castro’s rebels started to grow more confident about their chances of succeeding in overthrowing Batista. Although their numbers were still small – possibly numbering only 300 to 400 – they started to attack small Batista garrisons, first in the Sierra Maestra, later venturing into more populated areas. Large parts of the mountainous area of south-eastern Cuba soon fell under Castro’s control.

Many United States businesses, and the Mafia, continued to support Batista. However, Santo Trafficante – one of the Mafia godfathers – also took note of the growing popular dissatisfaction with Batista and widespread support for Castro. He decided it would be wise to hedge his bets.