A Short History of
Corrupt Presidents of Cuba
[TIME, 26 January 1959, page 48. NOTE: this is an excerpt from a larger article]
Page 48
PEARL OF THE ANTILLES
"President of 1,000 Murders." Martí had predicted that
"rascals will struggle to infest politics." After the
administration of First President Tomás Estrada Palma (1902-06),
who died in poverty, Cuba never knew an honest President.
No. 2 retired to a $250,000 mansion;
No. 3 parlayed $1,000,000 into $30 million to $40 million;
No. 4 was known as "the peseta stealer."
No. 5,
Gerardo ("The Butcher") Machado (1925-33), coupled graft with
terror, rode in a $30,000 armored car, had some of his victims fed to
the sharks. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dispatched suave
Diplomat Summer Welles to smooth the way for the unseating of the
"President of a thousand murders." Welles began a subtle campaign
against Machado inside the army itself, and one afternoon Battalion No.
1 of the Cabaña Fortress trained its guns on the yellow-domed
palace, whereupon Machado cried: "All right, my boys, I'm through," and
flew off to Nassau. A delirious crowd looted the palace, lynched
18 Machado henchmen and terrorists.
After 1933, Cuba had seven Presidents in seven years, dependent always
on the kingmaker,
Fulgencio Batista, an orderly-room sergeant who
filled the vacuum after Machado. Said he: "I think it would be criminal
to take advantage of the power I have achieved; I can never become
President." In 1940 he became President. After four years
Batista allowed his hand-picked successor to be defeated in Cuba's
first honest election and retired to Daytona Beach to enjoy his
graft. The administrations of
Ramon Grau San Martin (1944-48) and
Carlos Prío Socarrás (1948-52) respected civil liberties
but not the treasury. Prío amassed millions by the time he
fled Batista's coup.
Despite the looting, Cuba kept growing. Machado's graft-ridden,
700-mile cross-island highway became the avenue for thriving commerce;
Batista's bribe of high wages to workers widened the consumer class,
gave Cuba a living standard not far short of booming Puerto Rico's.
Today Cuba is 75% literate, boasts some of the most advanced social and
labor legislation in the hemisphere.
End of Page
Copyright 1998-2006
Cuban Information Archives. All Rights Reserved.
