#Fulgencio Batista

[mountain-of-madness]

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Cuban women, dressed in black, kneel on the sidewalk on Fifth Avenue across from St. Patrick's Cathedral, April 20, 1958. They earlier attended a mass at St. Patrick's to honor and pray for the memory of the victims massacred in Cuba under the Batista regime. Batista murdered 20,000 Cubans in seven years. The women said they were members of the Catholic Ladies of Cuba, a New York organization. Male supporters in the background hold U.S. and Cuban flags.

Photo: Associated Press via Univ. of Texas

[lightdancer1]

Fulgencio Batista is one example among many of people with mixed heritage who did not proclaim himself Black in any way, shape, form, or fashion:

Fulgencio Batista is an example of many things. Of the kind of leaders that the United States sponsored under the quasi-annexation the Platt and Teller Amendments secured. Of the kind of person who has mixed ancestry but did not consider himself Black (his ancestors were Black, Chinese, and Taino, as well as white, respectively). His regime was a brutal corrupt thing that had limited to no popular appeal, hence the ability of a relatively weak and puny movement led by Fidel Castro to depose it.

Batista also 'recruited' Haitian laborers in the sugar industry called Braceros who are in that nebulous 'not quite slavery' concept much like US sharecroppers in the Deep South who did live on cotton plantations and worked themselves to the bone in a region whose economy was very much reliant on their labor.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"CETTE VIGNETTE fait voir les Cubains relevant leurs morts et transporant leurs blessés aux hôpitaux, à la suite de la bataille furieuse entre les soldats et les officiers de l'armée assiégés dans l'hôtel National. Cette bataille causa 100 pertes de vie et un grand nombre de blessés." - from L'Illustration (Montreal). October 7, 1933. Page 1.

[wisegardenbluebird]

DELIA FIALLO Y LA CULTURA DE MASAS

En el centenario de la más popular guionista de telenovelas Francisco R. Pastoriza          Mario Vargas Llosa dijo en una ocasión que la escritora asturiana Corín Tellado fue probablemente el fenómeno sociocultural más notable que haya experimentado la lengua española desde el Siglo de Oro. No lo decía por la calidad literaria de sus novelas sino por su influencia en la manera de sentir,…

[almanach-international]

13 mars : les prémices de la révolution cubaine

Le régime cubain célèbre le 65e Anniversaire de l'attaque du palais présidentiel (Aniversario del ataque al palacio presidencial) en 1957. Une opération ratée qui a tourné au désastre. Le 13 mars 1957, des attaques simultanées ont été lancées contre le palais présidentiel (devenu aujourd’hui le musée de la révolution) et les locaux de Radio Reloj. L’objectif était d’assassiner le dictateur Fulgencio Batista et de lancer un appel au soulèvement populaire depuis la radio.

Cette opération a été menée par un groupe de jeunes révolutionnaires conduits par José Antonio Echeverría. Ils formaient un commando de 50 hommes armés qui a pris d’assaut le palais présidentiel tandis que José Antonio Echeverría investissait les locaux de la radio avec une quinzaine d’hommes. L’opération est un échec : Batista parvient à s’enfuir et la transmission radio est coupée en plein milieu du discours de José Antonio Echeverría sur Radio Reloj. Un grand nombre d’assaillants est tué pendant l’attaque.

Quant à José Antonio Echeverría, il trouve la mort dans un accrochage avec la police près de l’Université de La Havane après avoir quitté les locaux de Radio Reloj. La voiture dans laquelle il circulait a été interceptée par un véhicule de police à côté du campus universitaire et le chef étudiant est décédé mitraillé, il n’avait que 24 ans. Lui vivant, peut-être que Fidel Castro n’aurait eu qu’un rôle de second plan dans la suite de l’histoire.

Un article de l'Almanach international des éditions BiblioMonde

[adribosch-fan]

“¡Señores, esto se acabó!”: la noche que Fulgencio Batista huyó de Cuba y le dejó el camino libre a Fidel Castro

Las horas finales del dictador cubano tuvieron ribetes insólitos. La fiesta que dio el 31 de diciembre por la noche y cómo dejó plantados a sus invitados para escapar. La situación económica de Cuba en el momento de la revolución. La carta del Che Guevara para romper con su primera esposa. El rol del embajador de los Estados Unidos. Y la extorsión del dictador dominicano Trujillo para dejar salir…

[ronnydeschepper]

De peperbus van nonkel Miele (60): 65 jaar Cubaanse revolutie

Maandag 1 januari 2024 vieren miljoenen Cubanen de 65e verjaardag van hun revolutie. Zoals gebruikelijk zal het nieuwe jaar 2024 en het revolutionair jubileum op oudejaarsavond worden begroet met 21 saluutschoten. Naast tal van activiteiten door het hele land, vindt er een centrale viering plaats in het Céspedes Park in de stad Santiago de Cuba. Daar kondigde de revolutionaire leider Fidel Castro…

[edisilva64-blog-blog]

Fidel Castro: A Jornada de um Ícone da Revolução Cubana e seu Impacto Duradouro

Fidel Castro: A Jornada de um Ícone da Revolução Cubana e seu Impacto Duradouro A história de Fidel Castro é uma saga que se inicia em origens modestas e culmina em uma liderança revolucionária marcante. Neste artigo, exploraremos a vida de Fidel Castro, desde sua infância até sua transformação em um líder icônico da Revolução Cubana, destacando seu impacto duradouro na história e sociedade…

[reddest-flower]

Cuba broke through its colonial domination into freedom. From the mountains of the Sierra Maestra and from the cities came the torrential power of the people against the US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. ‘The revolution is made in the midst of danger’, said Fidel Castro as he led his band of peasant-soldiers from the hills into the cities. They had triumphed against remarkable odds. Quickly, the revolutionaries passed a series of decrees – just as the Soviets had – to draw the key classes to their side. To draw in the urban Cubans, the revolutionaries cut rents by half – sending a strong signal to the bourgeoisie that they had a different class outlook. Then, the revolutionaries took on the United States, whose government held a monopoly over services to the island. Telephone and electrical companies – all American – were told to reduce their rates immediately. Then, on May 17, 1959, the Cuban government passed its agrarian reform – the keystone of the revolutionary process. Land holdings would be restricted so that no large landowners could dominate the landscape and so that the US sugar industry could not strangle the hopes of the island. The most radical part of the reform was not the land ceiling itself, but the logic that agrarian reform would transform the stagnation of the Cuban economy and its dependence upon the United States. The law clearly stated that, from a socialist standpoint,

«The agrarian reform has two principal objectives: (a) to facilitate the planting or the extension of new crops with the view of furnishing raw materials to industry, satisfying the food requirements of the nation, increasing the export of agricultural products and, reciprocally, the import of foreign products which are essential to use; (b) to develop the interior market (family, domestic) by raising the purchasing power of the rural population. In other words, increase the national demand in order to develop the industries atrophied by an overly restrained consumption, or in order to create those which, for lack of customers, were never able to get started among us.»

The revolutionaries wanted to diversify their sugarcane island, produce food security for their people, remove people from desperation, increase the ability of people to consume a range of goods and engineer a people-centred rather than an export-centred economy. Long before Castro announced his commitment to communism, the regime had already developed a carefully thought out socialist platform.

The United States of America, having overthrown the radical nationalist government in Guatemala in 1954, was eager to repeat the task in Cuba in 1959. An embargo came swiftly, as did every form of humiliation possible against the Cuban people. The Cuban economy was structured around dependency to Washington, with the sugar bought by the US firms and with the island turned into a playground for American tourists. Now, the US decided to squeeze this little island, only ninety miles from the US shoreline. Gunboats were readied, a failed invasion tried in April 1961 at the Bay of Pigs. Cuba was vulnerable but also protected by the deep roots of its revolution. But would this protection be sufficient? Could Cuba, alone, be able to survive the onslaught from the United States?

On February 5, 1960, a leader in the USSR and an Old Bolshevik – Anastas Mikoyan – came to Havana to join Fidel Castro at the opening of a Soviet scientific, cultural and technical exhibition. A week later, Mikoyan and Castro signed an agreement for the USSR to buy Cuban sugar at the world market price (in dollars) and provide credits for the Cubans to buy Russian goods. The USSR would subsequently buy almost all the Cuban sugar harvest, even as the Russian consumer market could very well have been supplied by beet sugar from within the USSR. Prices fluctuated, but, on balance, the Cubans were able to find a regular buyer to take over from the United States. The Russians also provided over a $100 million in credits toward the construction of Cuba’s chemical industry as well as trained Cuban technical and scientific workers in the USSR. Diversification of Cuba’s economy remained on the cards, although it became clear that it would not be an easy task. In August 1963, Castro announced that diversification, as well as industrialization, would be postponed. Cuba needed to concentrate on its sugarcane harvest to earn the means to survive the embargo.

On February 24, 1965, Che Guevara addressed the Second Economic Seminar of Afro-Asian Solidarity in Algiers, Algeria. He had come to talk about the economic problems for a revolution in a post-colonial country. Overthrowing the former colonizer was not enough, Che said, since ‘a real break’ is needed from imperialism for the new state to actually flourish and not remain in dependency. How could the post-colonial state survive a hostile economic climate? Who would buy its goods – mainly primary, unprocessed goods – at a fair price, and who would lend it capital at fair terms to develop? Capitalist banks and countries would not provide the post-colonial state, particularly a socialist state, with the means to break out of the trap of underdevelopment. Banks would lend money to a post-colonial state at rates higher than it would lend to a colonial power. Expensive money would only put the post-colonial state into further difficulty, as it would find it hard to service its debt and see its debt multiply out of hand. To prevent this situation, Che argued, the ‘socialist countries must help pay for the development of countries now starting out on the road to liberation’. Trade between socialist countries must not take place based on the law of value of capitalism, but through the creation of fraternal prices. ‘The real task’, Che said, ‘consists of setting prices that will permit development. A great shift in ideas will be involved in changing the order of international relations. Foreign trade should not determine policy, but should, on the contrary, be subordinated to a fraternal policy toward the peoples.’

China, in 1960, offered Cuba credit of $60 million without interest and without a timeline for repayment. This was an enviable loan. But the scale was much smaller than the Soviet assistance. By 1964, the USSR had provided Cuba with economic assistance valued at over $600 million, while the Eastern European countries offered several hundred million more in aid and assistance. The USSR had also trained over 3,000 Cubans in agronomy and agricultural mechanization as well as 900 Cubans as engineers and technicians. Che recognized the value of the Soviet ‘fraternal policy’ both in terms of the training and in the prices offered. ‘Clearly, we could not ask the Socialist world to buy this quantity of sugar at this price based on economic motives’, he had said in 1961, ‘because really there is no reason in world commerce for this purchase and it was simply a political gesture’.

Red Star Over the Third World, Vijay Prashad, 2019

[makingqueerhistory]

Reinaldo Arenas was a member of the Cuban Revolution. Born into poverty, he joined the movement at the age of sixteen with hopes of overthrowing Cuba’s ruler, Fulgencio Batista. He believed that he was aiding in transforming his country into a place of freedom and peace for all. While the revolution began to gain support and power, however, Arenas slowly became disillusioned. Reinaldo was a gay man, so the freedom the revolution promised was not meant for him.

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[lightdancer1]

And yes, Fulgencio Batista very much does count:

While he's mostly famous for losing to Fidel Castro these days, Batista was, ironically, a product of Black Cuban history where Fidel was very much lily-white Spanish. Fidel, in fact, was literally the son of a rich Spanish officer so far more Simon Bolivar than anything else. Batista, equally, was a much more opportunistic ruler than Castro was, having the main principle of swelling his own coffers and being utterly unscrupulous as to how he went about it. Which was why when he orchestrated the coup that took him to power and ended democracy in Cuba, such as it was, for the duration he spent that time as a beloved darling of the United States.

In reality it was PRECISELY for being such a beloved darling of the United States that Castro in turn would manage to overthrow him, and the longer-term effects of that are left for tomorrow with the main focus on Cold War Africa, not least because the USSR very happily treated Cubans as modern Russia does Chechens and Baikal Mongolians and sent them to die for it so no Russians died while they revenged themselves on Castro trying to start WWIII and throwing a temper tantrum when Moscow refused to set the world on fire for his sake.

There was also more than a bit of animosity from the lily-white Spaniard and the mixed-race Black general who embodied all the corrupt traditions of the old Cuba in Castro regime propaganda and beyond that there was at least some truth to it in reality. Like Idi Amin Batista is one of those cases where influential and good or benevolent are very far from synonymous.

[cid5]

circa 1959: A group photo of Cuban citizen militia displaying weapons captured from dictator Fulgencio Batista's army in Fidel Castro's '26 of July Movement,' Cuba. The men wear army fatigues, posing around a machine gun.

[wisegardenbluebird]

MEDIO SIGLO SIN MIGUEL ÁNGEL ASTURIAS

EUFEMÉRIDES Se cumplen 50 años de la muerte del escritor guatemalteco Francisco R. Pastoriza Las novelas sobre dictadores tienen una larga tradición en Iberoamérica, aunque el origen del género se encuentra en “Tirano Banderas”, una obra de Valle Inclán publicada en 1926. Cuentan que en una reunión en 1967 algunos escritores iberoamericanos se conjuraron para escribir las biografías noveladas…

[purpleweredragon]

""The Twilight Zone" is often lauded for its social commentary; it condemned things like racism and nationalism and beauty standards, even as the world around it failed to follow suit. It was a bold and innovative show, but it was also churning out up to 37 episodes a season, so a few clunkers were all but guaranteed. Such was the case with season 3's "The Mirror," an episode that is very much not ahead of its time. Instead, it's perfectly in line with mainstream political opinion in 1961, and it makes for a somewhat dull, grating viewing experience as a result. 

The episode depicts this Castro-insert as a paranoid, sadistic and cartoonishly evil man. The previous leader he's overthrown, who in real life would be the brutal far-right dictator Fulgencio Batista, is portrayed in a comparatively sympathetic light.

The United States, which has a long history of interfering with Latin American governments, did indeed try to kill [Castro] on plenty of occasions. Yet "Mirror" depicts these assassination attempts as the feverish paranoid fantasies of Clemente; either that, or the direct results of an unhappy country being tortured by his tyrannical rule. 

The other issue is that, as time goes on, it seems more and more like Castro was not quite the crazy evil dictator that American media presented him as. He still did plenty of terrible things worthy of condemnation, like his now-reversed criminalization of homosexuality in the '60s and his general inclination towards authoritarianism. On the other hand, he did raise the average quality of life in the country, initiated a successful literacy program, and implemented a healthcare system that's more efficient and humane than our own. Since Fidel took over, the country's infant mortality rate also fell from 37.3 to 4.3 per 1000 live births, lower than it is in America.

Considering Cuba accomplished all this while putting up with an economically suffocating 60+ year trade embargo from the United States, we're forced to admit that Fidel's revolution wasn't a total disaster. Despite the "Twilight Zone" episode's smug certainty that Fidel would crash and burn, his government has already outlived the majority of the episode's cast and crew."

[unitedfrontvarietyhour]

Today is the 26th of July, 2024, exactly 71 years since the failed assault on the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba. This failure would later be commemorated by Fidel Castro and his vanguard revolutionary movement as their very name, the name with which they won independence for Cuba from its dictator, Fulgencio Batista, and it's imperial overlord, the United States.

Cuba is still not free, however; crippling US sanctions have hindered its development, stressed their society, and needlessly taken lives. This embargo, now in its 65th year, must end. If you live in the United States, you bear a special responsibility to use every means of pressure, collectively, to pressure your government and your ruling class to end this embargo and finally free Cuba.