A great day in Cuban history.
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| Independence Day in Havana, Cuba on May 20, 1902 |
One hundred and nineteen years ago today at noon the flag of the United States was brought down and the Cuban flag raised over Havana as Cuba became an independent republic and its first president, Tomas Estrada de Palma, took power and would serve four years and leave office. Prior to the Castro brothers taking over, the Cuban Republic had 12 presidents over its first 58 years which averages out to 4.8 years in office per president. Meanwhile since 1959 two brothers have run Cuba into the ground through an absolutist, totalitarian, communist dictatorship.
The beginning of the Cuban republic on May 20, 1902 had an asterisk – The Platt Amendment: which allowed the United States to intervene in Cuban affairs if U.S. interests were threatened. This Amendment was gotten rid of in 1933 but left a bad taste in the mouth of Cuban nationalists.
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| Future first Cuban president Tomas Estrada de Palma on way to Havana |
Between 1902 and 1952 Cuba progressed socially and economically but
faced challenges on the political front. For example in the late 1920s
Gerardo Machado, the democratically elected president did not want to
leave power becoming a dictator. He was driven from office and into exile in 1933 by a general strike. This was followed by a
revolution led by university students and enlisted men in what became
known as the sergeants revolt. This put Fulgencio Batista into the
national spotlight and by 1934 he was the strong man behind the scenes
even though democratic formalities were restored.
In 1940 all the political tendencies in Cuba met to draft what became
known as the 1940 Constitution and a presidential election was held and
Fulgencio Batista elected. He served out his term as president from 1940
to 1944. Due to a clause in the new Constitution he was unable to run
for re-election. In the election of 1944 the opposition candidate,
Ramon Grau San Martin, won and served a term as president from
1944-1948 and in the election of 1948, Batista’s political party again
lost at the general elections and Carlos Prios Socarras was elected president.
Cuba's republic during this democratic period played an important role in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations.
This democratic renaissance was brought to an end within days of the
1952 presidential elections, when on March 10th Fulgencio Batista
organized a coup against the last democratically elected president.
A little over a year later on July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro organized an
armed assault on the Moncada Military barracks that was a military
disaster but a public relations success. Although most of the men
involved with Fidel Castro in the assault were killed, Fidel Castro
became a national figure at his trial for the attack. At the trial he
portrayed himself as a democrat that wanted to restore the previous
democratic order and attacked the Batista dictatorship for its
usurpation of the democratic order.
How the totalitarian darkness arrived in Cuba
Upon Batista’s departure from Cuba on December 31, 1958, Fidel Castro
began his triumphal trek across Cuba to Havana where he began to
consolidate power while continuing publicly to claim that he was a
democrat but privately began to infiltrate his movement with communists,
alienating many who had fought with him, and began to approach the mass media threatening them with violence if they reported anything critical.
As the months passed all independent media were taken over. Mass
televised executions imposed fear in the populace.
This is how the darkness of totalitarianism took over Cuba and 57 years later remains entrenched there. Cuba gained its independence on May 20, 1902 after centuries of Spanish colonial rule and four years of U.S. occupation following the Spanish American war.
Over half of Cuba's post colonial history, thus far, has been under the boot of totalitarian caudillos whose father, ironically, fought for the Spanish crown in the war of independence to preserve Cuba as a Spanish colony.
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