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US authorities had "approved" the first President, Tomás
Estrada Palma, sought as a possible restraint to a more radical
potential military leadership in the country.
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May 20, 1902. Instant in wich is being hoisted
the Cuban flag in the Government Palace, because of the inauguration
of the neo-colonial republic.
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This entire situation turned José Martí’s substitute as delegate
of the Cuban Revolutionary Party into one of the favorite candidates
among the popular sectors of the Cuban population, notwithstanding
political affiliation. The lack of unity that all ready existed,
increase when the Estrada Palma-Masó political candidacy -that Máximo
Gómez had promoted- failed.
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Tomás Estrada Palma (1835-1908). First president
of the neo-colonial republic. His decision of re-elected himself
provoked deep unrest between his political opponents and different
popular sectors. Facing the imminence of his defeat, he asked
and got a new military intervention of the United States in
Cuba.
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The first Cuban government would have among its tasks
one unpleasant and unrewarding: the formalization of a relationship that
would tie the dependence towards the United States. To this effect, a
set of treatises were voted, passed and signed. These included the Treaty
for Commercial Reciprocity, which ensured the control of the Cuban market
by the United States and consolidated the structure of an economy based
on one product. And the Permanent Treaty, which granted a lawful,
juridical form to the Platt Amendment, and another one designed to define
the establishment and final location of the US naval stations.
Estrada Palma’s peculiar austerity granted him in history the halo
of a well-founded honesty, much more well founded because of the blatant
dishonesty of his successors. However, the elder president could not resist
his political ambitions and managed a rigged reelection that inaugurated
an invariable republican tradition.
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The act provoked an uprising of the opposing Liberal Party, which
in turn unleashed the events leading to another US intervention.
For almost three years (1906-1909), the Island was once more under
a US administration.
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One of the camps set by the interventionist
Northamerican troops since 1906. Gardens of the Parade Ground,
in front of the former Palace of the Capitanes Generales.
La Habana.
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Again,
the period will contribute to define the traits of the republican system
by means of a curious combination of juridical norms and government corruption.
Under the empire of the Platt Amendment, two major political parties,
the Liberal and the Conservative, founded on the dominance of the local
bosses and on the needs of clienteles, disputed power one to the other
by means of electoral cheating and riots.
The winner’s loot would be the public treasure, a source of wealth
for a "political class," which, given the growing control of
the Cuban economy by US capitals, could not find a better area in which
to use, in a more profitable way, its talents. Government management would
thus become the motive for frequent scandals.
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Scandals would be frequent during
the government of José Miguel Gómez (1909-1913).
His government would be also marked by the bloody repression
of the uprising of the Independientes
de Color (Colored Independents), amovement in which
many blacks and mulattos tried to fight against racial
discrimination, though without a clear awareness of how
to do it.
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| General Major José Miguel Gómez (1858-1921). He
climbed to the presidency on January 28, 1909, considering
the second military occupation of United States finished.
His government was characterized by the increase in
the administrative and political corruption and by
the political crimes. |
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The severe conservatism of his successor, Mario García
Menocal (1913-1920) was not enough to hide corruption,
which was in this case favored by the economic boom after
the First World War. Menocal managed to win a reelection
with the already usual and normal procedures, which, in
turn, caused another liberal uprising and the resulting
interventionist haste from the United States.
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General Mario García Menocal Deop (1866-1941).
Third president of the neo-colonial republic symbolized
the climbing of the neo-colonial oligarchy to power.
He finished his term with a huge personal fortune
and in process to becoming a planter.
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