Instituto de Historia de Cuba

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The ascent of Gerardo Machado to the presidency of the Republic in 1925 would mean the alternative of oligarchy to face the latent crisis. In the implementation of its program, the new regime would try to reconcile the economic interests of the different sectors of the bourgeoisie and US capitals.


The government offered guaranties of stability to the middle classes and new jobs to the most popular sectors of the population combined with a selective but at the same time harsh repression against political adversaries and opposition movements.

Gerardo Machado

General Gerardo Machado Morales, ruled the neo-colonial republic from 1925 to 1933.


Under a supposedly efficient administration, the government tried to put an end to the conflicts between traditional parties with the assurance that they would enjoy access to the national budget or treasure by means of the formula of "cooperativism." Once the consensus was obtained, Machado decided to reform the Constitution and perpetuate himself in power.

Despite partial successes during the first years of the administration, Machado’s dictatorship could not silence political dissidence and much less crush the people’s movement. Heated by the regime’s excesses and the rapid deterioration of the economic situation as a result of the 1929 world crisis, these forces started to show a growing belligerence. Being the students and the proletariat the fundamental pillars for the opposition against Machado, an endless succession of strikes, uprisings, attempts against members of the government and sabotages unleashed.


The dictatorship responded by increasing the repression against the people to intolerable levels.
By 1933, the regime was at the brink of giving way to a revolution.

Concerned by the situation existing in Cuba, the new U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, appointed B. Summer Wells as ambassador in La Habana, with the specific mission of finding a way out to the crisis within traditional mechanisms of neocolonial domination. However, the events overcame mediation of Wells: on August 12, 1933 Machado fled from the country overthrown by an general strike.

Rúben Martínez Villena

Rúben Martínez Villena (1899-1934).
Revolutionary intellectual that devoted himselft to the working classes cause, becoming an architect of the unitary organization of the proletariat.


The provisional government, installed by the rightwing opposition under the auspices of the US ambassador would barely last a month. An uprising amidst the rank and file of the army, together with the Directorio Estudiantil Universitario (University Student’s Directorate) and other insurgent groups led in power a revolutionary government presided over by Ramón Grau San Martín.


By the initiative of Antonio Guiteras Secretary of Government, War and Navy, the government passed several measures for the benefit of the people. Nevertheless, harassed by the United States and the opposition, and at the same time victim of its own internal contradictions, the revolutionary government could only stay in power for a few months.

Antonio Guiteras

Antonio Guiteras Holmes (1906-1935).
One of the most prestigeous leaders of the revolutinary and anti-imperialist struggle during the decade of 1930, was murdered by the Mendieta-Caffery- Batista dictatorship on May 8 in El Morrillo, Matanzas, when he was about to leave the country in order to prepare an expedition against that government.

 

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