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.
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General Gerardo Machado Morales, ruled the neo-colonial republic
from 1925 to 1933. |
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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, Machados dictatorship could not silence political dissidence and
much less crush the peoples movement. Heated by the regimes 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.
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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. |
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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 Students 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.
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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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