Oligarchic parties restored in power, in spite of the unconditional US support made evident by the abrogation of the Platt Amendment and by the measures for economic stabilization -namely the system of sugar quotas and a new Treaty for Commercial Reciprocity-, the parties of the oligarchy, once again in power, showed an open inefficiency in the exercise of government.

For this reason, Batista and his followers in the army would in fact rule the destiny of the country. However, a ruling formula, which combined repression with certain socio-economic reforms, was eventually unable to offer a stable reliable solution for the Cuban situation. In turn, this led to a compromise with the revolutionary and democratic forces -weakened by internal division- compromise that appeared in the Constitution of 1940. With this new Carta Magna, which included many important popular measures, a new period of institutional legality was opened.

Fulgencio Batista was the president of the first government in this new period. His candidacy for power had been supported by a coalition in which the communists participated. Though this alliance brought many important improvements for the labor movement, other sectors of the population did understand neither its advantages nor the need of it at that time, and so was a factor for division among the revolutionary forces. Under Batista’s government, the country’s economy improved considerably favored by the Second World War. Such situation also favored Batista’s successor, Ramón Grau San Martín who was elected president in 1944, with a wide support from the population that thanked him for the nationalistic and democratic measures adopted during his previous administration.

However, neither Grau nor his successor, Carlos Prío Socarrás (1948-1952), -both leaders of the Partido Revolucionario Cubano (auténtico)- were able to take advantage from the favorable economic conditions existing during their respective terms. Timid and scarce reforms barely affected the existing structures of agricultural property and commercial dependence that blocked rather than prevented the development of the country. They did, however, took advantage of the economic bonanza produced by the sugar industry to plunder the public treasury at unprecedented rates. Administrative corruption shared the republican scenario with gangster mobs that were used by the "Auténticos" to get rid of the communists who were part of trade unions leaderships within the favorable atmosphere provided by the Cold War. Rejection to such shameful situation paved the way for the appearance of the political civic movement "Orthodox" led by the charismatic Eduardo Chibás, who committed suicide in 1951 in the midst of a heated argument against government representatives.

It seemed that the triumph of the orthodox party in the elections of 1952 would be evident, but the hopes of the Cuban people were frustrated by a military coup d’état. The "authentic" experience had plunged the reformist formulas and the republican institutions into disrepute. At the same time, the favorable disposition on the part of American interests and some sectors of the bourgeoisie for a "strong man" government favored the ambitions of Fulgencio Batista, who, at the head of the military coup, assaulted power on March 10, 1952.

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