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Latin America, throughout its history has a been a region full of revolutionary conflict. Time and time again the stage is set for revolution. In El Salvador, Nicaragua, and most popularly Cuba, the revolution has become a part of contemporary life. We now see the results and remains of these revolutions, but fail to see what catalyzed these violent changes. In modern Cuba we see Castro as an institution of communism and dictatorship. We rarely look back in history to see what set the stage for his attention to the top of Cuba, or look at the leaders and dictators who came before him.
We will now try to look back at what was the real cause and drive of the Cuban Revolution, and also look at the Batista regime to see what motivated this infamous revolution. Fulgencio Zaldivar Batista was Cuban president and dictator from (1940 - 1944, 1952 - 1959). He joined the military in 1921 and in 1933 emerged as a leader in the overthrow of previous dictator. Under the first regime of Rate Grau San March, Batista became chief of staff of the army and gained significant control in the Cuban government. In 1934 Batista forced Grau's resignation. In 1940, Batista was elected president.
After his four year term, Batista's hand-picked successor lost to Grau in the election. For the next 8 years, Batista remained in the background. In 1952, Batista was running a distant third in the presidential elections when he staged a military coup. He was ratified as president after a sham election in 1954. As President, he operated as a puppet for sugar barons, banks, gambling syndicates and the corporate interests of North America.
Cuba had become the playground for the US rich. Batista answered any opposition with assassination, he broke strikes with machine gun fire and continued the massive exploitation of sugar workers, farmers, and women. Under Batista's rule, the common consensus among the poor was that the rich were getting richer, while they were getting poorer. The corruption, exploitation, and oppression which the poor faced under Batista's rule set the stage for the revolution. Tired of the corrupt rule, the people searched for a change, for an answer to their problems. The obvious answer was held in revolution.
Fidel and Raul Castro and Che Guevara incited the masses with their Marxist ideals and pictures of a social utopia. Revolutionaries spoke of equality and en end to oppression and corruption. It is not hard to see why so many of the oppressed, and repressed saw outstanding merit in the idea of revolution. In 1956 Castro, Guevara, and about 80 other revolutionaries sailed from Mexico aboard the yacht Granma. They landed in Cuba in a shipwreck. Batista's soldiers killed most of the guerrillas, and the remainder fled to the Sierra Maestro mountains of eastern Cuba and began fighting an improvised guerrilla war.
The guerrillas' program was moderate, it promised elections, constitutional government, and land reform according to the constitution. Castro claimed that he was not a Communist. In mid 1958 the guerrillas under Castro's commanded just 400. Batista's army was not very effective, however, and 12, 000 government troops failed to defeat Castro's small band of guerrillas.
The revolutionary movement also had important support among the organized anti-Batista forces in the cities, where revolutionaries engaged in many acts of sabotage and acquired weapons and supplies for the guerrillas in the University students we also very important and were organized in the Revolutionary Directorate, an independent group led by Jos Antonio Ecchevarra. The Directorate's attempt to assassinate Batista in March 1957 nearly succeeded, but many of its members, including Echeverra, were killed in the attempt. In 1958 guerrillas from the Directorate and from another revolutionary group, the Second Front at Escambray (led by Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo), were operating in the Escambray mountains of central Cuba. Another source of opposition to Batista was professional military officers, who conspired to overthrow Batista on several occasions.
In September 1957 a major military uprising temporarily seized the naval base at Cienfuegos. The military plotters were In March 1958 Castro and his movement called a nationwide general strike. The strike failed in most of the country because Cuba's major labor organization, the Cuban Confederation of Labor, threw its support behind Batista. In the same month, the US government cut off weapons sales to Batista's government.
US envoys and political moderates in Cuba tried to convince Batista to leave power peacefully, but Batista refused. Meanwhile, revolutionaries from Castro's movement and from other organizations escalated violent resistance. During the second half of 1958, guerrillas seized ground in the countryside from the army. In the cities, several of Batista's leading henchmen were assassinated and numerous government buildings were bombed.
Batista's forces responded by killing the leading urban revolutionaries. As a result, Castro emerged as the only significant revolutionary leader. In late 1958 Castro dispatched an invasion force led by Guevara and fellow revolutionary Camilo Cienfuegos to central Cuba to coordinate activities with guerrillas independent of Castro's organization. In December of 1958 the only pitched battle of the war took place for control of the city of Santa Clara in central Cuba.
Following the battle, Batista's army retreated and disintegrated, and Batista's regime collapsed. In the early morning hours of January 1, 1959, Batista fled the country, and then began Castro's reign. Batista's regime served as a catalyst of revolution for the leaders such as Castro, Guevara, Cienfuegos and all of their followers. The years of oppression, corruption, and exploitation drove the Cuban people to create a change for themselves, and revolution was their facilitator. The same issues which have plagued, and still plague Latin America are the issues which incited the Cuban Revolution. The exploitation of workers and political corruption under Batista made life unbearable for the people.
The economic gap between the rich and the poor made it easy for revolutionary leader such as Castro to convince the poorer classes that revolution was the answer to their problems. Each action has a equal and positive reaction. For all of Batista's offenses, the people reacted with the defense, Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Set The Stage Cuban Revolution
