Fulgencio Batista: The Making of a Dictator

Chapter 12: Cuban Strongman

The impeachment of President Gómez cleared away any remaining artifice. Fulgencio Batista was in charge of Cuba. Presidents served at his pleasure. In the hours and days after Federico Laredo Brú was sworn in as Cuba’s latest chief executive, it was unclear whether his tenure would be short or long.1 There were persistent rumors that Batista would install his close personal friend, Foreign Minister Rafael Montalvo, in the presidency. But the military chief took a liking to the sixty-one-year-old Brú, and in a statement to the nation two days after the impeachment spectacle, Batista declared that the new president was a man with whom he could work. “I have faith, and my hope is well founded. Colonel Laredo Brú has my full support, soul and body, muscle and energies, which I put with frankness at his entire disposition. I am fortunate to be able to say that seldom have my presentiments deceived me.”2 He was certainly not deceived by Laredo Brú. What followed was a fouryear political alliance that proved to be one of the most important of Batista ’s career and paved the way for his own presidential run in . At first, Brú was little more than window dressing when it came to the business of the island. The president attended all the important state functions, of course, but always at his side was the youthful Batista. When there were important policy initiatives to unveil, it was Batista who did the unveiling. When the Roosevelt administration issued an invitation to visit Washington, it was sent to Batista not Brú. But over time their political relationship would evolve into one of trust, and when international and national political currents pushed Batista toward democratic elections, it was Brú whom the military chief entrusted to negotiate the path to a new constitution and presidential           8 cuban strongman 12Chap12.qxd 2/26/2006 7:37 AM Page 230 elections with his political opponents. A reserved and quiet man, Laredo Brú was content to serve as a junior partner to Batista and enact programs devised by the colonel and his advisers. In unassuming fashion, he gradually made himself indispensable to the army leader—so much so that Brú, the puppet of  and , became something of a power broker in  and . The tumultuous political climate of the late s served as the backdrop for this unusual political evolution. Batista emerged from the impeachment struggle with Gómez the undisputed strongman of Cuba, and for the next eighteen months he proceeded to impose his social and political agenda on the citizens of the island. In , Batista announced, with great fanfare, an ambitious blueprint for social reform, known as the Triennial Plan, in which he set forth the legislative agenda for Congress and the provincial governments for the next three years. However well-intentioned, the plan was at its core undemocratic, relying on the corrupt political institutions of the provisional government, distorted by military influence, for its review and implementation. By , after five years of quasi-military rule, the outcry for political reform in Cuba became deafening. The political process excluded vast segments of the population. The establishment of a new constitution was the stated goal of all the provisional governments since , but after years of excuses, the jails were still filled with political prisoners, opposition parties were outlawed , and there was no electoral code in place to elect a constitutional assembly. An astute politician, Batista knew that these aspirations could be suppressed for just so long. On the international scene, Hitler and Mussolini were on the verge of plunging Europe into another world war. The Spanish Civil War raged, and before the decade was over, General Francisco Franco would crush the Spanish Republic with the help of Nazi Germany. Many in the U.S. media found it difficult to discern an ideological difference between Batista and these other dictators, despite his frequent declarations that he was neither fascist nor socialist. Clearly, there was a difference in magnitude. Cuba was certainly no threat to world peace, and the oppression on the island was tame in comparison to what was unfolding in the Third Reich. Still, for those following world events, the image of Batista in full dress uniform, with high black boots, standing above frequent military parades in the Caribbean sun was not reassuring. Beyond image, the removal of President Gómez, although technically legal, clearly amounted to little more than a coup d’état...