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Drug Trafficking and Political Anarchy during the 1930s I n 1933 and 1934, Cuba underwent revolutions, creating a climate of political anarchy. The situation, coupled with a legal system of dubious integrity , intensified the country’s high level of illegal activity in general and its drug trafficking problem in particular.1 In opposing the government of President Gerardo Machado, the group known as ABC resorted to sabotage , terrorism, and political assassination.2 Beginning in 1930, ABC and other groups opposed to Machado created an atmosphere of terror in Havana by exploding bombs and assassinating political enemies.3 According to Frank Argote-Freyre, “The secret societies initiated an extensive campaign of urban warfare and terror . . . to destabilize the government and to show the United States that the Machado Administration could no longer protect the extensive business holdings of US companies and individuals. It was the first time that urban warfare was unleashed on a large scale in Cuba. . . . Urban warfare became a staple of Cuban politics.”4 As the political crisis deepened, the price of sugar also fell steeply, causing a rapid decline of Cuba’s agricultural sector. Conditions in the countryside deteriorated to such an extent that in September 1933, two hundred thousand agricultural workers took possession of nearly 120 sugar mills, retaining control for several weeks.5 The instability overtaking Cuba posed a problem for the United States. President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded to the challenge by naming Sumner Welles, then serving as an assistant secretary of state, as ambassador to Cuba. Roosevelt hoped that Welles, a veteran of diplomatic missions to Latin America, would mediate and defuse the conflict between Machado and his opponents. Events, however, outran the ambassador. A general strike called by disaffected elements ended with Machado’s resignation, and although Welles quickly gave his support to provisional president Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, civil and military factions opposed to Céspedes would not be placated. Their . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chapter 2 32 :: Drug Trafficking and Anarchy continued opposition led to Ramón Grau San Martín’s ascendancy to power.6 The United States did not recognize the new Cuban government, nationalistic in tone and committed to a program of economic, social, and political reform; indeed, only a handful of countries were bold enough to establish diplomatic relations with the Grau administration.7 The U.S. president’s representative in Havana, who found little to like in Grau’s predecessor, was even more critical of Grau’s government, characterizing it as “inefficient, inept, and unpopular with all the better classes in the country.”8 Scholars have offered differing interpretations of the changes taking place in Cuba at this time. In Robert Whitney’s eyes, the 1933 revolution resulted from the mobilization of the masses and “undermined the institutions and coercive structures” of the “oligarchic state.”9 In contrast, Louis A. Pérez Jr. believes that the deliberate, calculated opposition of the U.S. government helped intensify the widening political anarchy: Unable to overthrow the government from without, [Welles] sought to undermine it from within. Nothing was as central to this policy as promoting the continuation of instability and disorder. . . . Nonrecognition [of Grau’s government] also served to prolong political turmoil in Cuba. It was a deliberate effort to foster instability, designed to maintain pressure on both the government and the opposition. Nonrecognition obstructed government efforts at reconciliation with its opponents precisely because it offered the opposition incentive to resist the government. Those who otherwise might have supported the government demurred; those who opposed the government were encouraged to conspire and resist.10 In the brief time before Grau’s government fell, bombs exploded from one end of the island to the other. A bomb was lobbed through the window of the home of Colonel Carlos Mendieta, and the leader of the ABC group, Joaquín Martínez Sáenz, sought asylum in Miami after shots were fired at his automobile .11 Officers of the armed forces barricaded themselves inside Havana’s Hotel Nacional, from where they were brought out “by nothing less than cannon shot” by soldiers loyal to a group of noncommissioned officers headed by Sergeant Fulgencio Batista, according to the account given by his brother-inlaw years later.12 Lack of support from the armed forces, then under Batista’s direction, complemented by pressure from the United States, forced Grau to resign the presidency on 15 January 1934. He was succeeded by his secretary of agriculture , Carlos Hevia, who stepped down in the face of opposition...

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