Fulgencio Batista

Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was born in the small town of Banes in Oriente Province, Cuba, on January 16, 1901. His parents were workers on a sugar plantation and Batista, not wanting to spend the rest of his life cutting sugar cane, joined the army when he turned 20.

He rose steadily, if unspectacularly, through the ranks and in 1932 was promoted to sergeant.

In 1933 he had become powerful enough to lead a successful coup--known as the "Revolt of the Sergeants"--against the progressive government of Gerardo Machado. After the coup Batista appointed himself head of the armed forces and quickly set out to consolidate his power. A year later he forced out the nominal president and appointed himself de facto ruler, although he used a succession of front men to hold the office of actual president. Batista quickly gained the support of the US government, which saw him as friendly to its political and economic interests. He also formed a friendship with American gangster Meyer Lansky--known as the "treasurer" of the American Mafia--that would last for 30 years. Through his friendship with Lansky Batista was introduced to major Mafia figures, resulting in his forming a business partnership with some of the most notorious figures in American organized crime. They built hotels and gambling casinos and controlled prostitution and the drug trade between Cuba and the US (with Batista, of course, getting a piece of the action).

A change in the Cuban constitution in 1940 forced Batista to run for election as president, an election he won handily.

However, the corruption and political repression of his regime and a string of high tax increases resulted in his losing re-election in 1944, after which he moved to Florida.

He ran for and won a seat in the Cuban parliament in 1948 and ran again for president, in 1952. However, when it became clear that he wouldn't win the election, he led a revolt against the government and once more took over, suspending the constitution and granting himself complete power. He formed an even closer relationship with American organized-crime figures, which allowed them to spread their influence into Central and South America, and he opened up the country to investment by large American corporations, which were attracted by Batista's policy of keeping wages artificially low and silencing, jailing or killing labor-union leaders.

Eventually, however, his regime's corruption and heavy-handed repression eventually resulted in violent opposition, and a rebel movement led by Fidel Castro rose up in revolt in 1953. They were defeated by Batista's forces, with many of their number killed and others--including Castro--imprisoned.

In 1956, after his release from jail and flight to Mexico, Castro returned with a small army to resume the fight. A series of strikes, riots and university protests resulted in Batista's government growing even more repressive, and many opposition figures were beaten and/or murdered. Armed opposition to his regime grew, and the various resistance groups came together under Castro's leadership.

A combination of crushing defeats inflicted by the rebels on Batista's army and the US government's finally withdrawing support for his regime resulted in Batista fleeing the country on January 1, 1959, and Castro took over.