Neocolonial Republic
On the 1st of January 1899, the United States formally occupies Cuba, true to its secular ambition. The question now was defining the future of the Island. Whatever the future would be, the Government in Washington considered it would be convenient to dissolve all institutions that represented the Cuban liberation movement. To this end, the US would work to increase the weaknesses and contradictions already existing, namely, the differences between General in Chief of the Liberation Army, Máximo Gómez, and the Representatives of the Constitutional Assembly, the highest political body of the Revolution, in reference to the methods used to license the Liberation Army. Consequently, both institutions disappeared and this, together with the dissolution of the Cuban Revolutionary Party by its delegate Tomás Estrada Palma dispersed independence forces and left them without a leadership.
The military occupation, legitimated by the Treaty of Paris (signed on December 10,1898) became the experimental framework in the implementation of the policy towards Cuba. This period in the United States was, at the same time a period of strong domestic and foreign tensions, characterized by constant pressure and negotiations regarding governmental decision-making.
Among the factors that had a bearing on the internal restlessness was precisely the way in which the Cuban situation was manipulated by the sectors that were, in one way or another, interested in a particular end for such situation. In spite of the efforts of the groups in favor of peace in the northern nation, the annexionist trend, in any of its diverse modalities, was opening itself a wider and wider space in the various spheres of power. The rather pejorative concept that the Cuban people suffered from "infantilism" was present in all the annexionist groups. The infant, meaning the Cuban people, was starting to walk and had to have the strong arm of the father for support and protection from any fall.
The campaign in favor of annexionism reached its climax at the end of the government of John Brooke, the first military governor in the Island. In the United States, the idea of transferring in one single stroke the sovereignty of the Island to a government that will turn Cuba into a part of the American territory was gaining force among expansionist circles and their spokesmen.
However, internal opposition and, above all, the Cuban people’s resistance to the idea, made the new Governor, Leonard Wood think of the need to "Americanize" the Island by means of a long occupation. His idea had two main directions. First, a centralized comprehensive project of reforms "from above", which essentially aimed at the transformation of the Cuban social context (schools, health care, judicial reforms, city councils). Second a line of action aimed at encouraging immigration, Anglo-Saxon of course, and a gradual colonization which would establish "from bellow" the spirit and customs of the American people.
None of the measures had as an objective the transformation of the old colonial structures. On the contrary, they aimed at creating the necessary conditions to encourage a "land market" and to facilitate transfer of properties to the hands of US politicians, financial tycoons, economists and planters. Meanwhile, the scarcity of investment and loan capitals placed Cuban planters in a very difficult position, a great disadvantage to restart business, mainly all the activities related to the sugar industry.
However, the need for a change in policy increased every day. The issue of how the way for annexation could be paved, not by extending occupation, but by establishing a Republic in a short term and under certain specific conditions had been discussed since very early in 1899. The alleged incapacity of the Cubans to rule themselves would eventually force them to plead for annexation with their powerful neighbor.
The first stone of the building would be passing the decisions to convene the Cuban Constitutional Assembly according to what the Military Order No. 301, dated on July 25, 1900 established. The Convention had to, according to the military orders, should draft and adopt a Constitution for the Cuban people and, as part of such document provide and regulate with the Government of the United States all matters related to the relationship between both countries and governments. While the Cuban constitutional commission in charge of regulating on the future relationship between Cuba and the United States was working, the US Congress passes the Platt Amendment, according to which the US government had the right to interfere in the internal affairs of the Island whenever it was considered convenient. In spite of the opposition of the delegates to the Constitutional Assembly, the American pressure placed the Cubans in a very difficult disjunctive: having a Republic with an amendment to the Constitution which limited its independence or continue under a military occupation. The Cubans had no other choice, and the Constitution was thus passed with the Platt Amendment on June 12, 1901.
Nevertheless, the major problems affecting the Island had not been solved. On the contrary, the contradictions sharpened and in turn promoted a climate of social unrest among the different sectors and groups of society. Low wages, long working shifts and discrimination against local workers, who were displaced from the best paid jobs, were among the most important demands of the newly born working movement. The unmet demands triggered strikes and other protests, for example the so called "Apprentices’ Strike" soon after the proclamation of the neocolonial Republic on May 20, 1902.
US authorities had "approved" the first President, Tomás Estrada Palma, sought as a possible restraint to a more radical potential military leadership in the country and, at the same time, to prevent them from increasing their prestige within the revolutionary circles. This entire situation turned José Martí’s substitute as delegate of the Cuban Revolutionary Party into one of the favorite candidates among the popular sectors of the Cuban population, notwithstanding political affiliation. After the constitution of the Pro-Masó coalition, the Estrada Palma-Masó political candidacy ¾ that Máximo Gómez had promoted ¾ failed. This and the further aloofment of the last President of the Republic in Arms dramatically increased the lack of union that already existed and strengthened the political position of the most conservative sectors, which had grouped themselves in the coalition.
The first Cuban government will have among its tasks one unpleasant and unrewarding: the formalization of a relationship that would tie the dependence towards the United States. To this effect, a set of treatises were voted, passed and signed. These included the Treaty for Commercial Reciprocity, which ensured the control of the Cuban market by the United States and consolidated the structure of an economy based on one product. And the Permanent Treaty, which granted a lawful, juridical form to the Platt Amendment and was designed to define the establishment and final location of the US naval stations.
Estrada Palma’s peculiar austerity granted him in history the halo of a well-founded honesty, much more well founded because of the blatant dishonesty of his successors. However, the elder president could not resist his political ambitions and managed a rigged reelection that inaugurated an invariable republican tradition. The act provoked an uprising of the opposing Liberal Party, which in turn unleashed the events leading to another US intervention. For almost three years (1906-1909), the Island was once more under a US administration. Again, the period will contribute to define the traits of the republican system by means of a curious combination of juridical norms and government corruption.
Under the Platt Amendment, two major political parties, the Liberal and the Conservative, founded on the dominance of the local bosses and on the needs of clienteles, disputed power one to the other by means of electoral cheating and riots. The winner’s loot would be the public treasure, a source of wealth for a "political class," which, given the growing control of the Cuban economy by US capitals, could not fin a better area in which to use, in a more profitable way, its talents. Government management would thus become the motive for frequent scandals.
Scandals would be frequent during the government of José Miguel Gómez (1909-1913). His government would be also marked by the bloody repression of the uprising of the Independientes de Color (Colored Independents), a movement in which many blacks and mulattos tried to fight against racial discrimination, though without a clear awareness of how to do it. The severe conservatism of his successor, Mario García Menocal (1913-1920) was not enough to hide corruption, which was in this case favored by the economic boom after the First World War. Menocal managed to win a reelection with the already usual and normal procedures, which, in turn, caused another liberal uprising and the resulting interventionist haste from the United States.
The Government in Washington, concerned by the already frequent political unrest in its new colony, had devised a new tutelage policy. The so-called preventive diplomacy, which reached its highest point with the designation of General Enoch Crowder as a virtual proconsul to control and meddle into the government of Alfredo Zayas (1921-1925).
This administration would witness transcendental socio-political movements. Generalized rejection against US interference and government corruption gave way to several movements for nationalistic and democratic claims. The students’ movement showed particular radicalism and it will soon go beyond its initial purpose of a university reform under the leadership of Julio Antonio Mella and would assume open revolutionary scope. The working movement, which origins went as far back as the last decades of the 19th century, had followed also an upward course characterized by strikes ¾ the Apprentices’ (1902), and the currency strike (1907) ¾ among the most important. The inflation resulting from World War I would thus favor the subsequent wave of strikes. At the same time, the development of the proletariat reached ¾ both organizational and ideological ¾ due to the influence of the October Revolution in Russia, brought about the constitution of a national workers’ union in 1925. Coincidentally and as an expression of de conjunction of the most radical political trends of the working movement personified by Mella and Carlos Baliño, will be founded the first Communist Party in Havana.
The political and social unrest had profound roots. The Cuban economy had grown quickly during the first two decades of the century, encouraged by the Treaty for commercial reciprocity with the United States and the favorable situation of after the world war. However, such economic growth was unilateral, based almost exclusively on the production of sugar and on the relations with the US market. US capitals increasingly being invested in the Island had been practically the sole beneficiaries of the economic growth, for they controlled 70% of the sugar production apart from controlling also the infrastructure and other collateral businesses. The economic wellbeing originated by this process ¾ testimony of which can be found in the magnificent houses in Vedado ¾ would be extremely fragile and unequally distributed. This became evident by 1920, when the sugar prices dropped dramatically creating a bank crack and producing the bankruptcy of almost practically al the Cuban and Spanish banking institutions in the country. Shortly after, at a time sugar production in Cuba went up to 5 million tons, saturation of the markets became evident, a clear sign of the fact that the Cuban economy could not continue to grow based exclusively on sugar. The other options were either stagnation or diversification of production, though this last choice was hindered by the monopoly existing in land owning and by commercial dependency.
The ascent of Gerardo Machado to the presidency of the Republic in 1925 would mean the alternative of oligarchy to face the latent crisis. In the implementation of its program, the new regime would try to reconcile the economic interests of the different sectors of the bourgeoisie and US capitals. The government offered guaranties of stability to the middle classes and new jobs to the most popular sectors of the population combined with a selective but at the same time harsh repression against political adversaries and opposition movements. Under a supposedly efficient administration, the government tried to put an end to the conflicts between traditional parties with the assurance that they would enjoy access to the national budget or treasure by means of the formula of "cooperativism." Once the consensus was obtained, Machado decided to reform the Constitution and perpetuate himself in power.
Despite partial successes during the first years of the administration, Machado’s dictatorship could not silence political dissidence and much less crush the people’s movement. Heated by the regime’s excesses and the rapid deterioration of the economic situation as a result of the 1929 world crisis, these forces started to show a growing belligerence. Being the students and the proletariat the fundamental pillars for the opposition against Machado an endless succession of strikes, uprisings, attempts against members of the government and sabotages began to all of which the dictatorship responded by increasing the repression against the people to intolerable levels. By 1933, the regime was at the brink of giving way to a revolution.
Concerned by the situation existing in Cuba, the new U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, appointed B. Summer Wells as ambassador in Havana, with the specific mission of finding a way out to the crisis within traditional mechanisms of neocolonial domination. However, the events overcame mediation of Wells: on August 12, 1933 Machado fled from the country overthrown by an extended general strike.
The provisional government, installed by the rightwing opposition under the auspices of the US ambassador would barely last a month. An uprising amidst the rank and file of the army, together with the Directorio Estudiantil Universitario (University Student’s Directorate) and other insurgent groups led in power a revolutionary government presided over by Ramón Grau San Martín. By the initiative of Antonio Guiteras ¾ Secretary of Government, War and Navy ¾ the government passe several measures for the benefit of the people. Nevertheless, harassed by the United States and the opposition, and at the same time victim of its own internal contradictions, the revolutionary government could only stay in power for a few months. An extremely important factor influencing the fall of the government would be the former sergeant who had become Colonel-Chief of the Army, Fulgencio Batista self- appointed arbiter in the political process.
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 working 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" leaded 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" 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 in 1952.
