Fulgencio Batista like Diaz gained power in a violent way. Batista came to power following a military coup in 1952. Batista had become widely unpopular as a result of the rampant corruption and harsh repression of his dissent. Batista faced growing opposition to his rule from the Cuban society. Fidel Castro, a political activist and former lawyer, became involved with the situation in Cuba. Castro led an organization of a number of anti-Batista forces. Castro waged a successful guerrilla campaign from the mountains of eastern Cuba to eventually provoked Batista to flee Cuba by January of 1959. Batista would spend the rest of his life in exile.
Leaders against Diaz and Batista were Francisco Madero (Mexico) and Fidel Castro (Cuba). Madero was jailed in early 1910 for allegedly fomenting a revolt against Diaz. Madero was released in November of 1910 following Diaz’s re-election. The return of the fleeing Madero in Mexico sent him back to Texas after finding only twenty-five supporters. By the end of 1910 after more support, guerrilla armies seized control of most of the state of Chihuahua and the state of Morelos. In March of 1911, the maderistas successfully undermined Diaz towards seeking a compromise with Madero. By May 1911, the Zapatistas won two decisive victories. Madero soon entered Mexico City with premature greetings from the crowd.
Madero’s presidency dealt with inadequacy and revolts. Madero’s thought was far from advance on the issues of Mexico’s social, economical and political problems. Madero’s issue with the land caused a rift between him and Emiliano Zapata, who later produced the Plan of Ayala. By 1913, Madero claimed he would rather die than allow foreign intervention into Mexico following pressure from U.S. Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson and General Huerto.
Ambassador Wilson introduced General Huerto as the “savior” of Mexico. Wilson later refused to be help and save Madero, whom along with Pino Suarez, were killed on February 22, 1913. Huerta would later deal with opposition from Zapata, Villa, Carranza, and Obregon. The United States intervened into Mexico beginning in 1914. The U.S. troops evacuated the country by November after the fall of Huerta’s regime.
Castro, unlike Madero, still remains in control of Cuba. Castro ran for a seat in the Cuban House of Representatives in the 1952 election. Before that election could occur, Batista staged a bloodless coup d’etat and established a dictatorship that would end Castro’s chance to attain office legally. As dissatisfaction with Batista’s coup spread, Castro formed one of several underground organizations that plotted to overthrow Batista. Batista placed the armed forces on alert and dispatched secret police and informants to identify, torture, and kill organized dissidents in order to stop a wave a popular rebellion.
On July 26, 1953, Castro and his supporters attacked Cuba’s second largest military base, the Moncada Barracks, in Santiago de Cuba. Castro was later found guilty of conspiring to overthrow the Batista government and was sentenced to 15 years in prison but only served less than two years. In 1956, Castro and other revolutionaries sailed from Mexico aboard the yacht Granma. The revolutionaries landed in Cuba through a shipwreck. Batista’s soldiers killed most of these guerrillas, causing the remainder to flee to the Sierra Maestra Mountains of eastern Cuba. At this site, the soldiers began fighting an improvised guerrilla war. The guerrillas soon adopted the name 26th of July Movement after the date of Castro’s attack on the Moncada barracks.
Castro around this time affirmed that he was not a Communist. By 1958, Castro had only 400 guerrillas. Batista’s army proved incompetent as 12,000 government troops failed to defeat Castro’s small band of guerrillas. The 26th of July Movement also had important support among the organized anti-Batista forces in the cities, where the Revolutionary Directorate’s attempt to assassinate Batista in March 1957 nearly succeeded. Many of its members, including José Antonio Echeverría, were killed during the attempt.
In March 1958, Castro and his movement called a nationwide general strike. This strike failed in most of the country because of Cuba’s major labor organization. The Cuban Confederation of Labor threw its support behind Batista despite the U.S. government’s cutting off of weapon sales to Batista. U.S. envoys and Cuban political moderates tried to convince Batista to leave power peacefully, but Batista would refuse. Several of Batista’s leading henchmen were assassinated while government buildings were bombed. Batista’s forces responded to this by killing the leading urban revolutionaries. Fidel Castro would emerge as the only significant revolutionary leader. December of 1958 marked the only pitched battle of the war for control of the city of Santa Clara in central Cuba. Batista’s army retreated and disintegrated after the battle. January 1, 1959, after the collapsing of his regime, Batista fled the country.
Both revolutions experienced different outcomes. By 1917, Carranza became the first legally elected president in Mexico since Madero. Carranza’s rule in Mexico lasted for three years despite his quest for a longer term. Carranza was later attacked and slain after fleeing with five million gold and silver pesos from the national treasury. Following his the death of Carranza, Mexico finally experienced peace and soon began its reconstruction period.
Following the overthrow of Batista during the Cuban Revolution, Castro began changes that dramatically altered Cuba’s political, economic, and social structure. He would confront the United States and announce that of Cuba’s socialist path. Castro would soon severe Cuba’s close ties with the United States and aligned Cuba with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. USSR, then the leading power among the world’s communist nations, would help strain relations between the United States and Cuba that continued into the 1990s.
The revolution also left a legacy of opposition among exiles who would leave Cuba instead of living under Castro’s government. More than a million Cubans left their country for exile in the three years following the revolution. Many of the exiles were of the professional middle-class. These people saw their livelihoods threatened by Castro’s economic policies and objected to the political system that he forced. Thousands of other Cubans to fled the island due to restrictions on political freedoms and economic during Castro’s reign. Many of the exiles settled in the United States, most in Miami, Florida still committed to overthrowing Castro and his establishment of a democratically elected government.
