From the archive, 11 March 1952: Batista's revolution

[Judi Lynn]

From the archive, 11 March 1952: Batista's revolution

General Fulgencio Batista stages a coup in Cuba, taking over Havana and the Presidential Palace

guardian.co.uk, Monday 11 March 2013 03.30 EDT


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Portrait of Cuban soldier and dictator Fulgencio Batista, standing in sunglasses
and a wide-brimmed hat, circa 1935. Photograph: Bettmann/CORBIS
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General Fulgencio Batista, who led his first revolution in 1933 while still a sergeant, staged his fifth revolution to-day, taking over Havana and the Presidential Palace to "save the Republic from chaos." About two hundred people lined the sides of the Palace Square watching as calmly as if they were in a cinema.

Before the palace surrendered, squads of troops and police armed with machine guns took up positions near the palace. A few minutes later armoured cars followed by lorry-loads of infantry converged on the palace itself. Not a shot was fired, and the only noise that could be heard was troops jumping down from the lorries. Rifles were cocked, and then white sheets appeared in the windows and on the roof.

However, their quarry, President Prio, had left the palace half an hour before, leaving in his wake the message to the country: "Oppose this coup which the ambition of one man has provoked." General Batista issued orders for the setting up of roadblocks around Havana and the taking over of the international airport to prevent members of the Government from leaving the country. It is not certain where President Prio is.

Troops are reported to have taken over control of the trade union headquarters and to have surrounded the National University. The Air Transport Union has ordered its members to strike in protest against the coup. Havana is completely calm, and the only deaths reported so far are those of two presidential guards. Seven others are said to have been injured.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2013/mar/11/cuba-batista-fifth-revolution-1952

[dipsydoodle]

1. And then 16 months later

26th of July Movement

The 26th of July Movement's name originated from the failed attack on the Moncada Barracks, an army facility in the city of Santiago de Cuba, on 26 July 1953. [1] The movement was reorganized in Mexico in 1955 by a group of 82 exiled revolutionaries (including Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro, Camilo Cienfuegos, Huber Matos, Juan Almeida Bosque and the Argentinian Ernesto "Che" Guevara). Their task was to form a disciplined guerrilla force to overthrow Batista.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/26th_of_July_Movement

“from little acorns big oak trees grow”

[Demeter]

2. Poor Cuba

I had no idea theirs was such a violent history...and how much of that was caused by forces outside the country?