Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (born Rubén Zaldívar, January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a former president of Cuba, best known for being "the guy who was president before the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro." He was born Ruben Zaldivar in Banes, Oriente Province, to parents who were canecutters on a sugar plantation. Batista's father, Belisario, fought in the Spanish-American War or Cuban War of Independence and when he was 8, his mother, Carmela, died, forcing him to leave school and work in the canefields.
However, he eventually managed to get a job as a railroad brakeman which enabled him to attend night classes at a Quaker-run school. He joined the Cuban army, and in 1933 he was a participant in the Sergeants' Revolt, overthrowing Gerardo Machedo's corrupt government and installing a series of puppet presidents until he himself was elected in 1940. During his term as elected President, he was actually quite popular and progressive, to the point that even the Cuban Communist Party supported him. Despite this, however, he was unable to secure a re-election.
After doing everything in his power to handicap his successor administration with what time he had left in office, he left Cuba to live in the US for 8 years. In 1952 he returned to Cuba to run for Cuban president again, but wound up running in dead last behind 2 other candidates. With defeat all but guaranteed, Batista, with military backing, overthrew the government and installed himself as "President"/dictator of Cuba. During his reign over Cuba as dictator, in stark contrast to his 1940 presidency, he favored the elite instead of the people of Cuba. As a result, Havana became a playground for the Mafia and American tourists, essentially becoming the Las Vegas of the Caribbean, and the rest of the island became a playground for American businesses. Corruption was rampant and the needs of actual Cubans were generally ignored. 2 out of every 3 Cubans living in the countryside had no access to basic household features such as running water, electricity, or even basic tiled floors.
All those opposed to Batista's regime were brutally tortured and killed by the police, army and Rural Guard to the point where death became a common sight in Cuba, leading to many Cubans fleeing into exile in the US. Batista even had a murderous Secret Police of his own, the Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities
or BRAC.
However, within Havana and the few other major cities, life was about as good as it was possible to get in Latin America. Even in 1959, Cuba was a wealthy country by world standards. It ranked 5th in the hemisphere in per capita income, 3rd in life expectancy, 2nd in per capita ownership of automobiles, telephones, and television sets. Cuba's literacy rate, 76%, was the 3rd highest in Latin America. Cuba also ranked 11th in the world in the number of doctors per capita. Cuba's income distribution also compared favorably with that of other Latin American societies.
In 1958, growing antipathy from the US government at the utter brutality and sadism of the Batista regime led to the US imposing a weapons embargo on Cuba. About a year later, he was overthrown in the Grand Finale of an armed insurrection known as the Cuban Revolution by Fidel Castro and his left-wing nationalist 26th of July Movement. Batista then fled Cuba on New Year's Day, 1959, eventually finding refuge in Portugal where he lived for the rest of his life. Due to his role in Cuban history, he often appears as a character in productions set before or during the Cuban Revolution, most famously The Godfather.
In media:
Film
- The movie The Lost City shows his Committee for the Suppression of Communist Activities shooting a wounded dissident.
- The Godfather: Part II features a direct appearance from him, while the TV series shows him and his family leaving Havana on boats with the rest of the city's rich.
- The 1979 movie Cuba is about a British major played by Sean Connery, who meets him and initially helps him train Cuban military troops in a counter-insurrection against Fidel Castro. As he realizes the sheer cruelty of the Batista regime, the major switches sides and backs Castro's guerrillas instead.
Literature
- The 1954 book A Sergeant Named Batista was written by his friend and speechwriter Edmund Chester.
Video Games
- He's the last boss in the original version of the video game Guerrilla War.
