Sergeants' Revolt | |||||||
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![]() Dr. Ramón Grau, Sergio Carbó and Sgt. Fulgencio Batista, leaders in the government formed by the coup | |||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Sergeants Pablo Rodríguez, Fulgencio Batista, Eleuterio Pedraza; Lieutenants Manuel Benítez, Francisco Tabernilla [1] |
The Sergeants' Revolt (Spanish : Revuelta de los sargentos), also called the Cuban Revolution of 1933, was a coup d'etat that occurred in Cuba in September 1933. It began as a revolt of sergeants and enlisted men in the military, who soon allied with student activists in the Directorio Estudiantil Universitario.
The coup deposed Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada as President, installing a new government led by a five-man coalition, known as the Pentarchy of 1933. After only five days, the Pentarchy gave way to the presidency of Ramón Grau, whose term is known as the One Hundred Days Government. The leader of the revolt, Sergeant Fulgencio Batista, became the head of the armed forces and began a long period of influence on Cuban politics.
The authoritarian policies of Gerardo Machado and the Great Depression beginning in 1929 plunged Cuba into an economic and social crisis, amidst which opposition groups proliferated. Pressure and demonstrations by the Directorio Estudiantil Universitario (Student Directory) and workers, as well by US Ambassador Sumner Welles, forced Machado to resign. [2]
Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada led a provisional government that included members of the opposition group ABC in its cabinet. Other groups from the Machado opposition were unsatisfied with the provisional government, which to them represented an unacceptable compromise with US interventionism. On August 24, the Student Directory issued a Manifesto-Program that denounced the ABC and made various demands, including the formation of a new government. [3]
After the fall of Machado, the military perceived its situation as precarious. Opposition forces controlled Havana, and took their revenge on supporters of the Machado regime, including police and some soldiers. The military was reluctant to intervene in this situation lest the public perceive it as an agent of the old regime. Arrest of 50 soldiers and 21 officers did not satisfy demands for reform. [4]
Critics of the Céspedes government, including within the military, charged that it was not taking sufficient action against Machado's backers within the military, and that it had failed to reinstate officers who had opposed Machado. [5] This situation exacerbated longstanding tension (related to age, class, and race) between the ranks of officers. [6]
A group of sergeants began meeting at the Columbia barracks, forming the Columbia Military Union. Their ambition to improve conditions in the army quickly expanded to a plan for regime change. [1] This group, later called the Junta of the Eight (despite uncertainty about numbers) included Batista and other members of his ABC cell, as well as Pablo Rodríguez, whom some perceived to be the group's leader. [7]
A funeral for Sergeant Miguel Ángel Hernández y Rodríguez, captured and killed by the Machado government in May 1933, took place on 19 August 1933. This gave Batista the opportunity to do a passionate oration which brought him attention as a future leader. At the funeral he met with journalist Sergio Carbó, who acted as an important contact for him in the civilian world. [8]
In August the group of sergeants created a manifesto calling for dignity, respect, and benefits for soldiers, and declaring the duty of soldiers to rebel. Batista asked the ABC, to which he belonged, to publicize the manifesto. The ABC, which had established itself as part of the status quo government, refused, and Batista and others left the group. [9]
Other factions within the military were also plotting against the Céspedes government, and some spoke openly against it. [10]
As the movement grew, the plotters met in larger venues, including the masonic Gran Logia de Cuba and a military hospital. [11] These preparations became somewhat obvious, but meetings continued to occur on the pretext of planning projects to improve quality of life for enlisted men. [12] The action mostly took place in Havana, with some outreach to Matanzas Province soon before the coup. [13]
Student activist Justo Carrillo [14]
On September 3 and 4 some of the lower-ranking officers at Columbia barracks directly raised issues of back pay and promotions with the senior officers. [15] On September 4, Captain Mario Torres Menier appeared at a meeting of the enlisted men at Camp Columbia. Batista allowed him to enter. The soldiers made their complaints with mounting enthusiasm; Torres Menier withdrew to consult with other superior officers. Another meeting was scheduled for 8PM. In the interim, leaders of the coup rallied their supporters. Batista contacted Carbó and secured the support of Juan Blas Hernández, a rebel who opposed Machado for two years. [16]
The meeting that evening took place in a theater. The senior officers had been excluded. Batista spoke from onstage, declaring:
From this moment forward, do not obey anyone's orders but mine. First sergeants must immediately take control of their respective military units. If there is no first sergeant, or if he refuses to take command, the senior sergeant must do so. If there is no sergeant, a corporal. If there is no willing corporal, then a soldier, and if not, then a recruit. The units must have someone in command and he must be an enlisted man. [17]
Thus the sergeants took uncontested control of Columbia barracks and soon established communications with sympathetic officers in other cities. Members of the Student Directory—beginning with José Leyva, Ramiro Valdés Daussá, Juan António Rubio Padilla, Carlos Prío Socarrás, Rubén de León, and Justo Carrillo—came to the barracks and joined forces with the army. While President Céspedes was away from Havana to survey hurricane damage, [18] the rebels forced the remaining government officers in Havana to leave their posts. They then issued a proclamation announcing that they were in control of the country, and set up a Pentarchy modeled on the then-current government of Uruguay. [19]
After President Céspedes returned on September 5, members of the junta arrived at his office and informed him that they were to receive the government from him. Swayed by their claim to command the allegiance of the military rank and file, Céspedes vacated the Presidential Palace. [19] [20]
The junta of officers and students proclaimed that it had taken power in order to fulfill the aims of the revolution; it briefly described a program which included economic restructuring, punishment of wrongdoers, recognition of public debts, creation of courts, political reorganization, and any other actions necessary to construct a new Cuba based on justice and democracy. [21]
Both Grau and Batista visited Welles on September 5 to seek support from the US and ascertain its position. [22]
Only five days after the coup, Batista and the Student Directory promoted Ramón Grau, one of the members of the Pentarchy, to the role of President, replacing the Pentarchy. [23]
The coup displaced 900 officers from command. Of these, 200 rejoined the armed forces under Batista; 300 went into retirement, exile, or prison; and 400 gathered at the Hotel Nacional, to await a return to power. [24] The sergeants consolidated their power over the military at the Battle of the Hotel Nacional, in which the higher-ranking officers were eliminated. Batista, having pushed Rodríguez out of power, emerged as the foremost leader. [25]
The ensuing One Hundred Days Government issued a number of reformist declarations but never gained diplomatic recognition from the US; it was overthrown in January 1934 under pressure from Batista and the US.[ citation needed ]
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was a Cuban military officer and politician who served as the elected President of Cuba from 1940 to 1944, and as its U.S.-backed military dictator from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown during the Cuban Revolution. Batista initially rose to power as part of the 1933 Revolt of the Sergeants, which overthrew the provisional government of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada. He then appointed himself chief of the armed forces, with the rank of colonel, and effectively controlled the five-member "pentarchy" that functioned as the collective head of state. He maintained this control through a string of puppet presidents until 1940, when he was himself elected President of Cuba on a populist platform. He then instated the 1940 Constitution of Cuba and served until 1944. After finishing his term he lived in Florida, returning to Cuba to run for president in 1952. Facing certain electoral defeat, he led a military coup against President Carlos Prío Socarrás that preempted the election.
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt conducted by Fidel Castro's revolutionary 26th of July Movement and its allies against the military dictatorship of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. The revolution began in July 1953, and continued sporadically until the rebels finally ousted Batista on 31 December 1958, replacing his government with a revolutionary socialist state. 26 July 1953 is celebrated in Cuba as the Day of the Revolution . The 26th of July Movement later reformed along communist lines, becoming the Communist Party in October 1965.
Gerardo Machado y Morales was a general of the Cuban War of Independence and President of Cuba from 1925 to 1933.
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Dr. Ramón Grau San Martín was a Cuban physician and President of Cuba. He was the last president other than an interim president, Carlos Manuel Piedra, to be born during Spanish rule. He is sometimes called Raymond Grau San Martin in English.
The Cuban Revolution was the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista's regime by the 26th of July Movement and the establishment of a new Cuban government led by Fidel Castro in 1959.
Carlos Saladrigas Zayas was a Cuban conservative politician and diplomat.
General Alberto Herrera y Franchi was the provisional President of Cuba from August 12 to August 13, 1933.
Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada was a Cuban writer, politician, diplomat, and President of Cuba.
Pentarchy of 1933, formally known as the Executive Commission of the Provisional Government of Cuba, was a coalition that ruled Cuba from September 5 to September 10, 1933 after Gerardo Machado was deposed on August 12, 1933. Prior to the Pentarchy, General Alberto Herrera and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada served as President of Cuba.
Colonel Juan Blas Hernández was a prominent figure in the 1933 revolt against Gerardo Machado. He led various successful campaigns against Machado's troops en route to Havana.
Ramón M. Barquín was a Cuban military colonel and opponent of former President Fulgencio Batista. Barquín was jailed by the Batista government for leading a failed coup attempt in 1956. He later fled Cuba in 1960 following the 1959 takeover by Fidel Castro.
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The University of Havana or UH is a university located in the Vedado district of Havana, the capital of the Republic of Cuba. Founded on January 5, 1728, the university is the oldest in Cuba, but not one of the first to be founded in the Americas. Originally a religious institution, today the University of Havana has 15 faculties (colleges) at its Havana campus and distance learning centers throughout Cuba.
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The Directorio Estudiantil Universitario (DEU) was founded in 1927 by University of Havana students against the backdrop of a power grab by President Gerardo Machado consisting of constitutional reforms designed to prolong his presidential term by two years, and to promote his reelection to an additional term of six years. In the period between pushing for these reforms and their adoption by the corrupt Constitutional Assembly, a strong opposition composed chiefly of university students formed against this "Machadato".
The One Hundred Days Government is the name normally used in Cuba to refer to the Cuban government of Ramon Grau which lasted from September 4, 1933 until January 15, 1934.
The ABC was a Cuban political organization founded in 1931 in opposition to the government of Gerardo Machado. It used a hierarchy of clandestine cells, in which each member would oversee a cell on the next level. The first cell was labeled A; the next tier B; then C, and so forth.
The 1952 Cuban coup d'état took place in Cuba on March 10, 1952, when the Cuban Army, led by Fulgencio Batista, intervened in the election that was scheduled to be held on June 1, staging a coup d'état and establishing a de facto military dictatorship in the country.