Cuba 1952-1959

La Vida de un Campesino Cubano Presentation

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 14:58:00 +0000

Manuel Márquez-Sterling joins Gustavo Tápanes (author of El Triunfador) in inviting readers to the (Spanish language) presentation of Tápanes’ new books La Vida de un Campesino Cubano, and Cuentos y Chistes de Todos Colores on Sunday, 4 March 2012, 1:00pm, at the Municipios de Cuba en el Exilio, 4610 NW 7th St, Miami FL

La Vida de un Campesino Cubano provides a rich description of country life in pre-Castro Cuba.

Diario Las Americas
Publicado el 02-28-2012

La Vida de un Campesino Cubano

Por Manuel Márquez-Sterling

Con ese título sale a la luz una interesante y valiosa aportación a la historiografía histórica y socio-económica de Cuba con la firma de Gustavo Tápanes. La obra se habrá de lanzar al público el próximo día 4 de marzo, a la una de la tarde en el local de los Municipios de Cuba en el Exilio que está situado en el 4610 del N.W. de la Calle 7.

Recordamos que hará ya tres o cuatro años el buen amigo Tápanes, que se encontraba trabajando en su obra “El Triunfador,” un recuento de sus experiencias personales como negociante y hombre de empresa en este país, se nos acercó para preguntarnos si creíamos que debía publicarla a lo cual nosotros enfáticamente lo animamos a que así lo hiciera. “Gustavo” le dijimos, “hay varias razones por las cuales lo debes hacer. Primero es un testamento de orgullo para tu familia que no se debe perder. Y, segundo dejas para la posteridad un documento para aquellos historiadores del futuro que se interesen seguir las huellas de los cubanos por los caminos del destierro. De lo que hicieron y de lo que levantaron con el tesón y la inteligencia.” Hoy Tápanes con su nueva obra vuelve a su escritorio para dejarnos otro aspecto de la Cuba que fuera sacrificada en 1959.

Todos conocemos las grandes estadísticas económicas y sociales que los grandes eruditos han sabido sacar a la superficie para probar que Cuba se hallaba ya marchando a gran velocidad en la carrilera hacia los predios que ocupan los países del llamado “Primer Mundo.”

Sin embargo, todos esos estudios, como es natural, no nos muestran el factor humano que se encuentra en sus bases. O sea quienes fueron algunos de los responsables anónimos de ese gran progreso que se produjo en la Isla desde los años 30 hasta 1959. Pues bien querido lector, esto es lo que ha hecho Tápanes: revelar ese factor humano que como las rocas calizas formadas por el pasar del tiempo, grano a grano, formaron las estadísticas del erudito. Así, sin pretensiones pero de forma muy sincera y por medio de la descripción autobiográfica de una humilde familia campesina cubana de Sagua la Grande, Tápanes, en sus doscientas páginas le da vida, figura, y mucha humanidad a las frías estadísticas.

Pero la obra de Tápanes tiene otras grandes virtudes que sabrán aprovechar no solo los economistas y los sociólogos del futuro, sino también los novelistas históricos que basen sus obras en ese periodo de nuestra historia. Son estos novelistas los que con mucha frecuencia descubren las verdades que se les escapan a los estudiosos e investigadores. Cuando el autor de este artículo escribió su novela, “Hondo corre el Cauto,” cuyo tema se desarrolla en el siglo XIX, se encontró una verdadera riqueza en las obras de aquellos extranjeros que desde 1820 a 1880 visitaron a Cuba y quienes en pequeñas obras enterradas en revistas y polvorientos anaqueles de bibliotecas describieron a la Cuba de entonces. Tápanes con su obra deja para la posteridad una verdadera y riquísima cantera que con toda seguridad muchos de sus pasajes habrán de pasar a esa literatura.

Hágase usted lector de “La Vida de un Campesino Cubano” que de la mano del autor lo llevará a conocer o redescubrir un mundo que hoy ya se va quedando atrás. De esta forma verá usted el mundo de ese campesino que de sol a sol y por medio de innumerables actividades ineludibles contribuía no solo a hacer efectivo el bienestar de su familia sino el de toda su patria. Además, que esa vida que nos describe Tápanes era parte esencial e ineludible del que quiera conocer un rasgo importantísimo del ser, del carácter, y del hacer del campesino cubano de aquellos años. Estamos convencidos que muchas de las páginas de esta obra pasarán a las antologías históricas del futuro. ¡Bravo!

1958: Cuba's Last Election Day

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:13:00 +0000

Cuba History Timeline Events
November 3, 1958

(L to R) Rodolfo Laucirica; Jose Hernandez Cata; Uva Hernandez Cata de Márquez-Sterling; Carlos Márquez-Sterling; Patricio Estevez; Osvaldo Ruiz Aguilera. Nov 3, 1958

On 3 Nov 1958 the most critical elections in Cuban history were held. The three major presidential candidates were: Carlos Márquez-Sterling for the Partido del Pueblo Libre; Ramón Grau San Martín for his faction of the Partido Revolucionario Cubano, Auténtico; and Andrés Rivero Agüero for a coalition of government parties. There was also a minor party candidate on the ballot, Alberto Salas Amaro for the Union Cubana party.

Campaign rallies of Batista's opponents were frequently sabotaged not by the Batista government, but by Castro and the revolutionaries. Under constant death threats by Castro forces the electoralist candidates were unable to visit many parts of the country. Their only practical recourse was effective use of radio, television and the printed word. As Time contemporaneously reported:
Where Batista's mailed gauntlet was absent, Castro's brass knuckles took over. [...] In the backlands where rebel bands roam more or less at will, candidates were terrorized. They could not make campaign speeches, shake hands, or get before the people in any fashion, except from the safety of heavily guarded TV stations. A few were shot down. In Oriente province, balloting was virtually impossible. In a frenzy of rage, Castro laid ambushes along the major highways. Burnt-out cars and buses studded the roads, and Santiago, capital of Oriente, was virtually cut off. To make his point clear, Castro got on the rebel radio and warned: "The orders to the people for Nov. 3 are: Do not go outside. The people must show their rejection of the elections by remaining at home."

It was generally accepted that if the elections were conducted fairly and the votes counted honestly a Márquez-Sterling victory was assured. Surveys conducted by CMQ and the American Embassy predicted Márquez-Sterling would win by a landslide.

Castro and his rebels all through September and October had threatened to bomb polling places and machine gun the voters waiting in line. Since Castro thugs had already assassinated a number of candidates during the campaign, this threat kept many away from the polls. In the provinces of Pinar del Río, Havana, Matanzas, and Camaguey polling though light went on almost undisturbed. In Las Villas and Oriente, where vast zones were under Castro’s guerillas’ sway hardly any voting took place. First electoral reports indicated that in the provinces where voting was done without any major disturbances Márquez-Sterling had obtained a clear victory over the government candidate Dr. Andres Rivero Agüero, and the other major candidate, oppositionist Ramón Grau San Martín. In Las Villas and Oriente provinces the government took the absence of voters as an opportunity for ballot-stuffing on a large scale.

On election night after the poll closing, the results were announced. Márquez-Sterling had won the provinces of Havana, Camagüey, Matanzas and Pinar del Río. Batista’s candidate was arbitrarily declared the winner in Las Villas and Oriente and the government declared that he had in these two provinces more votes than Márquez-Sterling in the other four and so was the winner. This result was a travesty since in the provinces “won” by Rivero Agüero, Castro’s terrorists kept voters away from polling places. The government simply stuffed the empty ballot boxes with forged ballots, which had been previously printed and marked.

In a memoir published in 2009 Batista’s top military commander, Army Chief of Staff General Francisco Tabernilla, confirmed that military officers orchestrated a massive fraud to ensure that Batista’s candidate was declared the winner of the 1958 elections. In these declarations Tabernilla acknowledged that Márquez-Sterling won:
If the fraud had not been perpetrated, Dr. Carlos Márquez-Sterling would have been the winner. The political picture would have radically changed. Fidel Castro would have had no alternative but to negotiate or lay down arms and pursue political avenues if he aspired to be President.

One of Castro’s first acts after his victory in January 1st, was to order all ballots and electoral documentation from the November election destroyed. In 1959 Castro confided in the Argentinean ambassador at that time that had Batista recognized Márquez-Sterling’s victory, Castro would not have come to power. The US Ambassador arrived at the same conclusion and so declared in testimony before congressional committees.

Related post: 'Anybody but Batista' or The Politics of 'The End Justifies the Means, Cuba: 1957-1958

based on Manuel Márquez-Sterling's Cuba 1952-1959 and
Cuba 1952-1959 Interactive Timeline

1958: Castro M-26-7 Airliner Hijacking

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Cuba History Timeline Events
November 1, 1958
In the Fall of 1958 Fidel Castro invented a terrorist tactic that would endure. Castro’s sinister advance in terrorism introduced the world to political hijackings of international commercial airliners. Unlike earlier commandeering of commercial aircraft as a means of travel for the desperate, or cash for criminals taking hostages and property to ransom, Castro’s rebels pioneered a new kind of hijacking aimed at obtaining publicity and political gains.

The most notorious of the 1958 hijackings took place on November 1, 1958: Cubana Flight 495 from Miami to Varadero, a Vickers Viscount 755D four-engine turboprop airplane. Minutes before landing, five passengers drew firearms announcing they were Castro rebels and were seizing the aircraft.

Holding the passengers and cabin crew at gunpoint, Castro’s hijackers pulled up the aircraft carpet and opened a hatch to retrieve 26th of July Movement uniforms and military gear stowed in a sub-floor compartment. In full view of the passengers, the rebels stripped to their underwear and donned olive green rebel uniforms complete with M-26-7 black and red armbands. Two of them broke into the cockpit and ordered Captain Ruskin Medrano Portuondo and First Officer José Combarro to take the plane to a small airstrip near the Sierra Cristal. There was a row in the cockpit; when Captain Medrano argued a Viscount could not land at a small airstrip, he was pistol-whipped. There have been conflicting accounts about who flew the airplane after that. Some claimed a hijacker with flight training, Edmundo Ponce de León, seized the controls. However divers who recovered passenger remains reported Capt. Medrano’s body was recovered from the pilot’s seat, indicating he was at the controls at end of the flight.

The rebels were smuggling a shipment of arms, grenades, and military supplies for delivery to Raúl Castro’s headquarters in the Sierra Cristal. The bold rebel plan was ill-conceived. Among the weaknesses of the plan was the landing area chosen. In addition to selecting an airstrip where it was impossible to land a Viscount, there were no nearby airports suitable for a plane of its weight and speed. Even the largest airport nearby, the paved but short runway at Preston (a United Fruit Company sugar mill) could not accommodate aircraft larger than a DC-3. Under the best of circumstances, a Viscount forced landing at Preston would have been a controlled crash resulting in significant damage and injuries. These circumstances were far from the best: low on fuel, no radio contact, and night operations in darkness (the airfield at Preston had neither radio communications nor runway lighting).

After apparently making a number of aborted landing approaches in the Mayari area, the Viscount attempted to land at Preston. On approach to Preston a hijacker exited the cockpit and taking a seat at the back told the passengers to brace for a crash because they were out of fuel. Instants later the Viscount crashed into the dark waters of Nipe Bay, at about 9:00 PM.

The Director of Preston Hospital, Dr. Octavio Ortiz Padró, rapidly set up emergency facilities for victims of the disaster. But only three survivors were rescued: Osiris Martinez (whose American wife and their three infant children perished in the crash), Omara González and her young cousin Luis Sosa (both traveling with their grandfather, who did not survive). Ten passengers (seven of them Americans) and the entire crew of four perished.

Though contemporaneous news accounts indicated there had been 17 fatalities, it was subsequently discovered that three of the hijackers never found and presumed dead were actually rescued by Castro’s rebels, two quickly ascending through the ranks. Edmundo Ponce de León was promoted to Lieutenant and two months later was assigned to a police station as second in command. The other, Manuel Fernández Falcon, rose to become Chief of the Counterintelligence Directorate at the Interior Ministry.

Remarkably, in 1994 hijacker Ponce de León sought and was granted admission to the US as a naturalized citizen. In a strange twist of fate, he lived near the two surviving passengers of the Viscount crash until his death in October of 2011.

Cubana Airlines pilot Captain Armando Piedra was thrice touched in three weeks by Castro’s pioneering air terror campaign. The week before the Viscount hijacking he had been the pilot of a Cubana Airlines DC-3 hijacked by Castro’s rebels at gunpoint. An experienced scuba diver, Piedra volunteered to assist search and recovery operations in the shark-infested waters of Nipe Bay where the Cubana Viscount hull finally came to rest. He had the burdensome task of unharnessing and removing the body of his friend and colleague Capt. Medrano from the pilot’s seat. A few days later he would be the pilot in command of yet another Cubana DC-3 hijacked by armed rebels. The hijacked DC-3 passengers and crew were taken hostage and used as bargaining chips to force compliance with Castro’s financial and political demands. One of the hostage passengers was the son of General Eulogio Cantillo, commander of Batista forces fighting rebel strongholds in Oriente. The rebels appropriated the two aircraft which they deployed in support of their insurgency operations.


Cubana Airlines Vickers Viscount, CU-T603 hijacked as Flight 495 (photo: Peter Upton Collection/Vickers Viscount Network)	Preston Hospital, Oriente Province, Cuba (photo: Ortiz-Del Campo Family collection)


Cubana Viscount Disaster Medical Team: [L-R standing] Dr. Harold Murray, Dr. Manuel Salas Vidal, Dr. Pedro Hernandez, and [seated] Dr. Octavio Ortiz Padró (Director, Preston Hospital) interviewed by Gente reporter [R dark suit]. (photo: Gente)	Temporary Morgue Preston Hospital, Oriente Province, Cuba (photo: Ortiz-Del Campo Family collection)

based on Manuel Márquez-Sterling's Cuba 1952-1959 and
Cuba 1952-1959 Interactive Timeline

1958: Death to candidates and voters

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 16:34:00 +0000

Cuba History Timeline Events
October 10, 1958
On October 10th Castro decreed Revolutionary Law Number 2 from the Sierra Maestra, ordering the boycott of the elections and serving a death sentence or ten years prison term for all who participated in the elections in any way, including voters, campaign workers or candidates. It was not an idle threat. Carlos Márquez-Sterling barely survived an attempt on his life. Others were less fortunate, including Anibal Vega (Free Peoples Party) and Nicolás Rivero Agüero (brother of the Government party Presidential candidate) who were both assassinated. Castro further announced his orders that citizens in line at polling places should be machine gunned to death.

Contemporaneous news reports of these developments included New York Times stories about Revolutionary Law #2 and Castro's war on elections which noted that

It is reported that Señor Castro has issued orders to his insurgents and to groups of youthful militia throughout the island to prevent the Nov. 3 elections at any cost.

based on Manuel Márquez-Sterling's Cuba 1952-1959 and
Cuba 1952-1959 Interactive Timeline

LA Presentation Video (11/20)

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Wed, 25 May 2011 20:28:00 +0000

The Cervantes Center of Arts and Letters has posted video of the presentations at their Mexican Revolution Centennial event last November in Los Angeles. That commemoration featured a screening of Toscano’s Memories of a Mexican. The presentations include Prof. Márquez-Sterling’s talk (en español) highlighting the efforts of his grandfather (Manuel Márquez-Sterling [1872-1934]) as the Cuban ambassador to save President Francisco Madero during the Mexican Revolution.

The presentation video is available on the Cervantes Center's Channel on YouTube in four segments.

Links to the four parts follow:

Part 1 (1:58) Introduction, Jorge Gamboa
Part 2 (3:52) Remarks of Veronica Toscano-Zárate
Part 3 (13:40) Prof. Manuel Marquez-Sterling (sp) Los últimos días del Presidente Madero
Part 4 (2:55) Awards-Closing remarks of Arturo Gonzalez/José Huizar

Photos from LA November 2010 events

Cuba 1952-1959 Presentation in Durham NH (4/10)

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 14:30:00 +0000

On 4/10/11, Manuel Márquez-Sterling will deliver a talk in Durham on his book, Cuba 1952-1959: The True Story of Castro's Rise to Power. The talk will be followed by a question and answer period and book signing. The talk is free and open to the public, students are welcome.

The presentation is sponsored by the University of NH/ARA as part of their Seacoast Memorial Lecture Series. It will be held on Sunday April 10, 2011 at the Durham Community Church, 17 Main Street, Durham NH. The program begins at 2:00 pm.

Cuba 1952-1959 LA Presentation Video (11/19)

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 15:12:00 +0000

The Cervantes Center of Arts and Letters has published video of Manuel Márquez-Sterling's 11/19/10 presentation in Los Angeles at Eso Won Bookstore about his book Cuba 1952-1959: The True Story of Castro's Rise to Power.

The presentation video is available in three parts on the Cervantes Center's Channel on YouTube:

Part 1 (9:37)
Part 2 (12:27)
Part 3 (8:57)

Photos from LA Nov 2010 events

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 20:52:00 +0000

The Cervantes Center has published photo albums for both of the November Los Angeles events where Prof. Márquez-Sterling presented:

Cuba 1952-1959 Book Presentation in LA (11/19)

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 04:45:00 +0000

On the evening of Friday 19-November, Manuel Márquez-Sterling will deliver a talk in Los Angeles on his book, Cuba 1952-1959: The True Story of Castro's Rise to Power. The talk will be followed by a question and answer period and book signing. The program begins at 7:00 pm.

The book presentation is sponsored by the Cervantes Center of Arts & Letters. It will be held on November 19, 2010 at the Eso Won Bookstore, 4331 Degnan Boulevard, Los Angeles CA, 90008; (323) 290-1048.

On November 20 Prof. Márquez-Sterling will deliver another talk in Los Angeles, at the Mexican Revolution Centennial event organized by the Cervantes Center. In that presentation he will highlight the involvement of his grandfather (Manuel Márquez-Sterling [1872-1934]) as a Cuban diplomat in the Mexican Revolution. That centennial event will feature a screening of Toscano’s “Memories of a Mexican”. For Mexican Revolution Centennial event tickets and information please visit the Million Dollar Theater site.

Cuba 1952-1959 on Google Books

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 22:32:00 +0000

We are pleased to announce the availability of a preview and full search for Cuba 1952-1959 on Google Books.

The full contents of the book can also be searched directly from here:

When searching for Spanish-language words or names that have accented characters, be sure to include the accent marks in your search input.

Cuba 1952-1959 Index Cloud (characteristic terms and phrases)

1940 Constitution 1958 elections 26th of July abstencionistas activists advocated air-conditioned revolutionaries American armed attack Auténtico Batista government Batista regime Batista’s coup Bohemia broadcasting brutal campaign candidate Carlos Márquez-Sterling Carlos Prío Carlos Prío Socarrás Castro’s revolution Castro’s victory Ché Chibás civic Communist Cuba’s Cuban crisis Cuban political Cuban Republic declared democracy dictatorship Echeverría economic electoral solution electoralists embargo exile Fidel Castro forces Fourth Floor Frank País Fulgencio Batista Granma Grau San Martín Guevara Herbert Matthews hijacked July Movement Junta killed Latin America leaders M-26-7 Machado Manifesto Márquez Márquez-Sterling’s Matthews Mexico Miami military Moncada negotiated opposition organizations Ortodoxo Party overthrow pact participation Partido peaceful plans police political compromise President of Cuba Presidential Palace Prío’s prison propaganda public opinion publicly radio Ramón Grau Raúl Castro reality rebels reports revolutionary Santiago de Cuba SAR Sierra Maestra Soviet strike student sugar terror terrorist totalitarian trial tyranny university University of Havana Urrutia violence

Cuba 1952-1959 Book Presentation in Orlando (3/22)

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:08:00 +0000

On Monday March 22, Manuel Márquez-Sterling will deliver a talk in Orlando Florida on his book, Cuba 1952-1959: The True Story of Castro's Rise to Power. The talk will be followed by a question and answer session and book signing.

The book presentation is sponsored by Herencia/Cuban Cultural Heritage and the University of Central Florida’s Office of Internationalization. It will be held on 22-March 2010 at the University of Central Florida’s Ying Academy Center, 36 W Pine St. Suite 106, Orlando, FL. 32801-2612. The program runs 6:00 to 8:00 pm.

For reservations and other event information please contact Herencia/Cuban Cultural Heritage at: (305) 443-1522.

Cuba 1952-1959 Book Presentation in Miami (1/27)

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 22:21:00 +0000

On Wednesday 27-January, Manuel Márquez-Sterling will deliver a talk in Spanish at the Miami presentation of his book, Cuba 1952-1959: The True Story of Castro's Rise to Power. His talk will be followed by a panel discussion with question and answer period, and book signing. Panelists are Marcos Antonio Ramos, Alberto Luzárraga, and Sylvia G. Iriondo.

The book presentation is sponsored by Herencia/Cuban Cultural Heritage and the University of Miami's Institute of Cuban and Cuban American Studies (ICCAS). It will be held on January 27, 2010 at the University of Miami’s Casa Bacardi, 1531 Brecia Ave., Coral Gables, FL. The program begins at 7:00 pm.

For reservations and other event information please contact ICCAS at: (305) 284-CUBA (2822)

(This event is a Spanish-language program for the English-language book.
Spanish-language) Event flyer with program and panelist details )

Cuba 1952-1959 on NH Radio (1/15)

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:46:00 +0000

Manuel Márquez-Sterling made an appearance January 15 on New Hampshire radio for an encore interview with Brian Tilton about his new book Cuba 1952-1959: The True Story of Castro's Rise to Power.

By courtesy of Brian Tilton, we are pleased to present the interview audio (7:51) from his Bulldog Live! program which airs weekday afternoons 1-3 pm on WTPL 107.7 FM "The Pulse" in New Hampshire and on web at www.wtplfm.com.

1958: Castro ups attacks on US interests

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:30:00 +0000

Cuba History Timeline Events
September 30, 1958
In parallel with the insurgency activities to prevent elections, Castro intensified his attacks on US interests as a protection blackmail scheme—demanding a "revolutionary tax" to forestall attacks. A memo prepared by the US Department of State Officer in Charge of Cuban Affairs (Terrence Leonhardy) described this Castro terror and blackmail campaign against US interests.

A related State Department document summarized US property losses to Castro's rebels from January to September 1958 totalling more than two million dollars. The author, William Arthur Wieland (Director of the Office of Caribbean and Mexican Affairs), suggested in his memo that the information be relayed selectively to US journalists to provide facts for them to include in their stories if they wished. The senior US State Department official receiving the memo, Roy Rubottom (Assistant Secretary for Latin American Affairs), responded with this comment:

"I do not expect the U.S. press will find this information very newsworthy."

based on Manuel Márquez-Sterling's Cuba 1952-1959 and
Cuba 1952-1959 Interactive Timeline

1958: Castro-Communist Party agreement

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:30:00 +0000

Cuba History Timeline Events
July 20 - August 10, 1958
In the spring and summer of 1958 Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, representative of the Cuban Communist Party (PSP) and editor of the Moscow-aligned Communist newspaper Hoy [Today], met with Raúl and Fidel Castro in the Sierra, where they finalized a negotiated agreement by mid-August 1958. Rodríguez had served Batista as a cabinet minister in the 40s.

After the Pact of Caracas was signed the PSP shifted its mixed allegiance in entirety to Castro's M-26-7 but covertly, it was not until December 1958 that the Cuban Communist Party officially endorsed Castro and his rebels, in their publication La solución que conviene a Cuba; algunas verdades que deben conocerse [The Right Solution for Cuba: some truths that ought to be known].

Carlos Rafael Rodríguez
(photo: AIN/Cuba)

based on Manuel Márquez-Sterling's Cuba 1952-1959 and
Cuba 1952-1959 Interactive Timeline

1958: Pact of Caracas

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:30:00 +0000

Cuba History Timeline Events
July 20, 1958
Although the electoralist-constitutionalist opposition had succeeded in reaching agreements in which Batista publicly announced agreement to step down at the end of his term, and to hold elections in 1958 supervised by international observers from the UN and OAS, the revolutionary opposition persisted in choosing violence rather than political negotiation and elections to end Cuba’s political crisis. The hatred of the revolutionaries was so deep it was not enough for them that Batista leave Cuba and a new president be freely elected—no solution was acceptable to them that did not include imprisoning or killing Batista. Their mantra was "Hay que castigar a Batista" [Batista must be punished], and this goal trumped all for them.

The Miami armchair revolutionaries had rejected Carlos Márquez-Sterling’s invitation to join in a national coalition to challenge the regime in the November elections, instead reaffirming their commitment to revolutionary violence in the Pact of Miami—which Castro had contemptuously repudiated.

In July, the Miami revolutionary and abstentionist factions making up the Liberation Junta and Castro’s representatives met in Caracas, Venezuela, to reaffirm and officially ratify the Liberation Junta assent to Castro demands in his repudiation of the Pact of Miami.

At the Caracas meeting the Liberation Junta strengthened their alliance with Castro’s M-26-7 through new joint initiatives in their war against Batista’s regime. On July 20 they jointly signed a manifesto called the Pact of Caracas. The text of the agreement had been broadcast the day before on Radio Rebelde as the words of Fidel Castro. Unlike the Pact of Miami, this document named Fidel Castro Commander in Chief of the revolutionary opposition to Batista.

All revolutionary factions were now under Castro’s control. In signing the Pact of Caracas,the Miami Junta revolutionaries for all intents and purposes abdicated their leadership to favor Castro. They did so even though many of these leaders knew—but chose not to make public—that there was a significant and growing Communist presence in the Sierras, and mounting evidence that the Communists had reached an agreement with Fidel Castro, and Communist leader Carlos Rafael Rodríguez had visited Raúl Castro in the Sierra.

Before adjourning the meeting the Pact signatories also agreed to oppose and undermine the 1958 elections, pledging critical and needed support to Castro's aim of opposing any political solution to the crisis. To that end Dr. Miró Cardona was commissioned to travel to Washington and inform the State Department they rejected the elections because “the candidates had submitted to the tyrannical regime of Batista.”

The signers of the Pact of Caracas were Fidel Castro, 26th of July Movement; Carlos Prío Socarrás, Organización Auténtica; E. Rodríguez Loeche, Revolutionary Directorate; David Salvador, Orlando Blanco, Pascasio Lineras, Lauro Blanco, José M. Aguilera, Ángel Cofiño, Workers Union; Manuel A. de Varona, Auténtico Revolutionary Party; Lincoln Rodón, Democratic Party; José Puente y Omar Fernández, University Students Federation; Capt. Gabino Rodríguez Villaverde, former Army officer; Justo Carrillo Hernández, Montecristi Group; Angel María Santos Buch, Civic Resistance Movement; José Miró Cardona, Coordinator-Secretary General.

At the meeting the request to have the signatories ratify Castro’s designated Provisional President, Manuel Urrutia Lleó. However, the Revolutionary Directorate and Montecristi Group representatives opposed the request, urging that this be taken up at the next meeting to be held in Miami. At the Miami meeting (11 August) José Miró Cardona was unanimously elected as Coordinator of the Civic Revolutionary Front (Pact of Caracas signatories), and Urrutia was ratified as Provisional President by majority vote (opposed by the Revolutionary Directorate).

The Pacto de Caracas text was published and distributed in Cuba in September 1958.

based on Manuel Márquez-Sterling's Cuba 1952-1959 and
Cuba 1952-1959 Interactive Timeline

Cuba 1952-1959 on Blog Talk Radio (12/17)

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:04:00 +0000

Manuel Márquez-Sterling will appear on Cuba Companioni's Blog Talk Radio program Conversa Cuba Companioni Thursday 17-Dec at 7:00PM ET. He will talk with hosts Roberto Companioni and John O'Donnell-Rosales about his new book Cuba 1952-1959: The True Story of Castro's Rise to Power. The show audio is also available via iTunes podcast.

Cuba 1952-1959 on Cuba Companioni on Blog Talk Radio

1958: Battle of La Plata (El Jigüe)

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:30:00 +0000

Cuba History Timeline Events
July 11-21, 1958
On July 11, 1958, the Battle of La Plata (also called Battle of Jigüe) was launched by Batista forces as part of Operation Verano, a campaign to end the Castro rebellion. The battle plan created by General Eulogio Cantillo called for a direct attack on Castro's base in the Sierra Maestra featuring a coordinated amphibious assault from sea by Battalion 18, led by Major Jose Quevedo Pérez. Although the landing was successful. Castro forces quickly surrounded the assault battalion, ending with the humiliating surrender of the battalion and the loss of about 500 Cuban army troops. Quevedo (a Castro school chum) and a few other officers joined Castro’s rebels soon after the surrender.The scale of the defeat demoralized Batista’s armed forces, and provided the rebels supplies, military equipment, a morale boost and a propaganda victory.

An August 1958 Time report summarized Castro's comeback and the gains of the revolutionaries:

Five months ago many Cubans thought that Rebel Chief Fidel Castro was through. His much-touted "total war" against President Fulgencio Batista was a total failure; the general strike in Havana that started literally with a bang ended with a whimper as local leaders went into hiding, shrilly blaming one another for the fiasco. That was early April. Last week reports sifting through heavy censorship indicated that Castro had made a notable comeback. Despite the rebels' continued grandstanding and disorganization, the swelling tide of popular discontent had carried them back to a position of strength.

Rebel Fronts summer 58: Fidel (Sierra Maestra) & Raul Castro (Sierra Cristal),
Oriente province, Cuba. (illustration: LIFE July 21 1958)

based on Manuel Márquez-Sterling's Cuba 1952-1959 and
Cuba 1952-1959 Interactive Timeline

1958: Castro Rebels take US Hostages

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:30:00 +0000

Cuba History Timeline Events
June 26, 1958
In June Soviet advisor Nikolai Leonov counseled that Raúl Castro’s new front in the Sierra Cristal begin kidnapping American servicemen and civilians working in Cuba to drive the United States to withdraw from the Cuban conflict. On 22 June Raúl Castro issued Military Order #30 directing the kidnapping of American Citizens.

Ushering in the era of kidnapping as a tool for political terrorism, on 26 June Raúl Castro’s rebels kidnapped ten Americans and two Canadians from the property of Moa Bay Mining Company (an American company) on the north coast of Oriente Province. The next day rebels took hostage 24 US servicemen on leave from the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay. This incident brought total kidnapped hostages to 50 (47 US and 3 Canadian citizens).

US Ambassador Smith and his staff determined the kidnappings had the following objectives:

Obtain worldwide publicity
Regain M-26-7 prestige lost by general strike call failure
Force Batista's Air Force to stop bombing rebel holds
Gain public recognition from the US

Two tactical objectives the kidnapping achieved for Castro forces can be discerned from contemporaneous reporting in Time: Batista declaring a ceasefire for negotiations, forcing a reduction in Operation Verano air raids; the rebels used the lulls to regroup and fly in arms.

The hostage taking caused significant US backlash, including unfavorable public reaction, and US consideration to re-establishing military support to Batista and deploying US forces to free the hostages. Ultimately, the hostages were released without any US concessions. They were released in very small groups, extracting the maximum press attention.

US Hostage negotiations, Sierra Cristal, Cuba July 1958. (L to R) Park Wollam (back to camera) US Consul Santiago, 'Deborah' (Vilma Espin), Raul Castro (standing), Castro aide, US vice-consul Robert Wiecha. (photo: George Skadding/LIFE)

US Hostages captured by Raul Castro in June 1958. (L to R) Edwin H Cordes, Moa Bay Co. geologist; Roman Cecilia, Frederick Snare construction firm engineer; AF Smith, JG Ford, United Fruit Co; Eugene Pfleider, Moa Bay Co; HF Sparks, United Fruit; Harold Kristjanson (Canadian), assistant construction boss for Moa Bay Mining; John H Schissler, Moa Bay construction superintendent. (photo: George Skadding/LIFE)

based on Manuel Márquez-Sterling's Cuba 1952-1959 and
Cuba 1952-1959 Interactive Timeline

1958: Operation Verano offensive

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:30:00 +0000

Cuba History Timeline Events
May 24, 1958
On May 24, 1958, Batista initiated the first and only major military offensive against Castro’s rebels in the Sierras: Operación Verano [Operation Summer], dubbed La Ofensiva [The Offensive] by the rebels. The operation was intended to find and eliminate Castro forces. The military force applied was considerable, though much smaller than is commonly reported: six battalions with air and naval support by the commands of Generals Eulogio Cantillo and Alberto del Rio Chaviano. Six battalions accounted for about a quarter of Batista’s total troops. Batista wanted the bulk of troops to remain assigned to protecting sugar mills and fields growing sugar and coffee from increasing rebel attacks.

Operation Verano primarily engaged four battalions, those led by Col. Ángel Sánchez Mosquera (11th Bat), Maj. Eugenio Menéndez Martínez (22nd Bat), Maj. Suárez Zoulet (19th Bat), and Maj. Jose Quevedo Pérez (18th Bat).

Operation Verano was ill-managed by an army whose ranks were increasingly demoralized, disaffected and plagued by internal conflict. Despite achieving initial success, the operation ended three months later in complete failure. Its engagements resulted in significant defeats, surrenders, losses and desertions for Batista forces. Notable battles included Merino, El Jigüe (La Plata), Santo Domingo, Las Vegas de Jibacoa, and the final battle of the campaign, Las Mercedes.

The rebel forces’ defense to this offensive provided a real military victory for Castro, and an even greater propaganda victory. In addition to increasing terrorist and guerrilla raid operations, Castro’s defense had three major elements: (a) military engagements in the Sierra; (b) new kidnapping and terror operations to bring pressure on the US; and (c) pressure through the US press and State Department, denouncing the Batista offensive for using US-supplied weapons (delivered before the arms embargo) and demanding that the US take action against Batista.

Some insight into these Castro campaigns and their context is found in contemporaneous US press reports in Time and a Homer Bigart story in the New York Times, and in a then confidential letter from US Consul Park Wollam to the US Department of State Officer in Charge of Cuban Affairs (Terrence Leonhardy). Bigart and Wollam were Castro sympathizers whose accounts consistently reveal a marked pro-Castro bias.

A US State Department memorandum written about a week after the start of Operation Verano gives a glimpse of how successful Castro's propaganda initiatives were in engaging State Department, press, and congressional Castro sympathizers to apply pressure to constrain Batista from effectively using military assets. The State Department's Bureau of Inter-American Affairs ("ARA") took the position that Batista was violating MAP (Military Assistance Program) rules in deploying any US-supplied arms or US-trained troops because these were only to be used in fighting Communism—and they argued Castro’s forces were not communist. US military chiefs notably Admiral Burke saw the folly of the State Department’s arguments, and so indicated at a Department of State-Joint Chiefs of Staff Meeting.

Rebel tactics during Operation Verano included effective use of homemade bombs and landmines (what would today be called IEDs, Improvised Explosive Devices) to inflict casualties on Batista's forces. This was a new application of rebel experience in explosives previously concentrated on urban terrorism and industrial sabotage.

The element of Castro's three-pronged strategy that drew the most attention during Operation Verano turned out to be the least successful tactically: kidnapping US hostages to force US concessions. But even this achieved substantial gains in advancing Castro's propaganda objectives.

based on Manuel Márquez-Sterling's Cuba 1952-1959 and
Cuba 1952-1959 Interactive Timeline

M Marquez-Sterling Plymouth presentation video

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:55:00 +0000

Plymouth State University's Lamson Library and Learning Commons has published the video of Manuel Márquez-Sterling's presentation at the November 3 announcement of his new book, Cuba 1952-1959: The True Story of Castro's Rise to Power.

The presentation is available as a five part series in standard and high definition (HD) video on the Lamson Library's Channel at YouTube:

Links to the individual parts:

Part 1 Introduction by Prof. Peng-Khuan Chong (9:15)
Part 2 Presentation Opening (9:56)
Part 3 (9:53)
Part 4 (9:56)
Part 5 Presentation Closing (9:37)

Cuba 1952-1959 on Blog Talk Radio (11/19)

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:30:00 +0000

Manuel Márquez-Sterling will appear on Cubanology's Blog Talk Radio program Speak Your Mind Thursday 19-Nov at 9:00PM ET. He will talk with hosts Jose Reyes and Roberto Companioni about his new book Cuba 1952-1959: The True Story of Castro's Rise to Power and answer audience call-in questions. The show audio is also available via iTunes podcast.

The following program notes are from the program announcement post at Cubanology Biweekly:

About the Author:
Manuel Márquez-Sterling, born in Havana, has lived in the US since 1960. He is Professor Emeritus of History at Plymouth State University. His publications include Historia de la Isla de Cuba (co-authored with his father, Carlos Márquez-Sterling), and Carlos Márquez-Sterling: Memorias de un Estadista.

Before becoming a historian he studied law at the University of Havana in the 50s, where at graduation he received the Ricardo Dolz Arango National Law Award, the top University of Havana law student prize. His law practice in Cuba included serving as Public Defender and arguing a constitutional law case before Cuba’s Supreme Court. As a lawyer in 50s Cuba and the son of the architect of Cuba’s 1940 Constitution, the author addresses the legal and constitutional aspects of the revolutionary period from an expert perspective.

About the Book: 
This book unearths a lost world to reveal the undiscovered Cuba during the critical seven years of the Cuban revolution. It brings to light long-buried fragments of history and masterfully pieces them together to lay bare how Castro really came to power. It is a book that could be written only by someone who was there, by an eyewitness with an insider’s view of behind the scenes happenings and intrigues, by someone who knew the now historical figures who fought the battles that ended in the establishment of the Castros’ totalitarian regime.

The book gives the reader a revealing look at the Cuba of the 50s, that shatters many widely-held misconceptions, including myths about Castro and his revolution assiduously crafted by Castro and his sympathizers over the last fifty years.

As this book reveals, the problems that plagued Cuba over 1952-1958 were political, not socio-economic. These problems were solvable by political means, and would have been but for Castro. It is commonly but mistakenly believed that in 1950s Cuba there were only two political forces: Batista and Castro. But as this book details, in reality there were three: Batista and his supporters, a revolutionary opposition advocating violently overthrowing Batista (of which Castro’s movement was a part), and an Electoralist/Constitutionalist opposition advocating solutions using ballots rather than bullets. The Electoralists represented the vast majority of Cubans who wanted to resolve the political crisis in a way that preserved Cuba’s 1940 Constitution and its democratic freedoms.

The author’s father, Carlos Márquez-Sterling, a prominent leader of the Electoralist/Constitutionalist opposition, was a presidential candidate in 1958 (Cuba's last elections). he also played varied roles of substance in Cuban history, including leadership roles in the Ortodoxo party, Speaker of the House, Secretary of Education and Labor, and architect of the 1940 Constitution as President of the Cuban Constitutional Convention.

The struggle leading to the Old Republic’s collapse and Castro’s rise was mirrored in the struggle between Carlos Márquez-Sterling and Fidel Castro in establishing a government to replace Batista’s. Márquez-Sterling fighting for elections, Castro opposing them. The 1958 Cuban presidential elections drew an astonishingly large turnout—despite extreme violence including Castro’s threat to gun down anyone who went to the polls to vote. Márquez-Sterling received a decisive majority of votes cast, but to the surprise of leading political analysts of the day, the Batista government abetted electoral fraud and declared his chosen candidate the winner and new President. Márquez -Sterling’s margin of victory was large enough that the electoral fraud was obvious to everyone. This became the precipitating event to Batista’s departure. The US informed Batista that it would not accept the fraudulent electoral result and pressured him to leave Cuba- ushering in Castro’s regime.

Cuba 1952-1959 on 'Speak Your Mind' on Blog Talk Radio

Visitor Map change

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:14:00 +0000

Regular readers will notice a change of Visitor Map in the sidebar. We have phased out the old map in favor of a new one from whos.amung.us which we think is better across the board. Its maps are richer and afford more display options, and it's updated continuously rather than old map which was updated no more frequently than daily.

Though we think this is an improvement, the switch does come at the price of not integrating historical visit data, reinitializing logs to midday on 10 Nov 2009. For those interested in archived visitor data, below is the last map generated with old system which maps visitors to the blog from 9 Nov 2008 to 29 Oct 2009:

Cuba 1952-1959 Blog Visitors 11/9/08 - 10/29/09

Cuba 1952-1959 Book Presentation in NY

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:30:00 +0000

Manuel Márquez-Sterling will make a presentation at the New York launch event for his new book, Cuba 1952-1959: The True Story of Castro's Rise to Power. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session and a book signing. The event is sponsored by the Cuban Cultural Center of New York. It will be held on November 20, 2009 at Columbia University’s Casa Hispánica, 612 West 116th Street, NY. The program begins at 6:00 pm.

For reservations and event information please contact the Cuban Cultural Center by e-mail at: cccofny@aol.com

11/15 UPDATE: The Cuban Cultural Center of New York reports that all available seats for the book presentation on Friday, Nov. 20 have been reserved, and so they have closed reservations for the event.

The following summary is from the New York Cuban Cultural Center event announcement:

the cuban cultural center of new york presents
Manuel Márquez-Sterling's
CUBA 1952-1959:
The True Story of Castro's Rise to Power

A discerning eyewitness account of the key events leading to the triumph of the Cuban revolution and the demise of the Cuban Republic in 1959, as well as a rich and comprehensive historical perspective of the last fifty years that only recent revelations have made possible. A must-read for all those interested in knowing the reality of Cuba’s political, economic, social and cultural conditions at the time of Castro’s rise to power and the catastrophic effects of his ensuing rule. With lucid prose and incisive analysis, the author lays bare long-held popular misconceptions about Cuba and its history and debunks much of the mythology perpetuated by the apologists for a totalitarian regime that has subjugated the Cuban people for over half a century. This book will serve as an invaluable introduction to those unfamiliar with Cuban history, as well as a necessary tool for scholars who wish to acquire an objective perspective and better envision a transition to democracy on the island.

Manuel Márquez-Sterling is heir to a distinguished line of Cuban diplomats, statesmen and journalists. A graduate of Havana University Law School, he has written several books on Cuban history, as well as novels and plays. He is Professor Emeritus of History at Plymouth State University and lives in New Hampshire.

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Cuba 1952-1959 Book Announcement

noreply@blogger.com (RR Aranda) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:58:00 +0000

Manuel Márquez-Sterling's new book, Cuba 1952-1959: The True Story of Castro's Rise to Power, was formally announced at Plymouth State University on November 3rd, 2009.

The announcement was made during a presentation at the university's Lamson Library. Honored guests in attendance included Plymouth State University President Sara Jayne Steen. After being introduced to an overflow standing-room only audience by Professor Peng-Khuan Chong, Chair of the Social Sciences Department, Professor Márquez-Sterling opened his talk by observing the day was the 51st anniversary of Cuba's last elections, in which his father Carlos was a presidential candidate. His talk focused on those elections, which proved to be Cuba's last chance at a peaceful constitutional solution to the country's long political impasse. Castro and his revolutionaries had assiduously worked to prevent these elections, including death threats against the candidates and voters who showed up at polling places.

It has long been acknowledged by all except die-hard Batista supporters that Carlos Márquez-Sterling won the 1958 election but was deprived of victory by electoral fraud. Prof. Marquez-Sterling recounted the recent disclosure by Batista's military chief detailing the elaborate plan to perpetrate the fraud and declare the candidate suported by Batista the winner. This chicanery was the event that finally brought down the old Cuban Republic and brought Castro to power. The US informed Batista that it would not accept the obviously fraudulent electoral result and pressured him to leave Cuba, precipitating Batista's flight on New Year's eve and Castro's consequent seizure of power.

Prof. Márquez-Sterling also spoke about another historic fraud—the claims that Castro's revolution resulted in improved Cuban living conditions, education and health care. He presented facts and figures from his new book demonstrating that Cuba today is but the ruins of an advanced and prosperous pre-Castro Cuba which had a large and growing middle class, excellent health care and education, and one of the highest standards of living in the region.

The book gives the reader a revealing look at the Cuba of the 50s, debunking many widely-held misconceptions, including myths about Castro and his revolution assiduously crafted by Castro and his sympathizers over the last fifty years. Among those myths is that the Cuban Revolution was a military battle between the forces of Batista and Castro. Another is that Cuba was a backward nation plagued by socio-economic problems which Castro’s revolution overcame to achieve great gains in quality of life.

The author chronicles Castro’s real innovation: amalgamating political gangsterism, terrorism, and propaganda to impose totalitarian rule under the false flag of democratic liberation. The history in this book is a cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy when subjected to the kinds of stresses that plagued Cuba in the 50s. Those lessons have been made particularly relevant as a new wave of totalitarians inspired by Castro have adopted and extended his methods to create a particularly grave threat to democracies. Their gambit is to take Castro’s model one step further, seeking electoral victories to be subversively used to implement “constitutional reforms” that transmute constitutional democracies into totalitarian regimes. These “reforms” are achieved and consolidated through political gangsterism and electoral fraud. The success of such neototalitarian electoral coups is already evident in several Latin American countries.

The book incorporates illuminating material from diverse sources. These include recent publications and Spanish-language works not readily accessible to English-speaking readers. As the author mentioned in his (Spanish language) column announcing the book, making this material available in English was one of his major goals.

The book also incorporates extensive annotations and a bibliography for readers who want to further explore the enlightening revelations in this book. These references provide readers a guide to navigate to the accurate materials about the old Cuban Republic that the Castro regime has endeavored to obscure and distort for fifty years.