Can’t I be liberal and a Misanthrope?Actually I’m being a realist.
Batista suspended the 1940 Constitution and revoked most political liberties, including the right to strike. He then aligned with the wealthiest landowners who owned the largest sugar plantations, and presided over a stagnating economy that widened the gap between rich and poor Cubans.5 Batista’s increasingly corrupt and repressive government then began to systematically profit from the exploitation of Cuba’s commercial interests, by negotiating lucrative relationships with the American mafia, who controlled the drug, gambling, and prostitution businesses in Havana, and with large US-based multinationals who were awarded lucrative contracts.56 To quell the growing discontent amongst the populace—which was subsequently displayed through frequent student riots and demonstrations—Batista established tighter censorship of the media, while also utilizing his Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities to carry out wide-scale violence, torture and public executions; ultimately killing anywhere from 1,000 to 20,000 people.789 For several years until 1959, the Batista government received financial, military, and logistical support from the United States.10
Catalyzing the resistance to such tactics, for two years (December 1956 – December 1958) Fidel Castro’s July 26 Movement and other nationalist rebelling elements led an urban and rural-based guerrilla uprising against Batista’s government, which culminated in his eventual defeat by rebels under the command of Che Guevara at the Battle of Santa Clara on New Year’s Day 1959. Batista immediately fled the island with an amassed personal fortune to the Dominican Republic, where strongman and previous military ally Rafael Trujillo held power. Batista eventually found political asylum in Oliveira Salazar’s Portugal, where he lived until dying of a heart attack on August 6, 1973, near Marbella, Spain.
Can’t I be liberal and a Misanthrope?Actually I’m being a realist.
Batista suspended the 1940 Constitution and revoked most political liberties, including the right to strike. He then aligned with the wealthiest landowners who owned the largest sugar plantations, and presided over a stagnating economy that widened the gap between rich and poor Cubans.5 Batista’s increasingly corrupt and repressive government then began to systematically profit from the exploitation of Cuba’s commercial interests, by negotiating lucrative relationships with the American mafia, who controlled the drug, gambling, and prostitution businesses in Havana, and with large US-based multinationals who were awarded lucrative contracts.56 To quell the growing discontent amongst the populace—which was subsequently displayed through frequent student riots and demonstrations—Batista established tighter censorship of the media, while also utilizing his Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities to carry out wide-scale violence, torture and public executions; ultimately killing anywhere from 1,000 to 20,000 people.789 For several years until 1959, the Batista government received financial, military, and logistical support from the United States.10
Catalyzing the resistance to such tactics, for two years (December 1956 – December 1958) Fidel Castro’s July 26 Movement and other nationalist rebelling elements led an urban and rural-based guerrilla uprising against Batista’s government, which culminated in his eventual defeat by rebels under the command of Che Guevara at the Battle of Santa Clara on New Year’s Day 1959. Batista immediately fled the island with an amassed personal fortune to the Dominican Republic, where strongman and previous military ally Rafael Trujillo held power. Batista eventually found political asylum in Oliveira Salazar’s Portugal, where he lived until dying of a heart attack on August 6, 1973, near Marbella, Spain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista