All language subtitles for The Cuba Libre Story - S01E02 - Zuckerkrieg und Menschenrechte

[in Spanish] Cuba has always been
fighting for its freedom.

[in Spanish] 100,000 died, and even though
we lost the war, the country had changed.

There is little question that Meyer
Lansky had thoroughly corrupted Batista.

It's not a lie,
they didn't promise anything.

They promised a revolution,
they did a revolution.

[in Russian] These guys were bound to
become either martyrs, or national heroes

Una revolución!

-[man] Fidel Castro!
-[crowd cheers]

He told Khrushchev, "You should unleash
the entire Soviet nuclear arsenals."

Apocalypse.

[siren]

[in German] Cuba will never bend its knee.

Today's Cuba is known
as a tropical island paradise,

and, perhaps, for its 1959 revolution.

But Cuba's revolutionary history
is far older.

For almost 400 years,
Cuba was a Spanish colony.

Its road to independence
was long and painful.

In the end,
it took an American intervention

to free Cuba from Spanish colonial rule.

And with this freedom, the Cubans
thought their island would prosper.

But why did Cuba's newfound wealth
not benefit every Cuban?

How did World War I create
tremendous opportunities for Cuba?

And why did it take a military dictator
to really free Cuba?

Throughout its history,

the burden of colonialism
has weighed heavy on the island.

But the Cubans have never given up
on their dream of freedom.

[in Spanish] Cuba was very late
in gaining its independence,

and even then,
it was under constant threat.

This only served to make Cubans
desire independence all the more.

For 400 years, Cuba was the key to
Spain's colonial empire in the Americas.

Even when all other colonies
became independent,

Cuba remained loyal to Spain.

Its long battle for independence
finally broke out in 1868.

Spain sent hundreds of thousands
of soldiers to hold the island.

In 1898, the United States
intervened in the war.

Spain was finally beaten,
and withdrew its troops.

American soldiers were soon augmented
by US government officials.

Their mission was to help transform
the former colony into a state.

The island's economy flourished,

due to American investments,
and the end of Spanish taxes and duties.

[Pitaluga, in Spanish]
The US military occupation

was a key historical moment for Cuba.

This was the time when,
in the eyes of the Cubans,

the image of the United States
was defined.

Following the end of the war with Spain,
American troops occupied Cuba.

It took three years until US President
Theodore Roosevelt allowed elections

to create a Cuban government.

The only candidate for the new office

of President of Cuba
was Tomás Estrada Palma.

It was up to him to bring democracy
to the island,

as Cuba had never had
an elected government before.

[in Spanish] The assessment of him
as a president in general terms

is not a favorable assessment.

So much so that his government
begins on May 20th, 1902,

and still, for Cuban people,

in the popular mentality, when something
negative is foretold, people say,

"A 20th of May is going to fall on you."

Estrada Palma's negative image
was born even before his election.

He had lived most of his life
in the United States

and was seen as their candidate.

The most promising other candidate

withdrew his candidacy
before the election

in protest of America's perceived
control over Cuba's affairs.

[in Spanish] The United States,

through a series of political
and diplomatic movements,

like the Joint Resolution
or the Platt Amendment,

imposed on the Cuban Constitution of 1901,

that Cuba had to hand over territory
for the current Guantanamo base.

The United States was
establishing its control over Cuba.

The so-called Platt Amendment

was added to the Cuban constitution
under US pressure.

It guaranteed the United States
the right to intervene in Cuba,

should they think it necessary.

It also allowed the United States
to establish military bases in Cuba.

One of these was established
at Guantanamo Bay in 1903.

As the biggest US naval base
outside of the United States,

Guantanamo was paramount
controlling shipping in the Caribbean.

However, together with
the right to intervene on Cuba,

it also meant that the newly independent
island was not so independent after all.

[in Russian] American business
felt completely at ease in Cuba

after its so-called liberation
from Spanish rule.

For example,
there was an American governor on Cuba,

who basically ruled over all
the property in Cuba.

Following its independence, Cuba's
greatest treasure was its sugarcane.

Cuba's climate and soils were perfect,

and Cubans had perfected its cultivation
for over a century.

A good many Cubans
made a living from sugar,

from the poorest peasant
cutting the cane with a machete,

to the sugar barons

whose factories transformed
the raw cane juice into white gold.

Sugar represented 80 percent
of all Cuba's exports,

with most of it going to the USA.

[Suchlicki] As part of the arrangement
between Cuba and the United States,

the US established a quota,

an amount of sugar
that they would buy from Cuba,

the price would fluctuate, but the amount
of sugar would be arranged

a million tons,
two million tons a year,

and Cuba would provide the sugar
that the United States needed.

The sugar quota gave Cubans a sense
of security going into the future,

but it also made them neglect
alternative crops.

Almost all of Cuba's agriculture
soon focused exclusively on sugarcane.

[in Spanish]
We sweetened the world for many years,

and the world soured our life
because of it.

Our country became a monoculture.

We were at the mercy first of the
European, then of the American economy.

So sugar became a very important crop

because the Cubans were
able to plan the economy,

since they knew how much sugar
they were going to sell,

and the price of sugar
was relatively good,

they got significant amounts of money.

The United States needed more sugar
than they could produce by themselves.

A lot more.

A year's worth
of domestic sugarcane production

wouldn't even last
the United States a single month.

Sugar was much more than
a simple food item.

The United States' pharmaceutical
and chemical industries

also required large quantities.

Cuba's war of independence against Spain

cost the lives
of almost half a million men.

This caused a tremendous labor shortage
after the war.

Cuba required hundreds of thousands
of cane cutters

to harvest the vast plantations
twice a year.

Working in the fields, a man could
earn enough to make it through the year.

It was an attractive prospect,
and so Cuba became a mecca for migrants.

[in German] They would have taken anybody.

They took 120,000 Chinese workers

over 30, 40 years,
who lived almost like slaves.

They negotiated with the German Empire
to take Catholics

from the Schwarzwald mountains in Germany.

They took Spaniards from the Azores,
and from Madeira;

they took people from everywhere.

Cuba's call for workers
was heard back in its former motherland.

Beginning in 1902, tens of thousands
of unemployed Spaniards

and other fortune seekers, set off
to try their luck in the Caribbean.

They flocked to Spain's major ports,

such as A Coruña, Cádiz, and Barcelona,
from where they set sail for Cuba.

For many of them,
it wasn't their first voyage here.

They had fought for Spain
as occupying soldiers,

only to now return as economic migrants.

One of them was a peasant from Galicia.

His name was Ángel Castro.

[Pitaluga, in Spanish]
Ángel Castro was a Spanish soldier.

He had come to Cuba to fight for Spain.

Conscription in Spain worked as a lottery.

There was a list of names, and every fifth
person had to go to war on Cuba.

It was a commitment,
a duty that he had to his country.

[in French] At the end of the war,

Ángel went back to Spain,
to his home in Galicia.

He wanted to reunite with his sweetheart.

She was his fiancée,
they were supposed to get married.

But she had fallen in love
with someone else and so Ángel,

hurt and humiliated, can't stay,
and so he goes back to Cuba.

Ángel Castro settled in eastern Cuba,
where he made a living as a day laborer.

He worked in the cane fields
and in the mines.

He saved what he could,
and even won some money in the lottery.

His dream was to
be able to buy his own house.

For him, like for many others,
Cuba was an opportunity to be free.

But their freedom, as well as Cuba's,

depended on the goodwill
of the United States.

This further provoked unrest in Cuba,
especially in the capital, Havana.

Cuba became independent but it had
the amendment into its constitution

allowing the United States to enter.

And they didn't see
the United States as an enemy

or as a power
that wanted to take over Cuba.

They saw the United States
as an ally of Cuba.

[in Spanish] In reality,

the relations between Cuba and the USA
were very strained,

because they were
dominated by the Americans.

October 6th, 1906.

Contemporary archive footage
shows thousands of American soldiers

invading Cuba, without any warning.

The island had no army,
and had to surrender without a fight.

Cuba's elected government was dismissed.

The United States acted perfectly legally.

They made use
of their right to intervene in Cuba,

as guaranteed by the Platt Amendment.

This amendment
had been a hot-button issue

when Cuba's constitution was written,

and now, this first invasion of Cuba

seems to confirm the worries
of many Cubans

that their country was not truly free.

[in French] The official reason was
to regulate Cuban domestic politics.

Something had happened
that often happens in the Caribbean:

an elected president
tries to secure a second term

by any means necessary.

[in Spanish] The fact of the matter is

that Cuba was the world's
biggest sugar producer at that time.

This economic interest
had to be protected.

The United States
claimed that internal strife in Cuba

was the reason for their invasion.

There had, indeed, been riots
since the last presidential election.

People spoke of
widespread electoral fraud,

and Cuba's president, Estrada Palma,
was under pressure.

But without an army, he could not get
the unrest under control,

and was forced to step down.

The United States appointed a governor.

He promised new elections,
but until then,

Cuba was once again in American hands.

The second American occupation
had two consequences.

One consequence is the belief
that Cubans weren't really free,

that they were
very dependent on the United States

and that it wasn't
a real independence for Cuba.

And the second one is that
the Americans that intervene in Cuba

engage in significant corruption
and bribery

and trying to pacify the Cubans
through giving them jobs.

Together with the army, many new
American investors arrived in Cuba.

They wanted to benefit from
the island's economic boom.

The American military governor
supported them.

He granted them
lucrative public contracts,

including the outfitting
of Cuba's newly founded armed forces.

The railways, some ports
and much of the sugar industry

were also brought under US control.

The Americans enrolled the Cuban elite,

largely doctors and army officers
of Spanish descent,

and entrusted them
with governing the island in their name.

Many poor Cubans wondered
what the war of independence

had ultimately given them.

[in French] The Americans have always
seen Cuba a bit like an American province.

US companies settled there
on a grand scale,

particularly in this region
to the north-east of Santiago.

To succeed in Cuba, one had to be white,

and be able to
make deals with the Americans.

Spanish immigrant Ángel Castro
saw his chance to do just that.

He lived in Cuba's east,

where most American companies
were located.

The biggest of them was United Fruit.

The company preferred to work with
Spanish migrants, like Ángel Castro.

[in German] Galicians are known for
working like mad. They will take any job.

They're an extremely hard working,
and oftentimes very frugal people.

Ángel Castro put this to good use.
He had nothing more than a horse and cart,

and took jobs on the outskirts of American
companies, in particular United Fruit.

And he made a lot of money there.

[Clerc, in French] Ángel Castro
basically played the Americans' game.

He eventually was made
manager of an American plantation.

He learned a lot.

He was smart, he watched and learned,

and he got to know
a lot of important people.

Ángel Castro's business
with United Fruit flourished.

The company had been founded in 1899,

and had come to Cuba
that very same year.

In Cuba, United Fruit
invested mainly in sugarcane.

Elsewhere in the Caribbean
and Central America,

their main business was bananas.

[Bucheli] They basically dominated
the banana market,

at least within the United States
more than 70 percent of the market share

for most of their history.

And in Central America and the Caribbean,

they were often the main investor,
particularly in small countries.

And they were the main ones building
infrastructure,

such as railways,
such as telegraph systems,

such as even company towns
around this production.

And that is why
many rulers in those countries,

particularly authoritarian rulers,
welcomed this firm in the beginning,

because it was providing something
that they didn't have.

To portray itself in a positive light,

United Fruit invested heavily
in PR campaigns,

such as the propaganda film
"The Living Circle".

[voiceover] Also flowing northward
in this living circle of trade

are hardwoods, hides, cocoa beans,

sugar, bananas,
essential oils for making perfumes,

and chicle, a necessary product
for making chewing gum.

The good earth of the tropics
and the eager markets of the north

are an unbeatable combination.

A cup of coffee is as much
a part of the American way of living

as a daily newspaper. And a table
without a sugar bowl is hard to find.

Bananas are a favorite at breakfast

and add flavor and nutrition
to countless recipes.

[narrator] What the film doesn't show
is that, far from only investing money,

United Fruit amassed
substantial political power

in Central America and the Caribbean.

[Bucheli] Cuba was about sugar.

At the national level,

United Fruit did not have the power
it had in Central America.

However, at the local level,
it was very different.

There was this municipality called Banes

that basically it had
the local government in its pocket.

It became not only
the main political power,

but even the main funding source
for the government for many things.

So Banes became kind of like the most
important place of United Fruit,

in which the firm
really showed its big power.

And that is where Castro's family
actually developed their business.

Working for United Fruit,
Ángel Castro expanded his business.

In 1910, his company
already had 300 employees.

Castro had risen from poor migrant
to respected businessman.

Through his contacts, he got to know
the daughter of a United Fruit manager.

Her name was María,
and she was the village teacher.

They were married on March 25th, 1911.

[in French]
Ángel Castro was practically illiterate.

His wife taught him to read and write.

She was a fairly intellectual woman,

and also played the piano.

He began reading newspapers

and even became
a bit of a local celebrity.

He was certainly influential

and often seen at dinner parties
with the Cuban elite.

Cuba developed and grew
alongside its American neighbor.

In 1906, the year of the US invasion,

American investments
reached 150 million dollars,

more than anywhere else
outside the United States.

American companies
controlled Cuba's economy,

and the American ambassador
dictated policy to the Cuban government.

Insurrection against America's dominance
of Cuba was inevitable,

and a new rebellion was on the horizon.

The Platt Amendment, authorizing
an American invasion at any time,

hung like the Sword of Damocles
over the Cubans' heads.

[in Spanish] It was a very sore point
in Cuban society.

For a whole generation, for intellectuals,

thinkers and the common people,

it became the focal point
of all criticism.

Cuba was the United States'
number-one sugar supplier.

The world market, however, was dominated
by Russia and the German Empire,

whose sugar came from sugar beets.

But that changed in 1914,
when the First World War broke out.

Fighting wasn't limited
to the trenches.

Warships and blockades
ravaged naval trade.

The beet sugar trade collapsed.

For Cuba, the elimination of its chief
rivals was a unique opportunity.

The island was in a position to become
the new world market leader.

Demand was growing dramatically.

In the first 20 years
of the 20th century,

the American demand for sugar was growing
at a rate of five percent a year.

So the potential was huge.

And actually,
they had this boom during World War I,

but they had already been preparing
for this growth of the American market.

During the war, the price of a pound
of sugar rose from three to 22 cents.

From American investors
to the Spanish plantation managers

and even the poorest Cuban peasants,

the whole island profited from
the war in Europe.

But the success came at a price.

Both forests,
and most coffee plantations,

were sacrificed to
make room for more sugarcane.

Cuba became a monoculture country.

[in Spanish]
Sugar production went through the roof.

The world sugar price skyrocketed,
reaching 22 cents per pound.

That was an astronomically high price.

This period was known in Cuba
as "the time of the fat cows".

The exorbitant price of sugar
encouraged worldwide competition.

Java, the Philippines, India,
Puerto Rico, Brazil,

everyone wanted a share
of the sugar market.

The situation was exacerbated when
World War I came to an end in 1918.

Formerly closed trade routes reopened,

and the world market
was flooded with sugar.

Prices slumped, and Cuba
had to deal with the consequences

of its sugar monoculture.

The island had more sugar
than it could ever hope to sell.

The problem with sugar is
that the prices drop and rise,

and when the prices drop,
the Cubans suffered.

[in Spanish] The New York Stock Exchange
collapsed. This causes a crisis for Cuba.

Banks fail,
a lot of businessmen commit suicide.

Cuban society is destroyed
as an economic entity.

What follows is known on Cuba as
"the time of the skinny cows".

The principal victims of the crisis
were Cuba's sugarcane cutters.

Tens of thousands of them were
the descendants of African slaves,

and now found themselves out of work,

and with no hope
of getting any aid from the government.

[in German] For the most part,

the Cuban work force consisted
of former slaves and Galicians.

They were being exploited,

and were constantly involved
in wage disputes and labor conflicts.

Many unemployed Cubans
joined the island's army.

It was the only job option
available to them.

But their conditions barely improved.

They suffered under the leadership
of the officers,

who were almost universally white,
and of Spanish descent.

The American companies
that dominated Cuba's economy

ensured that these Cubans had
enough money to lead comfortable lives,

despite the crisis.

This ensured that American businessmen

and their Cuban associates
of Spanish descent

could keep control of the island
and its economy.

[in Spanish] Here on Cuba, we didn't
really have a national "bourgeoisie".

The middle class was very weak, and it was
not really concerned with the country.

They were focused on the United States.

In the 1920s, Cuba was
still dependent on the USA.

But the contrary was no longer true.
Since the end of World War I,

the United States was
able to buy their sugar elsewhere.

America's biggest worry now
was the growing threat of communism.

With its armies of poor, unemployed
workers, Cuba seemed like fertile terrain.

[Suchlicki]
After the Bolshevik revolution,

the Soviet Union organized communist
parties throughout the world,

so the Cuban Communist Party
was organized.

Unemployment was particularly high in
Cuba's east, where Ángel Castro lived.

He had gone from occupying soldier, and
poor economic refugee, to rich landowner.

"Don" Ángel's sugarcane cutters
paid the price for his wealth.

[in French] This poor Galician shepherd
has become "Don" Ángel.

He has many Haitians working for him,
whom he treats in the old-fashioned way,

by which I mean practically as slaves.

On Cuba, this is a time
reminiscent of the Wild West.

Landowners had the power of life
and death over their employees.

Ángel Castro had five children
with his wife, María,

but by the 1920s,
the couple had separated.

Since 1922, Ángel had an affair
with his cook, Lina.

In 1923, she gave birth to a baby girl,

followed by three boys:
Ramón, Fidel and Raúl.

They did not yet bear the Castro name,

and the family home
was off-limits to them.

Instead, they grew up among the children
of their father's poor employees.

[in French] It was a huge problem
back then to be married,

but have an illegitimate child.

Divorce was not looked upon very highly.

Legally, it was difficult as well.

This is why he stayed with his wife
and his family,

but he also raised his son Fidel,

who lived in a hut a few hundred meters
from the manor house.

For years, Fidel saw his progenitor
only as the owner of the land he lived on,

but who rarely had time for him.

For years,
he was not recognized by his father.

[in German] Being an illegitimate child
was seen as a flaw.

This, I think, explains
a lot about Fidel Castro's psychology.

He was an illegitimate child for so long.

His father had to bribe several notaries,
which was common at the time,

to get a proper birth certificate
and have him legitimized.

The sugar crisis in Cuba began in 1918,
with the end of the First World War.

It would last many years.

Many Cubans realized the astronomical
pre-war prices were a thing of the past.

Something had to happen.

Cuba had to carve out a new path towards
a future that didn't depend on sugar.

In 1924, Cuba was gearing up
for a presidential election.

One man emerged as Cuba's
potential savior. Gerardo Machado.

Machado was one of the military leaders
on the side of the Cuban forces

fighting for independence against Spain.

After the independence,
he emerges as a small political leader,

not a very important one.

[in Spanish] Machado was a man

who presented himself as Cuba's savior
during the Great Depression.

The agriculture was almost entirely sugar.

Sugar was basically all the country had.

There was even a saying back then:
"Without sugar, there is no country."

That reflects the scope of a crisis
that began in 1921,

and becomes permanent by 1925.

The Cubans feared that sugar
was no longer the future of Cuba.

Gerardo Machado was a war hero,
who had fought for Cuba's independence.

His campaign in 1924
was modern and well orchestrated,

as this newsreel footage shows.

He appeared as a general, and openly
flaunted his relations with the army.

Machado promised to free Cuba

from the domination of both sugar
and the United States.

[Pitaluga, in Spanish]
He presented his government agenda.

The goal was to "save" both society,
and the sugar agriculture.

Instead of relying almost solely
on sugar,

Machado wanted to invest heavily
in Cuba's infrastructure.

He promised,
"Water, roads, and schools."

What's more, he also wanted
to get the United States

to renounce their right
to intervene on Cuba.

Elections were held
on November 1st, 1924.

Gerardo Machado
emerged the clear winner.

[in Spanish] He was elected president

and immediately
pushed through his program.

Core tenets were high import tariffs,
putting sugar prices

under government control,
reducing the sugar harvest,

and a public works plan
to absorb the extensive unemployment

generated by the sugar crisis.

Machado's first,
and most ambitious project,

was to build a highway across Cuba,

connecting its distant provinces
with the capital, Havana.

With Cuba's national highway,
Machado wanted to create an alternative

to the railway,
which was owned by US companies.

Afterwards, Machado had
a new parliament building constructed,

followed by many other famous buildings.

Machado's construction boom
was largely financed by American banks.

Under his leadership,
Cuba's economy recovered.

The island became a model
for Caribbean development.

Cuba soon had the most modern
telephone network in the Americas,

and more radio stations per capita
than any other country.

However, a new crisis loomed
at the height of Machado's success.

On October 24th, 1929,
the American Stock Exchange collapsed.

It was the start
of the Great Depression.

[in French] The 1929 crisis hits Cuba
as early as 1930.

Machado has been in power for a few years.

He tightens down because he sees
that social tensions are mounting.

[in German] And that's when he begins
to try and get things under control

through government-controlled
paramilitary groups.

From then on,
it's a slow drift towards a dictatorship.

In October of 1932,
almost three years to the day

after the beginning
of the Great Depression,

Cuba was struck by
the worst hurricane in its history.

President Machado personally oversaw
the reconstruction efforts.

He organized aid to hard-hit areas

and tried to portray himself
as Cuba's savior once more.

But the people had
lost confidence in their president.

[in French] He takes
ever more drastic measures

and thus slowly becomes a dictator.

He was no dictator before.

He was elected and did not seize power.

He became a dictator
to quell social unrest on Cuba.

The American banks that funded Machado's
construction boom in the '20s

now wanted their money back.

Machado had to make budget cuts
to pay his debts.

He laid off thousands of civil servants,

who promptly took to the streets
in protest.

They were joined by thousands
of other Cubans,

fearing they too could lose their jobs.

It was the beginning
of yet another rebellion in Cuba.

But unlike his predecessor in 1906,

Machado had an army
and a powerful police force,

and no qualms about deploying them
against unarmed protesters.

Well, the American reaction wasn't...

The Americans didn't react, the Americans
were concerned about events in Europe,

Hitler and what was happening in Europe,

and they were
more interested in stability in Cuba.

Machado's police force killed a student
leader during a demonstration.

His death lit a fuse.

Havana's university students
joined the demonstrators,

followed by Cuba's intellectual elite.

They accused Machado of being a dictator,
and his regime as "tropical fascism".

[Suchlicki] One of those
was Grau San Martin,

who was a professor of medicine
at the University of Havana.

He was not actively in politics

but he supported his students
who were very active against Machado.

So as result of that,
when Machado's dictatorship fell apart

and the Cuban regime fell apart, the
students looked at Grau as their leader.

As a doctor,
Grau treated poor patients for free.

As a politician, he was also committed

to defending the rights
of the less fortunate.

Grau was arrested several times
for revolutionary activities.

Under the pressure of Machado's regime,

he finally fled Cuba
and sought exile in Miami.

But the riots in Havana continued,
unabated.

[Suchlicki]
In one thing the intellectuals are united

is in their opposition to Machado.

They felt that military regimes
shouldn't develop in Cuba,

Machado was a colonel in the army, he
was developing a military dictatorship.

The burgeoning insurrection in Havana
went barely noticed in eastern Cuba.

After 12 years of marriage,
landowner Ángel Castro

wanted to divorce his wife, María.

He'd been living with his cook, Lina,
for many years.

Their children were growing up
between different worlds.

Fidel and Raúl lived between
the wealth of their father

and the poverty of the Afro-Cuban
sugarcane cutters that worked for him.

And they still bore their mother's name
instead of Castro.

This at least
their father wanted to change.

[Raffy, in French] You have to understand

that this is the bond
that unites the two brothers.

For years, they had no father,

they were not recognized
as legitimate children.

They were bastards, or semi-orphans.

[in German] First and foremost,
Fidel Castro becomes a revolutionary

by rebelling against his father.
Against his father's will,

and especially against the exploitation
of the people who worked for his father.

I mean, he grew up among them,
among the sugarcane cutters,

among the Haitians and so forth.
That's why he is so good with people.

His father had hired them,
but he treated and paid them very badly.

In 1933, Ángel Castro
sent his rebellious son Fidel Castro

to live with a teacher in Santiago,
the biggest town in eastern Cuba.

The elder Castro hopes that this will
guarantee a better education for Fidel,

who is only six years old.

[in French] Life in Biran
was a farmer's life,

and not only a farmer's life,
but a bit archaic.

So obviously Ángel wanted his sons
to go to school, which is important,

but he himself was a man

who perhaps didn't really
see the point of going to school.

In the summer of 1933,
demonstrations against Machado

continue in the streets of Havana.

They were supported
by many Cubans in exile in Miami,

such as Professor Ramón Grau.

In order to quell the rebellion,
President Machado declared martial law.

The regime's opponents were
arrested and tried in military courts.

The minutes of many trials were
taken by a non-commissioned officer

called Fulgencio Batista.

[in Spanish]
Batista had very humble origins.

He was one of the few Cubans
descended from indigenous peoples.

That's why people called him
Batista the Indian.

[in French] Batista's story is as
interesting as that of Fidel Castro.

Batista called himself
a son of the people, which is true,

he came from eastern Cuba,
very close to the Castro farm.

As an NCO of color,

Batista sympathized with
the revolt against Machado.

He was by no means
the only soldier to do so.

[crowd cheers]

In August 1933, the first military men
sided with the rebels.

The generals panicked,
fearing a revolt within the army.

To avoid this, they urged
President Machado to resign.

[Zeuske, in German] The high-ranking
patriotic officers all said,

"We, too, could be president.
It doesn't have to be Gerardo Machado."

That is how he lost his support
among the army.

President Machado fled to his last ally,
the US ambassador to Cuba.

Machado knew that only a US intervention
could save him now.

But instead of backing him,
the US ambassador too,

called for Machado to resign.

Cuba's contested president
saw only one way out.

[in German] A president who
is not generally accepted anymore,

who only nominally has power,

is being guarded in his seat
of government, knows what's going on.

He knows what people outside think,
and what can happen to him.

Cuban political culture demands that you
need to be willing to die for your ideals.

It's expected of him to die,
if he wants to defend his policy.

He has no intention of doing so,
so he flees.

[in Spanish] Once Machado was gone,

the Cuban people believed
that their revolution had won.

But soon, the people,
the intellectuals, the thinkers,

realized that the country
was still the same.

With President Machado gone,
the generals now ruled over Cuba,

and the demonstrations continued.

The military tried in vain
to quell the uprising

by handing out harsh prison sentences
to its leaders.

At these trials, military court
stenographer Fulgencio Batista

got to know many rebel leaders.

Through them, he became familiar

with the rhetoric and arguments
of insurrection.

[Zeuske, in German]
He is extremely well connected,

so he didn't find it hard to convince
other underpaid colored soldiers

to start an uprising against
their white superior officers.

On September 4th, 1933,
Fulgencio Batista made a rousing speech

to soldiers in his barracks,
calling for rebellion.

The non-white soldiers and NCOs arrested
their white officers and generals.

Batista declared himself chief of staff
of the armed forces,

and became a key figure
in Cuba's new power structure.

Batista also called Ramón Grau
back from exile in Miami,

and appointed him president.

[in French] He was subtle.

He preferred to work behind the scenes,
from within Cuba's largest military base.

It was Batista who decided
who would become president.

Not all the officers
surrendered peacefully.

Four hundred of them took refuge
in Havana's Hotel Nacional.

They wanted to plead with the American
ambassador for a US intervention

to put down Batista's coup.

US President Roosevelt mobilized the
army. But he did not want to attack.

Seeing the Hotel Nacional
crowded with his opponents,

Batista sent 2,000 loyal soldiers
to arrest them.

The American ambassador fled
both the hotel and the island.

An American newsreel team was present
when Batista's soldiers opened fire.

[gunfire]

The battle lasted two days,

until the officers within the hotel
ran out of ammunition.

With this victory, Batista eliminated
almost all opposition in one stroke.

Together with President Grau,

he now wanted to
lead Cuba into a brighter future.

The beginning of Grau
ended the fighting,

but began the real revolution
because Grau was young, was idealistic,

and wanted a series of laws
and regulations

which he issued from
the presidential powers,

not through the Constitutional means,
nor Congress,

and so on, he was issuing decrees
weakening the power of the United States.

[crowd cheers]

Grau and Batista
undertook a vast reform program.

They wanted to turn Cuba into
the most modern democracy in the world.

[in German] In one hundred days, they push
through a huge number of reforms.

Women's suffrage, labor laws,
the eight-hour-day, and so on.

In my opinion, no system,
neither then or now,

can sustain one hundred days
of extreme reforms.

Giving workers greater rights
lay at the heart of the reforms.

This was a major concern
for the American companies

that dominated the Cuban economy.

It also worried the US government,
afraid of seeing communism in Cuba.

[in German] If there was a revolution
on Cuba that was entirely unexpected

and that threatened to bring communism
to power, it was this revolution.

It was not Castro's revolution.

The mass revolution on Cuba
happened from 1933 to 1935.

The United States did not see it coming at
all, and did not want to see it succeed.

When Batista ordered his soldiers
to open fire against the Hotel Nacional,

the United States did not intervene.

But when President Grau
introduced new labor laws,

they sent their ambassador
with an ultimatum to Batista.

[in Russian]
All politicians have the same concern.

They want to stay in power.

When Batista had to be a leftist,
he aligned with the communists.

When it was more profitable to ally
with the US, during the Cold War,

he didn't hesitate to switch sides
to get their support.

The United States was concerned about
what was happening in Cuba

and they saw Batista
as a stabilizing force,

the guy that could control Cuban society,

so Batista decided, with American
support, to get rid of Grau.

Batista switched sides, and sacrificed
his revolutionary comrade Grau.

On January 15th, 1934,

Batista forced President Grau to resign,
after only four months in office.

Batista annulled most of the reforms,
and installed a new president.

And then another. And another.

In Havana, as in Washington,

no one had any doubts
as to who was running the show in Cuba.

Fulgencio Batista.

Batista emerges at that time
as the de facto leader of Cuba.

Not a popular leader
but he controlled the military

and, through the military,
he controlled Cuba.

Batista's army upheld order in Cuba.

The United States' fear of seeing
communism in Cuba was allayed.

And even for most Cubans,

Batista's regime was preferable to the
chaos of revolution that had preceded it.

[in French] From the moment
that Cuba's communist ministers

were under the control of Batista,

of someone whom the United States trusted,
there was no more opposition.

[in Spanish] His prize was to become
dictator of Cuba,

but not directly,
because it was not possible.

He appointed an old man
as president of the republic,

under the control of the United States.

Batista had the trust
of the US government.

However, he also continued
to work on the reforms

he had once promised the Cuban people.

One by one, Batista reintroduced these
and many other reforms

over the next few years,
such as more rights for workers,

women's suffrage, the eight-hour day.

(Zeuske, in German]
Batista was very well liked back then.

He helped the underprivileged,
especially those of color.

He creates health programs, he even
pushed through a land reform program.

The seeds of everything that Fidel Castro
will do later on, on a much bigger scale,

were already sown by Batista.

But Batista's greatest achievement
came in May 1934.

By this time, he had only been
Cuba's strongman for seven months.

He forged a new treaty
with the United States,

and removed their right to intervene
in Cuba from the island's constitution.

Cuba was still under the thumb
of its military leader,

but for the first time in its history,
it was a free and independent country.

And so began the Batista era.

It was not,
nor would it be for years to come,

the brutal and reactionary dictatorship

that Cuba's next revolution
would overthrow in 1959.