| Gerardo Machado |
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| machado, gerardo | |
| 1871 births | |
| 1939 deaths | |
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Gerardo Machado y Morales ( September 28 , 1871 , Camajuani – March 29 , 1939 , Miami Beach , Florida ) was a Cuban general of the Cuban War Of Independence and the 5th President Of Cuba (1925-1933). He was from the central provinces and poor background, he was said to have been a cattle rustler before he joined the fight for independence. A butcher in his youth, he had only three fingers on his left hand. He married cousin Elvira Machado Nodal; they had three daughters; Laudelina (Nena), Angela Elvira and Berta {Link without Title} . WAR EXPERIENCE He was one of the youngest (1858-1921) who also was president on the Liberal Party ticket and José De Jesus Monteagudo who would later defeat the disorganized black separatist forces of Evaristo Estenoz and Pedro Ivonet win the 1912 Race War and cruelly crush this rebellion [http://dodgson.ucsd.edu/las/cuba/1912-1929.htm . Machado, said to the party's War leader in Las Villas province, fought on the defeated Liberal side in the 1917 "Little War of February 1917” La Chambelona ( Chambelona War ), with José Miguel Gómez , Alfredo Zayas and with Enrique Loynaz Del Castillo . Calixto Enamorado fought on the Conservative side. After the initial victories of the Liberals, things turned worse. Yet Machado continued to fight even after the Liberals lost to the machine guns of Colonel Rosendo Collazo at Caicaje once the hacienda of Santiago Saura Orraque [http://genealogia.hbpomares.com/html/cuba/remedios/diccionario/diccionario_S.htm and Juan Manuel Perez de la Cruz on 8th of March until his cause was unsustainable and surrendered [http://www.islasi.com/archivo/fuiqui_fuiqui.html . President , worried about Mexico and Pancho Villa , and the loss of able general, Menocal's friend and Cuba hand Frederick Funston had one less distraction on his hands. Menocal declared war on Germany April 7 of that same year. John J. Pershing , less tactful than Funston, in the Cuban circumstance, would be sent first to Mexico and then Europe. POLITICAL LIFE A and running as a Liberal Party candidate, he defeated Mario García Menocal of the Conservative Party by an overwhelming majority to become Cuba's 5th president. He took office as President Of Cuba on May 20 , 1925 and left office on August 12 , 1933 . Elected at the time of a fall in world sugar prices, he was a Cuban industrialist and member of the political elite of the Liberal Party. Machado was an economic reformer who tried to wean Cuba off of its heavy reliance on the sugar industry and resultant dependency on the United States. His presidency saw the passage of the Vejeda Act of 1926, a failed attempt to raise sugar prices by cutting production, and the Customs-Tariff Law of 1927, a successful attempt to encourage the diversification of Cuban industry. Machado was determined to modernize Cuba he constructed the Central Highway [http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/funfacts/highway.htm . Politically he was less adroit, he determined to make Cuba the "Switzerland of the Americas" he became despotic and forced his way into a second term. By this time Machado had become an equal opportunity tyrant as documented by in the US. It was in these turbulent times when Machado ruled that Cuban links to the Stalinist Communist International were made for the first time by Fabio Grobart [http://www.angelfire.com/hi5/cubaqui/zayas.html . Although Machado is said to have ordered the murder of defecting communist Julio Antonio Mella in Mexico this murder is generally conceded to have been carried out by the Stalinist faction of the Communist International who were in a death struggle with the followers of Leon Trotsky . The actual assassination was done by an Action Group that included notorious communist Assassin Vittorio Vidali . Trotsky was eventually also murdered in that country by communist assassin Ramón Mercader . MACHADO LOSES POWER In Cuba, Machado engaged in a long struggle with diverse insurgent groups which varied from the green shirts of the ABC to . He died in Miami and is buried there at Woodlawn Park North Cemetery and Mausoleum. [http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/dolgoff/cubanrevolution/chapter5.html . REFERENCES Memoirs and papers Machado y Morales, Gerardo (written in 1936 published in 1957 and later) Ocho años de lucha – memorias. Ediciones Universales, {Link without Title} and Ediciones Historicas Cubanas. Miami ISBN 0-89729-328-2 ISBN 0-89729-328-2 A collection Gerardo Machado’s papers have been digitized by the Cuban Heritage Collection Digitizing Project of the University of Miami {Link without Title} . General references
Perez, Louis A. Jr. "Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution." Third Edition. New York/Oxford:Oxford University Press, 2006
Chambelona
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