Background
Gerardo Machado y Morales was born on 28 September 1871 in Camajuaní. He had a very poor childhood, working for many years in a butcher shop; prior to the War of Independence in 1895, he and his father were cattle rustlers.
Gerardo Machado y Morales was born on 28 September 1871 in Camajuaní. He had a very poor childhood, working for many years in a butcher shop; prior to the War of Independence in 1895, he and his father were cattle rustlers.
He had little op¬portunity for a formal education.
During the years immediately before he entered politics, he managed the Cuban branch of General Electric.
Machado entered politics as mayor of Santa Clara. Later, he joined the cabinet of José Miguel Gómez, where he gained a reputation for toughness when he suppressed a strike of sewage workers. In 1924 he was nominated for the presidency by the Liberal Party and won handily.
In September 1930 protests exploded at the University of Havana, led by the left-leaning Student Directorate. Machado responded by closing the campus and suspending constitutional guarantees. Earlier, he had suspended public meetings by political groups not legally approved by the government. When the army broke up one such “illegal” meeting, eight people were killed. In November 1930 nationwide anti-Machado protests led to the closing of all Cuban schools.
Two months later Machado had the entire membership of the Student Directorate arrested and imprisoned.
In August 1931 two leaders of the more moderate opposition, Carlos Mendieta and Mario García Menocal, initiated an unsuccessful rebellion against Machado. Also in 1931 Machado created the Porra, a special paramilitary force to dispose of enemies of the government. For its part, the secret political organization, ABC, sought through the use of terror to counter the violence of Machado and his Porra. Throughout 1932 violence became commonplace in the streets of Cuba’s cities. Constitutional guarantees were suspended again in mid-June.
The new U.S. president, Franklin Roosevelt, appointed Sumner Welles as U.S. ambassador to Cuba, with the mission of bringing stability to Cuba by mediating between Machado and the factions opposing him. After weeks of negotiations failed to find a solution that would keep Machado in power, the beleaguered dictator fled the country in August 1933.
The first two years of Machado’s presidency indicated that he might purge the corruption of his predecessors. His first cabinet contained many highly respected men. He proposed a public works bill that called for building a central highway and construction of a national capitol. In 1926 Machado sponsored the Verdeja Act, which was intended to control sugar production and prevent the periodically disastrous drop in sugar prices. He also pressed for construction of much needed technical schools. In late 1926 Gerardo Machado was one of the most popular presidents in the history of Cuba.
In 1927 Machado, riding a wave of national popularity persuaded a compliant legislature to reform the Constitution to permit him to run for reelection in 1928 and, if successful, to serve a six-year term. This produced a wave of protest from students at the University of Havana. As Machado’s rule became more strong-handed, the labor unions and the new Communist Party also opposed his regime. However, his prestige soared in 1928 when he hosted the Sixth International Conference of American States and entertained U.S. President Calvin Coolidge. Later in 1928 Machado was reelected, after barring his only serious rival, Carlos Mendieta y Montefur. from participating in the election.
As Machado began his second term, the economy appeared robust, and he enjoyed the strong support of Washington. However, with the onset ol the Depression, sugar prices plummeted from 2.18 cents in 1928 to 1.23 cents per pound in 1930. The economy and the nation were devastated.
