p_p_man
The 'Euro' European
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2001
- Posts
- 24,253
Only a quick potted history but behind it you have to remember the corruption, prostitution and petty crime that ordinary Cubans were forced into because of their abject poverty...
Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar
"Batista was well liked by American interests, who feared Grau’s liberal social and economic revolution and saw him as a stabilizing force with respect for American interests. It was in this time period that Batista formed a renowned friendship and business relationship with gangster Meyer Lansky that lasted over three decades.
Through Lansky, the mafia knew they had a friend in Cuba. Gangster Lucky Luciano, after being deported to Italy in 1946, went to Havana with a false passport. A summit at Havana’s Hotel Nacional, with mobsters such as Frank Costello, Vito Genovese, Santo Trafficante Jr., Moe Dalitz and others, confirmed Luciano’s authority over the U.S. mob, and coincided with Frank Sinatra’s singing debut in Havana. It was here that Lansky gave permission to kill Bugsy Siegel for skimming construction money from the Flamingo in Las Vegas.
Batista opened the way for large-scale gambling in Havana, and he reorganized the Cuban state so that he and his political appointees could harvest the nation’s riches. He announced that his government would match, dollar for dollar, any hotel investment over $1 million, which would include a casino license, and Lansky became the center of the entire Cuban gambling operation.
Under Batista, Cuba became profitable for American business and organized crime. Havana became the “Latin Las Vegas,” a playground of choice for wealthy gamblers, and very little was said about democracy, or the rights of the average Cuban. Opposition was swiftly and violently crushed, and many began to fear the new government.
For a price, Batista handed contracts to dozens of U.S. corporations for massive construction projects, such as the Havana-Varadero highway, the Rancho Boyeros airport, train lines, the power company and a strange plan to dig a canal across Cuba.
Due to popular unrest, and to apease his U.S. friends, Batista held a mock election in which he was the only legal candidate. He won, becoming president of Cuba in 1954. Cubans, however, had learned not to trust him, and were demanding new, legitimate elections.
But the seeds of the revolution had already sprouted a stronger, determined movement [led by Fidel Castro] that would not allow the future of the Cuban nation to remain in the hands of gangsters and corrupt politicians.
Then as Castro's revolutionary army grew nearer to Havana...
"On January 1, 1959, after formally resigning his position in Cuba’s government, and after going through what historian Hugh Thomas describes as “a charade of handing over power” to his representatives, his remaining family and closest associates boarded a plane at 3 a.m. at Camp Colombia and flew to Ciudad Trujillo, capital of the Dominican Republic."
"Throughout the night various flights out of Camp Colombia took Batista’s friends and high officials to Miami, New York, New Orleans and Jacksonville. Batista’s brother “Panchín,” governor of Havana, left several hours later, and Meyer Lansky, suffering from ill health, also flew out that night. There was no provision made for the thousands of other Cubans who had worked with Batista’s regime.
Batista died in 1975."
I wonder what some of those Cubans in Miami would say if you asked them about their family history on the island?
ppman
Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar
"Batista was well liked by American interests, who feared Grau’s liberal social and economic revolution and saw him as a stabilizing force with respect for American interests. It was in this time period that Batista formed a renowned friendship and business relationship with gangster Meyer Lansky that lasted over three decades.
Through Lansky, the mafia knew they had a friend in Cuba. Gangster Lucky Luciano, after being deported to Italy in 1946, went to Havana with a false passport. A summit at Havana’s Hotel Nacional, with mobsters such as Frank Costello, Vito Genovese, Santo Trafficante Jr., Moe Dalitz and others, confirmed Luciano’s authority over the U.S. mob, and coincided with Frank Sinatra’s singing debut in Havana. It was here that Lansky gave permission to kill Bugsy Siegel for skimming construction money from the Flamingo in Las Vegas.
Batista opened the way for large-scale gambling in Havana, and he reorganized the Cuban state so that he and his political appointees could harvest the nation’s riches. He announced that his government would match, dollar for dollar, any hotel investment over $1 million, which would include a casino license, and Lansky became the center of the entire Cuban gambling operation.
Under Batista, Cuba became profitable for American business and organized crime. Havana became the “Latin Las Vegas,” a playground of choice for wealthy gamblers, and very little was said about democracy, or the rights of the average Cuban. Opposition was swiftly and violently crushed, and many began to fear the new government.
For a price, Batista handed contracts to dozens of U.S. corporations for massive construction projects, such as the Havana-Varadero highway, the Rancho Boyeros airport, train lines, the power company and a strange plan to dig a canal across Cuba.
Due to popular unrest, and to apease his U.S. friends, Batista held a mock election in which he was the only legal candidate. He won, becoming president of Cuba in 1954. Cubans, however, had learned not to trust him, and were demanding new, legitimate elections.
But the seeds of the revolution had already sprouted a stronger, determined movement [led by Fidel Castro] that would not allow the future of the Cuban nation to remain in the hands of gangsters and corrupt politicians.
Then as Castro's revolutionary army grew nearer to Havana...
"On January 1, 1959, after formally resigning his position in Cuba’s government, and after going through what historian Hugh Thomas describes as “a charade of handing over power” to his representatives, his remaining family and closest associates boarded a plane at 3 a.m. at Camp Colombia and flew to Ciudad Trujillo, capital of the Dominican Republic."
"Throughout the night various flights out of Camp Colombia took Batista’s friends and high officials to Miami, New York, New Orleans and Jacksonville. Batista’s brother “Panchín,” governor of Havana, left several hours later, and Meyer Lansky, suffering from ill health, also flew out that night. There was no provision made for the thousands of other Cubans who had worked with Batista’s regime.
Batista died in 1975."
I wonder what some of those Cubans in Miami would say if you asked them about their family history on the island?
ppman
