FULGENCIO BATISTA: THE FIRST COUP FEBRUARY, 5TH, 1934

Machado’s most foolish move was the act to protect himself in office. His moves to gain a tighter grip on our country and extend his term are reoccurring mistakes in our political history. He should have learned from when our first president, Tomas Estrada Palma was revolted against in 1906 after trying to extend his term. Cuban people are not fond of being blatantly or forcibly oppressed, the end result is often a revolt, and this reoccurring theme in our history shall teach how to do my business with the government in my political future. I will opt to take a more behind the scenes route instead of seizing the most powerful position. There is no real reason for me to subject myself to being the possible scapegoat for criticism during hard times, further subjected myself to possible expulsion from the government. Although I now have this choice of how I handle my business in this already powerful position, there is a reason I get to make this choice. I have seized the majority of the government and have successfully overthrown presidents and placed my first puppets in place all at the hands of my famous plan they are now calling the “revolt of the sergeants.” To further elaborate I have recently led a military coup against the government specifically Machado and his liberal policies.
As it is well known by my followers, after my entry to the army, I have raised myself to the rank of sergeant, and in recent years I have been appointed as the leader of the group of sergeants who were discontented about Machado. It was after national dissent had increased to topple Machado and expel him from office, in August 1933, that my fellow sergeants and I decided to join student rebels to replace Machado’s successor, Carlos Manuel De Cespedes y Quesada. The replacement of the now president would not prove to be as easy however. The seize of power would come down to a bloody siege at the Hotel Nacional, where despite heavy losses my men were able to prevail against the officers supporting the transitional government which was the last step in gaining control of the government. After these events, It was on September 4, 1933 that we had finally gained total control, and I proceeded to place myself at the rank of Colonel and the Chief of the Army, which has obviously been instrumental in my plan to increase military influence in our government. At this position, along with the majority in the government I controlled, I effectively ensued to control the presidency. Aside form my own position, I placed, as recently stated, my first puppet, Ramon Grau San Martin, a professor from the University of Havana, at the helm of the presidency.
Although San Martin was used as my initial puppet, it was after a meeting with US ambassador Sumner Welles, and much egging on and persuasion by him that I had decided to take Martin out and replace him with Medieta. Shortly after, as hinted by Mr. Welles, the US government recognized our new government as legitimate. Now my most recent moves have consisted of striking deals with the US to ensure our country’s sugar sales and remove the slightly more palpable aspects of US control. This recent move has been my most successful and has increased my popularity tremendously. For now the situation is stable and Mendieta will be my president.

PLAT AMENDMENT

These Americans are finally leaving our country. We can finally start to become our own nation free from foreign powerhouses. This new Plat amendment does not give us complete freedom from America but we get some. We are allowed to have our own president and start to build up our economy, I can now sell my crops to more people. I do have to give some of the sugar I grow to the Americans for nothing so they can improve their economy. I do not like giving away my hard work away for free to people that are not even part of my own nation. I would give my food to the nation if they needed it but not to a completely different country that has done nothing except imperialize our nation. Soon enough we will have our own nation completely. Instead of having to listen to any one else. This is the first step in a movement to get our independence. I know that Cuba is still not a completely independent nation, but this is the first step. America has not completely left our nation yet but they are on their way to let us be our own nation. Now America is saying that our sugar is their sugar. They are taking our sugar that we have worked extremely hard to grow. The Americans are taking a significant portion of our crop to sell in their own markets. They want to try and improve their economy from our crops. The Americans think that we owe them something even though they have only imperialized our nation. We do not need the Americans to help grow our economy. I am aware that many proclaim they're just trying to help us however I believe it is just a further form of imperialism, after all they are exploiting us for our goods to a degree.
Although I complain it is true that the agreement has substantially diminished American hegemony and I should be thankful. But I will never be completely satisfied with this agreement until America and their Imperialist ways are out of my country. We do not even have our own government yet, they are still able to intervene whenever they want to try to keep the independence or make the government good enough to be able to keep stand of living at a high level. The Americans also want to use our land to hold their naval bases. They will never leave our nation if we let them use all of resources. They have set up warships outside our country in the waters to make sure we can never have a revolutionary army. They do not even trust that we will not try to over throw their government. I hope soon enough that we will have enough people who feel strong about our nation for them to finally leave our country once and for all. We are not aloud to gain debt as a nation so we can not try to improve our economy our selves. Our nation can also not make treaties to any one. If our government thinks that another country is similar to ours and we want to make treaties we can not. The Americans believe that we might make a treaty with a country that wants to harm America. They expect that Russia may come into our country so they are closer to America and can be able to invade and bomb them.
The most selfish part of the agreement that they made is they are allowed to intervene in the Cuban policies if they feel the policies are not in the best interest of America. If they do not like what we are doing they can come in and change what were doing. America also wants to control Guantanamo Bay, one of the islands surrounding our country. They want it so they are able to secure a naval base.