CUBA: ‘August Revolution

The whole cucumber-shaped island of Cuba seethed with strikes and street fights this week. President Gerardo Machado, who fortnight ago restored Constitutional guarantees (suspended since 1930) to facilitate the mediation of U. S. Ambassador Sumner Welles between the Government and oppositionists (TIME, June rushed home from a fishing trip to proclaim: “I hereby declare Cuba in a state of intense agitation! The military may assist in preserving order in whatever manner necessary.” By this time Havana was becoming slowly paralyzed by the growth of a series of strikes which began last week among bus drivers, spread to waterfront workers, slaughterhouse and market men, newspaper staffs, telegraphers, railway employes and the staffs of Havana’s best hotels. Suspicion was rife that the Government, fearing Mediator Welles was about to exact the resignation of President Machado. had sent agents provocateurs to foment the original strikes, thinking that a little trouble would give Dictator Machado an excuse to order out the Army and fight to keep his power. Day after day, as strikes spread far beyond the Government’s possible wish, Havana police grew more & more frantic. When strikers forced shopkeepers to close their doors, Police Chief Antonio Ainciart set out with a machine gun squad. Swearing blue blazes he brandished a big pistol under shopkeepers’ noses, compelled them to open up—until a few minutes after he had left when they tremblingly lowered the steel shutters in front of their windows again. Police on the loose peppered the shutters of several shops with machine gun bullets, rode about Havana at night firing into the air and were accused of shooting down both Oppositionists and bystanders in ruthless efforts to obey Chief Ainciart’s order: “Break the strikes!’ Tourist steamers, fearing to dock at Havana, passed up the port. Supplies of meat, bread, oils, beer and other Cuban necessities ran alarmingly low, while prices skyrocketed. With panic spreading, Cubans remembered that Mediator Welles delivered in Havana two months ago a message from the White House in which President Roosevelt said: “I am convinced that the restoration of political peace is a necessary and preliminary step on the way to Cuba’s economic recovery.” Last week the Oppositionists, though their leaders still maintained contact with Mediator Welles, broadcast throughout Cuba from a pirate radio station: “Make these August strikes the August Revolution!” Ambassador Welles, after keeping completely mum through a long series of conferences with President Machado, finally said, “The situation is so grave that it is impossible to forecast what may develop.” Ambassador Welles was correct. Few days later on a false rumor that President Machado had resigned, all Havana went wild with joy. Huge crowds poured into the streets in celebration. The police poured lead into the crowds. Dozens were killed, some around the capitol, some near the President’s Palace, some before Sloppy Joe’s famed saloon. Hospitals were so busy with the wounded that no one answered telephone inquiries. As Cuba entered this week the end of President Machado’s bloody reign seemed definitely in sight.