What Are Batista's Oppressive Regime And Opposition

Batista’s Oppressive Regime and Opposition
Not only was Batista’s government corrupt, it was also oppressive towards the people. The first thing he did that deeply upset the Cuban people was his suspension of the 1940 constitution. The 1940 constitution was the foundation for fundamental rights. The constitution provided Cuban citizens with basic rights such as the freedom of speech and religion. The question one should ask is why did Batista oppose something he once supported? The reason he suspended the 1940 constitution, was to properly display to the people of Cuba his new image as dictator. Dictator by definition is a ruler who has absolute and unrestricted control in government. The word absolute is key to understanding the reason behind
the suspension of the constitution. Batista made sure he was the only person with a say. He needed to have absolute power of the country, this meant no opposition. As citizens of any country one should know their rights granted to them by their constitution. Part of the 1940 constitution was freedom of speech, which meant that the people had a right to say how they felt about Batista’s staged coup.
Freedom of speech also meant that political activist groups could rise up against Batista and get support from enough people to begin a revolution. Batista did not want any opposition against his dictatorial regime, therefore he suspended the constitution that allowed people to use their fundamental right to speak up. However, Batista did not intimidate everyone. The students of Havana University were the most outspoken in Cuba. These students were led by Fidel Castro. They led riots and protests against Batista’s regime. An example of a student led protest was when they buried the constitution in the ground, which represented that democracy no longer existed. Batista did not like this, and he didn’t want the aggression within these groups to keep growing because it would be detrimental to his regime. Batista’s measures to ensure that rebellion would cease were gruesomely terrible. He would strap a bomb to a student and explode him in front of the media, to send the message to all students that if they continued with their protests that would happen to every single one of them. However, this created the opposite effect. These ‘scare’ tactics just encouraged these students to protest even more, and their plans to
overthrow the Batista government became stronger. That being said, Batista’s regime was fully indulged in police brutality. Cuba was in a state of complete police control, which spread terror in every citizen of the island. In the book, The Real CIA, former executive director of the CIA Lyman B. Kirkpatrick, Jr. writes about all his experiences in the CIA. In chapter seven of the book, Lyman describes his experience in Cuba when he flew to the island in order to help the government establish a way to fight communism in the years 1956, 1957, and 1958. During those years, Lyman witnessed the ‘deterioration of Batista’s strength’. In this chapter, Lyman describes a story of police brutality, of which he got pictures from. A schoolteacher and her male student had been arrested on suspicion of plotting against Batista’s government. Both of them were tortured in prison, the teacher being severely beaten as well as the student who was beaten into unconsciousness. As Lyman says, “the doctor who treated the woman said he had never seen a human body more mistreated. He had taken the pictures because there was still some who did not believe or realize what was going on.” (The Real Cia). Cases like these caused people to turn against Batista and seek change. It is estimated that 10,000-20,000 people were murdered under Batista’s regime. As Dave Frederickson says, “He ran the country like a dictator and the real issue was that he had the entire military and police force as his security blanket.” (WSU)