Social Security benefits were increased. But prosperity increased corruption. Nepotism and favoritism flourished. Urban violence, a legacy of the early s, reappeared as gangsterismo. The reformist zeal of his first administration had diminished considerable. He himself seemed softened after years of exile and frustration and was regarded by many as having betrayed the ideals of the Revolution of Grau then virtually withdrew from public life.
After the Revolution of , he retired to his home in Havana, where he died. The Ortodoxos were particularly popular and influential because of. As the current U. There were no major social or political problems similar. The Cuban Studies Institute objectives are to preserve and disseminate the history and culture of Cuba. Skip to content. The Cuban Studies Institute Publications. Jaime Suchlicki. He is a highly regarded consultant to the public and private sector.
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Elevated to education minister in , the erstwhile chief of budgets and accounts quickly padded his briefcase. When that was full, he employed a suitcase. With his ill-gotten gains, he acquired a finca 12 miles south of Havana and prime Miami real estate for starters. Its budget was swollen beyond that of other ministries by a ninecentavo tax on each bag of sugar produced, the result of a law passed on April 5, This endeared him to the austere ex physiology professor who eschewed cigarettes, alcohol and even snacks between meals but devoured flattery with abandon.
After Grau won the presidency, these violent organizations sought government positions and pursued deadly rivalries among themselves.
They also engaged in lucrative rackets, such as monopolizing the sale of textbooks at the University of Havana. In this manner, he increased the available resources for his own purposes. The intermittent scarcity of goods such as rice, lard, flour, meat and milk had originally begun in , when the United States entered World War II.
Now, more than a year after the fight had ended, Cubans continued to endure shortages and black market prices. One letter described how a treasury ministry employee bought sacks of cement at the officially controlled price of 98 centavos and subsequently sold them for three pesos each on the black market. This involved billing shopkeepers for one quantity while delivering a much smaller amount. As a result, local stores faced a dilemma: break the law and sell items at higher than the official price so as not to lose money or avoid vending them altogether.
As a result, both rice and soap were unavailable at official prices. This was especially imperative now, while sugar prices were high, so that Cuba would have other options when profits inevitably dropped.
After all, sugar growing rivals such as the Philippines, whose capacity had been largely destroyed during World War II, would not stay down indefinitely.
At the same time, both ministers were determined to resist appearing before the senate. Truly amigos, the constitution is charging me for more than the amount on the bill. Acting with great efficiency, he shut down the factory and said only that he was acting on orders from above.
Right now, the congress is bothering me a great deal because it too smells horribly. For example, a sketch by Juan David portrayed Grau and the Republican senator Guillermo Alonso Pujol speaking to each other behind gas masks.
Two days later, as the senate awaited him, Casas sent word that he would not attend his interpellation. Once again flouting the document he helped draft, Grau elevated deputies in each ministry and made no secret of his intention to restore the original cabinet when the senate recessed. The UIR leader was unhurt, as he had not been inside. Shortly thereafter, Avila was shot to death in a Vedado bodega. As a result, an arrest warrant for Tro was issued on September Tro, Padierne and a few other UIR deputies had arrived there earlier for lunch.
Grau himself was not receiving visitors owing to an illness that had left him feverish and 20 pounds lighter than usual. This led to the dispatch of a mechanized troop unit to the area. General Ruperto Cabrera promptly gave those inside 10 minutes to hand themselves over and pledged to safeguard their lives.
After the house was bombarded with tear gas, figures appeared in the windows waving white cloths and shouting for the police to hold fire as women and children would be exiting. They were immediately whisked away to the military hospital. It was now approaching 6 p. As hundreds of thousands listened intently, expecting a reasonable finale to an unreasonable situation, they were shocked to find the police had murdered first Mrs.
The following week, Grau was universally berated. What has the president of the republic reaped with his ineffective behavior? Three years ago he was the popular idol, the smiling hope of a nation anxious for administrative honesty, a civilian government, the realization of the incomplete program genuinely drawn up in the constitution of Today, he contemplates unpopularity, he looks on as his powerful party has split, he must ponder the vibrant, admonitory voices raised against him in congress without a single member coming to his defense, he must confront how badly people react when they see his image during newsreels at the cinema and ever since the events at Orfila he should perceive how other forces are gaining popularity, ones in which the Cuban people previously never would have placed their faith.
But…will there be money? Just as Cuervo had been patiently amassing documents, Grau had been collecting a list of grievances against his onetime prime minister. El Viejo extracted swift revenge for this broken promise during a Bohemia interview published on January As Justiniani had promised, the burglary of his office nine and a half months earlier had not derailed or even substantially delayed the case.
Grau, on the other hand, defiantly remained in his Miramar mansion and had refused to run for public office as a way of avoiding prosecution. Judge Justiniani answered his regular protestations of innocence with a carefully researched brief, covering 17 pages, offering Cubans extensive evidence to the contrary. Ultimately, this was the crux of unprecedented and by now well publicized acts of shamelessness. Mostly, they were treated to a series of zany explanations and thinly veiled barbs.
For example, the erstwhile physiologist asserted that:. I am willing to demonstrate publicly how I acquired my properties. They are a product of my own hard work, in caring for my patients and through long nights of study. By the same token, I will demand on the radio, in the press and on the street that everyone does the same as I! Let them show how they entered into official positions without a centavo and later on, how they enjoy lots of money! This was precisely why the trial promised to be so tricky.
And here you see the consequences! Not surprisingly, he was in a jovial mood and received him with alacrity. Cuba must do everything it can to change the prevailing mentality so that the public believes robbing the treasury is infinitely more dangerous than robbing a bank.
We cannot continue with the same moral dissolution our country has suffered since it became independent, in which government employees, after occupying their posts for some time, become fabulously wealthy. Grau, of course, never acted upon his lofty oratory. When I took office, the treasury ministry was the scandal of Cuba. It took me more than a year to clean up the embarrassments there. I received a nation in debt so extreme that no supplier was willing to provide medicine to the sick, food for the imprisoned and cement or treenails for public works.
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