Cuban government.

[11]

Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution

Until Castro, the US was so overwhelmingly influential in Cuba that the American
ambassador was the second most important man, sometimes even more important than the
Cuban president.

— Earl E. T. Smith, former American Ambassador to Cuba, during 1960 testimony to the US
Senate[12]

In March 1952, a Cuban general and politician, Fulgencio Batista, seized power on the island,
proclaimed himself president, and deposed the discredited president Carlos Prío Socarrás of
the Partido Auténtico. Batista canceled the planned presidential elections and described his
new system as "disciplined democracy." Although Batista gained some popular support,
many Cubans saw it as the establishment of a one-man dictatorship.[13][14][15][16] Many
opponents of the Batista regime took to armed rebellion in an attempt to oust the government,
sparking the Cuban Revolution. One of these groups was the National Revolutionary
Movement (Movimiento Nacional Revolucionario), a militant organization containing largely
middle-class members that had been founded by the Professor of Philosophy Rafael García
Bárcena.[17][18][19] Another was the Directorio Revolucionario Estudantil, which had been
founded by the Federation of University Students President José Antonio Echevarría.[20][21][22]
However, the best known of these anti-Batista groups was the "26th of July Movement"
(MR-26-7), founded by Fidel Castro. With Castro as the MR-26-7's head, the organization
was based upon a clandestine cell system, with each cell containing ten members, none of
whom knew the whereabouts or activities of the other cells.[23][24][25]

Between December 1956 and 1959, Castro led a guerrilla army against the forces of Batista
from his base camp in the Sierra Maestra mountains. Batista's repression of revolutionaries
had earned him widespread unpopularity, and by 1958 his armies were in retreat. On 31
December 1958, Batista resigned and fled into exile, taking with him an amassed fortune of
more than US$300,000,000.[26][27][28] The presidency fell to Castro's chosen candidate, the
lawyer Manuel Urrutia Lleó, while members of the MR-26-7 took control of most positions
in the cabinet.[29][30][31] On 16 February 1959, Castro took on the role of Prime Minister.[32][33]
Dismissing the need for elections, Castro proclaimed the new administration an example of
direct democracy, in which the Cuban populace could assemble en masse at demonstrations
and express their democratic will to him personally.[34] Critics instead condemned the new
regime as un-democratic.[35]