For 124 years, the United States' intentions toward Cuba have been clear since the proclamation on May 20, 1902, of a puppet republic that mocked the Cuban independence sentiment. What was born was a neocolony of the nascent, turbulent, and brutal Northern empire that despises us.
The raising of the Cuban national flag at the old Palace of the Captains General in Havana marked the end of the U.S. military occupation, ushered in a new government with a president subservient to its interests, and a Constitution bound to Washington's dictates by the Platt Amendment.
The leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, would later point out that "the worst thing about the Amendment was the hypocrisy, the deceit, the Machiavellianism, and the cynicism with which they crafted the plan to seize control of Cuba." The pretext of the timely and mysterious explosion of the battleship Maine in Havana Bay had "justified" to the world, through the media, the American intervention when the Spanish metropolis could no longer sustain the war, either militarily or economically, against the burgeoning Cuban Liberation Army.
The American occupation was a severe blow to the independence for which the Cuban people had fought for over 30 years, and which the war against Spanish colonialism had practically won by the Mambises. Through deception and false promises, their victory was stolen, and the Mambises were not even allowed to enter Santiago de Cuba.
Prevented from entering the eastern capital to participate in the Spanish surrender in 1898, under the pretext of possible Cuban reprisals against the Spanish, General Calixto García addressed a forceful protest to U.S. General William Shafter. In it, he stated: “We are not a savage people ignorant of the principles of civilized warfare; we form a poor and ragged army, as poor and ragged as the army of your ancestors in their noble war for the independence of the United States of America; but, like the heroes of Saratoga and Yorktown, we respect our cause too much to stain it with barbarism and cowardice.” The American military occupation, “legitimized” before the powers of the time by the Treaty of Paris of December 10, 1898, allowed the United States to formally take possession of Cuba on January 1, 1899. John R. Brooke was imposed as military governor and divided the country into seven departments, leaving a general of the occupying army in charge of each one, reserving supreme authority for himself.
The other occupation began immediately, with the influx of American capital into sectors such as the tobacco, sugar, and mining industries, in open competition with British economic interests on the island. On December 20, 1899, General Leonard Wood, governor of Santiago de Cuba, replaced Brooke as governor of the island. Brooke strengthened American control over the economic sectors and set out to "Americanize" Cuba through a prolonged occupation.
The rigged presidential elections of 1901 were a prime example of Washington's manipulation. Generals Máximo Gómez, who led the Cuban independence forces, and Bartolomé Masó, also involved in the struggle, withdrew their candidacies due to the distortions of the process, and the traitor Tomás Estrada Palma was elected president.
Estrada Palma had succeeded José Martí as Delegate of the Cuban Revolutionary Party to fight for independence, but after the American occupation, he dissolved the party, closed its newspaper Patria, and played a significant role in the demobilization of the Liberation Army and the Revolution's leadership, facilitating the tutelage of the great power and even a possible annexation.
On May 20, 1902, the patriot Juan Gualberto Gómez, linked to the 1895 liberation struggle, warned the Cuban people in the magazine El Fígaro that “more than ever, we must persist in demanding our mutilated sovereignty; and to achieve it, it is essential to once again adopt, in the evolution of our public life, the guiding ideas and methods advocated by Martí.”
The outgoing American military governor, Leonard Wood, declared at the time, without hesitation or shame, that “of course Cuba has been left with little or no independence with the Platt Amendment, and the only thing indicated now is annexation. It is quite evident that it is absolutely in our hands. With control, which will undoubtedly soon become possession, we will practically control the sugar trade in the world. The island will gradually become Americanized, and in due course, we will have one of the richest and most desirable possessions in the world.”
Near the end of his term as president, Estrada Palma decided to be re-elected, for which he used the force of power and fraud. This prompted the followers of the Liberal Party to take up arms. When he realized that the popular revolt threatened to overthrow him, he preferred to request a new military intervention from the American government.
For nearly three years, from 1906 until January 28, 1909, the island remained under U.S. military administration.In the elections called by the second U.S. military intervention on November 14, 1908, José Miguel Gómez was elected, and his government oversaw the violent repression of the Independent Colored Movement in 1912. It wasn't until January 1, 1959, with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, that the island achieved its definitive independence, which we, the honorable Cuban people, have continued to defend ever since against the attempts and threats of the same enemy to the North, always ready to inflict new defeats upon us.