Rufo López Fresquet (1911 – August 2, 1983) was a distinguished

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

who became

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 2 ...

's first

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

from 1959 to 1960. Married to an American, his wife and sons Antonio and Victor fled to the United States in 1960. He later wrote a book, ''My 14 Months with Castro'', that attempted to shed light on the origins of the

Cuban revolution The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in cour ...

and the reasons behind Castro's new government becoming

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

. As Minister of the Treasury, Lopez-Fresquet made concerted efforts to work with American companies after the new government came to power, hoping to gain the interest of investors. According to one source, "Cuban Minister of Finances Rufo Lopez Fresquet

old Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England * Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, M ...

Bohemia magazine, ”I met more 220 presidents of US corporations... Eastern, Pan American, Pepsi-Cola, Sinclair,

Remington Rand Remington Rand was an early American business machine manufacturer, originally a typewriter manufacturer and in a later incarnation the manufacturer of the UNIVAC line of mainframe computers. Formed in 1927 following a merger, Remington Rand w ...

, National Can and many other US corporations ereinterested in Cuba." Few of Castro's original ministers and cabinet members survived the tumult following the revolution by which Castro took power. "Of the twenty-one ministers appointed in January 1959, twelve had resigned or had been ousted by the end of the year. Four more would go out in 1960 as the revolution moved toward a Marxist-Leninist

political system In political science, a political system means the type of political organization that can be recognized, observed or otherwise declared by a state. It defines the process for making official government decisions. It usually comprizes the govern ...

." According to ''Time Magazine'', only Lopez-Fresquet "survived the shake-up" that removed non-communists from Castro's inner circle. "Fighting growing Red influence, the moderates had been meeting every Thursday with Castro for skull sessions warning that his monstrous

agrarian reform Agrarian reform can refer either, narrowly, to government-initiated or government-backed redistribution of agricultural land (see land reform) or, broadly, to an overall redirection of the agrarian system of the country, which often includes land r ...

was devouring the Cuban economy. A few weeks ago, Pazos, Ray and Perez found that they were being followed by Castro's

secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of a ...

and guessed that the game was lost... opez-Fresquethad already asked to be allowed to resign next month." In 2005, Rufo Lopez-Fresquet was portrayed in the movie ''The Lost City'' by actor Carlos Menendez.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez-Fresquet, Rufo Finance ministers of Cuba Cuban economists 1911 births 1983 deaths