The Progressive Action Party ( es, Partido de Acción Progresista, PAP) was a

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 ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

led by

Fulgencio Batista Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (; ; born Rubén Zaldívar, January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who served as the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and as its U.S.-backed military dictator ...

. The party was founded on 1 April 1949, in the aftermath of the 1948 general elections, under the name of Unitary Action Party ( es, Partido de Acción Unitaria, PAU). It presented its first manifesto a few months later, on 1 August. In 1952, certain to lose the election, Batista made a coup d'etat by seizing the Presidency. The party also ran in the elections of 1954 and

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

, winning due to the early withdrawal of opponents, as well as electoral fraud. The party was based on a combination of strong conservatism and

economic liberalism Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberali ...

on a large scale, to attract American capital in Cuba. This led to a high level of corruption and poverty plaguing the country. Other bulwark of the party was

anti-communism Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...

, not only because of the alignment with the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

but also because most of the members of the anti-Batista left-wing nationalist 26th of July Movement could be branded as

Communists 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 s ...

, including Fidel Castro and Camilo Cienfuegos, along with genuine communists like

Raul Castro Raul, Raúl and Raül are the Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Galician, Asturian, Basque, Aragonese, and Catalan forms of the Anglo-Germanic given name Ralph or Rudolph. They are cognates of the French Raoul. Raul, Raúl or Raül may r ...

and

Che Guevara Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quot ...

. Batista's authoritarian rule and repression in response to Castro's movement led to the deaths of 20,000 Cubans through torture and

extrajudicial killing An extrajudicial killing (also known as extrajudicial execution or extralegal killing) is the deliberate killing of a person without the lawful authority granted by a judicial proceeding. It typically refers to government authorities, whethe ...

. The party was dissolved following 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 co ...

of 1959, which ousted Batista causing it to flee abroad and led to the establishment of the revolutionary government of Fidel Castro, which officially became a communist regime in 1961.

Electoral history

Presidential elections

Note

Andrés Rivero Agüero was unable to take office due to the

House of Representatives elections

Senate elections

External links

Defunct political parties in Cuba 1950s in Cuba Political parties established in 1949 Political parties disestablished in 1959 1949 establishments in Cuba 1959 disestablishments in Cuba {{Cuba-party-stub