General Alberto Herrera y Franchi (September 1, 1874 – March 18, 1954) was the interim

President of Cuba The president of Cuba (), officially the president of the Republic of Cuba (), is the head of state of Cuba. The office in its current form was established under the Constitution of 2019. The President is the second-highest office in Cuba and ...

from August 12 to August 13, 1933.

Biography

He was married to Ofelia Rodríguez Arango and they had three children, Alberto, Rodolfo and Ofelia Herrera Rodríguez. In 1903 Herrera was appointed a Captain of the Rural Guard. He was later assigned to the permeant Army in 1909, and promoted the rank of Major. He was then transferred to the Infantry in 1910 and was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1913. Eventually assigned to the General Staff in 1915, he was promoted to Colonel in 1917 and assigned Chief of a Military District. In 1922 he was appointed by President Alfredo Zayas as interim Chief of Staff, replacing General Armando Montes, who had accepted the position of Secretary of War and Navy. General Herrera was also the Secretary of War & Navy during the presidency of

Gerardo Machado Gerardo Machado y Morales (28 September 1869 – 29 March 1939) was a general of the Cuban War of Independence and President of Cuba from 1925 to 1933. Machado was elected president in 1924 as the leader of the Liberal Party, a moderate reform ...

Role in Machado's administration and the 1933 Revolution

On August 11, 1933, when

Cuban National Army The Cuban National Army (), from 1935 known as the Cuban Constitutional Army (), was the army of the Republic of Cuba from 1902 to 1959. History The Cuban National Army was the army of the Republic of Cuba until 1959. It was dissolved in 1959 ...

rebels took hold of the

Castillo de la Real Fuerza The Castillo de la Real Fuerza (Castle of the Royal Force) is a bastion fort on the western side of the harbour in Havana, Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), ...

, General Herrera attended the fortress in order to reach a resolution or pact with the rebels. He met with Erasmo Delgado. After much debate and given that the rebels did not want Herrera to secure the presidency after Machado’s departure, it was agreed that given his powers as General the actions committed by the rebels did not constitute a revolt but were ordered on his behalf.

After Machado’s departure

After the departure of Machado on August 12, 1933, a power vacuum was created and

Sumner Welles Benjamin Sumner Welles (October 14, 1892September 24, 1961) was an American government official and diplomat. He was a major foreign policy adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and served as Under Secretary of State from 1936 to 1943, dur ...

initially proposed the replacement of Machado with Herrera. Unfortunately, the army rebels were not in accord with this proposal.

noted on August 12, 1933 "''After the promise of certain of the Army leaders at 4 o'clock this morning that they would agree to the ad interim Presidency of any Cuban provided President Machado would retire from the office. I was advised at 7 that they had again changed their minds and would accept anyone other than General Herrera to whom they were personally devoted but whom they feared the great mass of the opposition would not accept on account of his past intimate connection with President Machado''."Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1933. The American Republics: Volume V,p. 358 http://images.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/EFacs/1933v05/reference/frus.frus1933v05.i0010.pdf As a result,

devised a new plan in which Herrera would remain the only Cabinet member who would not resign from Machado's administration thus by default becoming the interim President solely for the purpose of appointing

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada (August 12, 1871 – March 28, 1939) was a Cuban writer, politician, diplomat, and President of Cuba. Early life and career He was the son of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and Ana Maria de Quesada y Loynaz ...

, the son of

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Carlos Manuel de Céspedes del Castillo (18 April 1819, Bayamo, Spanish Cuba – 27 February 1874, San Lorenzo, Spanish Cuba) was a Cuban revolutionary hero and First President of Cuba in Arms in 1868. Cespedes, who was a plantation owne ...

(Father of the Country), as member of Herrera's Cabinet. Immediately thereafter, Herrera would resign and as

would be the only one left in the Cabinet, he would by default become the new President.

' intention was to keep a form of constitutional continuance between the departure of Machado and the installation of a new government. Some scholars, such as Rolando Rodriguez, have questioned whether the appointment of

as a Cabinet member followed by his appointment as President thereafter was constitutional at all. After the appointment of

Carlos Manuel de Cespedes y Quesada Carlos may refer to: Places ;Canada * Carlos, Alberta, a locality ;United States * Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County * Carlos, Minnesota, a small city * Carlos, West Virginia ;Elsewher ...

as President, Herrera fled to the Hotel Nacional and later secured passage to flee Cuba.

References

*Rodriguez Garcia, Rolando. "Rebelion en la Republica Auge y Caida de Gerardo Machado" Editorial Ciencias Sociales, 2013. * Argote-Freyre, Frank. ''Fulgencio Batista: Volume 1, From Revolutionary to Strongman.'' Rutgers University Press, Rutgers, New Jersey. . 2006. * Chester, Edmund A. ''A Sergeant Named Batista.'' Holt. . 1954. * (Spanish) *
Cuba: General Conditions - MID 2056-213 THRU 2056-257 (1 of 2)
. ''US National Archives Catalog''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Herrera y Franchi, Alberto 1874 births 1954 deaths People from Camajuaní Cuban people of Spanish descent Presidents of Cuba 1930s in Cuba 20th-century Cuban politicians