The Liberal Party of Cuba (), was one of the major political parties in Cuba from 1910 until the
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...
in the late 1950s, when it was exiled.
History
Liberal governments
Founded as the Autonomist Liberal Party (, PLA), in 1878 and renamed in 1898, the party first contested elections in 1910, when it won 23 of the 41 seats in
mid-term elections. They lost the
1912 elections to the Conjunción Patriótica alliance, and went on to finish second in elections in
1914
This year saw the beginning of what became known as the First World War, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip ...
,
1916
Events
Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix.
January
* January 1 – The British Empire, British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that has been stored ...
(in which they won the same number of seats in the House of Representatives as the
National Conservative Party, but won fewer seats in the Senate) and
1918
The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...
.
[Nohlen, pp209-217]
In the
1920 elections, the Liberal Party's
Alfredo Zayas y Alfonso
Alfredo de Zayas y Alfonso (February 21, 1861 – April 11, 1934), usually known as Alfredo de Zayas under Spanish naming customs and also known as Alfredo Zayas, was a Cuban lawyer, poet and political figure who was President of Cuba.
He ser ...
won the presidential election, although the party lost the parliamentary elections to the National League. They went on to win the
mid-term elections in 1922. For the
1924 elections the party formed an alliance with the
Cuban Popular Party
The Cuban Popular Party was a political party in Cuba which participated between 1920 and 1938 in political elections. In the 1932 Cuban parliamentary election they won 6 of 69 seats up for election in the House of Representatives.
References
...
. The alliance's
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 ...
won the presidential election, whilst it also won both the Senate and House elections.
[
In 1928 elections for a Constitutional Assembly were held, in which the party won 29 of the 55 seats. The party also won the mid-term elections in ]1930
Events
January
* January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be on J ...
and 1932
Events January
* January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel.
* January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...
. For the 1936 general election the party was part of the Tripartite Coalition, alongside the Nationalist Union
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, Id ...
and Republican Action, which won both the presidential election (with Miguel Mariano Gómez
Miguel Mariano Gómez y Arias (; October 6, 1889 – October 26, 1950) was a Cuban politician who served as the seventh President of Cuba for just over eight months in 1936. Compared to other administrations, there was general peace and tranqu ...
as its candidate) and the parliamentary elections. The Liberal Party went on to win the 1938 mid-term elections.[
]
Liberal Party's fall
In the 1940 general elections the party was again part of an alliance, the People's Socialist Coalition, alongside the Communist Revolutionary Union, Progressive Action, the Democratic National Association and the Republican Democratic Party. The alliance's Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (born Rubén Zaldívar; January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who played a dominant role in Cuban politics from his initial rise to power as part of the 1933 Revolt of t ...
won the presidential election, whilst the Liberal Party finished second in the House of Representatives elections. The party won 21 seats in the 1942 mid-term elections, matched by the Democratic Party.[
The 1944 general election saw the party finish second in the House of Representative elections, with a similar performance in the 1946 mid-term elections. For the 1948 general election the party put forward a joint candidate with the Democratic Party, but lost to the Auténtico- Republican's ]Carlos Prío Socarrás
Carlos Manuel Prío Socarrás (; July 14, 1903 – April 5, 1977) was a Cuban politician. He served as the President of Cuba from 1948 until he was deposed by a military coup led by Fulgencio Batista on March 10, 1952, three months before new ...
. The party also finished second in the parliamentary elections.[
An alliance with the Democratic Party and the Partido Auténtico won the 1950 mid-term elections. However, for the 1954 elections the party allied against the Partido Auténtico alongside Progressive Action, the Radical Union and the Republican Democratic Party, putting forward the victorious Batista as their presidential candidate. The Liberal Party finished second in the House elections behind Progressive Action.][
]
Successor
The modern party, named National Liberal Party of Cuba, was founded in 2004. It is a member of Liberal International
Liberal International (LI) is a worldwide organization of liberalism, liberal political parties. The political international was founded in Oxford in 1947 and has become the pre-eminent network for liberal and progressive democratic parties aim ...
.Partido Liberal de Cuba
Liberal International
See also
* Liberalism in Cuba
References
{{Authority control
Defunct political parties in Cuba
Liberal parties in Cuba
Political parties established in 1878
Political parties disestablished in 1952
1878 establishments in Cuba
1952 disestablishments in Cuba