Public Works of Cuba Photographs

General Gerardo Machado y Morales (1871-1939) was the fifth president of Cuba (1924-1933). He was born in Santa Clara, Cuba, and during the war for independence he served in the Ejército Libertador. His first term was characterized by emphasis in constructing and renovating state infrastructure as well as improving the education system. During his regime, the Secretaría de Obras Públicas (Ministry of Public Works) built Cuba's Carretera Central (central highway), the Capitolio (National Capitol Building), Paseo de Martí (Martí Promenade), the Malecón (sea boulevard), several buildings at the Universidad de La Habana, schools, and hospitals, such as the Instituto del Cáncer, as well as aqueducts and government buildings. Machado combined a genuine support for U.S. interests while defending the idea of Cuban sovereignty by taxing American capital investments. He promoted investments in tourism, industry, and mining.

His second term began in 1929 and ended in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression and a movement of political opposition that developed into a prolonged and violent period of civil war. The repression of Machado against such opposition was brutal. By early 1933, the confrontation between Machado's government (the police and the army) and the political opposition (students, organized labor, and secret societies of middle class professionals) had grown in violence and frequency. On May 8, 1933 Sumner Welles was sent to Havana by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt to oversee the Cuban situation. Not being able to influence Machado to reinstate the constitutional guarantees that he had removed in June 1931, Welles negotiated an end to Machado's presidency in July 1933 and ushered in the age of Fulgencio Batista.