Kenn:

Thank you, still one has to remember that the Batista government was quite corrupt, see "Voyage of the Damned" for examples of this kind of thing. Thus there there always was the potential that a substantial gift of gold could change minds and politics.

For instance Alexandra Weiss (in a paper I dislike because of its apologia for the present Cuban government [dscholarship.lib.fsu.edu]) discusses the presence of 14 Nazi agents in Havana of 1939 and the bribery and such at that time.

"In early April of 1939 Levine explains that,
“Fourteen agitprop agents were ordered to infiltrate Cuba with the explicit task of stirring up
public opinion against the Jewish refugees already there, whom they painted as parasites and
human garbage” (103). On May 5,1939 per President Br�’s request, congress passed Decree 937
which, “restricted entry of all foreigners except U.S. citizens, requiring a bond of $500 and
authorization by the Cuban secretaries of state and labor” (Levine 103). " ... "

On a personal note

My grandfather (Calixto (Garcia-In~iguez) Enamorado) was Consul General of Cuba in New Orleans at roughly that time. He was ordered to pass contraband through diplomatic pouch, he refuse and resigned. There was nothing he could do, for if he did it he would either be a stooge for Batista, or he could be simple exposed for corruption. The only alternative was to resign...

Apparently there had been "bad blood" between Grandfather since the last Cuban War of Independence when Batista's father Belisario Batista servered in one of his regiments. The both had enlisted in the independence fighters ranks very early in the war, Belisario apparently could not hold on to the rank of sargeant, but Grandfather made general....

take care and be well

Larry