 In 1952 Fulgencio Batista overthrew the democratically elected government of Carlos Prío Socarrás in Cuba, roughly four months before an election for which Batista was competing, when Batista was told that he would not likely win the election.A few days later, the US recognized Batista as head of state.In 1953, under U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, the CIA helped Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran remove the democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammed Mossadegh (although supporters of U.S. policy claimed that Mossadegh had ended democracy through a rigged referendum).