From the archive, 11 March 1952: Batista's revolution

General Fulgencio Batista stages a coup in Cuba, taking over Havana and the Presidential Palace
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Portrait of Cuban soldier and dictator Fulgencio Batista, standing in sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat, circa 1935. Photograph: Bettmann/CORBIS

General Fulgencio Batista, who led his first revolution in 1933 while still a sergeant, staged his fifth revolution to-day, taking over Havana and the Presidential Palace to "save the Republic from chaos." About two hundred people lined the sides of the Palace Square watching as calmly as if they were in a cinema.

Before the palace surrendered, squads of troops and police armed with machine guns took up positions near the palace. A few minutes later armoured cars followed by lorry-loads of infantry converged on the palace itself. Not a shot was fired, and the only noise that could be heard was troops jumping down from the lorries. Rifles were cocked, and then white sheets appeared in the windows and on the roof.

However, their quarry, President Prio, had left the palace half an hour before, leaving in his wake the message to the country: "Oppose this coup which the ambition of one man has provoked." General Batista issued orders for the setting up of roadblocks around Havana and the taking over of the international airport to prevent members of the Government from leaving the country. It is not certain where President Prio is.

Troops are reported to have taken over control of the trade union headquarters and to have surrounded the National University. The Air Transport Union has ordered its members to strike in protest against the coup. Havana is completely calm, and the only deaths reported so far are those of two presidential guards. Seven others are said to have been injured.

General Batista was a candidate in the presidential elections, which were to take place in June. He told a British United Press correspondent by telephone that he had taken control because he felt that the Government had lost its moderating power and was merely playing politics. Batista to-day said he took action to forestall a coup by Prio. He said the elections in June would be cancelled and he is preparing a decree suspending constitutional guarantees for a time "to facilitate the maintenance of order." Elections would be held "at the earliest possible date."

The announced purpose of the revolt was to suppress corruption and gangsterism which have been blamed for thirty killings since President Prio took office in 1948.

During the 1933 revolution, Batista (who is now 51) was a sergeant, became a colonel, took charge of both Army and Navy, arrested many of the officers, and controlled Cuba for the next ten years. As President he used to drive about the island with motor-cars bristling with machine-guns before and after his own car. He is a man of great physical strength and was born in Chile. When forced to leave Cuba he conducts his political campaigns from Florida until he is able to get back to Cuba.

[Batista remained dictator of Cuba until the Cuban revolution of 1959, when he was overthrown by Fidel Castro.]

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