Goméz, Miguel Mariano (1890–1951)

Miguel Mariano Goméz (b. 1890; d. 1951), Cuba's sixth constitutionally elected president (May-December 1936) and the son of José Miguel Gómez, the second president. Gómez's term lasted for less than a year because he was the first president to be removed from office by Congress. A conservative member of Cuba's traditional ruling elite, he served in the House of Representatives for twelve years. Goméz was elected mayor of Havana during the Gerardo Machado y Morales administration. However, he attacked the repressive measures of the Machado regime. In January 1936, backed by the Liberal Party and army chief Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar, he was elected president.

Goméz's biggest political shortcoming was his refusal to acknowledge the paramount position of General Batista. Inaugurated in May 1936, his first mistake was to choose his cabinet without consulting the general. His downfall came in December, when he vetoed a bill, supported by Batista, to set up a system of rural schools operated by the military. Goméz was adamant about reasserting civilian control over the government, and he believed that army control over rural education would erode constitutional and civilian power. Three days after the veto, General Batista had him impeached by the Senate.

See alsoBatista y Zaldívar, Fulgencio; Cuba: The Republic (1898–1959).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hugh Thomas, Cuba; or, the Pursuit of Freedom (1971).

Irwin F. Gellman, Roosevelt and Batista: Good Neighbor Diplomacy in Cuba, 1933–1945 (1973).

Robert J. Alexander, ed., Biographical Dictionary of Latin American and Caribbean Political Leaders (1988).

Additional Bibliography

Argote-Freyre, Frank. Fulgencio Batista. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2006.

Valdéz-Sánchez, Servando. Fulgencio Batista: El poder de las armas (1933–1940). La Habana: Editora Historia, 1998.

Whitney, Robert. State and Revolution in Cuba: Mass Mobilization and Political Change, 1920–1940. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

                                          David Carey Jr.