Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado
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Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado (1919–1983) was a Cuban politician who served as President of Cuba from 17 July 1959 until 2 December 1976.
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[edit] Background
Dorticós was born to a wealthy family in Cienfuegos, Las Villas Province, Cuba on 17 April 1919. His father was both a lawyer and a physician, and one of his ancestors was Thomas Terry, a famous British adventurer who established the Thomas Terry Theatre in Cienfuegos. After working briefly as a teacher, Dorticós studied law and philosophy at the University of Havana, graduating with a law degree in 1941. He joined the Communist-controlled Popular Socialist Party, and acted for a time as secretary to Juan Marinello, the party's leader.
In the 1950s, Dorticós established a prosperous law practice in Cienfuegos, and served as Commodore of the Cienfuegos Yacht Club. He strongly opposed the government of Fulgencio Batista, and participated in the Civil Resistance Movement, supplying the rebel forces with arms and supplies. Dorticós was elected dean of the Cuban Bar Association in 1958, but was arrested by the Batista regime later in that year and briefly exiled to Mexico.
[edit] Roles in government
After the success of the revolution on 1 January 1959, Dorticós returned to Cuba and was appointed Minister of Revolutionary Laws in the cabinet headed by Fidel Castro. In that capacity, he played an important role in drafting revolutionary legislation such as the Agrarian Reform Act. After the resignation of President Manuel Urrutia Lleó, Dorticós was appointed President of Cuba by the Council of Ministers on 17 July 1959.
As President, Dorticós represented Cuba at the Summit of Non-Aligned Nations in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (1961); and at the Summit of the Organisation of American States in Punta del Este, Uruguay (1962). During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, Dorticós gave a speech at the United Nations in which he announced that Cuba possessed nuclear weapons, which it hoped would never be used.
In addition to acting as Cuba's President, Dorticós served as a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (from 1965); and as president of the Central Planning Council (from 1964). When Fidel Castro became Cuba's Head of State in 1976, Dorticós was named President of the National Bank and a member of the Council of State. He served in those capacities until his death by suicide on 23 June 1983. His suicide (by a self-inflicted gunshot wound) was apparently caused by the death of his wife, as well as chronic spinal disease.
Dorticós is sometimes described as a colourless figurehead; but in fact he was a highly-respected figure in Cuban politics, who usually acted as a voice for moderation and pragmatism. Loyal, intelligent, competent, and hard working; he was a major, though largely unsung, influence on Cuban policy during the first part of the revolutionary period.
| Preceded by: Manuel Urrutia Lleó |
President of Cuba 1959 – 1976 |
Succeeded by: Fidel Castro |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- The Great Soviet Encyclopaedia, 3rd ed., vol. 8.
- The New York Times, 20 July 1959.
- Red Star Over Cuba by Nathaniel Weyl (1961).
- The New York Times, 26 January 1962, refers to Dorticós' speech at the summit of American foreign ministers at Punta del Este on 25 January 1962, in which he accused the U.S. of creating "conditions for a new physical and military aggression" against Cuba.
- Fidel: A Critical Portrait by Tad Szulc (2000), contains a reference to Dorticós' speech at the U.N. on 8 October 1962, in which he said that "...we have indeed our inevitable weapons, the weapons which we would have preferred not to acquire and which we do not wish to employ."
- Revolution in Cuba: An Essay in Understanding by Herbert Matthews (1975).
- Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson (1997).
