El Diario de la Marina

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El Diario de la Marina was a newspaper published in Cuba, founded by Don Nicolas Rivero in 1832.^[1] The newspaper was published in exile in Miami, Florida from 1960 until 1961, when it ceased publication.^[2]

Soon after the Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro that overthrew Fulgencio Batista in 1959, the press of the Caribbean nation ceased to be free. One of the first newspaper to be closed was the valiant conservative journal, Diario de la Marina. On May 12, 1960, thugs supported by armed militiamen, broke into the offices of Diario de la Marina, vandalized the premises, destroyed machinery, and forced the printers to publish a Revolutionary tract. The next day, Jose Ignacio Rivero, chief editor of Diario de la Marina, had to run for his life and seek asylum in the Peruvian Embassy. The newspaper closed after 128 years in operation. Students at the University of Havana, in support of freedom of the press and in sympathy with Diario de la Marina, buried the paper symbolically in a solemn ceremony.

"When Prensa Libre wrote critically about the suppression of Diario de la Marina and the imminent loss of freedom of the press in Cuba, it too was seized by the government." Mobs were incited calling for "paredon" (to the wall) for the editors! One by one, Cuban newspapers ceased to exist. Only government-controlled publications, like "Revolucion," "El Mundo," "Bohemia," and the communist "Hoy" were allowed to exist—but even they would only be allowed to do so for a time. After consolidation of the communist dictatorship, only "Granma," the official publication of the Cuban Communist Party, was allowed to exist.^[3]

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