11 Facts About Antonio Guiteras

Antonio Guiteras y Holmes was a leading politician in Cuba during the 1930s.

Antonio Guiteras was born 22 November 1906 in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, USA.

Antonio Guiteras was a proponent of revolutionary socialism and participated in the radical government installed after the overthrow of the autocratic right wing Cuban President Gerardo Machado y Morales in 1933.

Antonio Guiteras first became widely known as a student leader and associate of Julio Antonio Mella, a young Communist revolutionary.

Antonio Guiteras believed that the liberation of the people would be achieved through violent confrontation with the established authorities; he did not hold firm to the ideal of democracy.

Antonio Guiteras was named Minister of the Interior under President Dr Ramon Grau San Martin.

Antonio Guiteras drew inspiration from the Mexican and the Russian revolutions, the struggle in Ireland and Sandino's guerrilla movement in Nicaragua.

Antonio Guiteras shared the anti-imperialist politics of the age and, drawing on anarchist roots, advocated rural and urban armed struggle, assaults on army barracks and the assassination of policemen and members of the government.

Antonio Guiteras was a firm believer in direct action, the propaganda of the deed, derived from Blanqui and the Spanish anarchists, and was much criticised by the Communists for his voluntarism and his predilection for violence.

Antonio Guiteras died in Matanzas, Cuba: Guiteras and several of his conspirators died in a gun battle with Batista's army on May 8,1935, at the abandoned Spanish Fort Morrillo in the Valley of Matanzas.

Antonio Guiteras was waiting there for a boat that was to take him and his companions across to Mexico, where he hoped to continue his work for the people of Cuba.