February 3, 1901 - Fulgencio Batista
His career traced a long arc from opportunistic coup-maker to constitutional president to outright dictator — a trajectory that ultimately made him the catalyst for one of the Cold War's most consequential revolutions. When electoral defeat loomed in 1952, he bypassed the vote entirely, seizing power by force and suspending the very constitution he had helped establish. The repression and corruption of his second government galvanized the opposition that drove him from office and reshaped the political geography of the Western Hemisphere for decades.
From Wikipedia
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (born Rubén Zaldívar; January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer, political leader, and dictator who played a dominant role in Cuban politics from his initial rise to power in the 1950s until his overthrow in the Cuban Revolution in 1959. He served as president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944, and again from 1952 to his 1959 resignation.
Batista first came to prominence in the Revolt of the Sergeants, which overthrew the provisional government of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada. Batista then appointed himself chief of the armed forces, with the rank of colonel, and effectively controlled the five-member "pentarchy" that functioned as the collective head of state. He maintained control through a series of puppet presidents until 1940, when he was elected president on a populist platform. He then instated the 1940 Constitution of Cuba and presided over Cuban support for the Allies during World War II. After finishing his term in 1944, Batista moved to Florida, returning to Cuba to run for president in 1952. Facing certain electoral defeat, he led a military coup against President Carlos Prío Socarrás that pre-empted the election.
Back in power and receiving financial, military and logistical support from the United States government, Batista suspended the 1940 Constitution and revoked most political liberties, including the right to strike.
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