Alfredo Zayas Y Alfonso - Political Career

Political Career

Upon his return to Cuba after the Spanish-Cuban-American War (known in the U.S. as Spanish-American War), he became acting mayor of Havana. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention 1901 and became its secretary. A vocal leader of the opposition against U.S. annexation of Cuba, he voted against the Platt Amendment and against granting naval bases to the United States in Guantánamo and Bahia Honda.

Zayas became leader of the Liberal Party (left-wing) and was elected Vice-President 1908. In the contested, 1916 presidential election in which the populist Liberal Party used violent tactics, he obtained more votes than the pro-US candidate, Cornell graduate General Mario García Menocal. The Chambelona War ensued, which after some reverses, was won by the Conservative Forces of Garcia Menocal with the covert support of the United States. Zayas surrendered in Cambute near Guanabacoa where it was said he was hiding. The United States provided military support to García Menocal from Guantánamo Naval Base, without formally invoking its right of intervention pursuant to the Platt Amendment, incorporated in the US-Cuba Treaty of 1903. However, US only deployed forces in Oriente Province. Reelected in 1920, Zayas became President in 1921. He served only one term, during which he started the process to give the vote to Cuban women (resolution in the Senate, 1921), negotiated the return of Cuban sovereignty over the Isle of Pines (Isla de la Juventud, 110.86 square kilometers) which had been occupied by the US since 1898 (Hay-Quedada Treaty of 1925), obtained a 50 Million US loan from J.P. Morgan, and for the first time allowed full freedom of expression and of the press. On 10 October 1922 he launched PWX, the first Cuban radio station.

Although his administration was systematically defamed by the opposition as corrupt, it actually was less corrupt that preceding and subsequent administrations, and Zayas, refrained from censoring the press or arresting critics, unlike prior and later Cuban presidents. This brought him the nickname "el Chino" (the Chinaman), because of his stoicism ("la flema de Zayas") and his "oriental patience". Sometimes he was also nicknamed "pesetero", because since his imprisonment in Madrid he had always carried a Spanish Peseta coin in his vest pocket. When he took office in 1921, the country was in bankruptcy, with debts exceeding 40 million US Dollars, and sugar prices plummeting from 22 cents to 3 cents per pound. In spite of this, he carried out a number of reforms, particularly in the field of education.