Jesus Castellanos - The Platt Amendment

The Platt Amendment

Castellanos grew up in an atmosphere of political unrest, of suffering, and of revolutionary uprisings that defined the years leading up to the Spanish-American War. Castellanos grasped every opportunity of aiding his country in its struggle for independence.

On March 1, 1901, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Army Appropriation bill with the Platt Amendment as a rider. U.S. Senator Orville Platt of the Foreign Relations Committee wrote the amendment that stipulated that Cuba had only a limited right to conduct its own foreign policy and debt policy. It also gave the United States an open door to intervene in Cuban affairs. The Isle of Pines (now called Isla de la Juventud) was deemed outside the boundaries of Cuba until the title to it was adjusted in a future treaty. Cuba also agreed to sell or lease to the United States "lands necessary for coaling or naval stations at certain specified points to be agreed upon." Havana was seething as a result of the Platt Amendment and gave formal protest to General Leonard Wood, the U.S. Military Governor of Cuba at the time.

Juan Gualberto Gómez, Cuban senator, denounced the amendment stating, "To reserve to the U.S. the faculty of deciding for themselves when independence is menaced and when therefore they ought to intervene, to preserve it, is equivalent to delivering up the key of our house so that they can enter it at all hours when the desire takes them, day or night."

A cartoon drawn by Jesús Castellanos on April 12, 1901, in the Cuban paper La Discusión showed "The Cuban People" represented by a crucified Jesus Christ between two thieves, General Wood and American President William McKinley. Cuban public opinion was depicted by Mary Magdalene on her knees crying at the foot of the cross and Senator Platt, depicted as a Roman soldier, is holding a spear that says "The Platt Amendment" on it. Governor Wood, who saw in Castellanos's drawing an unfriendly gesture toward the United States, gave order to apprehend Dr. Manuel M. Coronado, director of La Discusión and Jesús Castellanos, caricaturist of the newspaper. Both were arrested for criminal libel and held in the Vivac prison of Havana, and the offices of La Discusión newspaper were sealed (Wood was persuaded to release them on the following day).