Cuban Revolutionary Party

The Cuban Revolutionary Party (PRC) was a political organization created by the Cuban intellectual José Martí on April 10, 1892 with the aim of organizing the independence of Cuba and assisting that of Cuba as much as possible. Puerto Rico, two of the last overseas provinces of Spain in America.

Conception and creation

José Martí, holder of the most complete and finished ideology of the Latin American XIX century, with ideological projections that far exceeded what tradition, advocated tirelessly to make the hour of the "second independence" come true and thus prevent the expansion of the USA on the lands of America. In his continental strategy, the liberation of Cuba and Puerto Rico was a first step that would decide the fate of the continent.

Therefore, José Martí from 1891 would dedicate all his energies to creating a new type of institution, structuring a strong and solid revolutionary unit, unique in the history of Latin America: The Cuban Revolutionary Party, a party for independence. At the end of 1891 Martí had expressed in conversations and speeches to the Cuban exiles, the idea of creating a group that would organize and serve as the ideal vehicle for the preparation of a future revolution.

On January 3, 1892, at the San Carlos Club in Cayo Hueso (Key West), José Martí made known to José Francisco Lamadrid, José Dolores Poyo Estenoz and Colonel Fernando Figueredo Socarrás, his idea of founding the Cuban Revolutionary Party (PRC), also known as the Cuban-Puerto Rican Revolutionary Party.

As of January 4, 1892, a process of study and approval of the Bases and Secret Statutes began on the part of the emigration from Key West, Tampa and New York. Each existing group in emigration, or each group of Cubans who wanted to form a Club, analyzed the document, suggested what they deemed appropriate, and once approved, the acceptance was communicated to the supreme body in New York. Once the process, with a broad democratic flight, was completed, the elections for the positions of Delegate, treasurer, secretary and presidents of the council bodies in the USA (Key West, Tampa, New York, Philadelphia, Marti City Ocala), Jamaica and Veracruz, resulting:

• Delegate José Martí
• Treasurer Benjamin War
• Secretary Gonzalo de Quesada

Finally, on April 10, 1892, the PRC was proclaimed, the result of the experience gathered by Martí in the previous conspiracies and his thought that we see below:

• Independentist: The PRC is a party for Cuba's independence, it is not an association for electoral purposes. Which makes it unique in the nineteenth century Latin America.
• Latin Americanist: The PRC had a department to support Puerto Rico's independence. For anti-Land liberation was part of a larger context, the effective liberation of the Latin American continent.
• Anti-imperialist: Preventing the expansion of the United States to the south, driving indigenous conceptions that rejected any link with the U.S. government or policy.
• Antiracist: The PRC was not an exclusive grouping, any individual who accepted the Secret Bases and Statutes could belong to the PRC, regardless of race, nationality, religion or gender, that is, it was a broad front for independence.
• Democratic: Annually account surrenders were made in both senses elections

As the PRC had a historical performance and an ideology based on the interests of the Cuban people, in practice it functioned as the party of the Cuban popular masses, since the big bourgeoisie excluded itself and the PRC was made up fundamentally of workers, peasants and the petty bourgeoisie. The radical nature of the contents of the PRC made it the promoter of the deepest and most democratic revolution in the entire century.

Objectives

The preamble to the minutes stated that:

"The Cuban Revolutionary Party (PRC) did not intend to perpetuate in the Cuban Republic, which aspires to found, the authoritarian spirit and the bureaucratic composition of the Colony, but to found a new people, capable of overcoming by the order of real work and the balance of social forces the dangers of sudden freedom in a society composed for slavery."

Flag of Cuba, created by Venezuelan Narcissus López in 1849 and adopted by the Assembly of Guáimaro in 1869.

Flag of Puerto Rico, created by Antonio Vélez Alvarado on June 11, 1892 and accepted by José Martí. The same was adopted by the Puerto Rico Section of the Cuban Revolutionary Party in 1895.

The minutes also indicated that the Party was founded:

1. To achieve with the combined effort of all men of good will the absolute independence of Cuba and to promote and assist that of Puerto Rico.
2. That it was not intended to precipitate the war, or to throw the country into an ill-willed movement, but to order the generous and brief war to ensure in peace and work the happiness of all the inhabitants of Cuba.
3. It is not intended to bring Cuba to a victorious group, but to prepare war for the decorum and good of Cubans.
4. That the Cuban Revolutionary Party does not wish to attract the malvolence of countries with which it must maintain cordial relations.
5. That in order to organize and bring the war to Cuba will bring the necessary funds to that end.
6. That the Cuban Revolutionary Party aspires to establish relations with the friendly peoples that will enable it to accelerate the war.

Organization and operation

The "secret statutes" They established a very simple organization, since they could found all the clubs they deemed convenient, independently of each other, their main task being fundraising, for which there was a voluntary contribution of a percentage of salaries. or members' wages. The presidents of the clubs of each locality constituted a Council Body and the elections were held annually, covering the positions of the clubs and also designating the delegate, the secretary and the treasurer, who were the highest representation of the Party. The delegate had full powers, although Martí periodically made visits to the clubs and reported on the part of the work that could be made known.

The main means of dissemination of the PRC was its official organ, the newspaper Patria, created by Martí in March 1892 in order to present his ideas on Cuba and the war, as well as to publicize the activities of the Cuban exile.

Martí appointed Juan Gualberto Gómez, National Delegate in Cuba, who in turn subordinated provincial sub-delegates:

• Subdelegado José Azcuy de Pinar del Río.
• Delegate Juan G. Gómez of Havana.
• Subdelegate Emilio Domínguez de Matanzas.
• Subdelegado Francisco Martínez Pupo de Santa Clara.
• Subdelegate Antonio Pequera de Cienfuegos.
• Subdelegado Salvador Cisneros Betancourt de Camagüey.
• Subdelegado Rafael Portuondo Tamayo de Oriente.

José Martí with his tremendous power of conviction and his personal charisma, allowed him to exert a growing influence on figures not convinced of the need for a political party to structure the new revolution, and he tried by all means that the PRC The spirit of discord and rivalry between the veterans of 1968 did not filter through. Nobody admired and exalted the extraordinary merits and virtues of the Cuban military leaders like Martí. Martí ran into the obstacle of attracting and uniting the veterans, since many signatories of the Zanjón pact projected their defeatism on emigration, others were suspicious of the activities of Martí and of the emigrants who had not fought with arms in their hands in the fields of Cuba Libre. Martí managed to attract highly prestigious veteran chiefs such as Major Generals Máximo Gómez, Antonio Maceo, Carlos Roloff and Julio Sanguily.

For Martí, organizing an army was a primary objective, but he needed an experienced chief veteran of 1968 to occupy the position of General in Chief, and he proposed Máximo Gómez, who accepted, and was approved by a vote of the veterans of the 68. Gómez was in charge of the military organization with the resources of the PRC. Later, Antonio Maceo agreed to be the Lieutenant General.

Martí and Gómez guided the national delegate Juan Gualberto Gómez, the creation of the military branch parallel to the civil one in each province. The veterans were organized militarily according to the ranks acquired in the previous battles, and formed the embryo of the future liberating army.

• (Mayor General of 68) Julio Sanguily, would be the head of the western department and the (Coronel of 68) José María Aguirre Valdés in Havana and Pinar del Río.
• Pedro Betancourt Dávalos and Antonio López Coloma in Matanzas.
• Francisco Carrillo in Las Villas.
• (Coronel of 68) Enrique Loret Mola and (Coronel of 68) Gonzalo Moreno in Camagüey.
• (Mayor General of 68 and 79) Guillermón Moncada and (Coronel of 68) Bartolomé Masó in the East.

On January 5, 1895, meeting at 27 Crespo Street in the city of Havana, the Revolutionary General Agency for Communications and Assistance was founded by José de Jesús Ramón de la Candelaria Pons y Naranjo General Agent Luis (b. 2/2/1859 Santa Clara-m.), elected president, Alfredo Presas Morales Agent Iris, elected his secretary, Juan García Martí 2nd Agent Luis, Federico de León, Lic. Nicasio Estrada Mora, Isidro F. Boada Agent Oriente, Fortunato Caillet Viamonte Agent Tejitas, Pedro Benítez Torres Agent Pato, Alfredo Martín Morales. On January 31, Martí sent them a letter congratulating them. Distributed throughout the national territory, in railway stations, ports and post offices, to be aware of troop movements, operations, etc. of the Spanish. Attended by the General Headquarters of Máximo Gómez during the war. They sent medicines to the jungle.

The Fernandina plan was conceived by Martí, and consisted of the departure from the USA of three vessels, which, leaving on different dates, would adjust their routes to disembark on the island of Cuba at different points simultaneously: a first ship would pick up to Maceo in Costa Rica to disembark in the east, a second ship would transfer Carlos Roloff to Las Villas, and the third ship would pick up Martí and Gómez in Santo Domingo and transfer them to Camagüey... Said plan failed, when due to a denunciation the The US government seized the three ships with all their cargo in January 1895.

The Party functioned efficiently and the secrecy was absolute, since keys were used for the correspondence, which allows us to understand the extraordinary work that culminated in the independence of Cuba from Spain and to which Martí dedicated himself until his death in the Battle of Dos Ríos, on May 19, 1895.

On December 10, 1898, the Treaty of Paris was signed in which Spain ceded to the US its former colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam. On December 23, 1898, Tomás Estrada Palma dissolved the PRC.

At the beginning of the occupation of the Island by the United States, one of the tasks carried out by the occupying government was the dissolution of the Mambí Army, to ensure that the people had no guidance in any matter of rebellion.