Federico Laredo Brú (; April 23, 1875, Remedios, Las Villas,

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

– July 7, 1946,

Havana, Cuba Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.President of Cuba The president of Cuba (), officially the president of the Republic of Cuba (), is the head of state of Cuba. The office in its current form was established under the Constitution of 2019. The President is the second-highest office in Cuba and ...

from 1936 to 1940. He was married to Leonor Gomez-Montes. Laredo Bru was a Colonel in the Cuban Liberation Army during the

Cuban War of Independence The Cuban War of Independence (), also known in Cuba as the Necessary War (), fought from 1895 to 1898, was the last of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Ten Years' War (1868–1878) and the Litt ...

Rise to power

Laredo Brú's rise to power began in January 1936 as

Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

. When Miguel Mariano Gómez, son of former president José Miguel Gómez, won the presidential election, strongman

Fulgencio Batista Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (born Rubén Zaldívar; January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who played a dominant role in Cuban politics from his initial rise to power as part of the 1933 Revolt of t ...

engineered the impeachment of Gómez in December 1936 for having vetoed a bill to create rural schools under army control. Federico Laredo Brú served the concluding years of Gómez' term leading the way for an ambitious Batista. Leonor Montes de Laredo Bru

Social and economic programs

Under Federico Laredo Brú, amnesties were granted including to the brutal, former

dictator A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute Power (social and political), power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a polity. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to r ...

Gerardo Machado Gerardo Machado y Morales (28 September 1869 – 29 March 1939) was a general of the Cuban War of Independence and President of Cuba from 1925 to 1933. Machado was elected president in 1924 as the leader of the Liberal Party, a moderate reform ...

and the Cuban Congress passed many social welfare measures as well as laws creating

pensions A pension (; ) is a fund into which amounts are paid regularly during an individual's working career, and from which periodic payments are made to support the person's retirement from work. A pension may be either a "defined benefit plan", wher ...

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. List of countries by minimum wage, Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation b ...

s, and limited working hours. In 1937 Laredo Brú pushed for the passage of the Law of Sugar Coordination which organized small

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer ...

s into

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

s and unionized agricultural workers, guaranteed

tenant farmer A tenant farmer is a farmer or farmworker who resides and works on land owned by a landlord, while tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and ma ...

s a share of their crop and that they were not to be deprived of their fields if they worked them. Laredo Brú also issued a

decree A decree is a law, legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state, judge, monarch, royal figure, or other relevant Authority, authorities, according to certain procedures. These procedures are usually defined by the constitution, Legislativ ...

that stated all businesses should be headed by Cuban nationals. Workers unionized, particularly into the Confederation of Cuban Workers, a union in which Communists had substantial influence.

Cuban-U.S. relations

Though the United States had been a dominant force in Cuban politics since 1898 causing

anti-American sentiment Anti-Americanism (also called anti-American sentiment and Americanophobia) is a term that can describe several sentiments and po ...

among the educated, the U.S. presence was lessened under Brú.

MS ''St. Louis''

On May 27, 1939, the

ocean liner An ocean liner is a type of passenger ship primarily used for transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). The ...

MS ''St. Louis'' arrived, carrying 930 Jewish refugees from

Hamburg, Germany Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

fleeing Hitler's persecutions, and was refused permission to land by Laredo Brú. Cuban government-issued landing certificates held by the passengers had been invalidated by Laredo Brú's government during their transit. Two persons attempted suicide and dozens more threatened to do the same. Ultimately, only 22 Jewish refugees, 4 Spaniards and 2 Cuban nationals were permitted to disembark at Havana and the ship, having likewise failed to enter the U.S. and Canada, ultimately disembarked its remaining passengers in England, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Death

Former president Laredo Brú died of a heart malady in Havana at the age of seventy-one.

References

* (Spanish) 1875 births 1946 deaths People from Remedios, Cuba Cuban people of Spanish descent Presidents of Cuba Vice presidents of Cuba 1930s in Cuba 1940s in Cuba 20th-century Cuban politicians {{cuba-politician-stub Cuban Freemasons