DIARIO DE LA MARINA

Begun in 1832 in Havana by Spanish journalist Isidoro Araujo de Lira, with capital provided by Ramón Pintó, as a simple bulletin of shipping movements, this morning daily was only one of eight flourishing 19^th century Cuban newspapers, four of which were dailies.  The official organ of the Spanish military, it was primarily concerned with art and economics.  The opinions it expressed ran contrary to those of the bulk of the population.  In the 1870s, it regarded Spanish general Arsenio Martínez Campos as too conciliatory and called for his replacement by the brutal Valeriano Wéyler y Nicoláu, while it insulted independence leader Antonio Maceo.  On January 1, 1899, the paper removed its subtitle, “official organ of the Havana military post.”  In 1933, editor José Rivero obeyed the advice of US envoy Sumner Welles not to attack the Machado regime.  It supported the nationalist rebels in the Spanish Civil War, and the Axis powers, until Japan attacked the United States in December 1941.  It was still conservative, Catholic, pro-Spanish and pro-US at the time of the Revolution of 1959.  Archbishop Arteaga was the nominal chairman of its junta consultativa.  On May 11, 1960, 300 of the paper’s 450 employees signed an article calling for free elections in Cuba.  The pro-revolution minority, with outside help, destroyed the plates before the article went to press.  The following day, the government closed the newspaper.  In a symbolic gesture to mark its demise, Catholic students burned copies of the paper near the University of Havana.  Editor-owner José Ignacio Rivero fled to asylum in the Peruvian embassy.