PARTIDO DEL PUEBLO CUBANO (ORTODOXO)

Created in 1946, by a faction of the Partido Revolucionario Cubano (Auténtico) that broke with the party, disillusioned with the corruption of the Grau San Martín administration of 1944-1948.  Led by Eduardo Chibás, it adopted a broom as its emblem.  Proclaiming “vergüenza contra dinero” (dignity versus money), the ortodoxos aimed to “clean up” Cuban politics and rescue the revolution of 1933.  Chibás was elected to the senate and, in 1948, ran for the presidency.  He pulled in 20% of the votes but lost to the Auténticos’ Carlos Prío Socarrás.  He ran again in the 1952 in a three-way race against Carlos Hevia and Fulgencio Batista but committed suicide a few months before the election.  With his death the party lost much of its dynamism and momentum.  The party adopted Roberto Agramonte y Pichardo as its substitute candidate, but Batista staged a military coup d’état (cuartelazo) three months before the election, which he annulled.  This ended the party’s aspirations for power, but its members joined the opposition to Batista and many of them became involved in the struggle that culminated in the Revolution of 1959.