Federico Laredo Brú

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Federico Laredo Brú

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Federico Laredo Brú (born April 23, 1875 in San Juán de los Remedios ; † 1946 in Havana ) was a Cuban lawyer, colonel of the Cuban independence movement against Spain (1897/98) and President of the Republic of Cuba (1936-1940).

Federico Laredo received his doctorate in law in 1895. In 1897/98 he took part as a colonel in the Cuban Liberation Army in the guerrilla war against the Spanish colonial power.

In 1900 he became secretary and in 1907 president of the Provincial Court of Santa Clara . In 1910 he became a public prosecutor in Havana .

Laredo began his political career as State Secretary under the presidency of General José Miguel Gómez . After leaving this office, he opened a law firm in Cienfuegos (1913–1930). He led the "Veterans and Patriots" movement that had formed against the presidency of Alfredo Zayas y Alfonso . In 1933, after the overthrow of the dictator Gerardo Machado , he became State Secretary in the cabinet of President Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada , later Vice President under Miguel Mariano Gómez .

On December 24, 1936, he replaced Gómez, who had been deposed by parliament, as the new president. As president he stood in the shadow of the actual ruler, the army chief and later dictator Fulgencio Batista .

He was involved in the odyssey of the St. Louis when at the end of May 1939 he forbade the ship with over 900 German Jews fleeing the Nazi state on board to dock in Havana, even though they had already received entry permits through bribes to Cuba. Brú cited the high unemployment in Cuba as the reason, and that the refugees threatened economic recovery. At the same time, 40,000 citizens demonstrated in the capital against the acceptance of the refugees; this protest was funded by Joseph Goebbels . After Brú tried unsuccessfully to extort more money from the passengers, he forced the St. Louis to leave the Cuban waters and appropriated the reserves already paid up by the passengers.

He became one of the founders of the Partido Unión Nacionalista (Party of National Unity) and the Legión de Hierro del Nacionalismo (Iron Nationalist Legion).

Laredo Brú was instrumental in the constitution of Cuban criminal law.

He is buried in the Cementerio Cristóbal Colón in Havana.

Remarks

1. ↑ Harold Ivan Smith: Eleanor: A Spiritual Biography: The Faith of the 20th Century's Most Influential Woman. WJK, Louisville 2017, ISBN 9781611647976 , p. 121.