Salvador Cisneros Betancourt

Salvador Cisneros Betancourt

Salvador Cisneros Betancourt, Marqués de Santa Lucía (born February 10, 1828 in Puerto Principe (today: Camagüey ), Cuba ; †  February 28, 1914 in Havana , Cuba) was a freedom fighter during the independence struggle against Spain (1868–1898) and president of Cuban "Republic in Arms" (1873-1875 and 1895-1897).

Life

Salvador Cisneros Betancourt belonged to one of the richest families in Spanish colonial society in Cuba. He trained as a civil engineer in Philadelphia / USA .

In 1868 he gave his slaves their freedom and on November 4th of that year, together with 72 revolutionaries from Camagüey, he joined the Cuban War of Liberation against Spanish colonial rule, declared by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes on October 10th . Cisneros Betancourt was a member of the parliament (Asamblea de Guáimaro) created by the liberation movement in the areas under its control, president of parliament and from 1873 to 1875 president of the Cuban counter-government.

After the Peace of Zanjón , Cisneros Betancourt emigrated to the USA and lived there in very modest circumstances. In 1885 he returned to Puerto Principe and made his property available to veterans of the Liberation Army.

During the Cuban War of Independence 1895–1898, he was also president of the “Republic in Arms” from 1895 to 1897 . He was involved in drafting the Jimaguayu Constitution. After Cuba's formal independence following the US occupation, he became a Senator of the Republic of Cuba. He vehemently opposed the Platt Amendment , a constitutional amendment that the Cuban Republic had to add to its constitution under pressure from the USA and which guaranteed the USA the right to intervene in Cuba.

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• Cuba en la Mano. Enciclopedia popular ilustrada. La Habana 1940