Very important DS in Spanish, six pages, 9 x 13.5, July 7, 1959. Official document sent to Manuel Urrutia y Lleo, the president of Cuba. In part (translated): “…the Fundamental Law prohibits the confiscation of chattle and real estate, but authorizes the confiscation of those of The Tyrant…and his collaborators, be they natural persons or legal entities responsible for crimes committed against the National Economy and the Public Finance and those that have illegally enriched themselves under the protection of the Public Power...
The investigations conducted by the Ministry of Recovery of Embezzeled Goods and by the Ministry of Public Works…have evidenced that diverse natural persons who have maintained ostensible ties directly or indirectly with The Tyranny and have been protected by said relations and have received protection that the Usurper Power granted them, constituted numerous corporations through which they obtained public contracts for public works and public services and conspired with the corresponding officials, monopolized the major part of the public works projects realized during the tenure of the disastrous regime, through prices so excessive and with profit margins so fraudulent that the works constituted situations which are considered scandalous and which transcended public knowledge...
The Provisional Revolutionary Government is obligated not only to ensure the quick reintegration of said illegally obtained goods and assets to the National Patrimony, but also to impose the corresponding legislative sanctions on those who directly or through corporate entities did profit and gain so scandalously through the protection of the Tyranny that governed through terror and crime...
The Cuban State has available the right to confiscate and adjudicate all of the goods which constitute the Patrimony…related to the previous article….the dissolution of the corporations and companies will be registered in the Registry of companies and businesses…the Ministry of Public Works will proceed to occupy and utilize said equipment for public works projects….It is declared that all Public Works contracts are hereby rescinded.” Signed at the conclusion by Castro as Prime Minister and countersigned by Faustino Perez, the Minister for Recuperation of Embezzled Goods. Each page is also initialed by Castro. In fine condition, with punch and marginal binding holes to left edge. The blue seal and ribbon are both crisp and intact. The document also includes a list of 107 companies that were seized, including numerous hotel-casinos, construction companies, and import/export businesses that connected Cuba directly with the American mob. Working closely with Batista, underworld figures such as Meyer Lansky were able to build their empires abroad in exchange for financing the country's public works and offering benefits in otherwise difficult international business ventures.
Upon the establishment of Cuba’s new revolutionary state in January of 1959, Castro immediately began confiscating property and assets embezzled by officials of the overthrown Batista regime. Anything belonging to citizens who failed to pay taxes, were convicted of counterrevolutionary crimes, or were exiled for their support of “The Tyrant” during the revolt, was considered to be illegally obtained and therefore able to be taken. Declaring that “the Provisional Revolutionary Government is obligated…to ensure the quick reintegration of said illegally obtained goods and assets”—including not only housing and land, but also economic enterprises and public works contracts—the newly formed Ministry for the Recovery of Embezzled Goods quickly began nationalizing all aspects of Cuban business. By the end of the first decade, all domestic wholesale and foreign trade and banking, most transportation, industry, construction, and retail trade, and more than a third of agriculture was under state ownership and control. The 107 government-seized companies are listed by name within the pages of this document and include hotel-casinos, numerous construction companies and several import/export businesses that operated under Batista's rule. An incredibly important document from the first year of the revolutionary leader’s new government, setting into motion the nationalization that would define modern communist Cuba. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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