The Politics of Intervention

Restoration and Withdrawal 255

stronger. Prominent among the Liberal victors were eight
generals of the Constitutional Army: Enrique Loynaz del
Castillo, Ernesto Asbert, Andres Paez, Baldermo Acosta, Jose
Ruman Montero, Gerardo Machado, Adriano Galano, and
Eduardo Guzman.
Elated by the effectiveness of the electoral law and by the
tranquillity of the elections, Magoon recommended that there
be no delay of the national elections.
38
After his August trip
to Washington, the Governor set November 14 as their date.
In the meantime, the politicos were busy repairing their
alliances. The Liberals, seeing defeat in continued division,
reunited and nominated Gomez and Zayas, a repeat of the
slate of 1905; the fusion itself was artfully managed by
three "Heroes of 1906," Pino Guerra, Julian Betancourt, and
Loynaz del Castillo.^39 The Conservatives nominated Mario
Menocal and Rafael Montoro. A "third force" movement in
opposition to the historic parties was almost launched. If
formed, this coalition would have been most interesting, for
it spanned in social class, race, and region most of the Cuban
body politic. The interested parties were Jose Manuel Govin
(a Nunezista) of the Agrupacion Nacional Independiente,
Tomas Recio (a Liberal who eventually supported Menocal)
of the Partido Liberal Camagueyano, Salvador Cisneros
Betancourt of the Junta Patriotica, Juan Gualberto Gomez
of the "independent" Liberals, and Evaristo Estenoz of the
Independent Party of Color.^40
In November, after a noisy campaign, Gomez and Zayas
won a majority of 70,943 votes and all 107 electors. In addi­
tion, all the newly elected senators were Liberals and, under
proportional representation, fifty-one of the eighty-three rep­
resentatives. The election was orderly and fair, although
Menocal thought the United States favored the Liberals.^41
Satisfied by the results, Roosevelt, on December 8, said that
withdrawal would soon begin. As for the United States, it
had only one desire, that the Cubans should "govern them­
selves with justice, so that peace and order may be secure."