CHAPTER TWO
THE AUGUST REVOLUTION
Di
LESPITE isolated outbreaks of violence and a
'host of conflicting rumors, in July, 1906, the
the Estrada Palma government seemed firmly entrenched. The
Liberal leaders, however, had not given up their plans for
open revolt. Rather, they had decided to stage a golpe de
estado by seizing the Havana police stations and capturing
the President and his cabinet.
1
They then planned, presuming
that United States would have no cause to intervene, to have
a rump Cuban congress (less the 1905 electees) establish a
provisional government and hold new elections.^2 The junta
itself included the top leadership of the Liberal party: Jose
Miguel Gomez, Alfredo Zayas, Jose de Jesus Monteagudo,
Demetrio Castillo Duany, Justo and Carlos Garcia Velez, Juan
Gualberto Gomez, and Manuel Lazo.^3 The junta's plans were
cafe-talk in Havana by August 1, and the government, unable
to ignore the conspiracy, may have been about to act when
the actual rebellion began.
On August 16 in the westernmost province of Pinar del
Rio, a former guerrilla colonel and Liberal congressman,
Faustino (Pino) Guerra, called several hundred men to his
colors (a Cuban flag trimmed with black crepe), and the
revolt was underway.
4
Guerra, apparently fearing that the
government would smash the plot, took the field without
orders from Manuel Lazo, the most influential Liberal in the
province. Guerra himself was an engaging person, but hardly
a Liberal strongman. He was best known as a gambler, horse
man, accordian player, and bon vivant. Slim, ruggedly
handsome, dark, mustachioed, and hook-nosed, Pino Guerra