The Cuban Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Eduardo Sáenz Rovner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The CUbaN CoNneCtioN A book in the series Latin America in Translation / en Traducción / em Tradução Sponsored by the Consortium in Latin American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The CUbCoaNNneCtioN Drug Trafficking, Smuggling, and Gambling in Cuba from the 1920s to the Revolution Translated by Russ Davidson The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill Translation of the books in the series Latin America in Translation / en Traducción / em Tradução, a collaboration between the Consortium in Latin American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University and the university presses of the University of North Carolina and Duke, is supported by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. © 2008 The University of North Carolina Press All rights reserved Designed by April Leidig-Higgins Set in MinionPro by Copperline Book Services, Inc. Manufactured in the United States of America Originally published in Spanish by Universidad Nacional de Colombia Colección ces as La conexión cubana: narcotráfico, contrabando y juego en Cuba entre los años 20 y comienzos de la Revolución, © 2005 Eduardo Sáenz Rovner The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sáenz Rovner, Eduardo. [Conexión cubana. English] The Cuban connection : drug trafficking, smuggling, and gambling in Cuba from the 1920s to the Revolution / Eduardo Sáenz Rovner ; translated by Russ Davidson. p. cm. — (Latin America in translation/en traducción/em tradução) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8078-3175-5 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Drug traffic — Cuba — History — 20th century. 2. Organized crime — Cuba — History — 20th century. 3. Gambling — Cuba — History — 20th century. 4. United States — Foreign relations — Cuba. 5. Cuba — Foreign relations — United States. I. Title. HV5840.C85S2413 2008 364.1'0609729109041 — dc22 2008020373 12 11 10 09 08 5 4 3 2 1 To my mother This page intentionally left blank Havana is rather a smoldering volcano of life, of Kaffir politics, of race and class struggles; it is brutal, realistic, palpitating with vitality as few cities in Latin America — the new, violent stridency of a culture and a way of life still unfulfilled, its contours still undetermined. — Carleton Beals, The Crime of Cuba (1933) This page intentionally left blank Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1 U.S. Prohibition and Smuggling from Cuba 17 2 Drug Trafficking and Political Anarchy during the 1930s 31 3 The Chinese and Opium Consumption in Cuba 45 4 Corruption and Drug Trafficking in Cuba during the Second World War and the Early Postwar Years 57 5 Lucky Luciano in Cuba 65 6 The Prío Socarrás Government and Drug Trafficking 75 7 Gambling in Cuba 81 8 The Andean Connection 95 9 Contacts in France 103 10 The Batista Dictatorship and Drug Trafficking 113 11 Revolution 123 12 The Diplomacy of Drug Trafficking at the Beginning of the Revolution 135 Epilogue 147 Notes 153 Bibliography 211 Index 237