Portal:Cuba/Selected biography/9

General Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (pronounced [fulˈɣensio baˈtista̩]) (January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was the de facto military leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1940, and thus the eminence grise of Cuban politics for that period of time, and the de jure President of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 after having won election. He then became the country's leader after staging a coup, from 1952 until 1959, when he was ousted by the Cuban Revolution.