Fulgencio Batista was a Cuban military leader and politician who served as Cuba's president from 1940 to 1944 and again from 1952 to 1959. Initially, a progressive leader who enacted popular reforms, Batista's second term was marked by corruption, repression, and close ties to organized crime, including American mobsters such as Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano. His brutal dictatorship was eventually overthrown by Fidel Castro's revolutionary forces in 1959, leading Batista to flee to the Dominican Republic and eventually Portugal, where he resided until his death in 1973.
