Cisneros Betancourt, Salvador (1828–1914)

Salvador Cisneros Betancourt (b. 10 October 1828; d. 28 February 1914), Cuban independence leader and legislator. Cisneros Betancourt was born in Camagüey, central Cuba, to a wealthy and noble family. After independence, people affectionately continued to call him by his title, Marqués of Santa Lucía. As a young man, he was imprisoned in Spain for his conspiratorial activities. Cisneros Betancourt was involved in Cuba's two wars of independence and was president of the insurgent provisional government in both. He also participated in the framing of the insurgent constitutions and was a delegate to the constituent assembly that approved Cuba's first constitution as an independent nation (1900–1901). Cisneros Betancourt strongly urged the rejection of the Platt Amendment, accusing the United States of exercising "the power of the strong over the weak." He was a member of the Cuban Senate from 1902 until his death. Cisneros Betancourt died in Havana.

See alsoCuba, Constitutionsxml .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

For Cisneros Betancourt's role in the wars of independence, see José M. Hernández, Cuba and the United States: Intervention and Militarism, 1868–1933 (1993); for his opposition to the Platt Amendment, see Philip S. Foner, The Spanish-Cuban-American War and the Birth of American Imperialism (1972), vol. 2, pp. 534-632.

Additional Bibliography

Bernal, Andrés Avelino. Salvador Cisneros Betancourt: Marqués de Santa Lucía y presidente de la República de Cuba, Madrid: Editorial Verbum, 1993.

                                      JosÉ M. HernÁndez