Menocal, Mario García (1866-1941)

Cuban Conservative Party politician and revolutionary, president 1913-21. His reformist ‘businessman government’ was seen as corrupt, and his re-election in 1916, amid charges of electoral fraud, provoked an abortive revolt led by José Miguel Gómez. However, rising sugar prices during World War I and US support brought prosperity and stability. Menocal supported Alfredo Zayas as president in 1920, and remained influential until his defeat by Gerardo Machado in the 1924 presidential contest.

After leading an unsuccessful revolt against Machado in 1931, he lived in exile in the USA. He returned to Cuba after Machado's removal in 1934 and ran unsuccessfully for president in 1936.

As a revolutionary, he was a general in the struggle against Spanish control from 1895. He secured positions in the US military government, which held power after the Spanish-American War of 1898, and became a leading figure within the right-of-centre Conservative Party, as well as a sugar plantation manager. An early presidential bid in 1908 proved unsuccessful.

Menocal was mainly educated in the USA, where he studied engineering at Cornell University. His family had been forced to leave Cuba during the Ten Years' War for independence from Spain 1868-78.