Editing Fulgencio Batista (section)

==Constitutional presidency (1940–1944)==
Batista defeated Grau in [[Cuban general election, 1940|the first presidential election]] (1940) under the new [[Constitution of Cuba|Cuban constitution]], and served a four-year term as President of Cuba, the first and to this day only non-white Cuban in that office.<ref name="Bethell-Cuba">{{cite book|title=Cuba|author=Leslie Bethell|isbn=978-0-521-43682-3|date=1993-03-26|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref><ref name="Sweig-Inside">{{cite book|title=Inside the Cuban Revolution|author=Julia E. Sweig |isbn=978-0-674-01612-5|date=October 2004|publisher=Harvard University Press |url=https://archive.org/details/insidecubanrevol00juli}}</ref> Batista was endorsed by the [[Democratic Socialist Coalition]] and the original Cuban Communist Party (later known as the [[Popular Socialist Party (Cuba)|Popular Socialist Party]]), which at the time had little significance and no probability of an electoral victory.<ref name="Sweig-Inside" /> This support was primarily due to Batista's early advocacy of strengthening [[labor law]]s and his support for [[labor union]]s, with which the Communists had close ties, as well as the pro-Allied stance in World War II.<ref name="Jorge I. Domínguez 90">{{cite book|title=Cuba|author=Jorge I. Domínguez|page=90}}</ref> Batista also supported [[Corporatism]] in his first term.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ascecubadatabase.org/asce_proceedings/cuban-corporatism-batistas-three-year-plan-and-a-nation-betrayed |title=Cuban Corporatism: Batista's Three-Year Plan and a Nation Betrayed |access-date=2025-04-12}}</ref> Communists attacked the anti-Batista opposition, saying Grau and others were "fascists" and "[[Reactionary|reactionaries]]."<ref name="Dominquez-Cuba">{{cite book|title=Cuba|url=https://archive.org/details/losantiguosdipu00domgoog|author=Jorge I. Domínguez|year=1879|publisher=Impr. "El Telegrafo,"}}</ref> During this term in office, Batista carried out major social reforms<ref name="Sweig-Inside" /> and established numerous economic regulations and pro-union policies.<ref name="Dominquez-Cuba" />

Cuba entered World War II on the side of the Allies on December 9, 1941, declaring war on Japan two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. On December 11, the Batista government declared war on Germany and Italy. In December 1942, after a friendly visit to Washington, Batista said Latin America would applaud if the [[Declaration by United Nations]] called for war with [[Francisco Franco]]'s [[Francoist Spain|Spain]], calling the regime fascist.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20101014163132/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,886090,00.html "Plain Talk in Spanish"], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', December 28, 1942, Retrieved March 2, 2010</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080825011807/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,802544,00.html "Batista's Boost"], ''Time'', January 18, 1943, Retrieved March 2, 2010.</ref>