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White to move and mate in two #657 - Havana Nocturne [1]
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Date: 2025-04-24
How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It to the Revolution
Early on the night of New Year’s Eve, the city was calm. News of rebel successes throughout the previous week had led many to believe that the end was near for Batista, but there had been no unusual announcements. At Lansky’s Riviera, the rooms were near total occupancy and the hotel restaurant booked to capacity. All seemed normal, except for a few telltale signs.
Ralph Rubio ate with his family in the hotel restaurant that evening. As was often the case, Lt. Col. Esteban Ventura entered with his two daughters and a bevy of bodyguards. Ventura—dressed in his usual white linen suit—was chief of the island’s anti-Communist and antisub-version squad. He was one of the most feared and hated police officials in all of Cuba. His squad was run out of the Fifth Precinct and later the Ninth Precinct, a virtual chamber of horrors where revolutionary collaborators were interrogated, tortured, and sometimes murdered.
Rubio was used to seeing Ventura take his seat at a table surrounded by bodyguards. But tonight he saw something different: the lieutenant colonel’s bodyguards took their 45-caliber pistols out of their holsters and either put them on the table or held them in their laps, covered by a napkin. The guns were conspicuous and ready for immediate use.
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