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A successful revolution is not easy to accomplish; a determined government can usually keep rebel forces from seizing power. Rebels must utilize creative methods to ultimately take control, such as kidnapping a champion race car driver.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: February 23, 1958--
The first Formula 1 race was in 1946, and it was a grueling sport. There was little in the way of safety equipment, and the courses lacked safety features. The races were longer and the cars physically demanding to control, so much that drivers often finished races with blisters covering their hands. In the early years, Argentinian Juan Fangio was the greatest, despite winning his first World Championship in 1951 at the positively ancient age of 40. Then he won the championship again in 1954, 1955, 1956, and 1957. He also won the Cuban Grand Prix in 1957, and intended to win it again in 1958, but Fidel Castro had other plans.
Fulgencio Batista was corrupt as fuck and useless at governing Cuba. Across the ages, numerous powerful rebel movements have been thwarted in achieving revolution simply because the regimes in power were strong enough to resist them. Not Batista though. It’s rarely the strength of the uprising that determines victory, but the weakness of the ruling regime, and Batista was a weak-ass motherfucker. The February 23, 1958, kidnapping of Fangio was yet another example of that.
It was the day before the Cuban Grand Prix. Two of Castro’s gunmen took Fangio from his Havana hotel. Batista ordered police to find Fangio, blocking roads, guarding airports as well as other drivers. Castro’s intent was to force the cancelling of the race, but Batista said it would go ahead, and it did.
Fangio was held at three different houses to prevent him being found. He was “treated very well” and allowed to listen to the race on the radio. During the race there was a horrible crash, and the kidnappers were all hey Juan you gotta fuckin’ see this shit and brought him a TV so he could watch the replay. They also tried to talk to Fangio about their revolutionary motives, but he said yeah I just drive cars I’m not into politics. He was released unharmed to the Argentinian embassy after 29 hours of captivity.
The rebels’ intent was to embarrass the Batista regime by forcing a cancellation of the race, but the race took place regardless. However, the government’s failure to track down the kidnappers is what made the regime look weak, convincing many in the country that Batista’s days were numbered. And they were. Less than a year later Castro’s forces seized control of the nation. Castro cancelled the 1959 Cuban Grand Prix I guess because he was commie and it represented some capitalistic bullshit.
Fangio referred to his kidnapping as “One more adventure,” saying, “If what the rebels did was in a good cause, then I, as an Argentine, accept it.” Batista may have sucked, but a lot of Cubans disagreed that the revolution ended up being a good cause.
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