Jose Miguel Battle, Sr.

Jose Miguel Battle Sr. (September 14, 1929 – August 4, 2007) was a policeman and Cuban exile who served in the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs Invasion to overthrow the communist Cuban government under Fidel Castro in 1961. He later became the nominal leader and founder of The Corporation, also known as the Cuban mafia, and he invested in the gambling industry in the United States and Peru. He was eventually convicted of racketeering and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Early life in Cuba Battle was born on September 14, 1929, in Alto Songo, Cuba. His father was Jose Maria Battle Bestard and his mother, Angela Vargas Yzaguirre. He got to know Martin Fox, owner of the Tropicana Club. Fox made monthly payments of 5,000 pesos to the chief of police José Salas Cafiizares, sometimes delivered by Battle himself. He also introduced Battle to Santo Trafficante Jr., boss of the Trafficante crime family in Florida. A connection that would later prove beneficial when Battle moved to the U.S.

He became a Freemason in Cuba. He emigrated to the United States in December 1959.

Bay of Pigs Invasion Battle assisted the Central Intelligence Agency in the early 1960s in training Cuban exiles and commanded one of the landing craft during the Bay of Pigs Invasion at Playa Girón in April 1961. Battle also served as a soldier in the ground assault. The invasion result was disastrous after President John F. Kennedy aborted American air support just five minutes before the armed Cubans reached Cuban soil. Jose, along with the other surviving expatriate soldiers, was captured after three days of arduous battle and imprisoned for nearly two years in a Cuban prison.

Career As compensation for his service in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Battle was given an officer’s commission in the United States Army; he held the rank of second lieutenant in the infantry. He did not earn high enough evaluations to merit promotion to first lieutenant and left the Army after a year. After being released from what many saw as the result of a betrayal from JFK, Battle settled in Union City, New Jersey, It is estimated that his network earned up to $45 million a year in the 1970s from bolita in New Jersey, New York, and Florida. Trafficante set up meetings with various mobsters he knew in New Jersey and New York, introducing Battle to Sam DeCavalcante, Tony Salerno and representatives of the Bonanno crime family.

Battle was convicted in 1977 and sentenced to 30 years in prison in connection with the death of Ernesto “Ernestico” Torres, an alleged hitman for Battle's organization.

In the early 1990s Battle Sr. fled to Lima, Peru, The corporation was making hundreds of millions of dollars from gambling, racketeering, illegal lottery, and loan sharking, and operated in the US, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Europe.

Arrest, conviction and death In 2004 Battle Sr, his son Jr., and 21 other key aid members and associates were indicted and charged with five murders, four arson attacks resulting in eight deaths, and more than $1.5 billion collected from drug trafficking, bookmaking, and numbers rackets. Of the 21, four were arrested in the New York and Union City, N.J. areas. One was in Puerto Rico and another in Spain; the rest were in the Miami area, including Battle's son. He was housed in the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Miami on more charges of racketeering. Battle Jr and associate Julio Acuña attempted to appeal the decision but failed, with Battle Jr sentenced to more than 15 years in federal prison and ordered to forfeit $642 million and Acuña sentenced to life and a $1.4 billion judgment.

On May 6, 2006, Battle pleaded guilty to the racketeering charges due to his health. On January 15, 2007, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. On August 6, 2007, he died from various ailments in a South Carolina medical facility while in Federal Custody awaiting transfer to another prison. He was 77.

Battle is portrayed by Yul Vazquez in the third season of the TV series Godfather of Harlem, which premiered in 2023. He's depicted as a collaborator of the CIA in a plot to overthrow Fidel Castro even after the official end of Operation Mongoose.