Manuel Benítez y González was a Cuban Machadista (follower of Gerardo Machado) and soldier in the Cuban Liberation Army who helped purge the Spanish Empire from Cuba, and later a journalist for the Havana newspaper La Discusión.
[1] Under the presidency of Federico Laredo Brú, Benítez served as the director general of Immigration, and was a welcome recipient of Jewish refugees from Europe.
In 1939, Benítez sold forged permits to German Jewish refugees for 150 dollars each, allowing them to enter the country for sanctuary and asylum.
[2] However, certain people in the government did not appreciate this, and these forged permits were eventually denied entry into Cuba by the Cuban president.
[3] This scandal by the palace eventually forced the entire transatlantic ship MS St. Louis to return to Europe with over 900 Jews on board, after having been anchored in Havana for a full week.