José T. Barón

José T. Barón repeatedly served as Cuba’s acting head of mission in Washington across changes of ambassador and government. He was in charge during the upheaval of August 1933, after Manuel Márquez Sterling’s death in December 1934, and between Pedro Martínez Fraga’s departure and Aurelio Fernández Concheso’s arrival in 1940–41. ¹

In December 1926 he invited the United States to the Sixth International Conference of American States in Havana. In August 1932 he relayed the Machado government’s alarm over former president Mario García Menocal’s return to the Americas and requested American measures against the organization of armed expeditions from U.S. territory. ^{2, 3}

During the Second World War, Barón attended Secretary of State Cordell Hull’s September 1944 briefing on plans for a postwar international organization. In June 1945 he conveyed Cuba’s acceptance of proposed American fisheries conservation measures, alongside a request to respect the established activities of Cuban fishing vessels off Florida and in waters near Mexico. ^{4, 5}