CUBA: President Batista

Last week, amid a faint suspicion of judicial complaisance Cuba’s tough, bronze little boss, Fulgencio Batista, got the job of President of the Republic, which he had badly wanted ever since he was elected, but not certified, last July. Immediately after last summer’s national elections, Batista’s varied opposition began to file complaints of some 2,000 local voting frauds which threatened to delay the President-elect’s inauguration many months until Cuba’s courts could pass on the evidence. But last week Cuba’s Supreme Court, which fortnight ago had admitted the legality of the 2,000 complaints, revoked its decision, changing its mind for the first time in the history of the tribunal. Outgoing President Federico Laredo Bru, longtime Batistaman, ordered the Superior Electoral Tribunal to certify those candidates not specifically affected by the complaints—including Fulgencio Batista. Colonel Batista announced his Cabinet, drawn from four of the five parties of the coalition that nominated him, and stated he was “the happiest man in the world.”

On Inauguration Day a thick drizzle fell on Havana’s gold-domed Presidential Palace, but in its Salon of Mirrors Cuba’s pomp watched the island’s de facto boss become its de jure leader. Outside, wet thousands gathered in Misiones Park, with bands blaring, cheered a balcony appearance by the newly sworn President. Same day, President Batista issued a manifesto to the press:”It is true that the revolutionary cycle has ended. I wish to be good and to be loved by my people. I have no triumph. It is an ideal that has triumphed—the ideal of the revolution.”

But already Opposition leaders, such as onetime President Ramón Grau San Martin, holding that Batista’s occasional liberal gestures have always been for dictatorial ends, suggested in Cuban radio broadcasts that their only hope lay in another, anti-Batista revolution. As far as Washington was concerned, Cuba already had the right President. Contemplated was a possible loan to Cuba by the U. S. Export-Import Bank of $50,000,000 for the development of agriculture, mining, secondary roads, public works, tourism, hospitals, schools, with $10,000,000 earmarked for “balancing the budget.”