CUBA: Prio’s Progress

Shortly after midnight, Carlos Prio Socarrás left the Senate chamber and went directly to the third-floor palace apartment of President Ramón Grau San Martin. Later, he came out, smiling. Said he: “Grau is content with my conduct before the Senate.” In the Senate, Labor Minister Prio Socarrás had been called on the carpet last week to explain why he threw the Communists out of Havana’s Labor Palace last August (TIME, Aug. 11). He told the Senate that the Reds were a fifth column for Russia, that they did not belong in the Labor Palace and that they did not represent Cuban labor. By the time he had finished almost everyone but the Communists seemed satisfied. Prio hoped that his Senate success had placed him securely in the No. 1 position to succeed his old friend, President Grau, in 1948.

Prio’s political background is in the Cuban tradition. An old anti-Machado, anti-Batista fighter, he was jailed twice for revolutionary activities, was once exiled to Miami. In October 1945, Grau made him Prime Minister, a post which he held until last April, when the cabinet, faced with a no-confidence vote in Congress, resigned. Grau promptly made Prio the new Labor Minister. In July he fought a saber duel with Senator Eduardo Chibás, opposition leader. He nicked Chibás a bit, came through himself with only bruises.

A jovial sort, always calm and collected, Prio is the physical type the Cubans call “criollo”‘: dark hair (greying at 44), black mustache, a toothpaste-ad smile. He is a neat dresser, a quiet talker. Except for his antiCommunism, he has no platform so far. He promises only to carry on Grau’s policies, hoping that the growing anti-Red, anti-Russian feeling, combined with general satisfaction with Grau’s record, will be enough to put him in the Palace.