Batista Backfire

Swart, nimble little Colonel Fulgencio Batista, "Cuban Strong Man" and most likable of Caribbean dictators, has been fixing himself up during the past year with a brand-new reputation as a Liberal which he was ready last week to test at the polls. Originally Colonel Batista was suspected of Fascist leanings. Because of this, last year some 70% of the electorate stayed home on voting day to boycott Batista (TIME, March 14, 1938).

After receiving this slap, the Strong Man ordered his stooge President Dr. Federico Laredo Bru to dissolve the Cuban falange, an offshoot of Spanish Fascism, and legalize the Cuban Communist Party, which soon boasted 25,000 dues-paying members. Strong Man Batista's subsequent spectacular State visits in Washington to New Dealer Roosevelt and in Mexico City to even Newer Dealer Cardenas seemed to go over big with the Cuban populace. The Strong Man's return from these visits was celebrated in Havana with unprecedented popular rejoicing and wild huzzas. Last week, the Communists swung into line behind "Liberal" Batista as the Cuban electorate turned out to vote for delegates to a Constituent Assembly which is to draft a new Constitution for Cuba.

Early returns showed the Batista faction leading, and the dusky Colonel exulted with his broadest grin: "I have never been so happy in my public life as now! It is a triumph of the people that exalts both Cuba and the Cubans. The armed forces have reason to be content!"

Later the full count gave the relatively conservative Opposition 41 seats, a clear majority in the Constituent Assembly (76 seats). The supporters of Batista won only 35 seats. As the worsted Strong Man glowered in silence, Government supporters claimed that legal technicalities in validated the election results in the case of ten seats, all of these being seats won by the Opposition.

Unchallenged were six seats won by the Communists, seating this party for the first time in a Cuban Constituent Assembly. Neutral observers in Havana agreed that Colonel Batista had gained in moral stature last week by giving Cuba one of the few fairly conducted elections it has ever had. That his reward was defeat at the polls was due, they thought, not so much to dislike of the genial Dictator as to an unreasoning eruption of Cuban disgust at hard times and a tendency to blame these on the Government of the day.

Sure to prove a cockpit of lively squabbles is the new Assembly. Its Opposition majority was already claiming last week that the Assembly is sovereign and ought to supplant Congress. The Government minority cracked back that the Assembly has no authority to do more than draft a new Constitution, which Cuban voters may accept or reject. With such prime ingredients for revolution brewing, the Cuban pot simmered this week close to a boil.

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