Tarnished Triumph

At 2 a.m., on the morning after Cuba's presidential election last week, Fulgencio Batista told his followers: "From the results so far, it appears that I am the President-elect." It was a modest enough statement for a dictator who controlled the electoral machinery and whose only competitor in the race, ex-President Ramon Grau San Martin, had withdrawn before the election (TIME, Nov. 8).

When the vote count was barely under way, Batista gave the counters their cue. ''Seventy percent of the electorate voted, and 60% have voted for me," he told his followers. To no one's surprise, the final returns reported a 70% vote and a 6-1 margin for Batista. The opposition votes went to Grau, whose name remained on the ballots despite his walkout. Batista's four-party coalition bagged its constitutional limit of Senate seats (36 out of 54), all nine provincial governorships, and most other offices. Said Grau: "The future of Cuba is dark.''

Far from dark was the future of Strongman Batista. His newly won badge of electoral legitimacy was badly tarnished, but it was better than none, and his already firm grip on Cuba was now even firmer.

In Guatemala last week, President Carlos Castillo Armas, who took power in a revolution last June and was confirmed in office by a plebiscite in October, asked the country's new Constituent Assembly to set his term in office. By the legislators' formula, the term wall end March 15, 1960.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.