The New York Times
February 19, 1958

Cuban Coalition Picks Candidate
Premier Nominated to Run For Presidency in June--More Clashes Reported

Special of The New York Times.

HAVANA, Feb. 18--Premier Andres Rivero Aguero has become Presidential Aguero has become Presidential candidate for the four-party government coalition in the election of June 1.

The Liberal party ratified his nomination late yesterday.  The three other parties--President Fulgencio Batista's Progressive Action party, the Democratic and the Union Radical--already had approved Senor Rivero who is considered the choice of President Batista.  According to the present Constitution General Batista is barred from seeking a second term.

Dr. Guas Inclan, Vice President, has been nominated by the coalition as the running mate of Senor Rivero.  However according to reports the Liberal party, of which he, a member, is dissatisfied with the Vice Presidency and is demanding that Dr. Inclan be nominated for the Havana mayoralty, a position considered second in importance to the Presidency.

All nominations must be completed this month, according to the electoral code.  The coalition will back one slate of Senators but each party will run its own candidates for representatives, governors of provinces, mayors and aldermen.

Politicians Wary on Voting

Political chiefs in the Camaguey and Matazas Provinces have notified former President Ramon Grau San Martin, who has been nominated by the opposition Cuban revolutionary party known as Autenticos, that with present chaotic conditions in these provinces it is impossible to carry on election campaigns.  Dr. Grau immediately issued a statement he will not withdraw from the elections.

The only other Opposition party to nominate a candidate for President so far is the Free People's party, which is running Dr. Carlos Marquex Sterling.  This party is a small faction of the once powerful Orthodox party, which has been split into various sections and disappeared.

New Clashes Reported

Meanwhile reports from Oriente Province said one soldier had been killed and two wounded when rebels ambushed a Government patrol on the plantation of Marcos Gonzalez near Campechuela.  Details of the encounter were not given.

In the outskirts of Havana two youths also burned a bus.

Camp Columbia army headquarters denied a battle had been going on for the last two days at Pino del Agua, south of Bayamo in Oriente province between government troops and rebels.

Headquarters said an encounter between Army patrols and rebels near Pino del Agua had resulted in the killing of sixteen rebels and five soldiers.

Big Arms Cache Seized

HOUSTON, Tex., Feb. 18 (AP)--About fifty Federal agents raided a house near Seabrook on Galveston Bay today and reported that they had found it "jammed full of weapons and ammunitions" presumably destined for the Cuban rebels.

One customs agent said "millions of rounds of ammunition" had been seized along with "every conceivable type of weapon."