New York Times

February 20, 1958. p. 8.

Goal is Shifted for Batista Aide

Vice President Inclan Runs for Mayor of Havana—Strife Clouds Outlook

By R. Hart Phillips

Special to The New York Times

HAVANA, Feb. 19—Dissatisfaction within the four-party Government coalition resulted today in a major change in its slate of candidates.

Dr. Guas Inclan, Vice President under President Batista, had been chosen as the running-mate of the Presidential candidate, Dr. Andres Rivero Aguero. Instead, it was announced that Dr. Inclan would now run for Mayor of Havana, the office generally regarded as second in importance to the Presidency of Cuba.

Dr. Gaston Godoy, President (Speaker) of the House of Representatives, will be the Vice Presidential candidate for the coalition in the elections scheduled June 1. At that time national, provincial and municipal offices are to be filled. General Batista is barred by the Constitution from running for re-election.

Meanwhile, violence increased in Cuba as youthful opponents of the regime sought to prevent the elections. The rebels contended that no balloting can be conducted impartially under the Batista Government, with the army in control of the country.

Apathy and Doubts

Also, the public seems apathetic toward the elections. Observers have noted that the only electoral activity is in Havana; elsewhere, people are not convinced that elections can be held in the present virtual civil war.

A non-political organization known as the Friends of the Republic and composed of prominent Cubans, issued a statement asserting that the holding of elections under present conditions was not feasible. The statement called on the Government and its enemies to choose a “neutral” regime to bring peace to Cuba and then hold elections.

Several thousand Government troops are now in Oriente Province in the eastern part of the island, fighting Fidel Castro’s insurgents, whose stronghold is in the wilds of Sierra Maestra. The rebel forces have apparently been growing and almost daily they are attacking rural guard posts and army patrols, burning and destroying rice plantations, setting cane fields afire and interfering with the harvest of the sugar crop.

Reports of a new landing of revolutionaries near Baracoa at the eastern tip of Oriente have circulated in Havana. Army headquarters has just sent troops to that district.

A late report from Oriente Province said a group of rebels who had attacked troops at Agua del Pino, south of Bayamo, where there has been heavy fighting, had now withdrawn to the Sierra Maestra.

A report from Las Villas Province in central Cuba, today said about 200 soldiers were in pursuit of rebels who had appeared in the mountains between Sancti Spiritus and Trinidad and were attacking army posts. This is the first recent news of a so-called Second Front established almost a month ago by a group that terms itself the Revolutionary Directorate, composed of Havana University students and other youths.