Mayor Rebuffed

When Colonel Fulgencio Batista decided last summer to make himself the de jure as well as de facto boss of Cuba, he persuaded the politically potent Menocal family to renounce its support of Opposition Candidate Dr. Ramon Juan San Martin and swing crucial Havana his way. In return he got behind dapper, high-living 40-year-old Raul Garcia Menocal y Seva in the city elections, hoisted him from Havana's ballrooms and race courses to the mayoralty. Last week came Raul's induction. Immediately he ran into trouble.

Arriving in the City Hall he found only nine council members there to meet him. At first it was merely annoying. When half an hour passed with no sign of the missing 16, things began to look serious. An hour passed. As he fidgeted impatiently the roar of a gathering crowd swelled from the Calle Presidente Zayas below. Then an excited aide rushed to the Mayor, whispered that recalcitrant, anti-Batista councilmen were rumping it in the Municipal Building across the street. Outside the noise grew louder. Someone broke a window. Someone aimed an uppercut at the offender's jaw. Soon the air was full of fists.

This was too much for the badgered Mayor. In desperation he called on that political warhorse, Vice President Dr.

Gustavo Cuervo Rubio, for help. Under Cuervo's guidance he plunged across the street, burst into the Council shouting: "Unconstitutionality!" Like a match in a powder keg, this touched off a fiery debate. Presently Mayor Menocal gave up, sat down. Now thoroughly humiliated--as the Communist-keyed majority of the Council intended he should be--Mayor Menocal decided they all might just as well hold the induction ceremonies in the Municipal Building.

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