837.00/4467: Telegram
The Ambassador in Cuba (Welles) to the Acting Secretary of State74
[Received 9 p.m.]
489. Since my return I have been engaged in conferences with the leaders of the various political groups. During my absence, after the [Page 530] publication of the President’s statement, Dr. Grau authorized the Uruguayan Minister to represent him in discussing with the opposition leaders some compromise agreement for the formation of a new government. The Uruguayan Minister yesterday informed me fully of the details of the proposal which he had presented.
The suggestion involved the continuation of Grau in the Presidency until a date still to be determined early in the spring prior to the holding of elections for a constitutional convention upon which date he was to agree to resign and transfer the Provisional Presidency to a substitute selected in a joint session of the Cabinet and a Council of State to be composed of approximately 50 individuals representative of all political and non-political groups of importance in the Republic; the Cabinet to be completely reorganized, Grau to name four of his own partisans, the opposition leaders to name six members, and the remaining two members to be selected by common accord from among impartial and non-political individuals to fill the posts of Interior and War. The Cabinet, by majority vote, would be given complete veto power over all Presidential decrees and control over the selection of any substitutes to fill vacancies in the Cabinet. The Uruguayan Minister informed me that his proposal had been accepted by Grau and was acceptable to the Unión Nacionalista leaders; to Miguel Mariano Gómez and to the leaders of the A.B.C.; that the latter could not commit their party to it until a referendum now in process determined whether the party would agree to the proposal or not. I told the Uruguayan Minister that in my own belief the proposal offered a perfectly satisfactory basis for settlement and that I most heartily approved it.
It is evident, however, that the Uruguayan Minister has been either intentionally or unintentionally deceived as to the acceptability of this proposal by the opposition members and as to the willingness of Grau himself to agree to it. The referendum of the A.B.C. in Habana which is now practically completed appears to show that approximately 80 percent of that party are opposed to any conciliation with the government and from the information that the leaders of the [apparent omission] have as to the sentiment of their partisans in the interior feeling there is even stronger against any compromise. While Colonel Mendieta was originally disposed to accept the agreement and his fellow director in the Unión Nacionalista Party, Dr. Torriente, has been openly working for it, the rank and file of the party have given every indication of their entire unwillingness to follow the advice of their leaders in this regard. Mendieta has consequently changed his own course completely and last night sent me word that under no condition whatever would he accept any settlement on the basis of the retention of Grau in the Presidency and that were he to do so he would [Page 531] undoubtedly be deposed immediately from his leadership of the party. The O.C.R.R. leaders advise me that they have never agreed even to consider the possibility of such a settlement as this and that they would openly oppose it. Gómez will follow the lead of Mendieta and the leaders of the A.B.C. It is unquestionable that a compromise agreement which will permit Grau to continue in the Presidency is strongly opposed by public sentiment. The feeling of hostility to the government seems to be even stronger than when I left Habana. For the time being there is an attitude of expectancy throughout the country based upon the impression that the Government of the United States will step in and settle the situation to the satisfaction of the Cubans in general. Revolutionary activities are suspended. They will undoubtedly break out again with renewed violence as soon as the public in general is convinced either that the United States will not impose a solution or that a satisfactory peaceful agreement is impossible.
Bomb explosions are frequent in all the large cities. Two nights ago a bomb exploded in Dr. Torriente’s house which only through chance failed to kill several persons. Considerable material damage and loss of life has been caused by others. I am reliably informed that a very large number of highly explosive bombs are now in readiness for use by the terrorist organizations of the opposition and that the assassination of the most hated figures of the present regime, notably Carbo and Grau, has already been planned.
Dissension among the leaders of the Army is sharply on the increase. I was reliably informed yesterday from an authoritative source that the Secretary of the Interior Guiteras, in connivance with the leaders of the Cuban Navy and of two of the Habana barracks, intends to create a new mutiny directed against Batista and Grau should any compromise agreement for a concentration government be entered into, their objective being the creation of an extreme Left dictatorship.
- Substance transmitted to the Secretary of State at Montevideo in telegram No. 35, December 4, 10 p.m.↩