837.00/4325: Telegram
The Ambassador in Cuba (Welles) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 2—12:52 a.m.]
421. Mendieta has delayed the carrying out of the plan determined upon by Batista and supported by the political leaders in the hope that he can persuade the Student Directorate to agree to it. They are so far completely recalcitrant and none of the opposition groups have any belief that the Student Directorate will accept any solution except one based upon the continuance of Grau San Martín in the Presidency. Mendieta has, however, now taken the position that he must make every effort to obtain the acquiescence of the seven or eight leading members of the Directorate before he will consent to form a government.
[Page 507]This new evidence of vacillation has created a crisis which I think will force Batista to request the political leaders to agree upon some other candidate.