By CARLOS MARTINEZ Of Our Latin America Staff

The State Department Monday denied growing rumors among the Cuban exile colony that former Cuban President Fulgencio Batista had been issued a U.S. visa and is about to enter this country.

Reports that Batista, who has been living quietly on an island off Portugal, had been granted a visa less than a month ago and is preparing to travel to New York Jan. 25, were prevalent in the Cuban colony for the last three days.

A spokesman for the State Department's Visa Office said there is no record of any visa being issued to the former Cuban chief of state.

Together with one dozen of his former aides, Batista has been denied a visa to enter the U.S. since the Eisenhower administration days.