By Ron LaBrecque and Gloria Marina

Former Cuban president Carlos Prío Socarras, who committee at his Miami Beach home Tuesday morning, had been despondent over financial reverses, his family told police Tuesday.

Prío shot himself with a black, .38-caliber snub-nose revolver at about 8 a.m. Tuesday, police said. The 73-year-old exile leader left no suicide note.

MEMBERS of his family told police Prío had been concerned with losses in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Prío recently had testified in civil lawsuits that he owned no personal property and had lost control of his four Puerto Rican development companies to lenders. A lawyer who garnished all of Prío Florida bank accounts last year said he recovered only $200.

A brother-in-law, Antonio Fuentes, said Prío, Cuba's last freely elected president, also had been
troubled by changing relationships between the United States and Cuba and had talked about the subject Monday night with his daughter, Maria Elena.

In February Prío and other exile leaders met in Washington with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance to state their opposition to normalization of relations between the two countries.

At 8 a.m. Tuesday, a gardener working at a nearby house heard the shot from behind Prío home at 5070 Alton Road, Miami Beach. He flagged down Miami Beach patrolman Noel Chandler.

Prío was found lying in a beach lounge chair at the entrance to the garage behind the house.

THE REVOLVER was on the garage floor. Prío was wearing pajamas and bleeding heavily from the chest wound.

The last person to talk to Prío was Miami Beach Patrolman Ed Avila, himself a Cuban exile who recalled that as a boy in Cuba he lunched with his grandfather and Prío.

Avila, 30, asked Prío three questions in Spanish.

"I talked to him and he nodded yes and no. I asked him if he was hurting, if he was in pain, and he nodded no. I asked him if anybody shot him and he nodded no. I asked him if he shot himself and he nodded yes," Avila said.

Prío reportedly arose at his usual hour of 5:30 a.m. Tuesday and read The Herald. Police and family said he talked to his brother Antonio shortly before 8 a.m. and mentioned that he had to fly to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

ABOUT eight minutes later he shot himself, police said.

Prío was rushed to the emergency room at Mount Sinai Medical Center, which is about eight blocks south of his home.

There, three surgeons worked for an hour. Prío died at 9:30 a.m. The last rites of the Catholic Church were administered by the Rev. Ignacio Carbajales, the hospital chaplain.

There were cries and tears when the death was announced to about 25 friends and relatives crowded into the emergency room entrance, including his daughters, Maria Antoinette and Maria Elena, his wife, Maria, and brother Antonio.

The single bullet destroyed the right side of Prío's heart, a hospital spokesman said. The wound "was about an inch wide," according to Dr. Manuel Viamonte. "It seemed to be a self-inflicted wound because of the gunpowder on the skin," he said.

ALFREDO Duran, Prío son-in-law and chairman of the Democratic Party of Florida, was one of the last family members to leave the hospital. He made no statements to reporters.

Prío served as president of Cuba from 1948 to 1952 when he was ousted by Fulgencia Batista six months before his term expired.

In a sworn deposition taken by Miami attorney William Shuford, Prío said he left Cuba then with several million dollars and later gave $2 1/2  million of, it to Fidel Castro's revolutionary efforts. "It was the biggest mistake of my life," Shuford quoted Prío as saying.

Shuford said Prío testified that he invested the remaining money in Puerto Rican developments. Prío himself had testified recently that he owed a Puerto Rican bank more than $2 million in development loans. "He was struggling over the past two years to effect a recovery," said Shuford, who questioned Prío as recently as December in a civil lawsuit filed by Dr. Juio Amaedo, who had been Argentina's ambassador to Cuba when Prío was president.

Shuford said he began trying to collect his client's money from Prío in 1970. He said after the Florida Supreme Court ruled in his client's favor last year, he garnished all of Prío Florida bank accounts.