Report from Costa Rica:
CANAS, ALBERTO F.
REPORT FROM COSTA RICA By Alberto F. Canas SAN JOSE EARLY LAST WEEK, Costa Rican President Jose Figueres signed an Act of Congress creating an "Instituto de Vivienda y Urbanization" (rough...
...In 1948, Picado tried to rig an election in favor of Calderon...
...Last April, 25 Nicaraguans crossed the border from Costa Rica to join a revolution against Somoza...
...Tension between Costa Rica and Nicaragua is nothing new...
...At about the same time, Foreign Minister Mario A. Esquivel announced that the Nicaraguan dossier should now be closed...
...Then, at the end of July, a gang of 20, calling themselves the "National Anti-Communist Army," assaulted a bank in northern Costa Rica and received asylum in Nicaragua...
...The Costa Rican Government immediately asked the courts to investigate whether the Costa Rican officials and foreign refugees were involved in the plot...
...Yet, pro-Calderon and pro-Picado people continue to cross the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica...
...visa long before and now left the country for Puerto Rico of his own accord...
...The mediator called it a day, and for two weeks there were no new developments...
...The roots of the recent crisis can be traced to the early Forties, when President Calderon of Costa Rica—a conservative who found it expedient to collaborate with the Communists—made a friendly visit to Somoza...
...Alberto F. Canas is a noted Costa Rican journalist...
...The finding was that, as far as the officials were concerned, the Nicaraguan charges were false...
...The pursuing patrols captured a notorious bandit named Mojica...
...and, when Calderon decided to rig the 1944 Presidential elections in favor of his crony Teodoro Picado, Somoza was more than willing to help with "voters" on the understanding that Picado would keep his customs agents' eyes closed to the cattle dealings...
...Nicaragua thereupon claimed that he had been seized on Nicaraguan territory and dispatched a note of protest...
...The war of nerves continued when Nicaragua moved troops toward the Costa Rican border, causing six U.S...
...Costa Rican protests induced Nicaragua to remove its troops and open the river again...
...On November 1, he will head his country's delegation to the UN General Assembly...
...As for Betancourt, he had applied for a U.S...
...Costa Rica went before the Organization of American States and halted it, but an OAS fact-finding committee, while reporting that Nicaragua had helped the invasion of Costa Rica, also rapped Costa Rica for harboring Nicaraguan exiles...
...2) expulsion from Costa Rica of some 30 Nicaraguan exiles who were said to be friends of the plotters, and (3) expulsion of Romulo Betancourt, exiled former President of Venezuela...
...REPORT FROM COSTA RICA By Alberto F. Canas SAN JOSE EARLY LAST WEEK, Costa Rican President Jose Figueres signed an Act of Congress creating an "Instituto de Vivienda y Urbanization" (rough translation: Housing and City Planning Corporation), his basic pledge in the 1953 election...
...Air Force planes to be sent to Costa Rica in a hurry...
...Shortly after, the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry received a Nicaraguan note demanding (1) removal of the Vice Minister of Public Security, the Chief Military Attache to President Figueres and the National Chief of Police as parties to the plot...
...The latter immediately announced that the Costa Rican Government, which was "a nest of Communists," was the real author of the plot...
...But when Salvadoran President Oscar Osorio was appointed mediator, Somoza declared that he would not hear of mediation until Costa Rica sent a note stating (1) that Romulo Betancourt had been expelled from Costa Rica and (2) that Costa Rica would not grant him a visa to return...
...This temporarily eased the tension...
...Astonished Costa Rica replied that she could not lie about the Betancourt trip, which was completely voluntary, and that her Constitution prevented her from taking the measures against Betancourt that Nicaragua wanted...
...Calderon and Picado continued their plotting in Nicaragua...
...and, in December 1948, they staged an invasion...
...As a result, a highly productive cattle business was established by the two Presidents...
...Instead, a popular revolt broke out under Jose Figueres, who, in a 40-day civil war, sent both Picado and Calderon into exile in Nicaragua—but not before Somoza had sent troops to help their faltering regime...
...Some of the refugees were pronounced guilty and promptly expelled from Costa Rica...
...The ceremony dramatized the official mood after more than three months of diplomatic guerrilla warfare with neighboring Nicaragua...
...So Costa Ricans returned to their normal pursuits, the Government and the Opposition resumed their running quarrel, and President Figueres prepared to put the Housing and City Planning Corporation to work...
...Costa Ricans point to similar difficulties as far back as 1858 and 1898, when the two countries were on the verge of war over attempted revolutions against Nicaraguan dictators by exiles living in Costa Rica...
...This time, as before, Nicaraguan dictator Somoza charged the Costa Ricans with aiding and abetting a plot...
...Nicaragua then ordered the San Juan River closed to Costa Rican navigation...
Vol. 37 • September 1954 • No. 39
