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COSTA RICA: Dangerous Election

2 minute read
TIME

Last week little Costa Rica (pop. 710,000), the model democracy of tropical America, had a wild mass meeting. From all over the country skillfully organized followers of Presidential candidate León Cortés Castro streamed into the neat little capital of San José (pop. 76,000). All night they paraded and chanted. A float showed Communists hanged in effigy. Next day 25,000, including many screaming women, jammed into the Plaza Gonzalez Víquez to cheer their candidate. The hospital of San Juan de Dios had installed 50 extra beds. Soon most were occupied. Two men were killed, 35 badly injured.

Such pumped-up political frenzy is new in Costa Rica. The country is traditionally devoted to its democratic institutions. But its political parties, called Nazi and Communist by their respective opponents, are battling with near-totalitarian methods. In real danger, as election day (Feb. 13) approaches, is one of Latin America’s few genuine democracies.

The Candidates. Liberal President Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia, author of an employer-hated labor code, cannot constitutionally succeed himself. Candidate of his Republican Party is handsome Teodoro Picado. Candidate of the opposition Democrats is sour-faced León Cortés, now supported by most of Costa Rica’s capitalists and landowners.

Storm center is the Vanguardia, a leftist party behind Picado. Formerly Communist, it changed its name and some of its precepts to win non-Communist support. Chief catch was Catholic Archbishop Victor Sanabria, who approved the party’s objectives and was promptly denounced as a Communist. Said Archbishop Sanabria: “The reactionaries all call me a Communist because I open my arms to the poor. For these people, Christ would be a Communist too.”

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