One hundred years ago broad-shouldered, poker-faced Francisco Morazáán, a fighting man who dreamed of democracy and unity in the corrupt and revolt-torn states of Central America, directed his own death scene. At San José in Costa Rica, Morazán commanded the firing squad which faced him. He corrected the aim, ordered fire, fell, raised his bloody head to order a second volley. He died as great a hero in Central America as Simón Bolivar in South America.
The man whose legions of fanatic peasants finally captured Morazán after 18 turbulent years of early federation was an illiterate swineherd named Rafael Carrera. He later became known as "General Cholera Morbus," because he claimed that those opposing him spawned a cholera plague by poisoning wells. His support came from ignorant Indians, reactionary churchmen and landowners, minor despots and foreign governments stirring up trouble as a normal accompaniment to 19th-Century colonial policy.
Still plagued by poverty, reaction, disease, despotism and ignorance, the five republics have more often emulated Carrera than Morazán; but they have not forgotten Morazán's dream of La Gran Patria Centroamericana. This week, on the centenary of Morazán's death, their representatives were scheduled to converge on San José to consider, warily and with varying degrees of enthusiasm, the latest proposal to unite as one nation.
Once joined, the 7,500,000 Central Americans and their 178,000 square miles of coffee, banana and mining land would rank fifth in population among Latin American nations. Its pride revived, Central America might emerge from the backwaters of the world as a more useful and prosperous member of the Western Hemisphere's family of nations.
Keeper of the Dream. The invitations to consider unification were issued through Salvador Mendieta, rector (until his resignation last week) of Central University at Managua, Nicaragua. For 40 years septuagenarian Mendieta has kept Morazán's dream alive in the minds of students. Back of Mendieta was the sponsorship of Nicaragua's dictatorlet, genial President General Anastasio Somoza.
A practitioner of celebrations, circuses and public works for his land of spectacular scenery and explosive people, General Somoza rules Nicaragua with the backing of the Nicaraguan National Guard —presented to him by U.S. marines who finally withdrew on Jan. 2, 1933. Last week he used them to arrest 13 persons, including Conservative generals accused of a German-inspired revolt plot. He believes that there is strength and prosperity in union. "All you have to do," says he, "is go to the U.S. and you can see that."
General Somoza's highly sensible plan calls for a common currency, a single flag, a common customs union, a federal army and a federal congress. With a typical Central American gesture, he offered to resign as president "at any time a union . . . can be brought about."