REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES DECLASSIFIED Authority Stateletter The ey ME, NARI Date 2498 Following the events of May 22nd reported in my despatch No. 1462, the Government has been luke warm in its prosecution of the Costa Ricans arrested as participants in the rioting. The trials of those arrested and the investigation of the affair are being held secretly, but there has already been so much publicity in favor of exonerating all participants that it is unlikely that any of those implicated will be appropriately punished, Carmen Lyra (Isabel Carvajal. however, who has for many years been a teacher in the Escuela Maternal, a public school attended by children of the laboring classes, was asked to resign her position because of her communist activities and her bitter attacks upon the Government. Since her separation from the school she has been even more critical of the authorities in interviews published in the press; she is quoted as saying that the Minister of Public Education had thought he could buy her opinion for the small sum of 6165 per month (her salary as a teacher. but that she prefers to be free to express her convictions. movement is now on foot to establish another school, to be operated by the Communist Party, for Carmen Lyra, in which she will receive her salary from donations made by individuals.
Many critics of President Jiménez are inclined to blame him for the apparent increase in communist activities during the past year.
It may be recalled that the communist Party (Workers