REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES DECLASSIFIED Authority Stateletter Inh2 By ME, NARI Czte 24981 and giving thought to possible candidates, policies and developments. Costa Rican presidential campaigns customarily begin anywhere from six months to a year prior to the actual elections, which in this case will be held in February, 1936. Individual campaigns can therefore be expected to get under way after the first of next January and to gather real momentum about one year from now.
As usual, there is no dearth of presidential candidates, but what they make up for in numbers they lack in quality. The group of candidates who are considered to have some chance includes ex President Julio Acosta, Second Designate and Congressman; León Cortés, Third Designate and Minister of Fomento; Arturo Volio, President of the Congress; Manuel Francisco Jiménez, prominent lawyer; General Jorge Volio, leader of the Reform Party and Member of Congress; and Raúl Gurdián, Minister for Foreign Affairs. None of these men is generally considered anything like an ideal candidate; Acosta has a certain amount of prestige due to having been President between 1920 and 1924, but he is not rated highly as an administrator or a leader; nor has he much more than average intelligence and background. Cortés is admittedly a capable, aggressive administrator, but his methods are arbitrary and arouse much antagonism. He is feared by capital as being too radical, yet he is attacked by the Communists as Prussian in his methods. His home is in Ala juela, which exposes him