DECLASSITED Authority Stateletter 172 2; ML HARI 0:2 2498 EMBASSY LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA San José, Costa Rica, May 2, 1944. No. 1360 Subject: AM 11 14 RECEIVED DEPARTMENT OF STATE The conflict between René Picado on the one hand and the Calderón Guardias and Manuel Mora on the other is becoming more sharply definad.
HONOIS!
ALUNICATIONS AD RECORDS 1944 MAY STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL The Honorable The Secretary of State, Washington, Sir: have the honor to transmit herewith the text and translation of a letter addressed to me by Señor René Picado who was yesterday elected Second Designate of the Republic and who will be Minister of Public Security in his brother Cabinet. also enclose a memorandum of our conversation. In the letter don René makes the amazing statement that he will not hesitate to remove his own brother and assume the Presidency himself if don Teodoro does not within the next three months take steps to curb the influence of Communismº in Costa Rica. Don René justifies this prediction on the ground that he has given his word to General Ubico and the other Central American Presidents that Communism will not be allowed to spread in this country.
818. 00 2045 The letter also recounts an alleged attempt made on April 26 (while the Picados were away) on the part of the Calderón Guardias to place their own officers in the leading garrisons of San José in order to be in a position to resist if Francisco Calderón Guardia were not elected First Designato on May Don René interprets this as practically a declaration of wab between himself and the Calderón Guardia. Manuel Mora alliance.
The Department has already been forewarned of the growing tension between René Picado and the Calderón Guardias (886 despatch no. 1302 of April 21, 1944, third paragraph) and my conversation this morning, together with don René letter, confirm the fact that these relations have now entered a potentially dangerous phase. The most amazing development is, of course, that don René will apparently not hesitate to depose his own brother in the event don Teodoro should be unable to rid himself of Communist influences.
CONFIDENTIAL FILE The