VELASCntu Americ city Statele Her har San Joe mees Cate 24 1811 Enclos bersama Dated CONFIDENTIAL POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC OBSERVATIONS ON THE PROVINCE OF GUANACASTE POLITICAL The outstanding political fact concerning the Province of Guanacaste is the almost universal resentment felt by its inhabitants at what they consider their virtual abandonment by the ir virtual abandonment by the Government of Costa Rica. This feeling has evidently been a factor in the province thinking ever since the time Costa Rica obtained its independence from Spain, when Guanacaste was not established as an integral part of any of the five Central American countries, but rather had several years later to petition Costa Rica to join that nation. Moreover, the distance of Guanacaste from the meseta central, the difficulties of transportation and communication, and the fact that the people of the province are generally of a darker and more Indian type have served as barriers between the Guanacastecos and the rest of the country. To such an extent is this feeling prevalent that the former still refer to a Cartago companion (to the Guanacastecans all the meseta central is known as Cartago) when they wish to indicate a friend who has deserted some one.
The idea that their province has been abandoned to its fate has been heightened, furthermore, by the behavior of the professional politicians, most of whom are from the interior of the country. Every two, or at most four, years rival troupes of politicians woo the Guanacaste electorate with promises of the many improvements they will bestow on the province in exchange for its votes. Roads, lighting systems, and even railroads have been promised, but after the election excitement is over the province fails to receive any material benefits. It is little wonder, then, that the people have sunk into a kind of cynical lethargy, to such an extent that was even told by a supposedly responsible cattle owner of Liberia that he considered the only sensible thing for Guanacaste to do was to secede from Costa Rica and join the United States. Such is the general temper of the people, The result of this disillusionment with Costa Rica political leaders has been to turn to themselves in an effort to stimulate a native Guanacaste party which would adequately express their views and pro tect their interests. Such a party was in fact founded several years ago under the name of the Confraternidad Guanacasteca, and under the leadership of Dr. Francisco VARGAS Vargas, a young, energetic, Guanacaste physician,