VULASOMEU Authority Statele tenha 8; ML, D:t 24981 AIR MAIL. Minister of Public Security absence to further the ir hold over the President, but this contingency the Embassy views as unlikely, for the President has more and more shown that he is an astute politician, and not liable to become the pawn of any particular faction. third factor tending to minimize public interest in purely local politics has been the attempt of the Nicaraguan revolutionaries to reach the Nicaraguan frontier and the efforts of the Costa Rican Government to head them off. The press has devoted considerable space to this incident, and public opinion generally supports the President in the actions he has taken. For, while the Somoza regime is not popular in Costa Rica, it is recognized that General Noguera Gomez activities violate the spirit of hospitality which Costa Rica has traditionally shown to political exiles. Nor has the fact that the Nicaraguans shed Costa Rican blood attracted any sympathy for the revolutionaries.
on The most significant political development of the past ten days was the convocation of the first extraordinary congress of the Vanguardia Popular Party over the weekend of September 24. It had been announced that the congress would formulate a new party line and, in the light of the agitation in the ranks of labor reported in the Embassy despatch no. 1875 of September 18, it was generally expected that the new lins would be rather more militant than here tofore. The results of the congress considerations, which were published on September 26, were therefore greated with surprise when it was seen that the new policy of the Vanguardia was one of extreme conciliation toward the democracias, capitalism, and even the mYankee interests. Basing its polic the agreements of the Teheran Conference, the Party announced that it was its belief that socialism and capitalism could coexist after the war, and that Vanguardia would abandon its fight to establish socialism in Costa Rica and would strive instead simply for the betterment of the economic condition of the masses. Stressing the necessity for national unity, the Party called for collaboration of all the progressive forces of the country, especially in the economic fiald, and expressed the hope that disputes between capital and labor could be resolved by other than violent means. The same offer of collaboration was made to American firms in Costa Rica, and the only stipulation being that the latter should not enjoy positions of privilege in the local economy. Support was voted the Picado Administration, the speedy completion of their common platform was called for, and national unity for the mid term congressional elections was urged.
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