DELLA CREU Authority Stateletter Inhaz aj me NARA Date 24 98 He expressed the fear that there might be many doublecrossers among the personnel of the army, estimating that perhaps 40 were truly loyal to PICADO, the remaining 60 being primarily loyal to CALDERON and trustworthy only so long as no conflict arose between PICADO and the CALDERON MORA faction. However, he added that he was going to devote more time to visiting the various cuartels frequently with the definite purpose in mind of cultivating friendship with the personnel. He says that Francisco CALDERON, ex War Secretary and Colonel Manuel RODRIGUEZ had never made much of an effort to cultivate these officers and men except by outright gifts of money. He indicated also that he intended to play up his excellent reactions to the war effort gained by his many contacts with the Army, war industry, etc. on his recent trip to the United States.
He said that one thing which troubled him was the existence of an army of about 160 well armed guards on the government railroad (managed by Próspero GUARDIA, uncle of the ex President. He said that these men are almost all enemies of PICADO and whenever he or the President has to fire some useless or dishonest government employee they are immediately hired by the Pacific Railroad. He stated that one Colonel LATA who commands this organization never even bothers to salute General PICADO when they meet on the street. PICADO stated that this large police force are paid out of the Pacific Railroad budget which is apparently separate from the War Department appropriation.
He said that he had submitted to Congress a budget including 900, 000 colones annually to cover the expenses of operating the mobile units. At this point the AMA pointed out that the PCD now is offering several free courses of military instruction in Spanish for officers and men of Latin American Armies. it was decided to discuss this later with Colonel RADNOR. SUBVERSIVE MATTERS General PICADO. said that, according to an informant, on Sunday, October the Japanese propaganda radio at 8:00 a, Los Angeles time broadcast news of the Nicaraguan rebel uprising which started only three days before on 28 September and made comments to the effect that the Good Neighbor Policy was a pretty poor one when the was found guilty of backing such people as SOMOZA. General PICADO said that he would be interested to know, if such information could be obtained from the Radio Monitor service, whether the report was true a service, whether the report was true as he has a particular interest in knowing how trustworthy this particular information is. He added that the informant claimed that he personally heard the broadcast.
The General reported that the son in law of Foreign Secretary Julio ACOSTA, one Pedro Manuel REVÓLLO y Samper had expressed some particularly anti American remarks to him and to Costa Rican Consul FLORES in Los Angeles. He said that REVOLLO, who is the brother of the Costa Rican Chief of Protocol, said that he had been very poorly treated in the United States even though he had a diplomatic passport. According to the General, REVOLLO went to the recently with his wife and a Mrs. Orlando ALVAREZ, The General said that he considered it wise for us to keep an eye on REVOLLO as he feels that REVOLLO has dangerously anti ideas.
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