UELLESIMEU Authority Stateletter Inhz 18: NARS C: 24 18 Asked if he thought that the recent agitation against the Labor Code would lead to any drastic revision, Mora replied in the negative. In his opinion this agitation was sponsored largely by the coffee growers, and was backed by other reactionary elements for political reasons. He said that farmers who were raising foodstuffs were not affected by the code to any degree, but that the coffee growers hoped they would be able to do away with the Code. large number of these growers, according to Mora, are ignorant and reactionary persons, but even some of them were beginning to realize that social reforms were here to stay.
Mora then brought the conversation around to the Central American political situation, which he called serious. He said that there was no doubt that the present regimes in Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador were banding together to intrigue against the liberal democracies of Guatemala and Costa Rica. Asked if he knew of any person or group that the dictators might be backing in Costa Rica, he said that there were many persons who, for personal gain, might be willing to take orders from the tyrants. He qualified this statement, however, by admitting that there were in the opposition ranks many individuals who were sincerely patriotic, although misguided. He mentioned specifically the Centro para el Estudio de Problemas Nacionales. the members of which he classed as idealistic but without any experience in practical politics.
Mora went on to say that he thought the situation in El Salvador was particularly serious, and gave as his opinion that the attempts to overthrow the government of Osmin Aguirre had been badly mismanaged. According to his point of view, the liberal group backing presidential candidate Arturo Romero had made a great mistake by committing so many disrespectful acts against the government of ex President Menendez. Had they tried to go slowly and achieve various freedoms from Menendez, he said, the military caste would not have felt that their power was being undermined and would therefore not have overthrown Menendez and put Osmin Aguirre in power. Their second mistake, he feels, was in cooperating so closely with the political exiles and revolutionaries of the other Central American nations, for, by so doing, they have gained the unalterable opposition of Presidents Carias and Somoza. Referring to the present tension between El Salvador and Guatemala, Mora said that he believed that the Department of State had exercised its influence to prevent the two countries from going to war, and that by so doing had saved Guatemala pro a military defeat. For, he added, there would be no doubt about the outcome as long as El Salvador had both Honduras and Nicaragua to help it with men, munitions and supplies.
He then remarked that, in his opinion, the leaders of the Guatemalan Government were too young and inexperienced. He added that he thought that if they did not curb the present excess of liberalism there would be a reaction from the military.
Mora then said, rather surprisingly, that he felt it would be an excellent thing if the United States would wintervene in the Salvadoran situation to restore peace and order. When it was pointed out to him that our policy of non interference would not permit such a move, he replied that