REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES DECLASSIFIED Authority Stateletter The ML, HARA :1 2498 the President advised the Embassy that he was taking measures to ensure that no violence should take place. general feeling of nervousness in Government circles was reported to the Department in August of the same year, when the Government requested that the United States aid it in obtaining four armored cars. This general nervousness was reported in Embassy despatch No. 885 of August 15, 1945, Subject: Nervousness in Government Circles; Government Request for Four Armored Cars. Again in September there were rumors of subversive activities on the part of the opposition, and the President alerted the armed forces in the barracks as well as the national police. Considerable uneasiness was again felt during the Christmas fiestas, and between the period of fiestas and the congressional elections of February 10.
It now seems likely to the Embassy that, barring some unforeseen occurrence, the period of greatest danger of an armed revolt against the Government has passed. With the termination of the war it seems pro bable that economic con ditions will be improving. Moreover, the President has increased enormously in political stature since the midtermcongressional elections, in which it is almost universally agreed that he used his influence on the side of electoral purity. The opposition, after a brief period of alleged unification, may be expected to disintegrate into several jealous factions, and there remains no reason to believe that Francisco Calderón Guardia and the Vanguardistas have any reason to attempt to overthrow Picado. Also, the last two years of any administration in Costa Rica are traditionally devoted to the selection of presidential candidates for the coming election, and it is felt that any dislike of the President and his Administration will probably be subordinated to this type of electoral maneuvering.
DOMESTIC POLITICS As reported in the first despatch under reference, President Picado domestic policies have of necessity been inextricably linked with the need of maintaining his Government stability. This fact, of course, has been responsible for his tireless efforts to appease the opposition, along with measures taken to preserve the support of the leftist groups which brought him to power. For that reason even his Cabinet was composed of members of both the Right and the Left, with resulting disunity in the official family itself. While on the surface Picado had the loyal support of the Vanguardia Popular Party and the large number of Calderonistas both in Congress and in other Government positions, in actuality the Calderonistas demonstrated that their primary loyalty was to the Calderón Guardia brothers, and that in any showdown be.
tween them and the President, the President would come out second best. Moreover, Picado could obviously not place his faith in receiving opposition support, a large portion of the press was adverse, and it was common knowledge that the Church was not favorably inclined toward him. It was perhaps