HARRY TRUMAN LIBRARY Papers of NATHANIEL P, DAVIS triel it EXTRACT FROM MY DIARY April 14, 1948 This morning the Nuncio and the Mexican Ambassador came to my house. at seven and we started out for Figueres!
lines before Cartago escorted by Colonel Lopez and another Colonel in a jeep which preceded us. Nothing untoward.
occurred until we reached the Figueres lines. Just after We stopped at his road block, firing started from a hill to our left and it was soon évident that the firing was at us although no bullets struck near us. We took shelter behind a bridge where Padre Nunez joined us and told us he was the delegate from Figueres. Some Figueres men on a hill behind us covered us with machine gun fire. When the firing stopped ve turned the car around and got out of there fast. Less than a mile down the road our left front tire went suddenly flat. We stopped in a cut whose banks protected us on both sides and changed the tire. We then proceeded through the government lines and back to San José.
We delivered Nunez to the Mexican Embassy and sent word to the Presidency that we were there. After waiting an hour we sent word again. That time we found the President in the Ministry of Finance. He said he had been informed that we had been unable to make contact with Figueres representative. He was at the moment in a conference and would come in five minutes. He arrived just an hour later.
After preliminary greetings, he and the Padre withdrew for private conversations. After nearly two hours; during which we talked with one another, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs who was in and out, and by telephone with our respective offices; the President came out of the Ambassador study and asked Bonilla Lara to try to get hold of Francisco Esquivel (Minister of Fomento) who is a close friend of Santos Leon Herrera, the Third Designate to the Presidency. He and Nunez had agreed, the latter subject to confirmation from Figueres, that the President and first two designates would resign, thus automatically putting the third in power as acting president without having to call Congress. To do that would present a practical problem as a quorum would be doubtful since so many members have fled the country. Esquivel was to try to find Herrera and bring him to the meeting.
As he could not be found immediately we adjourned for lunch and agreed to meet again at three. During our wait for the