DECLASSIFIED REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES Authority Statele ter hr By ML NARS Date 2498 Desp. No. 209 American Embassy, San José, April 30, 1948.
CONFIDENTIAL possession of private individuals. Enclosure is a translation of an announcement made on the subject by the Dept.
of Public Security.
It will be remembered that clause of the provisional agreement of capitulation signed by ex President Picado and Father Benjamin NUNEZ on behalf of Figueres, specified guarantees for the lives and properties of all citizens, that no reprisals would be carried out and that a general amnesty would be decreed. Enclosure to despatch 191 of April 23, 1948. The foregoing has since been implemented by a number of public announcements in the press, translations of which are enclosed. In actual practice, however, these guarantees have often been disregarded.
Either the new administration is unable to control its own people or else that it is deliberately disregarding the ob ligations which it assumed. In engaging in or permitting these reprisals, it is unquestionably kindling a dangerous flame of under cover resistance which in time may have dire consequences.
April 28th was declared a public holiday in celebration of the National Liberation. It included a large parade of practically all of the victorious troops and their leaders, hurriedly augmented by a great number of members of the Opposition who jumped on the military bandwagon by dressing themselves up in khaki uniforms and shouldering arns ranging all the way from single shot 22 caliber rifles to shotguns, government Mausers and the obsolete Remington muskets. The only group which showed having been indoctrinated with the elements of close order drill was that of the Opposition Student Organization JUCO. With regard to the rest of the troops, it might well stated that everybody was out of step but one. It was distintly a citizens. rather than a professional army.
Nevertheless, all were enthusiastically received by the large public which turned out to witness the parade. All of the troops which participated. even some barefoot soldiers compared favorably, both in appearance and in spirit, in contrast to the irregular forces which the Picado administration had been able to muster to fight its battles. Obviously, the parading troops were of a much higher type of citizen.
While on the surface San José and practically all of the important centers of the country are quiet, there are still so many men around with firearms as to justify the statement that normalcy has not fully returned. It is quite evident that the new administration is none too sure of itself as yet and that it believes that precautionary measures are still needed. In this it is unquestionably correct. The entire CONFIDENTIAL