REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES DECLASSIFIED Authority Stateletter Inhz El me NARA Cate 2 981 THE FOREIGN SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 818. 00 2948 RESTRICTED Roc Aug. No. 376 American Embassy, San José, Costa Rica, July 29, 1948.
EXUN ACTION: ARA SUBJECT: Outlawing of Vanguardia Popular Party.
KLANT OF STAT INFO: DCR EUR AMERICAN REPUBLIC AFFAIRS AUG 1948 THE HONORABLE THE SECRETARY OF STATE, Zile MBX WASHINGTON.
OLA IC ARMY NAVY ATR СТА SIR: ARA FC EURH OLA have the honor to refer to the Embassy despatch No. 356 of July 19, 1948, transmitting the text of DecreeLaw No. 105 of the Junta, by means of which VANGUARDIA POPULAR was proscribed in Costa Rica.
818. 00 2948 The Official Gazette for July 29th publishe Decreew Law No. 118 of July 27th, adding an eighth article to the original Law, a translation of which reads as follows. Article Those articles of the Chapter on Individual Guarantees of the derogated Political Constitution, the provisional restoration of which was promulgated by virtue of Decree Law No. of May 8th of the current year, are hereby derogated insofar as they are opposed to the present Decree Law.
The foregoing article appears to have been decreed for the specific purpose of counteracting a tende urpose of counteracting a tendency which became evident during a session of the Supreme Court on July 27th in which the applications for writs of Habeas Corpus for former VANGUARDIA leaders mentioned in the Embassy airgram 241 of July 23rd were being considered. Although the writs were denied by the court by a majority decision, a minority decision by dissenting justices held that (a)
while Decree Law 105 prohibits militant membership in specified organizations, it does not prohibit the maintenance of any specific philosophy or ideology; and. b) that the applicants could not, physically be delinquents because they had been under arrest since long before the promulgation of Decree Law 105 and that hence their current arrest by order of the Court of Immediate Sanctions presupposed retroactiveness of Decree Law No. 105.
As stated, while the applications were rejected by a majority vote of the Court, the dissenting opinions indicated a possible means of circumventing the intent and purpose or DecreeRESTRICTED FAP ACTION COPY RETURN TO DO FILES WITHIN 14 DAYS, WITH NOTATION OF AOTION TAKEN.