REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES DECLASSIFIED Authority Stateletter Ihr By Me NART Date 24581 Despatch no. 63, February 10, 1949, San José, Costa Rica.
American Embassy, Page CONFIDENTIAL refraining from making any observations although it had underlined. certain portions of the letter and of the accompanying guarantees. The short commentary ended. It also occurs to us. as a sole. commentary. to bring up the question with regard to the authenticity of these documents since we cannot admit that their wording was authorized by the triumphant rebellion. Are these documents apo wyphal?
While the text of the April 19 letter had not previously. been published in Costa Rica, its contents were: fairly widely known and, as had been remarked, Mr. Ulate was in possession of a. photostatic copy given him by President Jimenez of Panama. The more noteworthy feature of this publication at the moment is the coincidence of its appearance in La Nacion. with the appearance on the same date, in the. Diario of the lengthy communication from Manuel Mora to Mr. Ulate. There may be some reason for believing that Mr. Ulate provided the copy from which the text. in La Nacion was taken: not wishing to appear specifically as a defender of Manuel Mora by publishing both the more recent Mora letter and the earlier one directed by Father Nuſia to Mora, but at the same time effectively Meedling the Junta.
Whatever the circumstances may be, both the Diario and La Nacion. have at least indirectly. contributed to casting considerable doubt. upon the apparent motives of the Army of National Liberation even though the Mora letter of February 3, as is pointed out below, either deliberately distorts the facts or proves that Mora had a very incomplete knowledge of events which led to the capitulation of the Picado government.
The Manuel Mora letter of February was prompted in part by an editorial in the Diario on January 31 in which an allusion was made to last. minute political negotiations prior to the downfall of the Picado government. Mora, in his lengthy communication which covers several columns of ne wspaper type, refers to the allegation in the Diario editorial that he sought an interview with Figueres in Cartago, prior to the cessation of hostilities and subsequently left. Instructions to the subordinates in his party informing them that as Mr. Figueres had broken with Mr.
Ulate and would not deliver the presidency to him in due courae, members of Vanguardia Popular were to collaborate with Ngueres even though during the first few months following the advent, of the Mgueras government to power they should be persecuted for their political beliefs.
Mora romarked that the majority of the country is unaware of many of the events of the last few days of the revolution and, therefore, may posaibly deduce the following conclusions from the paragraph in the editorial to which ho referred: that the civil war was terminated by vibtue of an CONFIDENTIAL