wycen Despatch no. 67, CONFIDENTIAL February 14, 1949, San José, Costa Rica American Embassy, Page ing The Diario de Costa Rica again lent itself to furthering the possible discomfort of the Junta by publishing on February 12 a statement from Arnoldo Ferreto, one of Mora lieutenants who has remained in Costa Rica albeit with some difficulty as he has been constantly in and out of the local jail. Referring to the fragmentary publication in the Diario of February 10 of certain paragraphs of the instructions purportedly left by Mora for his party members, Ferreto stated the document in question, if authentic, has never reached its destination and must have been seized among the papers of his brother, Luciano, at the San José airport when the latter was acco Mora to Mexico. As a consequence, the instructions said to have been given have not been placed in practice by the party and, moreover, reflect the personal opinions of Mr. Mora and not those of the party. Ferreto continued that it is true Mora at the time was of the opinion that Figueres in good faith held and supported progressive ideas but he did not believe that Ulate personally was of the reaction. He continued: Even in the electoral campaign we did not characterize him thus but we characterized the opposition in general as predominantly reactionary.
Later events have proved that we were right. Now it is evident that the little group which excercise the power is considerably more reactionary than the majority group of the opposition which surrounded don Otilio Ulate.
Personally, do not believe the attacks and crimes of which we have been the object would have taken place if Mr. Ulate should have been excercising the power.
Ferreto then takes issue with Mora who, in his letter to Ulate quoted in large part in the Embassy despatch no. 63, had expressed his opposition to the nationalization of the banks and the ten percent capital levy. Ferreto stated that We Vanguardia Popular presumably do consider that the nationalization of the banks is in principle a measure which can play an important progressive part in promoting the development of credit and directing the development of agriculture and industry.
But this nationalization under the climate of political repression through which the country is living has been converted into an additional lever of pressure against the adversaries of the regime. With regard to the extraordinary tax of ten per cent, we believe that since it is dedicated to paying the exorbitant expenses of the state caused by a highly paid bureaucracy it can only be harmful to the national economy. It would be different should it be devoted, as was promised when it was established, to the creation and development of industrial undertakings or the nationalization of public services such as the electric service.
Mr. Ferreto CONFIDENTIAL