Diario las Américas., 1958-02-19

them adequately. Those of us who
truly believe that human rights
should be respected, are obliged
to do everything within our power
SO that these international organi
cations will actively participate in
their protection.
On the other hand, l quote "a
good payer needs no security" If
a government is certain that it has
taken all necessary measures to
insure that b~alloting will be free
AS our government did-instead
of being Inconvenience by the
presence of international observers,
we derived great satisfaction from
them. We were certain that their
report could not be any different
from what they rendered. That
is, that the electoral process was
carried out in a clean and orderly
manner, with absolute respect on
the part of the authorities for the
free play of political parties, and
for a free casting of ballots.
Q.-To what reasons do you
attribute the victory of the opposi-
ton in the presidential elections?
A.-The answer is obvious: To
the division of our party into two
factions: The majority, which
fostered the candidacy of Francis
co Jose Orlich, and the minority,
which backed the candidacy of Lie.
Jorge RoSsi. Combining the votes
that the members of the Liberation
cast for the mentioned Orlich
and RoSsi, they totalled a definite
majority over the votes cast for
Lie. Echandi by the four coalition
groups of the opposition.
This problem of electoral divis-
iveness within the Democratic
Party is classic in Latin America.
1t is the product of a "caudilIo"
heritage. 1t will only disappear
when our citizens become amply
educated in the concept of the
theological and permanent party
as the organ of expression of their
political thoughts.
In the elections for MEMBERS of
the Legislative Assembly, the OPP
position groups were divided in
two factions: That of Mr.. Echandi
and that of Mr.. Ulate, on the
one hand, and that of DIR. CaIder6n
Guardia and the Communist, on
the other. The only faction of the
National Liberation Party elected
the same number of deputies as
all the opposition factions put
together. The Rossi faction of Ma
tional Liberation elected a Suf-
ficient number of deputies so that,
when added to the majority group
OF Orlich, our party will have
absolute control of the Legislative
Power.
Eff the Communist Party was
part of the coalition which gave
the victory to presidential candi-
date Echandi and voted for the
Calderonista slate for members of
Congress, do you feel that Com
munist influence will be felt in the
new Government?
AIS is known, in 1912 the
Communist Party of Costa RIGA
made a public alliance with the
then President DR.. Rafael Angel
Calderon Guardia. From that time,
control of governmental policies
passed into the hands of the Com
munists. In our country we saw
for the first time applied the
methods of terrorism and electoral
fraud through which the Com
munists gained control some years
later of the Eastern European
nations. After a mockery was made
of three successive elections, the
people Of Costa Rica expressed
their decision to no longer support
the Calderon communistic regime.
1t fell upon me to direct the popu-
lar uprising that, following five
weeks of bloody fighting which
left in its wake two thousand dead,
overthrow the Communists and
their Calderonista allies from
power.
Since then, ten years ago, the
Communist Party has been unable
to participate in electoral cam
paigns because the organization
was outlawed. But in the recent
campaign, its former associates, the
partisans OF DR.. Calder6n Guardia,
again sought their votes. The Cal
der0n : Communist alliance was
revived, except that this time, for
obvious reasons, it was not made
public in documents, although it
was no secret, since the top leader
of Costa Rican communism, Manuel
Mora, made a speech e~xhorting his
comrades to vote for the Calder6n
Guardia slate.
The number of votes cast by
the Communists is between $4,000
and 10000. Lie. Echandi, having
won the presidential election by