COSTA RICA: Pepe”s Choice

Pint-sized José Figueres once described himself as “a literary socialist farmer with a kind of Atlantic Monthly mind.” Thrust into politics as President of Costa Rica’s ruling junta, he has never been quite able to decide whether to chuck politics for the bookish quiet of his coffee finca (farm), or to stay on in San José to finish the uphill fight for his program of “neo-liberalism.”* Last week Pepe Figueres made his choice.

Faced with steadily mounting opposition from the followers of President-elect Otilio Ulate, who have forgotten that Figueres won last year’s civil war for them, he went to the people in a radio broadcast. “Costa Rica,” he declared, “must not be at the mercy of a social clique. It must not be committed to a feudal system with a puppet congress manipulated for political purposes by a reactionary group.”

Then Figueres announced that he would resign from the junta. Instead of returning to the contemplative life, he announced that he would form a new political party—Compactación Nacional (National Coalition)—and fight for his ideas. He would run for Vice President in next October’s elections. In the interim between Figueres’ resignation and the accession of beetle-browed Publisher Ulate, who assumes the presidency in November, stolid Interior Minister Fernando Valverde would act as chief of state.

* “A planned economy, fair and fixed prices, ample credit—in the hands of the people—increased agricultural development . . .”