THE AMERICAS: Morazan’s Dream

One hundred years ago broad-shouldered, poker-faced Francisco Morazáán, a fighting man who dreamed of democracy and unity in the corrupt and revolt-torn states of Central America, directed his own death scene. At San José in Costa Rica, Morazán commanded the firing squad which faced him. He corrected the aim, ordered fire, fell, raised his bloody head to order a second volley. He died as great a hero in Central America as Simón Bolivar in South America.

The man whose legions of fanatic peasants finally captured Morazán after 18 turbulent years of early federation was an illiterate swineherd named Rafael Carrera. He later became known as “General Cholera Morbus,” because he claimed that those opposing him spawned a cholera plague by poisoning wells. His support came from ignorant Indians, reactionary churchmen and landowners, minor despots and foreign governments stirring up trouble as a normal accompaniment to 19th-Century colonial policy.

Still plagued by poverty, reaction, disease, despotism and ignorance, the five republics have more often emulated Carrera than Morazán; but they have not forgotten Morazán’s dream of La Gran Patria Centroamericana. This week, on the centenary of Morazán’s death, their representatives were scheduled to converge on San José to consider, warily and with varying degrees of enthusiasm, the latest proposal to unite as one nation.

Once joined, the 7,500,000 Central Americans and their 178,000 square miles of coffee, banana and mining land would rank fifth in population among Latin American nations. Its pride revived, Central America might emerge from the backwaters of the world as a more useful and prosperous member of the Western Hemisphere’s family of nations.

Keeper of the Dream. The invitations to consider unification were issued through Salvador Mendieta, rector (until his resignation last week) of Central University at Managua, Nicaragua. For 40 years septuagenarian Mendieta has kept Morazán’s dream alive in the minds of students. Back of Mendieta was the sponsorship of Nicaragua’s dictatorlet, genial President General Anastasio Somoza.

A practitioner of celebrations, circuses and public works for his land of spectacular scenery and explosive people, General Somoza rules Nicaragua with the backing of the Nicaraguan National Guard —presented to him by U.S. marines who finally withdrew on Jan. 2, 1933. Last week he used them to arrest 13 persons, including Conservative generals accused of a German-inspired revolt plot. He believes that there is strength and prosperity in union. “All you have to do,” says he, “is go to the U.S. and you can see that.”

General Somoza’s highly sensible plan calls for a common currency, a single flag, a common customs union, a federal army and a federal congress. With a typical Central American gesture, he offered to resign as president “at any time a union . . . can be brought about.”

One hopeful sign was that the conference would be held in thrifty, well-behaved Costa Rica, Central America’s “New England,” which has always tried to remain aloof from the madhouse politics of its neighbors. Actually practicing democracy, Costa Rica elects its leaders by secret ballot. President Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia is a handsome polo player, farmer and practicing physician who epitomizes Costa Rican political liberality and the Old World manners of its 90% white population.

Like Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras are all represented by dictatorlets who have risen to power in the past decade.

Guatemala, first in population, is run like a barracks by President General Jorge Ubico, who washes and clothes, scolds and punishes, rewards and drives his people (60% Indians) to self-improvement. Short, straight, lonely General Ubico is an honest admirer of democracy in a land that has never known it, and made his own gesture toward Central American unity at a conference in 1934.

El Salvador, one of the most thickly populated countries in the Western Hemisphere, is ruled by a strange theosophist-vegetarian, General Maximiliano Hernández, who loves animals, particularly rabbits. Hernandez crushed a “Communist” revolt in 1932, has since paid his army well and given ”fireside chats” which are a blend of spiritualism, brotherliness and witchcraft. He has worked well with the U.S., particularly since Pearl Harbor.

Honduras, stronghold of United Fruit Co., is run by President General Tiburcio Carias Andino, a 300-lb. despot whose banquet halls are protected by machine guns placed behind potted palms. General Carias won Honduras in 1932 and sent thousands into political exile. Hundreds are still in jail. Others bitterly remember that, when they fled, Nicaraguan National Guardsmen caught them, cut the buttons from their pants, forced them to march 30 leagues holding up their breeches.

The Question. The obstacles to unification, with such diverse personalities sponsoring it, are considerable, especially since any workable plan would cost the dictators most of their power. To get whites, mestizos and Indians to agree is another difficulty. Salvadorans, having Aztec blood, remember chirpily that they have always been great fighters. Costa Rica’s Catholic whites have a strong color prejudice. In Guatemala one group of Indians still hangs a little Judas (dressed in a rival tribe’s costume) every Easter as a reminder that their rivals used Spanish soldiers in a tribal war 400 years ago. The greatest obstacle to unification is nationalism.

The spurs toward unification, possibly as a democratic republic instead of a federation of autonomous states, have dug deeper & deeper since World War II. The U.S. has used shrewdness, good works and good will to improve its Central American relations. No longer merely a place where bananas come from, Central America has great strategic importance, not only for naval and air bases but as the only land bridge to the vital Panama Canal. More than anything else in past history, the Pan American Highway, being rushed to completion at a cost of $80,000,000 in Central America alone, has brought the republics together. Where present roads and rails run east and west from ocean to ocean, the new highway will tie them all up with a north-south route facilitating trade and making boundaries less important.

Hemisphere defense indicates the use of armies against a common enemy instead of against neighboring states or a nation’s own people. It might be too much to expect that a conference would result in unity but basically it is a good idea.