CENTRAL AMERICA: Reunion Now?

Central Americans observed the 125th anniversary of independence from Spain by talking about union with each other. They had once—for a brief moment in history—been united before. For 16 years after the fall of the Spanish Captaincy-General, they had lived turbulently together as the United Provinces of Central America. They had broken apart, but the memory still lived.

Initiator of last week’s talks: Jose Gustavo Guerrero, president of the International Court of Justice and Central America’s leading internationalist. To his home in Santa Ana, El Salvador, he invited the heads of the five Central American countries to discuss reunion now. Only two came. Nicaragua’s Somoza lay ill in Boston, Honduras’ Carias could not find time, and Costa Rica’s Picado was on a diplomatic vacation.

But the presidents of Guatemala and El Salvador met, agreed to name three commissioners each (the other republics were invited to do the same) to draw up a plan by next March for closer Central American union. Guatemala’s President Juan Jose Arevalo, who had seen his 1945 proposals for customs union stalled by local interests, spoke again for action. “This is the moment for firm decisions,” he said, “not half-baked ones.”

The two Governments invited Costa Rica to join them in doing away with passports for travel between their countries, using a Central American travel card instead. Costa Rica accepted, and Julio Acosta, Minister of Foreign Relations, signed with the Salvadoreans and started for Guatemala City. On his way he read Arevalo’s speech, decided that “half-baked” had been aimed at his country. He returned to Costa Rica, leaving the cause of Central American union about where it was. It was the sort of thing that always seemed to keep the five states from getting together.

The best hope for uniting the nations of Central America was the still uncompleted Inter-American highway. Binding together the five mountain-bound capitals, carrying goods and ideas as daily freight, it might win where a century of diplomacy had failed.