718.00/7–954
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Holland)
Subject:
- Costa Rican Situation
- Participants: President José Figueres, of Costa Rica
- Foreign Minister Mario Esquivel, Costa Rica
- Ambassador Robert Hill
- Assistant Secretary of State Henry F. Holland
Ambassador Hill said that the President was standing beside him and was anxious to talk to Mr. Holland. The Foreign Minister was also there. They had discussed the matter about which Mr. Holland had telephoned earlier.
The President greeted Mr. Holland and said he was pleased over the cooperation he was receiving from Ambassador Hill and from us….
Mr. Holland then asked the President if he had any news concerning the shooting in Las Cruces. The President said there was nothing there. Mr. Holland said that he might be mistaken but we want to avoid any possibility of violence and we want to give that country an opportunity to work out a practical solution of this problem, which is of interest to all of us. The President said they were counting on our collaboration here in Washington and that of Ambassador Hill in Costa Rica. The President went on to say that Ambassador Hill had been more than cooperative, he had gone out of his way to be helpful. …
The President concluded by saying that he was looking forward to Mr. Holland’s visit to Costa Rica so that they could have a long conversation. He hoped that it would be soon and that Mr. Holland would not make his stay too short.
The Foreign Minister came on and said he wanted to thank Mr. Holland for the cooperation he was giving them on the matter. He said that they had not been able to confirm some of the information of what was happening at the border, as it had been raining rather hard [Page 850] and they had not been able to reach anyone. They did know that there were 250 men in Rivas near the frontier, and he thought they were getting orders from the North, and that they were following the same procedure as Somoza did when he trespassed the frontier and entered Costa Rica in 1948.1 The Department might be interested in looking up the report2 on the invasion of 1948. The Foreign Minister said he had talked with Ambassador Facio suggesting that the matter be taken up with the OAS. But they would want to do the necessary consulting before taking this step. He mentioned in this connection the Governments of El Salvador, Uruguay, and the U.S.A. Mr. Holland said that he hoped that, working on the basis of the note which the Foreign Minister had sent to Nicaragua, a solution of the problem could be worked out. Mr. Holland said he had talked with the Nicaraguan Ambassador today who gave the impression that he was pleased regarding the various aspects of that note and indicated that with the collaboration of friends we could, on the basis of the note, work out a solution of this problem. Mr. Holland had told him that he could count on our help.
Mr. Holland told the Foreign Minister that he was sending a cable to Ambassador Hill today expressing some points of view regarding the contents of the note and asked that the Foreign Minister give his opinions on the observations made.
Mr. Holland then told Ambassador Hill the gist of his conversation with the Foreign Minister and said that he was sending him a telegram today to take up with the Foreign Minister.
- For documentation on this subject, see Foreign Relations, 1948, vol. ix, pp. 516 ff.↩
- Reference may be to the final report of Committee of Information appointed by the COAS to investigate the situation in Costa Rica; for information concerning that report, see Department of State Bulletin, June 5, 1949, pp. 707 ff.↩