617.18/5–554
Memorandum by the Deputy Director of the Office of Middle American Affairs ( Neal ) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs ( Holland )1
Subject:
- President Somoza’s Charges Against President Figueres
President Somoza has charged unofficially and semi-publiciy that President Figueres was involved in the recent assassination plot against him in the following ways: (a) That he allowed the revolutionaries to plot and to form up in Costa Rica, despite warnings of the intended action by the Nicaraguan Ambassador to Costa Rica; (b) that Figueres personally plotted with Romulo Betancourt and Juan Bosch,2 among others, this assassination attempt; and (c) that Figueres and his Administration assisted the revolutionaries to buy arms in Costa Rica.
[Page 1380]The Embassy in Managua was allowed to photograph many of the documents and the arms taken from the revolutionaries. The pictures showed clearly that boxes carrying the ammunition came from Punta Arenas, Costa Rica. The photographs in the possession of the Department do not clearly implicate Figueres, although there are frequent references in the captured documents to the arms obtained from the Government in Costa Rica. There are many rumors of Figueres’ personal involvement, even to the extent of bidding the plotters good-bye as they left Costa Rica, but the Department is not in possession of any definite information. Perhaps President Somoza obtained some confessions from the plotters who were not killed immediately. Incidentally, two Costa Ricans, including a former member of Figueres’ Presidential staff, were among those killed.