70. Despatch 625 from San Jose, April 251
REF: Emb. Despatch 576 dated 4/6/61 and Emb. Despatch 624 dated 4/24/61. SUBJECT: President Echandi’s Current Attitude Towards U.S. Aid.
The Embassy has observed an increasing disposition on the part of President Echandi to confuse U.S. support for Costa Rica with U.S. support for Echandi’s own latest projects. The most recent and perhaps the most enthusiastic of these projects is the Echandi proposal for the organization of an association of banana producing states for the stabilization of banana prices and the banana market—but specifically for that portion of the draft agreements involving a price increase to be devoted to a capitalization fund for the banana workers, in accordance with the locally well-known “Plan Martén.” In two recent conversations which he has had with official Americans, the first a visiting group of members of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and second the DCM, the President has made sardonic reference to his current thesis that the U.S. “does not come to the aid of any drowning Latin American until the water is up to his chin,” and has added that, in his opinion, the forthcoming banana agreement would be a perfect case in point.
Echandi is currently convinced that the invocation of a profit sharing formula in line with the “Plan Martén” is the solution to Communism among the banana workers. He referred bitterly in his conversation with the DCM (the first time since the latter’s arrival in Costa Rica that the President has said anything more than the most formal words of greeting) to the frequent citation of the American housewife as the ultimate judge of the practicability of an increase in banana prices. He claimed that the United States spends fortunes of the American housewife’s money in efforts to combat Communism when it has gone too far, and declared that, in his opinion, the American housewife should be called upon to pay the relatively lesser cost of an increase in banana prices for [Facsimile Page 2] the purpose of stopping the inroads of Communism in Costa Rica.
Even though Echandi has been informed in unequivocal terms by representatives of the two major banana producing companies in Costa Rica of their opposition to the scheme, he appears to feel that the U.S. Government can exercise sufficient pressure upon the companies to [Typeset Page 182] make them withdraw their opposition. He also was informed that, in the opinion of the companies, in practice the scheme would prove unworkable. However, Echandi is so convinced of his position in this regard and has been so thoroughly sold by Alberto Martén during recent weeks of close collaboration that all arguments presented by close friends of his who oppose the plan have gone unheeded. When the DCM observed that a recent review of U.S. programs in Costa Rica had indicated an annual expenditure of several million by the U.S. for the basic improvement of the social and economic picture in Costa Rica, the President simply shrugged off this argument with a facetious reply, and stated that the bona fides of U.S. support of Costa Rica would be determined by the U.S. attitude toward the banana agreement.
- President Echandi’s current attitude toward U.S. aid. Confidential. 2 pp. DOS, CF, 611.18/4–2561.↩