COSTA RICA IMBROGLIO

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000100190080-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2004
• Sequence Number: 80
• Publication Date: May 28, 1977
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 4 .felA-RDP88-01314R0001001S0080-7
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Costa Rica Imbroglio
The Setting: Costa Rica, for three decades the most stable
and democratic of Latin American republics, con-
sistently pro-US.
Time: The present. The political parties have just
concluded their primary nominations for next year's
presidential elections.
Cast of characters: (1) Jose Figueres, 70, three times
president of his country (most recently 1971-74),
architect of its constitution, president and elder
statesman of his party, Partido Liberaci6n Nacional
(PLN). Figueres is an inventor, an agricultural and
industrial entrepreneur whose schemes are devoted to
the betterment of Costa Rica. His enterprises are
consistently short of capital. He is an intellectual social
democrat, blunt and outspoken, a defender and
sometimes initiator of the activities of the CIA in Latin
American affairs. (2) Daniel Oduber, 57, president of
Costa Rica now serving the last year of his term. He
was an early protege of Figueres, but their relation has
cooled in recent years. (3) Luis Alberto Monge, 51, PLN
leader in the national assembly and that -party's
nominee for the 1978 presidential election; a labor
leader, populist social democrat and former editor of
Combate, a left-wing journal financed by CIA funds
passed through other organizations. (4) Robert Lee
Vesco, 41, fugitive American financier who has been
branded an international swindler by the Securities and
Exchange Commission and is accused of looting $224
million from offshore' investment funds. Vesco faces
Cc ci R aNtC..)
Approved For Release 2004/09/28 : CIA-RDP88-01314R000100190080-7