Word: costa
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Holland, U.S. Latin American affairs chief. Flying over rebel territory, the investigation commission learned enough to dispose firmly of Somoza's claim that his country had nothing to do with the invasion. They reported that "a substantial part of the [rebel] war matériel was introduced over [Costa Rica's] northern border." Figueres leaped at the logical opening: If that were so, would the O.A.S. supply Costa Rica with weapons...
O.A.S. first rushed a five-nation investigating team to Costa Rica. In San José, bank clerks and teachers pulled on volunteer reserve uniforms with panther-head shoulder patches; under command of the Minister of Public Works, they took off through the picture-book coffee country in trucks and jeeps. Stalking through Villa Quesada's shuttered streets, they retook the place, capturing 20 insurgents...
Raiders & Rebels. The air war also began with a light jab and counterpunch. A twin-engined fighter swept San José the day after the invasion, chipping up the sidewalks; nine other towns were strafed, but no one was injured. Lacking fighters of her own, Costa Rica mounted a machine gun in the cargo door of a commercial DC-3 and sent the transport lumbering into the air in futile pursuit...
...Managua, Teodoro Picado, the Costa Rican President that Figueres toppled in 1948 and since then the ward of Nicaragua's President Anastasio ("Tacho") Somoza, readily admitted that the attackers were headed by his son Teodoro Jr., a 1951 graduate of West Point. It was an open secret that anti-Figueres expatriates had been training on Somoza's roomy estates for months. Geography indicated, moreover, that the air raiders came from one of Nicaragua's bases. For the record, however, Somoza emphatically denied...
Dishwashing & Diplomacy. Costa Rica went to war with zooming spirits to fight what Figueres called "the unhappy mercenaries from Nicaragua." Boy Scouts took over traffic direction to set the cops free, and the Civil Guard freely handed out Mausers and officers' commissions (instead of pay) to the volunteers. The President's U.S. -born wife Karen lent a hand with the dishwashing at the general staff headquarters mess, and President Figueres himself broadcast a heads-up message to the people: "We don't scare with the splattering of bullets...