ABSTRACT
La Familia was the first leftist subversive group to operate in Costa Rica. The group supported the theory of guerra popular prolongada, and its goal was to overthrow the bourgeois state. It engaged in the theft of cars, license plates, and weapons. On April 27, 1987, a dynamite-based explosive was found near the Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano, a cultural institution. The Organizacion Patriotica Santamaria (OPS) attacked a vehicle from a company called Alpre S.A. that was transporting a payroll for workers on a ranch in the Guanacaste region, and on July 29 the group used the money to finance the robbery of the Banco del Exterior de Espana in Panama. According to some accounts, the OPS were connected to other Latin American insurgent groups, such as the Salvadoran guerrillas.
