ABSTRACT
In February of 1948 an opposition coalition of conservatives and social democrats won the presidential election, apparently by manipulating the electorate, whereupon the Costa Rican Congress annulled the outcome and set the stage for war. The Picado government fell to the opposition, and an 18-month ruling junta was installed with Figueres as leader. The small government army proved more or less incompetent when fighting broke out, and the militias which supported the government quickly surrendered. Following the civil war of March and April 1948 many supporters of the ousted Republican party fled to Nicaragua. They had lost their social basis in the defeat, especially in the civil-service sector, and their political power evaporated when the Republican party was outlawed. After the fall of the democratically elected Arbenz regime social and political conflict was held in check by repression. El Salvador was more highly developed than its neighbors and profited most from the integration of a common Central American market.
