ABSTRACT
Central America has been the Western Hemisphere's most unstable region since World War II. International armed conflict grew out of Costa Rica's civil war in 1948. Costa Rica instituted democratic national elections in 1896, first in Central America. Costa Rican politics remained more personal than partisan, however. Rafael Calderon Guardia was elected president of the republic in 1940. In 1942 Jose ("Don Pepe") Figueres, who held no public office at the time, publicly protested alleged graft and corruption within Calderon's government and called upon the regime to resign. Jose Figueres was declared head of the Founding Junta of the Second Republic on May 8, 1948, at end of Costa Rica's civil war. Nicaragua's president Anastasio Somoza Garcia had clandestinely assisted the Costa Rican government's vain effort to resist Figueres's forces and also committed regular troops during the struggle.
