ABSTRACT
The Rio Treaty and the Charter of the Organization of American States would experience a similar fate as the turbulent Caribbean Basin politics of the post-war drew the US into its geopolitical vortex. Costa Rica became the 'cockpit' of the Caribbean of 1947-8. The initial Costa Rican instinct was to stay neutral since it had diplomatic relations with all three protagonists. Yet, afraid that activities in the port would be paralyzed by a naval confrontation, the government of Rafael Angel Calderon Guardia believed that if Costa Rica asserted its sovereignty by taking the ships, it would defuse the crisis. As in Costa Rica, where a strongly nationalistic middle class defeated any prospects of communist inroads, in British Guiana a series of internal factors were also critical. British Guiana was being governed as a Crown Colony which meant that all important decisions were made in London.
