ABSTRACT
Teodoro Picado succeed Rafael Calder as President of Costa Rica. Worse than the economic difficulties facing the administration were the persistent attacks on its legitimacy and integrity. As the end of the war approached, tensions within the governing alliance mounted sharply. In November 1944 workers gathered in Heredia to protest the high cost of living and practices of speculation and hoarding. The war had imposed an uneasy calm on labor relations at the British-owned railroad company. Northern had a history of acrimonious dealings with its workers. The railroad strike was symptomatic of and also contributed to the political polarization that gripped Costa Rica at the end of World War II. Incessant opposition attacks, ineffective leadership, a weak economy, acrimonious labor relations, and recurrent charges of communist domination placed great strains on the ruling alliance. By the mid-1940s, the party was not only committed to but reliant on its mass-based strategy.
