44 Days of War

Costa Rican Civil War. In the 1940s, Presidents (initially conservative) Rafael Calderon and his successor Teodoro Picaro instituted a series of reforms aimed at alleviating poverty and neo-colonialism, forming a social security system, setting a minimum wage and allying with the communist Partido Vanguardia Popular. Opposition groups, some of whom had clashed with the PVP and attacked workers movements, claimed they believed the 1948 election would be tampered with in an attempt to return Calderon to power, and so Picaro created an independent electoral tribunal. When the vote appeared to elect the opposition conservative Otilio Ulate, Picaro and Calderon cried foul and called for a new election. Their majority in the national assembly granted their request, and more violent clashes ensued. An ally of Ulate's died at the hands of the military, and the liberal anti-communist Jose Figueres led a rebel army that was at first allied with a hardline right-wing against the government. The United States supported Figueres's rebels, but its asset, the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza supported the government, and both were prepared to sent in troops for their respective sides. The war went national, lasting 44 days and leaving two thousand dead. The US-backed rebels won and Ulate took the office.