Border Bluster

In Latin America, one revolution often leads to another. So after Guatemala's pro-Communist regime fell, foes of Costa Rica's left-of-center President Jose Figueres swore that his turn would come next. His redoubtable neighbor, Nicaragua's Dictator Anastasio ("Tacho") Somoza, left little doubt that he would be even happier to see a revolution in Costa Rica than in Guatemala. Tacho is revenge-minded because last April a gang of exiles sneaked into Somozaland from sanctuary in Costa Rica and came perilously close to assassinating him.

Hastily fortified by the promise of emergency U.S. military aid, anti-Communist President Figueres beat off one challenge last month when he smashed a plot by followers of ex-President Rafael Calderon Guardia, who apparently has Tacho's blessing. The second round opened last fortnight when a band of 18 desperadoes crossed the border from Nicaragua. Their first move was to rob a bank in Sarapiqui, an act that suggested that Tacho's aid to them stopped short of cash.

Costa Rican forces soon drove the in vaders back to the border and followed them right to the edge of the San Juan River, both of whose banks are claimed by Nicaragua. When one of Tacho's planes flew along the stream to cover the Calderonistas' retreat, the Costa Ricans fired on the plane and damaged it. Tacho struck back by rushing a mile-long convoy of armored cars and tanks to the border "to defend Nicaragua's territory." His Foreign Minister added that if Costa Ricans wanted war, they would have it.

The U.S. State Department, which thinks Central America has had enough revolutions for a while, wasted no time in taking steps to cool Tacho off. When Tacho's column took off for the border last week, two members of the U.S. military mission in Managua went along, and the U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica was able to inform Figueres that Tacho's troop movements were "routine maneuvers" with U.S. officers present as observers. In case that hint was not enough, the U.S. then dispatched six Air Force C-47 transports to Costa Rica for a sudden stopover. The planes were unarmed, carried neither passengers nor cargo. Nicaragua's Tacho is the kind of man who understands such gestures.

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