Costa Rican Civil War - 1948 Elections and Violent Aftermath

1948 Elections and Violent Aftermath

After a highly contentious electoral process plagued by violence and irregularities concluded on February 8, 1948, the independent Electoral Tribunal, by a split vote of 2 to 1, declared that opposition candidate Otilio Ulate, of the National Union Party, had been elected president. The National Republican Party candidate, former President Calderón, claimed that this result had been obtained by fraud and petitioned Congress, where the coalition of his own party and the communist Popular Vanguard Party held a majority, to void the results and call for a new election. When Congress granted this request the country erupted in chaos, as both sides accused the other of vote tampering and electoral fraud.4, 8 On the day that the government annulled the elections, police surrounded the home of Dr. Carlos Luis Valverde, where Ulate was and Figueres had been only moments before. Shots rang out, and Valverde fell dead on his doorstep. Ulate escaped but was later captured and imprisoned, all of which helped to paint an especially distasteful image of the military.6