Snuffed Fuse

The fact-finding commission of the Organization of American States flew back to Washington last week with a locker full of documents and depositions. Then, after six hours, the O.A.S. Council announced its findings on the invasion of Costa Rica from Nicaragua (TIME, Dec. 20).

Both countries, the council found, were guilty of disturbing the peace: Nicaragua for helping Costa Rican exiles launch the abortive invasion; Costa Rica for harboring the international Caribbean Legion, dedicated to the overthrow of dictatorial regimes in Nicaragua, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. The two quarreling neighbors were warned to be on their best behavior; for good measure, the council ordered a five-man military mission to oversee the troubled frontier.

Modest Boast. As the session broke up Christmas Eve in the ornate, damask-walled council room of the Pan American Union, all the delegates seemed satisfied. O.A.S. Secretary General Alberto Lleras Camargo of Colombia allowed himself a modest boast: "This is a little quicker than the U.N. Security Council, isn't it?"

Unquestionably the council could take credit for snuffing the fuse to an explosive situation--though next day a new fuse sputtered briefly. On Christmas night a band of machine-gunning raiders slashed into tiny Puerto Soley, on Costa Rica's Pacific shore, shot up the town, set it afire, then scuttled back to Nicaragua.

In any case, the council's two-way verdict constituted a first-class tactical save for Nicaragua's strong man, "Tacho" Somoza. Tough Tacho, the only Nicaraguan who could have given the go-ahead signal for the Costa Rican adventure, narrowly escaped getting his fingers burned when Costa Rica invoked the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro (for hemisphere defense).

Tacho held back and sulked, mumbling defensively about the Legion. But when the investigators, who had flown around Costa Rica with Junta President Jose Figueres and President-elect Otilio Ulate, moved on to Nicaragua, Tacho was in his best form. Beaming warmly, he poured out explanations and complaints.

Patient Man. Tacho pictured himself a man of infinite patience. His Guardia Nacional, charged by the Costa Ricans with equipping and backing the invasion, was actually "the keeper of the peace in Central America." (In less sensitive times, Tacho had been known to boast that the crack Guardia could get him to San Jose in three days.)

Tacho's Managua, unlike the Costa Rican capital of San Jose, did not receive the commissioners with flower-strewn streets. ("We are the accused. It wouldn't look right.") There was, in fact, enough brown Managua dust on the streets to get in any investigator's eyes.

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