CENTRAL AMERICA: The Shadow of Castro

Deep in the tangled bush on Costa Rica's side of the Nicaraguan border, Costa Rica's Civil Guard Commander Alfonso Monge, 45, walked up to a dilapidated shack, threw open the door, and fell dead in a hail of bullets—a casualty in an angry flare of violence that raced across Central America last week. Before the rattle of small arms and the whomp of mortars died down, three governments —in Costa Rica. Nicaragua, Guatemala—had felt the hot breath of revolt. 29 men were dead, and the U.S. Navy was patrolling offshore to guard against further trouble. Overall loomed the darkening shadow of Cuba's Fidel Castro.

One by one, as the fighting erupted in their nations, Presidents Mario Echandi of Costa Rica, Luis Somoza of Nicaragua and Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes of Guatemala stepped up to accuse Castro of everything from supplying rebel arms to outright intervention. Guatemala protested to the Organization of American States and talked of invoking the 1947 Rio Pact against aggression. Its President Ydígoras demanded a Korean-style police action against Cuba. Both Guatemala and Nicaragua sent pleas to Washington requesting a U.S. Navy patrol in the Caribbean to thwart any Cuban invasion. The U.S. swiftly dispatched the necessary task force.

How deeply was Castro involved? In this case, probably not so deeply as the worried Central Americans claim. As the palace coup in El Salvador a fortnight ago demonstrated, there is already grave unrest in that poverty-stricken subcontinent, and there is no doubt that Castro agents are fanning it for all they are worth. Yet no new Czech weapons have turned up, and the best intelligence indicates that Castro has mounted no major effort—as yet. What does worry the U.S. is his growing capacity for warfare and his announced intention of stirring rebellion. Last week the U.S. State Department released statistics showing that in the past 21 months Castro has received 28,000 tons of Communist arms, including artillery and MIG jet fighters. The naval squadron that the U.S. dispatched to patrol Central America's coast was less a measure against what Castro had actually done than a precaution against what he would like to do.

Strangers on the Border. The actual fighting last week was local, and quickly controlled. The men who riddled Costa Rica's civil guard commander were Nicaraguans, longtime enemies of the Somoza regime, who were hiding on the border waiting for a chance to invade their homeland and overthrow the government. Acting on a tip, the Costa Rican civil guard went out to investigate the strangers, was ambushed, and the skirmish touched off a chain reaction. Enraged by the news of Monge's death, the government of Costa Rican President Echandi shot off a state ment that the rebels included several Cubans, and were led by a mystery man called "El Cubano." Then Echandi himself went to the border area to oversee the military action that scattered the would-be invaders. Captured: six, but no Cubans.