The Codo del Diablo murders were murders that were carried out in

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

on December 19, 1948, in the area of

Siquirres Siquirres is a district of the Siquirres canton, in the Limón province of Costa Rica. It is a center of commerce and has most of the services for the area's locals. Toponymy The name is derived from a native word meaning reddish colored. His ...

, Limón Province, known as ''El Codo del Diablo'' ("Elbow of the Devil"). Six political prisoners were kidnapped and extrajudicially killed due to their political affiliation with communism. The victims were Federico Picado Sáenz, Tobías Vaglio Sardi, Lucio Ibarra, Octavio Sáenz Soto, Narciso Sotomayor, and Álvaro Aguilar (all Costa Ricans, except Sotomayor who was

Nicaraguan Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

), who were linked to the Communist Party

Vanguardia Popular The People's Vanguard Party, or Popular Vanguard Party () is a communist party in Costa Rica. PVP was founded in 1931 as the Workers and Farmers Party, but was soon renamed to the Communist Party of Costa Rica (''Partido Comunista de Costa Ri ...

and were fighters of the "Caldero-comunista" side during the Costa Rican civil war of 1948 that had ended eight months before. The assassins were associated with the winning side or " Figueristas" and the government was in the hands of the

Founding Junta of the Second Republic The Founding Junta of the Second Republic was a de facto government which existed in the Republic of Costa Rica from May 8, 1948 to November 8, 1949, with the overthrow of the constitutional president Teodoro Picado Michalski, by a group of rev ...

, a ''de facto'' government. It is the last case in which the murder of Costa Rican citizens occurred due to their political ideas by persons linked to the State. The perpetrators of the crime were Captain Manuel Zúñiga Jirón and Deputy Luis Norberto Valverde Quirós of the Public Force, and as a driver, the Cuban-born Clarencio Auld Alvarado. The detainees were transferred from a police command in Limón in handcuffs to the Siquirres area on the banks of the Reventazón River, known as “Codo del Diablo”, where, aboard the train to the Atlantic of the Northern Railway Company, they were killed with a fire gun and their bodies were thrown into the river where it was thought that they would not be found. However, one of the bodies broke away from the handcuffs and separated from the rest, being found shortly after. An

arrest warrant An arrest warrant is a warrant issued by a judge or magistrate on behalf of the state, which authorizes the arrest and detention of an individual, or the search and seizure of an individual's property. Canada Arrest warrants are issued by a j ...

, imprisonment, and trial against the culprits were issued. However, they escaped from justice abroad, as reported, with the help of contacts they had in the government. On the anniversary of the event in 2012,

José María Villalta José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...

, then deputy of the left-wing Broad Front Party (which proclaimed itself to be the historic successor of the Communist Party), recalled the fact in the plenary and accused the government of the one then chaired by

José Figueres Ferrer José María Hipólito Figueres Ferrer (25 September 1906 – 8 June 1990) served as President of Costa Rica on three occasions: 1948–1949, 1953–1958 and 1970–1974. During his first term in office he abolished the country's army, nationa ...

, of having issued the order of the crime.

References

{{Reflist Anti-communism History of Costa Rica Assassinations Mass murder in 1948 Assassinated activists