The Political Constitution of 1949, its historical political roots during the period 1940-1948

Abstract

The 70th anniversary of the Political Constitution of Costa Rica is a good time to remember the events prior to the issuance of the Magna Carta.

How should we see and appreciate the existence of this Political Constitution? How to understand the circumstances and historical events that led to the historical moment that gave rise to it? What is the value of the current Political Constitution?

The context produced by the convening of the National Constituent Assembly of 1949, which gave rise to the current Political Constitution, was the result of a serious social and political confrontation that was taking place during the 1940s and especially, from the Pact produced , in 1943, between the Government of Dr. Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia, and his Republican Party, Monsignor Victor Manuel Sanabria Martínez, Head of the Catholic Church, its Bishop, and Manuel Mora Valverde, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Costa Rica.

The review of this decade that was so convulsive at the international level and that filled the country with ideological struggles and economic problems, is key to understanding the meaning of the issuance of the 1949 Constitution.