Teodoro Picado Michalski
| Teodoro Picado Michalski | |
|---|---|
 |
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| President of Costa Rica | |
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In office 8 May 1944 – 8 May 1948 |
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| Preceded by | Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia |
| Succeeded by | José Figueres Ferrer |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
10 January 1900 San José, Costa Rica |
| Died | 1 June 1960 (aged 60) Managua, Nicaragua |
| Political party | Republicano Nacional |
| Spouse(s) | Mercedes Lara Fernández Etelvina Ramírez Montiel |
Teodoro Picado Michalski (10 January 1900 – 1 June 1960) was the President of Costa Rica from 1944 to 1948.
Teodoro Picado governed Costa Rica immediately after the presidency of Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia and preceded the de facto junta of José Figueres. One of the most erudite presidents to govern Costa Rica, Picado was more moderate and not nearly as inflammatory as either his predecessor or successor.
Before reaching the presidency, don Teodoro, in his capacity as President of the Constitutional Congress, had a very important and active role in approving the Social Reforms of the government of Dr. Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia (1940-1944).
Calderón heavily supported Picado during the 1944 election, through means legal and illegal. The campaign season was particularly ugly by Costa Rican standards, at times turning violent. According to recent, documented studies, by historians Fabrice Lehoucq and Ivan Molina, though there was some minor electoral fraud in a few voting tables far removed from the Capital, it was not enough to have changed the outcome of the landslide election. Picado won by a 2:1 margin.
In spite of the questioned election, Picado was a far less inflammatory figure than Calderón, who had angered the country's coffee and mercantile elite.
Picado's Administration enacted many laws to modernize the State. The most prominent was the electoral reform of 1945, which created a modern Electoral Code of Laws and a Supreme Tribunal of Elections. The reform was partly a reaction to the outcry over the 1944 campaign season. The Electoral Code remains in full force today, and has been a guarantee to the Nation's continued democratic elections. This Electoral Reform was saved by an Executive Order known in Costa Rican history as the "Blank Check", decreed by President Picado on the November 21, 1945 and published in the Official Gazette the day after. This Decree permitted the inclusion of all the major innovations contemplated in the Electoral Code of Laws into the legislation in force by Congress on December 11, 1945.
In the 1948 election for Picado's successor as Costa Rica's President, Picado supported his predecessor, Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia, who hoped to win a second term.
Former President Calderón lost the popular vote in a tight election to Otilio Ulate. This was the first time that elections were being held under the new Electoral Code of Laws and governed by the Tribunal of Elections and certain anomalies were committed with regard to the vote counting deadlines and the loss of ballots, and as a result, Calderón supporters in the Legislature invalidated the election results in accordance with the Constitution. In March–April 1948, the protests over the election results grew into a revolution. José Figueres with the help of "La Legion del Caribe" of which Fidel Castro was a prominent member (See Dr. Rosendo Argüello "Quienes y Como Nos Traicionaron"), led the revolution, defeating the Costa Rican Army, loyal to Calderón and President Picado. With more than 2,000 dead, the 44-day civil war resulting from this uprising was the bloodiest event in 20th-century Costa Rican history.
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