Turbulence in Paradise

Costa Rica, long an island of tranquillity in troubled Central America, is experiencing some unaccustomed turbulence. Minister of Security Angel Edmundo Solano Calderon put the nation's 6,000-man civil guard on "maximum alert" two weeks ago, citing rumors of a coup. After President Luis Alberto Monge ridiculed the takeover scare as "crazy," a chastened Solano said he had only been joking. But a few days later Monge asked Solano and the 14 other members of his Cabinet to resign, as well as nearly all of the country's 33 ambassadors.

The housecleaning is aimed at restoring public confidence, besides giving Monge a free hand in dealing with the country's troubled economy and its more than $4 billion in foreign debt. A major target of the Cabinet shuffle, for instance, was Minister of the Presidency Fernando Berrocal Soto, whose reported role in winning government loans for a brother-in-law drew angry mutterings from other hard-pressed businessmen. Shortly before the resignations, Costa Rica asked for a two-week extension on an Aug. 15 deadline to comply with belt-tightening reforms requested by the International Monetary Fund. Monge is especially worried by the growing disenchantment of Costa Rica's middle class, whose standard of living has steadily declined since 1980.