In 1928, the US capital company Electric Bond and Share absorbed three of the most

solid companies in the electrical industry in Costa Rica, operating as a Holding

Company and monopolizing the shares and concessions over the country's water

resources. This situation opened up a space for debate on the political scene about the

need to nationalize this growing economic sector. The main interest of the current

research is to identify the speeches used in defense of nationalization of the electric-

power industry using articles printed in the national press of the period to analyze the

way in which the importance of the nationalization was arised as well as the

administrative model that it should adopt according to its defenders.

Keywords: History of infrastructures; Costa Rica; Electric-Power Industry; 20th century;

Holding Company.

ABSTRACT

RESUMEN

En 1928 la empresa de capital estadounidense Electric Bond and Share absorbió a tres

de las empresas más sólidas de la industria eléctrica en Costa Rica, operando como una

Holding Company y monopolizando las acciones y concesiones sobre los recursos

hídricos del país. Esta situación abrió un espacio de debate en el escenario político

sobre la necesidad de nacionalizar este creciente sector económico. El principal interés

de la presente investigación es identificar los discursos utilizados en defensa de la

nacionalización de la industria eléctrica a partir de artículos impresos en la prensa

nacional de la época, y analizar la forma en que se planteó la importancia de la

nacionalización; así como el modelo administrativo que debería adoptar según sus

defensores.

Palabras clave: Historia de las infraestructuras; Costa Rica; Industria eléctrica; siglo XX;

Holding Company.

Discursos de nacionalización de la industria eléctrica

en Costa Rica (1928-1930)

ELECTRIC-POWER INDUSTRY NATIONALIZATION DISCOURSES

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in Costa Rica (1928-1930)

Priscilla Villegas Arce

Universidad de Costa Rica

San Pedro, San José, Costa Rica

priscilla.villegas@ucr.ac.cr

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9894-0479

Recibido:

Aceptado:

23 de enero de 2023

20 de febrero de 2022

I Sección: Historia

The infrastructure systems that provide cities with energy and potable water, as well as the

sewage treatment, have become symbols of stability and civility since they have been

historically used as legitimizing elements of the idea of progress. By the end of the 19th

century and the beginning of the 20th century, the modernization discourse placed

energy consumption as a benchmark of development of urban spaces and State’s

modernization. Energy consumption was considered as directly proportional to the level of

modernization; this meant that the greater the development the greater the energy

consumption (Notten, 2006). The efforts in the implementation of electricity and the

extension of the service initially were on private hands due to the inability of the States to

invest in this economic activity.

The Energy-Power industry composes an infrastructure that has different layers of analysis:

Investment and technological innovation; economic dynamic and financial structure; and

regulation, the creation of public policies on waterfalls, and company investments under a

Modern State model. From this position, it is necessary to comprehend infrastructure as a

structure based on flow—term emphasized by Paul N. Edwards (2003) —, which refers not

only to the transit of objects —pre-existing or foreign— but also to the exchange between

those who digest material novelties and who normalize and transmit the knowledge of its

use. The impulse of urban cities was tied to the hopes of spacial transformation and the

way in which its citizens relate to the environment in space and time. Electricity allowed

changes in transport, housing, work and use of resources, which is why it became a key

economic sector for the development of the dreamed urban centers.

The electrical structure was promoted as part of a larger project founded in the ideals of

modernity and progress. Susan Leigh (1999) said that infrastructures are not the object of

analysis, but rather the relationships that emerge from the implementation of these: the

evidence of social organization. From this perspective, one’s approach to infrastructures as

socially created institutions, which coexist with previous social structures or in

transformation with them. In other words, infrastructures are part of the relations and

connections that emerge from a delimitated community.

It is with this same premise of the coexistence between the environment, society and

infrastructure, that the access or flow of the elements diffused or given by the

infrastructure —as well as the capacity to supply demand— allows an analysis to the study

of the social inequalities of access to infrastructures, but also a political reading on the

priority in the debates of this reality and its potential change. As evidenced by Kathryn

Frulong (2014), human groups exposed to and socialized with infrastructures that do not

present failures or present them intermittently, tend to generate a relationship with the

environment that takes granted the provision of that service and daily life unfold around

that access. In cases where the services have inefficient access or tend to present failures

frequently, the relationship with the technology or structure should not be seen as a "failed

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INTRODUCTION

I Sección: Historia

attempt" or "failure" of the relationshbut as a driving force of other techniques and

infrastructural solutions that minimize the impact of the deficiency of the collapsing

infrastructure. This vision positions the importance of these studies not as a description of

existing material object but as a social process of adoption and adaption of systemsthat

can function as evidence of the inequality interaction given by the social structure and the

role of private capital.

The theoretical positions reviewed above concatenate analytical perspectives for the

approach to infrastructures, positioning an analysis that gives priority to the discussion

created over infrastructures as a process of imagination of new or better projects of

administration and distribution of its services, as well as the existing structures of

marginalization in the same process. This investigation starts from the comprehension

that the execution of infrastructure projects has an exclusionary nature towards certain

social groups through access to information, services and quality of life. In a context of

State modernization towards the 20th century, there is the dichotomy of the public and

the private as well as the confrontation of the defenders of both models of resource

management, which is why the approach to the nationalization of the electricity industry

in Costa Rica intends to bring to the table the public policy discussions developed over the

electrical infrastructure and the objectives of prioritizing it between 1928 and 1930.

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The electric capacity of the cities formed a fundamental part of the discourses of the

modern transformation and the impulse of the industries of the rising states throughout

western countries. Visions over modernization dialogued between private initiatives and

the expectations of the States roll as a centralizer of the power forces of the country. Under

the modern vision, electricity marked a new way to perceive space and time as well as it

became a new source of enrichment, a new investment market and a new negotiation

network in the industrialized world.

The technological change allowed the development of a new economic scenario. In Costa

Rica’s case the electric industry became one of the few economic activities in the country

that was not linked to an agricultural product but to the exploitation of water resources.

The necessity of private investment and the exploration of new industry forms resulted in

monopolistic practices and the generation of new resource management models from the

incipient idea of the Modern State.

By the end of the 19th century a new business model started to emerge in the new

Northern American economic life, the Holding Companies. This business model is

characterized for the promotion of purchase business subsidiaries, under the target of

generate a power centralization of different business industries (Flores, 1993). The structure

of these companies allow them to exist as individual service competing in the market, but

in the reality all belong to the same small group of shareholders. The Holding company

usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other

companies to form a corporate group.

ELECTRIC-POWER INDUSTRY AND THE

INFRASTRUCTURES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The American capital company Electric Bond and Share, worked under the holding

company model and purchased electric-power industries all over America the continent:

México, Guatemala, Panamá, Chile, Brasil, Cuba, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Argentina. This

company worked through the centralization of the capital funds of many investors under

the control and administration of a small group of shareholders who redirected these

funds to develop companies on a large scale. By this model, the number of investors

multiplied but power continued to be concentrated in the same small group of

shareholders, giving the Holding's organizers control over the subsidiaries with a

minimum of their own investment (Flores, 1993). The limited local private investment

capacity on hydroelectric projects was taken advantage of by the Electric Bond and Share

to establish itself in Costa Rica in 1927.

Historiography has explored the transition to the 20th century from the economic

changes, the ideal of a new social dynamics configuration through the spacial

transformation, and from the discussions over the conceptualization and participation of

the modern state. The electoral processes, agroforestry exploitation industries, the

introduction of the railway as a part of the building of a nation, economic policies, and

business relationships are well-known in History. However, there are a lot of infrastructural

subjects that form part of the development of cities and History has yet to delve into them.

The building of new cities was a scenario of growth, planning, and invention discussions,

but, mainly, they were a space for material projection of the circulating ideas about civility,

progress, and the new direction of man after the industrial revolution. The necessity of

understanding the ideological, administrative, and mentality changes, redirects us to

analyze material vestiges as discourses of a specific period.

For this reason, this article presents an electrical infrastructure administration approach as

a scenario for public policy generation, mediated or disputed by different economic

models for resources administration in the context of the emerging Reformative State.

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Since the mid-19th century, as a result of the economic growth produced by the agro-

export model, there was a concentration of capital in the country's large merchants,

exporters, and importers. Their relationship with the new economic activities and their

interest in the modernization of the country led them to take part in a series of

infrastructure construction projects in the capital city. Costa Rica experienced, like the rest

of Latin America, the growth of its urban centers. San José, the capital of this country,

began a process of change, responding to the new demands of the economic and

commercial environment. The new model favored the concentration of businesses and

services in the city, generating a professionalization of the spaces of the modern world.

THE NEW URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE INSERTION

IN SAN JOSÉ CITY

Between 1890 and 1920, San José underwent a process of urbanization called "ensanche".

The objective of the ensanche was "the opening and construction of streets and sidewalks,

the installation of public services such as drinking water, sewage and electricity, the

subdivision of the land and the sale of lots for the construction of houses" (Quesada, 2007,

p.88). Due to the lack of municipal resources and as a consequence of the State's inability

to invest —due to its limited power of centralization— the process of urban construction

was delegated to private hands, granting great liberties for the coordination and

construction of a new urban environment, mainly from 1915 onwards. This process of

investment in infrastructure was mediated by the interests of urban capitalists (land

owners, farms, or construction entrepreneurs) who undertook construction based on the

interests of their economic, commercial, and residential projects, and therefore, the

urbanization process occurred in a selective manner (geographically and socially), thus

promoting a segregated city.

The spatial transformation projects of the capital centers involved industrialized urban

culture adoption, as a symbol of distinction in a period of commercial modernization. As

mentioned above, the urbanization process in San José was led by landowners or

construction entrepreneurs, which conditioned the areas in which construction processes

were undertaken and the services scope in the capital area. The residential areas that were

built in downtown San José for the privileged class had concentrations of public lighting

(1884), electrification in the houses (1892), as well as plumbing and piping (Fumero, 2015).

While the popular housing areas could not afford the expenses of private services with a

high payment costs.

The disagreements about the urbanization process that dominated San José city were

expressed after the construction of the conspicuous National Theater and other

architectural investments, since the population alleged the lack of drinking water service,

and reproached the existence of "a coliseum for bourgeois entertainment" (Quesada, 2007,

p.116). Florencia Quesada shows how this situation generated dissatisfaction, which was

reported in the newspapers of the time, where it was expressed that the urban project of

San José should not only be expanded but also reformed, alluding to the fact that it had

started at the end without having begun by a sanitary process.

The sanitation process meant the expansion of plumbing and sewage projects that would

allow the control of urban epidemics and, therefore, mortality rates, thus achieving

symbolic proximity to the metropolis. The proposals took on a great force at the beginning

of the 20th century, directed mainly under the capital of Minor Keith, who had undertaken

the same process in the commercial routes of the banana-growing area of Limón

(Quesada, 2007).

The processes of growth of the urban space, its mediators, its implications, and its uses

show a panorama in which the direction of the space-forming plan (geographic and social)

was promoted by the interests of the dominant classes, under a private capital (coming

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from the same commercial-importing sector), crossed by individual interests. This

investment characteristic was the cause of unequal and uncoordinated growth of the city,

characterized by a non-existent universalization of services and a slow development of the

material conditions for the country industrialization.

This is the context in which the development of the electric industry, a project of spatial

transformation, and the rise of new infrastructures to achieve the goal of modernization.

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Parallel to the spatial transformations of urban centers, the development of the electrical

industry in the country began under the management of Manuel Víctor Dengo and his

partner Luis Batres, who 1883 founded the Compañía Eléctrica de Costa Rica. The former

had, since 1882, the exclusive privilege for fifteen years to develop electric lighting in the

area, and the latter contributed the investment capital. By the middle of the same year,

they already had a contract with the municipality of San José, a contract with which the

first electrical installation lines of the city materialized on August 9, 1884.

Thus began the electric power industry in the country, and from that moment on a series

of new companies emerged "eager to exploit the watercourses as a source of illumination

and motive power" (Notten, 2006, p.186). However, the actual implementation of the

infrastructure was limited, and the claims of various companies for waterfalls generally

culminated without any construction.

Between 1917 and 1928 the number of power plants installed increased. There were modest

efforts of between 300kw and 950kw, responding to localized needs and with a short

scope of coverage (Flores, 1993). The evolution of this new commercial sector, in the light of

the ideals of modernity, resulted in two phenomena: first, in the concentration of water

concessions that had given life to small companies, which would later be absorbed by

larger national capital companies; the latter would later be absorbed by foreign capital.

Secondly, the transfer of accumulated capital from the incursion into agro-export activities,

financial activities and commercial activities (Flores, 1993). The latter generated a smaller

and more economically dynamic sector for the Costa Rican elites; these elites were not

only the representative face of the hydroelectric companies with greater energy capacity

and coverage in the country, but they were also the main defenders of the interests of the

Electric Bond and Share.

ELECTRIC-POWER INDUSTRY TRAJECTORY: ITS LINKS WITH BIG CAPITAL

AND THE MOST DYNAMIC ELITES IN THE COSTA RICAN SCENARIO

Figure 1: Concentration process of electric companies

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Source: Diagram taken from the thesis History of the nationalization of the electrical

industry in Costa Rica (1883-1956). (Flores, 1993).

The above diagram shows the process of concentration of the electric companies. From

left to right, the gradual process of absorption of the companies up to the monopolization

of the Electric Bond and Share.

The Costa Rica Electric Light and Tranction was founded in London in 1898, and registered

in Costa Rica the same year. The company was popularly known as the Compañía del

tranvía, since it operated this service. The Compañía Nacional de Electricidad was

incorporated in 1924 as an industrial corporation, which would be dedicated to the

exploitation of the hydroelectric plants and telephones that it acquired with the purchase

of shares of the electric light companies; in addition, it came to own the water concessions,

substations and properties of Felipe J. Alvarado and Roberto Jiménez. The third company

was founded in 1922, date on which Enrique Ortiz Rivera's request for hydraulic power on

the Torres, Tiribí and Virilla rivers was approved, generating the union of their beds. This

company was known as Electriona plant, which started with national investors. However

by 1924, due to financial problems, Ortiz was forced to cede his concession to the

Compañía Nacional Hidroeléctrica S.A., represented by Thomas James of English

nationality. Capital shortages continued to be visible, so, in 1927, shares were sold to AEG, a

German company that produced electrical equipment and had a subsidiary in Latin

America (Flores, 1993).

The capital vacuums were taken advantage of by Electric Bond and Share, which by 1928

had already added shares of the three previous companies. This purchase of the different

companies of the electric industry led to a series of discussions about the need for

nationalization of the electric industry in Costa Rica starting in the middle of 1928.

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The threat of monopolization by foreign capital forces gave way to a civic movement that

would be represented by the National Electricity Service (NES) in 1928, intending to

regulate energy costs (León, Arroyo, Montero 2016). Its performance was mediated by

different actors who positioned in the press a series of discussions on the need for

nationalization of the electricity industry.

On July 8, 1928, La Tribuna newspaper took space in the discussion between the members

of the Road Commission, the managers of the electric companies, and the members of the

Civic League on the issues of subway electric extension in the city of San José. The issue

that summoned them was the report on the work and the reminder of the need to comply

with the contracts in this extension of the service, but the space took other routes and

revealed a series of underlying tensions between the actors.

Representatives of the Tranvía and Nacional companies refused to accept the prices set by

the Electriona plant, which at the time held the shares of the AEG company. They claimed

that they were too low for the investment expenditure to be made by the other two

companies, so they denied the subway pipeline. However, the disputes turned to the

commitment of the service to provide consumers with an affordable price since funds had

already been assessed for paving and electric service throughout the city (“Ayer se inició la

discusión pública sobre los asuntos eléctricos”, July 08, 1928). The quarrels reveal that there

was a side that defended the lowering of costs since there was an alternative tax collection

to cover urbanization expenses, a project that the representative of the Tramway

Company, Mr. Moseley, and that of the National Company, Mr. Zimmermann, denied

because of the loss of profits. The second proposed lower costs in exchange for a project

not extended to the entire city, but only to certain sectors of San José. The latter model

was frowned upon, as it hindered the urbanization project for the entire downtown area.

Meanwhile, and as a continuing part of the discussions on this occasion, the representative

of Compañía del Tranvía, Mr. Monseley, hinted at his interest in absorbing Compañía

Nacional and having held talks with AEG about the shares of the Electronia plant.

ELECTRIC-POWER INDUSTRY NATIONALIZATION DISCOURSES

Image 1: Graphic representation of the attempt to monopolize the electric industry

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Source: “Ayer se inició la discusión pública sobre los asuntos eléctricos”. (July 08, 1928). La Tribuna.1

The caricature portrays how the attempt of electric monopoly that these scenarios

implied, fell directly on the consumers, who are represented as part of the popular classes,

which are caricatured in the barefoot and chonete character. However, it is well known

that the main consumers of these services were the commercial and residential areas of

economic opulence and not the working class, much less the peasantry, so the criticism

raises other sectors or other ways of self-perception of the subjected sectors.

The elephant, in addition to symbolizing a large size and the ability to crush, presents large

tusks, along with the legend "and what a tusk", as the popular expression refers to the

ability of a person to take advantage of situations, in this case, to take over all the electric

companies under a financial system.

Ante el hecho de que la fuerza eléctrica está reemplazando toda forma de

energía en el mundo industrial, el movimiento para su coordinada distribución

conduce al aspecto más importante de su nacionalización por el Estado. El

control del poder eléctrico en el desarrollo futuro del mundo industrial

indudablemente llevará consigo el control de las industrias de la nación, el

control del transporte, de las minas y de la agricultura. (“Las formas sucesivas del

monopolio”, July 14, 1928).

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These circulating criticisms about the uncertainty of the Holding Company lurking in the

electric companies triggered debates in the newspapers about this business' system and

its repercussions on the economy of the countries it inhabited. These debates were the

main arena of discussion on the need to nationalize as part of a defense of services.

In terms of nationalization discourses, one’s find three fundamental actors. First, former

President Alfredo González Flores, who during his term of office between 1914-1917 had

won the opposition of the most dynamic sector of the elites due to his reformist positions

on the role of the State. His positions on nationalization revolved around the struggle

against the Holding Company, and the need for the control of services either by the

municipalities or by the State. On this, he added in a note for the newspaper La Tribuna:

For the former president, nationalization would be inevitable for the expansionist objective

of the Modern States, he pointed out that the arrival of electricity in commerce and

domestic life would make it necessary to contain industry in the hands of the State since

private interests would ensure the private perpetuity of these indispensable goods of

modern life. His position recognized electricity as a necessary good for the development of

State projects with greater capacity for action and without negotiation delays from large

monopolists. It is for this reason that after the creation of the NES and with the issue of the

nationalization of the electricity industry on the table, he pointed out in the Diario de

Costa Rica a year later:

Ahora más que nunca se abre el campo para que las personas previsoras y

económicas [...] y los rentistas, adquieran bonos del Servicio Nacional de

Electricidad [...] para realizar el anhelo patriótico nacionalista de los accionistas

[minoritarios] de Electriona, de liberar, para beneficio de los costarricenses, la

fuerza sin cuyo servicio la civilización actual no podría subsistir: la energía

eléctrica. (“El ex-presidente de la República Lic. Don Alfredo González Flores dice

que el trust eléctrico al tomar el nombre de empresa costarricense de

electricidad no tiene escrúpulos en hacer pública la violación a los contratos”,

October 06, 1929) 2.

His plan, closely linked to his participation in La Liga Cívica, was to gradually eliminate the

monopoly through the purchase of shares through the NES, generating in the long term

the concentration of shares under the control of the State.

Desde el punto de vista de la economía privada, claro es que es conveniente

tomar acciones; pero desde el punto de vista de economía nacional, no. Porque

esto como el empréstito contratado en Estados Unidos es un nuevo instrumento

de conquista. (“Reunión de la Liga Cívica”, July 18, 1928)

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His perception of the State's tax needs has been considered by historiography as a

transition to a fair public policy, however, after reviewing his speeches on the need for

nationalization of the electric industry, it seems that although he is indeed facing the

monopoly of economic activities of the elites, his main interest was a better and more just

public policy. He tried to promote better and more widespread fundraising to create a

competitive State in terms of investment in services, which in turn focuses on access to

the possibility of promoting progress and modernization as a unified project and with

greater strength to encourage industrialization. This vision of the needs of the State, as one

sees, does not refer to an awareness of inequalities or a struggle for their eradication, but is

simply a change of focus on new models of the State.

The Juan Mora Porras Civic League, for its part, was founded under nationalist and anti-

imperialist ideals, so from its discourse, it encouraged a series of conferences and

dialogues to inform about the dangers of this business model. It also emphasized the need

to control the prices of services. This group emphasized its commitment to protecting

Costa Rican investors and encouraging them to defend the national economy.

This grouping, from the generation of a group identity, was based on the struggle for the

integrity of Costa Rican sovereignty and homeland. The discourse that had been endowed

with symbolism through the defense of the land was transferred to the resources and the

electricity industry, in which national businessmen were the new patriotic heroes by

defending the interests of the State and not those of the large transnationals that

devoured energy sources, knowing the need for this resource for the evolution of modern

societies. This discourse not only aimed at the generalized rejection of the Electric Bond

and Share but also the incentive of local private capitals to generate the necessary

investment base to create a competitive State in terms of services and to unify the

common project of modernization of the national space.

Finally, the commission of public roads. Although this entity does not generate direct

speeches on the importance of nationalization, it is noticeable in the press of the time a

continuous citation and presence of the existing tensions between the commission and

the management of the electric companies. There is a constant need to pressure these

companies to comply with the contracts in favor of the generalization of services in the

public roads of the growing center of San José.

[…] las empresas eléctricas que actualmente prestan servicios en esta capital

necesitan introducir serias reformas para corresponder bien a las ncecesidades

del público, eso explica por qué no pueden ser hoy tan liberales como deberían

en el suministro de los servicios a que es llamada. Sus instalaciones, por lo que

denuncias sus exterioridades visibles son en extremo deficientes y hasta

peligrosas […]. (“Electronia ante la Comisión de Vias Públicas”, July 08, 1928)

What is sought with nationalization, then, is an improvement in services under the

principle of homologation with industrialized countries. In this way, and as one has been

able to observe through the transformations in the infrastructures demanded by urban

modernization, energy, mobility, and services were directly connected and, if necessary,

affected according to the inconsistencies of the administrations of each company.

Expressed tensions with the electric companies and inconsistencies with the development

of energy projects had repercussions on other infrastructures. The electric companies

maintained discussions with the public roads commission due to the inoperability in the

fulfillment of the contracts established for the continuity of the urbanization programs of

the josefino center. This situation fed the speeches in favor of nationalization and

evidenced the priority of the personal interests of the major foreign capital investors over

the agreements for common urban development.

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In this regard, Mr. Enrique Ortiz, representative of the National Hydroelectric Company

(Electriona) pointed out before the Road Commission:

Image 2: Graphic representation of the conditions of the tram service in the city of San José

Source: (“La Comisión de vías públicas deseando mantener sus actividades a favor de los

intereses de la comunidad pedirá a La Compañía del Travía el fiel cumplimiento del

contraro”, October06, 1929).

The above cartoon criticizes the conditions of the tramway service by Electric Bond and

Share, the same company that had absorbed the electric companies in 1928, and refers to

the shareholders who had to respond to the deplorable conditions of the service. However,

it is possible to identify that the commentators are not users of the tramway. This is

evident in the contrasts between the person aboard the tramway and the two passers-by,

who are depicted, once again, without shoes and oblivious to the modern services of the

urban center. These caricatures in the newspapers, which follow up on the rough edges of

the electricity nationalization issue, seem to respond to a criticism of the very structure of

foreign capital companies, which ultimately generates distrust and greater speculation

about commercial investment in the country.

The expression "imagine if they were chonetes like us" seems to be a criticism from the

"simple peasants" —far from the formation and technological knowledge of the big

investors— to these models that should be modern and have improved the civilized

conditions of the environment, but being in reprehensible conditions, they are worthy of

criticism even from that social sector.

By 1930, the discussions did not cease, the inconsistencies between the administrative

changes and the redistribution of shares from the companies continued to be the point of

criticism from the pro-nationalization sides. El Diario de Costa Rica, under the headline

“The electrical issue at its peak”, published an article on June 14, 1930, stating that

Compañía Nacional de Electricidad had announced the expiration of its water concession

contract and that the Tranvía company would take over the other company's electric

services. This news came as a surprise to the commissions and NES, as they were unaware

of the statements. This situation created an environment of speculation on electricity,

where industries and businesses created an attempt to raise their prices, and consumers,

amid uncertainty, generated an alarm about the consumption of other means of internal

lighting in their homes. These discussions remain open for the period, returning again and

again to the need for nationalization to control speculation, especially in times of crisis in

the face of the depression of 1929.

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FIRST, the main rationale for electricity nationalization refers to the defense of state

sovereignty and border control. The main interest is not only the spatial control of the

States but also to limit the capacity of foreign forces to access the resources of this

territory. There is thus a tension between the formative idea of the liberal state and foreign

and monopolizing private capital. Furthermore, the advocates of nationalization

emphasize the need to look after the interests of the minority investors, who were Costa

Rican, absorbed by the purchase of the electric companies. This position is purely

nationalist in the sense that it does not seek reform on the ownership of the industry, but

the importance of the origin of the capital.

CONCLUSIONS. THE NATIONALIZATION MODEL AND

INFRASTRUCTURES IN A MODERN STATE

SECOND, the participation of the Civic League in the nationalization process has been

considered as a group in defense of consumers and favor of the universalization of electric

service, however, although true to some extent, their interests in nationalization did not

respond to a search for the democratization of access to infrastructure, but only the

containment of foreign forces and price control to continue with the advance of

industrialization, modernization and progress of the country. This indicates that the model

of administration and distribution of the electric service did not vary in the conception of

this as a means of generating investments, but emphasized the need for "friendlier"

investors with greater State regulation to reduce speculation by investors, which, needless

to say, had to be Costa Rican. This group even labeled as unpatriotic those national

businessmen who defended the interests of the Electric Bond and Share.

FINALLY, it is concluded that nationalization is discussed because the objective of the

State is to provide the material conditions to create a real development in the context of

modernization, however, the model, even under the administration of the State, is

projected to industrialization and not to the universalization of services. They are based on

anti-imperialist but not anti-capitalist discourses. What is prioritized is a common project

of electricity infrastructures and not a business with sub-circles, but the issues of inequality

in access to electricity and the services that derive from this infrastructure are not

addressed.

The infrastructures, as it is possible to notice through this exploration, generated a series of

discussions between the public and the private, about the modes of operation of the

industry within the economic model it inhabited and the need for regulation and

unification of objectives for growth of the necessary conditions for the stimulation of the

industry in a homogeneous way.

The exploration demonstrates how infrastructures generate a series of political tensions

that do not strictly mean abrupt breaks with previous models. It is possible to observe how

the questioning of the electricity industry under a foreign capital company generated the

impulse to organize another form of control and regulation over this infrastructure but did

not create a change in the investment structure so that the industry would foster a certain

model of national capital elites, distancing those elites who defended a more open market

model and less State intervention. It cannot be ignored that the dominance of political

forces with a liberal model of the State limited these structural transformations on

infrastructure, but the emphasis is placed on how the reformist transformations shared

the vision of progress with a difference in the means proposed to achieve it, in this case

under a unified project, which does not mean, in practice, the universalization of services

or equitable access to them.

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Electric-Power Industry Nationalization Discourses in Costa Rica (1928-1930)

| Villegas Arce, Priscilla

Revista Estudios, 2023

| Febrero 2023

I Sección: Historia

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Electric-Power Industry Nationalization Discourses in Costa Rica (1928-1930)

| Villegas Arce, Priscilla

Revista Estudios, 2023

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I Sección: Historia

"In view of the fact that electric power is replacing all forms of energy in the

industrial world, the movement for its coordinated distribution leads to the

most important aspect of its nationalization by the State. Control of electric

power in the future development of the industrial world will undoubtedly bring

with it control of the nation's industries, control of transportation, mines and

agriculture”. The translation belongs to the author.

“Now more than ever, the field is open for far-sighted and economical people [...]

and rentiers to acquire bonds of the National Electricity Service [...] to realize the

patriotic nationalist desire of the [minority] shareholders of Electriona, to

liberate, for the benefit of Costa Ricans, the force without whose service the

current civilization could not subsist: electric energy”. The translation belongs to

the author.

“From the point of view of the private economy, of course it is convenient to

take action; but from the point of view of the national economy, no. This, like the

loan contracted in the United States, is a new instrument of conquest”. The

translation belongs to the author.

“[...] the electric companies that currently provide services in this capital need to

introduce serious reforms to correspond well to the needs of the public, which

explains why they cannot be as liberal as they should be today in the supply of

the services to which they are called. Their installations, as far as their visible

exterior is concerned, are extremely deficient and even dangerous [...]”. The

translation belongs to the author.

NOTAS

REFERENCES

Ayer se inició la discusión pública sobre los asuntos eléctricos. (08 de julio de 1928).

La Tribuna. 1 y 5

Edwards, P. (2003). “Infrastructure and Modernity: Force, Time, and Social Organization in

the History of Sociotechnical Systems”. In Modernity and Technology. Edited by

Thomas J. Misa, Philip Brey and Andrew Feenberg, 185-225. Cambridge, Mass.:

MIT Press.

El ex-presidente de la República Lic. Don Alfredo González Flores dice que el trust eléctrico

al tomar el nombre de empresa costarricense de electricidad no tiene escrúpulos

en hacer pública la violación a los contratos. (06 octubre de 1929). Diario de Costa

Rica, 1 y 4.

Electronia ante la Comisión de Vias Públicas. (08 de julio de 1928). La Tribuna. 4.

Flores Montes, O. (1993) Historia de la nacionalización de la industria eléctrica en Costa

Rica, (1883-1968), Tesis de licenciatura. Universidad de Costa Rica.

Fumero, P. (2015). Cultura y sociedad en Costa Rica: 1914-1950. EUCR.

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Electric-Power Industry Nationalization Discourses in Costa Rica (1928-1930)

| Villegas Arce, Priscilla

Revista Estudios, 2023

| Febrero 2023

I Sección: Historia

Furlong, K. (2014) “STS Beyond the ‘Modern Infrastructure Ideal´: Extending Theory by

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139-47.

La Comisión de vías públicas deseando mantener sus actividades de a favor de los

intereses de la comunidad pedirá a La Compañía del Travía el fiel cumplimiento del

contrato. (October06, 1929). Diario de Costa Rica. 1

Las formas sucesivas del monopolio. (14 de julio de 1928). La Tribuna. 1.

Leigh Star, S. (1999). “The Ethnography of Infrastructure” American Behavioral Scientist 43,

no. 3. 377-91.

León, J., Arroyo, N. y Montero, A., (2016) La industria en Costa Rica en el siglo XX. Costa Rica:

EUCR

Notten, F. (2016). “La transición energética en Costa Rica y sus consecuencias, 1911-1929”,

Revista de Historia. 169-188

Quesada, F. (2007)La modernización entre cafetales, 1880-1930, Tesis doctoral. Universidad

de Helsinki.

Reunión de la Liga Cívica. (14 de julio de 1928). La Tribuna. 5.