Among them Costa Rica had suffered least from arbitrary management or internal commotion and showed the greatest signs of advancement.
In Guatemala, however, there had arisen another Diaz, though a man quite inferior in many respects to his northern counterpart.

When Justo Rufino Barrios became President of that republic in 1873 he was believed to have conservative leanings.

Ere long, however, he astounded his compatriots by showing them that he was a thoroughgoing radical with methods of action to correspond to his convictions.

Not only did he keep the Jesuits out of the country but he abolished monastic orders altogether and converted their buildings to public use.

He made marriage a civil contract and he secularized the burying grounds.