SOTO, Bernardo, president of Costa Rica, born in San Jose, Costa Rica, in 1853. From his youth he served in the army, and had attained the rank of colonel, when President Tomas Guardia died in 1882. The new president, Prospero Fernandez, called him to his cabinet as secretary of the treasury, and he also had temporary charge of the portfolio of war. In February, 1884, Soto's proposition for the adoption of radical measures of economy caused a cabinet crisis, and the secretaries of war and the interior, Miguel and Victor Guardia, resigned. The president, with the sanction of the assembly, resolved to reduce the cabinet to two secretaries, and Soto was charged with the portfolios of the interior, commerce, and agriculture, being at the same time elected first vice-president, and promoted brigadier. When General Rufino Barrios issued his decree of 28 February, 1885, declaring the forcible union of the five Central American republics, Nicaragua and Costa Rica protested, and the latter declared war upon Guatemala on 10 March. On the next day President Fernandez died suddenly, and Soto, who was preparing the army to march against Barrios, was called to the executive. Leaving the second vice-president in charge, he marched with his contingent to Nicaragua, and, together with the army of that country, invaded Honduras, the ally of Barrios. There tie heard of the death of Barrios at Chalchuapa and the collapse of the scheme of unification, and returned with his little army to Costa Rica. On the expiration of Fernandez's term, 10 August, 1886, Soto was re-elected as constitutional president for the term of four years. During his administration great improvements have been introduced, the finances have been put on a sound basis, and Costa Rica, which had always opposed Central American union, as it was formerly advanced to favor an ambitious leader, has taken the initiative. Delegates of the five republics assembled in Guatemala and concluded, 15 August, 1887, a treaty of mutual union with a proviso for the possible establishment of a confederation in 1890. Soto concluded also, in July, 1887, a treaty with Nicaragua, in a personal interview with the president in Granada, for the submission of the dispute regarding the boundary and the interoceanic canal to the arbitration of President Cleveland. He also made an arrangement with an English company for the administration of the different sections of a railroad and the completion of the same from ocean to ocean.