Costa Rican politician.
His brother Theodore was president of Costa Rica from 1944 to 1948. In May 1944 he was elected Second Designated to the Presidency of the Republic for the period 1944-1948, and was in charge temporarily of the presidency from 18 to 19 September 1944, during a trip of President Teodoro Picado Michalski to Panama. Also was Secretary of Public Security of May 8, 1944 to January 14, 1945 and May 6, 1946 to April 19, 1944. Congress gave the rank of General. In February 1948, the triumph in the presidential elections oppositional candidate Otilio Ulate Blanco, General René Michalski refused to honor the 1947 agreement under which the direction of the police force would be in the hands of the winning candidate, and he made strong artillery barracks in San Jose while there were no legislative resolution on the elections. On March 1, at the request of defeated candidate Rafael Angel Calderon Guardia, Congress annulled the presidential elections (but not legislative, which had triumphed calderonistas coalition and communist). This caused the armed uprising of Jose Figueres Ferrer and civil war, which ended on April 19, 1948 with the Pact of the Embassy of Mexico, through which it was agreed that President Teodoro Picado call her upon to exercise power in the Third Appointed Santos Leon Herrera. On the same date, the General René Michalski, considered one of the great leaders of civil war, was replaced at the Ministry of Security by Miguel Brenes Gutierrez.
He died in San Jose, Costa Rica, on 12 July 1956.
Link to Wikipedia biography (Spanish)