President Oscar Arias was in New York last week celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Esquipulas Accords, the peace plan credited for ending multiple conflicts in Central America, and for which Arias won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1987.
Joined by Vinicio Cerezo, who was President of Guatemala and signed the accord in 1987, Arias used the occasion to lobby for a new set of international initiatives no less idealistic.
Since assuming the presidency, Arias-who was also Costa Rica’s president from 1986-1990-has pushed a global arms trade treaty, a global environmental initiative, a proposal to aid peaceful countries and is aiming to make Costa Rica the very first carbon-neutral country under the anti-global warming Kyoto Protocol.
"In the last 20 years, no other region of the world has disarmed, demobilized and reintegrated military personnel as extensively or successfully as Central America," Arias said before the delegation. "But even as we celebrate these modest accomplishments, too many Central Americans still cannot find peace."
One of his initiatives, called the Costa Rican Consensus, would award countries that prioritize spending on education, health care or the environment over military (like Costa Rica did after abolishing its army in 1948) with debt relief and aid from the United Nations and wealthier nations.
"It is time that the international financial community rewards not only those whose budgets are balanced, as it has done until now, but also those whose budgets are moral," Arias said.
The Global Arms Treaty, developed and pushed by the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress, sets out a code of conduct for international arms sales and would prohibit weapons sales to human rights violators. A draft resolution was approved in the United Nations last year in a vote of 137-1. Only the United States opposed it, while China and Russia abstained from voting.
Arias is also pushing yet another international effort to award countries through the Kyoto Protocol that conserve existing tropical forests.
"Environmental protection is a global responsibility," Arias said, noting that the amount of money spent on weapons could go a long way toward protecting natural resources.
The Esquipulas Accord, which was credited for bringing an end to bloody civil wars in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, was signed by the presidents of those nations as well as Honduras, and Arias.
Arias received the 1987 Nobel Peace prize for his part in drafting and negotiating the agreement, and he used the money to establish the Arias Foundation.
Notably absent from the New York meeting was Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega. Ortega, who also was in power during the 1980s and signed the Esquipulas Accord, recently said he believed Arias didn’t deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, and has been in a battle of words with Arias over various issues since shortly after taking office.
Your Latin America Insider,
Suzan Haskins
for International Living
P.S. Our events team is hard at work planning our first Live and Prosper in Costa Rica Seminar, tentatively scheduled for this coming November. If you’d like to be on the list to receive more information once details are ironed out, e-mail Events@InternationalLiving.com
