Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 9, 1994 TAG: 9405090031
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"This is a man who lied to the American people," said Oscar Arias, the former Costa Rican president who spearheaded the 1987 Central American Peace Agreement that brought elections to the country torn by the war between the Contras and Sandinistas.
Arias, in town to give the keynote speech at Radford University's Saturday graduation, described Arias a new international group he belongs to, called Transparency International. Based in Berlin, it seeks to expose corruption among politicians - to support candidates whose governmental actions will be open to public view.
"Virginians have to choose if they want someone who has lied to the American people, or would they prefer to choose someone more transparent they can trust who would be much more honest?"
In an hour-long interview that ranged from Oliver North to NAFTA, Arias, who used the proceeds from his Nobel Prize to set up the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress, repeatedly returned to the topic of global responsibility.
The world is simply too interconnected for those in industrialized nations to dismiss Third World poverty as far away. Look only to the decaying urban centers in the United States, where immigrants dream of attaining a good life, he said.
"Poverty needs no passport to travel," he said.
And yet, Arias clearly feels that the United States is turning a cold shoulder to his region.
"Now that we were able to pacify the region, no one cares about the future of that part of the world," Arias said of Central America.
"Latin America is not a priority for this country," he said. "It's very ironic. Central America became a priority for this country because of the Cold War, Cuba. . . . A lot of money was given to Central American countries.
"It has faded away. More than economic aid, what we got was military aid," said Arias, relaxed on a couch in his hotel suite, attentive in his reply to every question posed.
The roots of world problems, said Arias, are simple: increased poverty, and increased inequality.
At the Arias Foundation, work is focused on developing philanthropy in Latin America, women's issues, and democratic development and demilitarization. It is to this final goal that Arias, whose own country does not have a military, is dedicated.
Efforts to create a military-free Central America, starting by banning armies in Nicaragua and Panama, have met with mixed success.
Citing Nicaragua as "an economic mess" and an "ingovernable" country, Arias still hopes Panama can be persuaded to disband its army. A referendum vote lost a year ago, but Arias blamed that on the laundry list of 57 items on a single referendum - too much for voters to pick through.
Abolishing the military promotes peace, but it also serves another very practical purpose, he said. Armies are expensive.
"It is immoral for poor countries to spend four or five times more on military than health care and education," he said.
"With no army, Costa Ricans have the moral authority [to be] telling the rest of the world that this cannot go on."
With the disappearance of aid, Latin American countries are galvanizing to turn themselves into export-based economies - albeit typically with 18 percent inflation rates. Arias stressed that poor countries must help themselves.
"It is our responsibility," he said.
Asked if he thought the North American Free Trade Agreement would pull investment from Central America to Mexico, Arias nodded. But he raised the hope that other Latin American countries would eventually be able to join the trade pact.
Public policies to support developing countries are a must, he said.
"Industrialized nations are not exercising their leadership, from my point of view. Political leaders are too concerned with remaining in political life, so they are not doing what they should be doing," he said.
"It seems to me this country wants to isolate from the problems that emerged in other parts of the planet without noticing that if we don't solve the basic problems that confront humanity today, even though the Cold War has disappeared, we will not be able to live in a peaceful world in the 21st century."
Of President Clinton: "He became president because he committed himself to resolving domestic problems . . . but I think the American people should know that whatever happens in Nicaragua, Somalia, Haiti, Cambodia . . . will affect them."
by CNB