Costa Rican President Oscar Arias urges Latin American nations to prod Cuba toward democracy
- From: PL <pl.nospam@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 10:05:02 GMT
Posted on Wed, Sep. 13, 2006
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias urges Latin American nations to prod Cuba toward democracy
BY PABLO BACHELET
pbachelet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias launched The Miami Herald Americas Conference Wednesday evening with an impassioned plea to Latin American nations to spurn populism and urge Cuba to take a democratic path.
''Latin America has reached a crossroads,'' the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize winner told a dinner gathering at the Biltmore Hotel.
''It can consolidate the gains that it has made through economic integration with the world, or it can slide backwards,'' he said, ``falling captive to populist rhetoric and to the shrill voices of those who see globalization as the root of all evil.''
The Costa Rican leader narrowly won an election earlier this year on a platform of joining a free trade agreement with the United States and four other nations. Although he didn't single out Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Chávez has been a critic of trade pacts with Washington.
But Arias' bluntest language was directed at Cuba, making him the most outspoken Latin American leader on events unfolding in Havana after Fidel Castro was pronounced ill on July 31 and replaced temporarily by his brother Raúl.
Latin America, he said, can strengthen its democratic institutions and ``join together with one voice of hope so that the Cuban people can enjoy the liberty that has been denied to them.''
His remarks came after Arias wrote an opinion piece in the La Nación newspaper of San José, Costa Rica, on Aug. 29, urging Cuba to embrace democracy. No other Latin American nation has so far joined Arias in calling for democratic reforms in Havana.
He said Cuba was, ''plain and simple, a dictatorship'' that had ''robbed the Cuban people of their liberty'' and ``condemned to poverty a nation that could very well have been the first developed nation in Latin America.''
He said countries like India and other Asian economic powers, as well as Chile, had developed more and reduced poverty by embracing globalization and Latin America needed to do the same.
He proposed the ''Costa Rica Consensus,'' to forgive debt and provide financial assistance to countries that spend more on education, health and housing and less on ``soldiers and weapons.''
He said the region needed to ``abandon the sterile debates, the excuses and the tall tales of the past.''
The two-day Americas Conference will look at Latin America's role in the global economy.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/breaking_news/15513388.htm
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