Oscar Arias and the Politics of Peace

Costa Rica’s political system has three claims to fame: its democracy, its military’s non-existence, and its president’s Nobel Prize. Not only is Costa Rica the Latin American country with the longest uninterrupted record of free elections and the first on the planet to voluntarily abolish its military, but its president, Óscar Arias Sánchez, is the first Nobel Laureate in history to be elected to such a post.

Born in Heredia in 1940 to coffee plantation owners, Arias received degrees in law and economics from the University of Costa Rica, and then earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of Essex in England. After teaching at the University of Costa Rica and serving as Minister of Planning and as Secretary General of the National Liberation Party (Partido Liberación Nacional, or PLN), Arias was elected President in 1986. He first took office at a time of great discord. Civil wars raged in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, and activity by the American-funded contras in southern Honduras and northern Costa Rica threatened to drag those countries into Nicaragua’s conflict.

Fighting financial and diplomatic pressure from the United States, Arias banished the CIA-funded contras from Costa Rican soil and pushed for regional negotiations that included Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista (socialist) president of Nicaragua. On August 7, 1987, after tireless prodding from President Arias, the five Central American presidents established procedures to bring peace to the area. Esquipulas II, as the accords were known, committed the nations to free elections, national reconciliation commissions, and rejection of foreign interference in Central American affairs. For his efforts to end conflicts, Oscar Arias was awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize for Peace. 

Arias left office in 1990, barred from seeking a second term. Working with the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress, which he founded with the monetary portion of the Nobel Prize, he traveled the world advocating for disarmament, debt relief, and equality. Then, in 2003, a controversial Supreme Court decision interpreted the constitution as allowing presidents to be reelected to non-consecutive terms. In the wake of scandals that had seen presidents jailed for corruption, Arias declared to run and restore credibility to the office. 

The 2006 election was the closest in Costa Rica in 40 years and in Latin American history. Though polls predicted a large victory for Arias, the result, certified after a month-long hand recount, showed the former president winning by just 1.2%. His closest opponent was Ottón Solís, the candidate of the Citizen Action Party (Partido Acción Ciudadana, or PAC) and the Minister of Planning in Arias’s first term. Surveys revealed that voters turned to the third-party candidate at the last minute, as a protest against the two-party system, without thinking he had a chance. 

Arias vowed to help those who helped elect him: the poor. One of his first acts was to give up to ¢80,000 per month to the poorest families as incentive to keep their children in school. He promised to repair the highways, boost education spending, and, controversially, approve the Dominican-Republic Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA).

The process of ratification of the agreement has led to a widespread graffiti campaign: one cannot walk far without seeing “NO TLC” (referring to Tratado de Libre Comercio, the Spanish translation of DR-CAFTA) painted on buildings and monuments.

But these demonstrations are extremely unlikely to lead to violence. From its president to its protesters, peace is one thing on which all Costa Ricans can agree.