San Jose – Oscar Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was sworn in Monday for a four-year term as president of Costa Rica, 20 years after he first received the presidential sash.
During the inauguration ceremony at San Jose’s National Stadium, Legislative Assembly speaker Francisco Antonio Pacheco placed the presidential sash on Arias before 13,000 guests.
“These are times of change and uncertainty,” the 65-year-old Arias said in his inaugural address, adding that it was possible to “build societies that are more fair and in peace.”
Arias said it was necessary to “plot a course for Costa Rica and to begin sailing it.”
The new president walked the 800 meters (875 yards) from his private residence in western San Jose to the stadium.
Before entering the stadium, located in Sabana Park, Arias stopped at the Papal Nunciature for an act of prayer and thanksgiving with Monsignor Mario Giordana, the pope’s special envoy.
On the walk, which took more than an hour, Arias was accompanied by members of his Cabinet and a group of students.
Dozens of people greeted and congratulated the new president, who governed Costa Rica from 1986 to 1990 and received the 1987 Nobel Peace Price for his efforts to try to end the civil wars in Central America.
While waiting for Arias to arrive at the stadium, the 13,000 invited guests were treated to a performance by the National Youth Symphony Orchesta and dances by several groups.
Arias’s inauguration was attended by the presidents of the Central American countries, Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, Taiwan, Spanish Crown Prince Felipe, U.S. first lady Laura Bush and delegations from 90 other countries.
Nobel laureates Rigoberta Menchu, of Guatemala, Betty Williams, of Ireland, and Lech Walesa, of Poland, also attended the inauguration.
Arias, who began the day with a meeting with the Central American presidents at his residence, will host a banquet for all the visiting heads of state and plans to hold bilateral meetings with some of them.
Arias, of the social-democratic National Liberation Party, or PLN, won the Feb. 5 presidential election by 18,000 votes over economist Oton Solis.
He plans to make trade policy one of the focuses of his administration.
During the campaign, Arias expressed vocal support for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States – a treaty not yet formally ratified by the Costa Rican legislature.
“We are not going to refuse to negotiate with anybody,” Arias told a press conference Sunday, although he added that he considered “north-south” trade to be more beneficial than “south-south” trade because of its breadth and the size of consumer markets in the more-developed world.
“The best aid that the rich countries can give to the poor ones is to open their borders to trade,” Arias said.
“It’s not a coincidence that Chile is the country with the fastest growth in Latin America,” Arias said, because “it is the one that has signed the most trade treaties with different markets around the world.”
He said winning approval of CAFTA in the Legislative Assembly would be a priority.
“I disagree with those groups that believe the FTA will not bring benefits to Costa Rica. The treaty was a campaign issue and since then I’ve argued that it has more positive aspects than negative ones,” Arias said.
“Not having our borders open would be a catastrophe. If our products had to pay taxes, Costa Rica would not get a cent more. The biggest concern is where our young people are going to work, in that area the FTA is essential,” Arias said.
The return of the 65-year-old Arias to public life was credited with reviving the fortunes of the PLN, after the party – founded in 1953 by a former junta leader and president, Jose Figueres Ferrer, – had lost the previous two presidential elections to its traditional rival, the center-right Social Christian Unity Party.
Born into a upper-class family in the central province of Heredia in 1940, Arias received degrees in law and economics from the University of Costa Rica before earning a doctorate in political science from Britain’s University of Essex in 1974.
Both during his time as president and as head of the Arias Foundation he began in 1988, he has gained an international reputation for promoting peace and conflict resolution.
During his 1986 to 1990 administration, Arias was known mainly for his promotion of a peace agreement to settle military conflicts in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, as well as for his fight against domestic poverty that included the building of homes for 80,000 low-income families.
Arias was able to run for office again due to a controversial April 2003 Constitutional Court ruling that voided a 1969 amendment prohibiting presidential re-election.
Arias, a divorcee and father of two adult children, Silvia Eugenia and Oscar Felipe, has taken in stride press speculation about who might become his first lady, with actresses, TV presenters and journalists among those mentioned as possibilities.
