COSTA RICA POLICITS — Despite his hospitalization the past several days, following his pacemaker operation, former president Oscar Arias Sanchez has taken the time to write a scathing commentary on President Luis Guillermo Solis’ first six and half months in office.
The Future of Wellbeing
The former two-time president (1986 to 1990 and from 2006 to 2010) and 1987 Nobel Peace Prize winner, writes “the biggest concern I have is that the country is not on the right track, I don’t know what the change Costa Ricans were promised, what I do know is that, to continue as we are, we will end up with more poverty and inequality.”
The former president believes that Solís is doing the opposite of what was promised during the presidential campaign and that the government should not cater to “specific groups”.
Arias also believes that the greatest task of Solís for the remainder of his administration is to gain confidence to increase investment in the country, in order to generate more jobs and better wages, “otherwise, Costa Rica is headed for greater inequality and increased poverty,” he writes.
Arias’ criticism of President Solís is related to the APM Terminals issue and the President giving in to the artisans of Calle 13bis in San José and their dispute with the municipality.
On other issues, Arias also criticized the government’s investment in education, the backlog in infrastructure, and the “still questioning of concessions, when that is the norm throughout the world.”
For the former president, Costa Rica needs to join the Alianza del Pacifico (Pacific Alliance), calling the contrary a “huge mistake”.
The Nobel Prize winner also he is prepared to give recommendations to Solís on reducing the fiscal deficit, saying his role is simply to help the Government of the Republic, regardless of who is President.
Finally, Arias concluded that Costa Rica’s democracy is dysfunctional, because its stagnant, it resolves no problems, nor permits any advances in various issues.
