Arias Blasts Lack of Political Action

Speaking at the closing meeting of the Council of Socialist International in San Jose, former President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias had some harsh things to say about the way Latin American governments -- including President Laura Chinchilla's Administration -- do business.

He said of governments south of the Rio Grande River, "This is the region that always puts off everything for the next government, for the next generation or the next century..." He added that politicians seem content to leave matters "for the next ice age."

Although not mentioning the Chinchilla Administration directly, Arias directed criticism against the way the government has handled things in the time since, in the spring if 2010, he left office. The country's leading newspaper, La Nacion, however took his remarks to be a direct blast against President Chinchilla's management.

Buttonholed by a La Nacion reporter afterwards at the door of the Intercontinental Hotel where the conference was staged, Arias brushed aside questions about criticizing Chinchilla (all but handpicked by Arias to succeed him), saying that he voiced the same concerns when he was president in 2006-10.

But his frustration at political inaction bubbled to the surface. "Diay," he exclaimed, "Everyone knows that nearly two years have passed without approving important legislation we left, that I left on the agenda, laws important to the development of this country, like the electricity law."

Arias added, "Luckily, we (his Administration) passed the telecommunications law, luckily we ended the ICE and INS monopolies, luckily we passed CAFTA with the United States and another free trade pact with Singapore and another with China. But if we hadn't, possibly we'd still be waiting for all these important things as we are for the tax reform."

During the 2010 election campaign, it was fashionable for opponents of Chinchilla to dismiss her as a clone of Arias. In many ways, she has carried on some of his work, but her job was complicated by a hostile opposition coalition in the Legislative Assembly after her (and Aria's) National Liberation Party lost control of the unicameral house in her second year of office.

Arias, despite never raising his voice, has a sharp tongue which has given him the reputation of arrogance and inability to gladly suffer fools, much as Britain's Iron Lady, ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in the 1980s.

Commentary: So it is easy to dismiss his frustration with Chinchilla's inability to push forward legislation dear to his heart. But the target may not be so much Chinchilla but the current political situation. He was, for example, able to cobble together his own lawmaker coalition of 38 votes to pass legislation enabling the opening of the telecommunications and insurance markets., among other CAFTA-related measures.

Thus, when the sharp-tongued ex-President refers to this country as deserving "the Nobel Prize for ungovernability," he may be lashing out at much the same disconnect between the Administration and elected representatives as President Obama faces with the U.S. Congress.

We cannot resist commenting on the irony of Arias speaking before Socialist International (SI). During his years in the political wilderness while awaiting the Constitutional Court (Sala IV) to allow him a second term, Arias worked to bring his leftist party closer to the center of the political spectrum.

In creating an environment favorable to international investment and business, he lost some of the founders of National Liberation Party. The void on the socialist side has been filled by the Citizen Action Party.

One must wonder what some of his audience made of his remarks, especially the Sandinista party of Nicaragua. Also in the audience was SI president Yorgos Papandreu, who was ousted as prime minister of Greece last November when his country fell into a deep financial crisis.

But Oscar Arias is no stranger to political criticism -- during his Central American "Peace Offensive" during the 1980s, he was roundly taken to task by members of his own party for not paying closer attention to domestic policy. The Nobel Peace Prize silenced his detractors...