Costa Rica has appointed a career diplomat as ambassador to the Organization of American States.

He is Javier Sancho Bonilla, a man with 30 years of service with the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto.

Sancho is the director general of external politics at the ministry and coordinator of the Iberoamerican Summit and the Río Group.  He was ambassador to Brazil in 1994 to 2001 and in Korea from 1987 to 1990.

Sancho, who will take over in January, fills a vacancy created Thursday when Rina Contreras resigned. She was a political appointee.
 

Solís case is back
on legislature’s agenda

The Asamblea Nacional has blocked out this morning and Thursday morning as a time for the deputies to consider together the case of Alex Solís, the embattled contralor general de la República.

Lawmakers almost never meet in the morning as a full legislative session. 

Several reports are due on Solís, who is an appointee of the legislature, who got the watchdog job June 7 and almost immediately questions were raised about his fitness. The job involves oversight on all government contracts and expenditures.

Solís admitted on television that he had signed the names of family members to real estate documents and then verified them in his capacity as a notary.  Neighbors in Perez Zeledon where he operated a business also said that he loaned money at high rates to people who were trying to enter the United States illegally.

The Solís scandal became well-known because his brother, Ottón, is the leader of the Partido Acción Ciudadana and a potential presidential candidate.

About the same time a scandal over the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social began to dominate the news, and the Solís scandal took a backseat, except in congress where various committee were investigating the case.

How does neutrality
really work here?

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

Perhaps someone can explain to me how Costa Rica’s declared foreign policy of "neutrality" works. 

Excluding applications of a scientific nature, any dictionary of reasonable size will provide definitions like: "Neither one nor the other," "Not taking sides in a quarrel," "Not participating in armed or ideological conflicts of others," "Indifferent" and others. 

When a nation is coming up with a foreign policy that is right for it, a multiplicity of factors comes into play. So what is the mix that goes into the pot for Costa Rica when coming up with its foreign policy? When it comes to the economic factor, should it be unqualifiedly aligned with the country that provides the butter for the bread? 

Of course, there are limits, but it makes no sense to be directly at cross currents with its generous and democratic friends like the U.S. and Taiwan. Haven’t seen many bridges over the rivers in Costa Rica paid for by Communist China. Seems to me that the only helicopters flying mercy missions into the Talamanca Indian reservation are U.S. military ones. 

Should outspoken defense of democracy and human rights be part of it? Costa Rica rightfully waves its own democratic and human rights flag in international forums, but fails to be the vociferous high principled critic of those countries that aren’t. When was the last time Costa Rica really blasted Cuba, North Korea or Red China for imprisoning proponents of free speech? I can’t remember either. That’s OK, supposedly that’s what neutrality is all about. 

It was under the presidency of Luis Alberto Monge (1982-1986) when Central America was convulsing with civil wars that the policy of "being neutral" was officially adopted. Perhaps not a bad move given the circumstances. 

Fast forwarding to recent times, President Pacheco, in a gesture of solidarity with his benefactor and friend to the north, does not oppose Bush’s decision to invade Iraq. Certainly not a war monger, Pacheco included the invasion as part of his support in the fight against terrorism, saying something to effect that "as saddening as it may be, it was better to have the blood of Iraqi children spilled than the blood of Costa Rican children spilled in a terrorist act in this country".  Anybody care to argue with that point of view? Boy, did that statement get Pacheco into trouble with the Costa Rican "neutrality" purists! 

This past week and for the 13th consecutive year, Cuba sponsored a resolution in the United Nations calling for an end to the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. The non-binding resolution was passed 179 to 4 (US, Israel, Marshall Islands and Palau opposed) with one abstaining vote. 

Costa Rica’s vote was not the abstaining one. Interesting, no? Where was the manifest policy of "being neutral"? Are Costa Rica’s economic interests being hurt with the embargo? I don’t think so. Lifting the embargo will hasten a democracy in Cuba? There’s no evidence of that theory. 

Bringing with them the concepts of freedom and democracy, thousands of Europeans tourists visiting the island has proven to have zero effect with democratizing Cuba; in fact it is worse now. Ask the recently jailed Cuban dissidents. 

To be consistent with its proclaimed foreign policy, Costa Rica should have joined Micronesia with an abstention vote, but it didn’t. Let’s hear from you, you "neutrality" purists? Will someone please explain just what being neutral means as a foreign policy position? 

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — The country has elected its first leftist president, Tabare Vazquez, who joins a growing list of left-leaning leaders in South America.

Final results from Sunday's balloting give Vazquez just over 50 percent of the vote, enough to avoid a run-off. 

With the Vazquez victory, Uruguay will join Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Venezuela as South American countries with left or left-leaning governments.

The U.S. State Department Monday congratulated Vazquez on his victory, as did Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

The new Uruguayan leader is an oncologist and former mayor of this capital.  He will serve a five-year term beginning March 1. 

Vazquez's closest competitor, Jorge Larranaga, 

Vazquez's Broad Front coalition — including socialists, Communists, Social Democrats and a popular former guerrilla group, Tupamaros — also appeared to be heading for big gains in both houses of Congress.

Uruguay's shift to the left comes at the expense of the country's traditional Colorado and National parties, which many voters blamed for recent years of economic crisis, as well as decades of corruption. 

If the predicted election results are confirmed, they would mark the Colorado and National parties' first electoral defeat. Apart from relatively brief periods of military rule, the two traditional parties have alternated in power ever since Uruguay gained its independence from Spain in the early 19th century.

Regional elections also were held in Venezuela Sunday. Preliminary results indicate supporters of left-leaning President Hugo Chavez won all but two of 23 governorships.