Waging Peace:  Costa Rica

Building a Model for Transparency

Costa Rica was one of the three countries, including Jamaica and Ecuador, where The Carter Center launched its efforts to reduce corruption and promote transparency in the Americas.

Since the Center's Americas Program began its Transparency Project in 1998, Costa Rica President Miguel Ángel Rodríguez has instituted several reforms:

1. Established the Concertación Nacional, a forum through which the government has shaped a reform agenda
2. Created and filled the post of a transparency adviser
3. Recommended creating a special prosecutor's office and jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute ethics cases
4. Issued a decree against displaying the president's portrait in public offices and
5. Issued a decree prohibiting the use or display of public officials' names in public works built with public funds.

Read full text >

Urging a Moratorium on Arms Sales

Although Latin America spends relatively less on defense than most other regions, expenditures on expensive weapons systems divert scarce foreign exchange from more effective investments, including education. They also compel neighbors to spend more on defense and, by doing so, generate international tensions. Concerned about an arms race in Latin America, the Carter Center's Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas urged governments in the region to pause before embarking on major arms purchases. Between April 1997 and March 1998, 28 current heads of government and 14 former heads of government signed a written pledge to accept a moratorium of two years on purchasing sophisticated weapons. Among the signatories were Costa Rica President José María Figueres Olsen and former Presidents Rodrigo Carazo and Oscar Arias Sánchez.