COHA revisits its interview of Ottón Solís.
Arias – revered by some, but an object of disdain by more than a few.

After four years under the leadership of Oscar Arias, Costa Ricans will vote for a new president this Sunday, February 7th. In October 2008, Laura Chinchilla resigned as Vice President and Minister of Justice and Peace to launch her presidential campaign under the banner of the ruling Partido Liberación National (PLN or Liberal National Party). In office, she had one of the highest approval ratings in the country’s recent political history. Six months ago, the outcome of the upcoming presidential election seemed entirely predictable; today, the margin has drastically narrowed. If Chinchilla does not receive more than 40% of the vote, Costa Rican electoral law requires a run-off election. As of today, the election almost certainly is heading for a second round.

Meet the Candidates
The top three candidates for this coming Sunday’s presidential ballot are Chinchilla of the Liberation National Party, Otto Guevara of the Libertarian Movement (ML), and Ottón Solís of the Citizens Action Party (PAC). The forthcoming descriptions are not meant to be an exhaustive history of the candidates’ backgrounds, but rather an overview of key developments that have occurred as the campaign has unfolded. …Continue Reading »

– Spain takes the lead in trying to adapt the EU to Cuba’s rapidly transforming role.

In January, Spain took over the presidency of the Council of the European Union. Despite being deeply affected by the global financial crisis, Spain confidently proclaimed ambitious objectives for its term at the head of the EU, including the cancellation of the EU’s “Common Position.” The latter defines the EU policy towards Cuba that has been in place since 1996. During his two-day visit to the Caribbean island last October, Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos stated that Spain wants “to give up the Common Position in order to obtain bilateral agreements.”

Undoubtedly the motivations behind Spain’s initiative are at least partially economic in nature. Moratinos explained that the Iberian nation has negotiated for Cuban authorities to pay their debts to Spanish companies. Cuba’s president Raúl Castro has promised to repeal the payment block of approximately $300 million due to the 280 Spanish companies currently operating in Cuba or have some other financial stake in the country. After strong opposition from Eastern European members, states such as the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, Spain eventually withdrew its initiative allowing the EU to maintain the Common Position for the present time. In fact, such acquiescence has little or no significance for the actual Cuba policy that will be followed by individual European states, as national interests tend to outweigh supranational positions. Spain has always conducted its policy toward the Castro regime according to its primary concerns such as economic desiderata, its colonial legacy and cultural kinship. This is in stark contrast to the anti-Cuban stance of the Common Position. From the beginning, the latter was more a reflection of a prudent compromise between Eastern and Western Europe than an actual formula fixedly guiding national policy. The EU has struggled to achieve the numerous objectives obligated by adopting the Common Position. …Continue Reading »

On December 30th, Prime Minister Stephen Harper suspended the Canadian Parliament for the third time since he first took office in 2006 and the second time in just over a year. This comes at a time when Harper has faced increasingly vocal criticism from the opposition. As a leader of a minority government, Harper has been under extreme scrutiny from the majority, especially throughout the past year, due to a biting economic recession. Although the Canadian Parliament usually takes a six-week recess during the winter holiday period, Harper has decided to extend the break until March 3rd.

The decision to prorogue (suspend) Parliament is far from uncommon in Canadian history (it happened 105 times before Harper took over as the nation’s prime minister). However, the timing and possible motives of this decision could be disconcerting, confirming for his numerous critics that he is totally under-equipped for the job. Rather than effective leadership, the head of the Tories was doing severe damage to the country, as he lacked the high-class talent the country needs to prosper. Many observers speculate that Harper suspended Parliament to avoid the disturbing and embarrassing allegations lodged by the Red Cross and Canadian officials accusing Canadian soldiers of, or at the very least knowing about, the torture of prisoners at detention camps in Afghanistan. This subject has brought unwanted press coverage and torrid debate in Parliament at a time when Canada certainly does not need it: Vancouver’s Olympic cauldron-lighting ceremony is just days away. When it is lit on February 12th, the world’s attention will be focused on Canada, with almost every major world television, radio and newspaper having personnel on-location in the country to cover the Olympics. …Continue Reading »

Next year will mark a half-century since the Bay of Pigs, the failed assault on Fidel Castro’s young Cuban regime that ignited the long cold war with the U.S. Although Fidel himself has largely disappeared from the public stage, replaced at the helm by his brother Raúl, most Americans still think of Cuba as the dictatorship that time forgot – a poor, sweltering island of rusted 1950s-era automobiles that clings against all region to the decaying vestiges of Communist orthodoxy.

This may have been true once, but no longer. As the U.S. Congress considers legislation that would lift the half-century old travel ban to Cuba – permitting all Americans, not just Cuban-Americans, unrestricted travel to the island – Cuba is positioning itself for a China-style economic leap forward. …Continue Reading »