The president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, defended his government’s decision to support the candidate proposed by Nicaragua for the general secretariat of the Central American Integration System (SICA), Werner Vargas Torres, and argued that he took into consideration several elements to ensure ” well-being” of the people of Costa Rica, according to Costa Rican media publications.
In response to an open letter that eight former Costa Rican presidents –Oscar Arias, Abel Pacheco, Rafael Calderón, José María Figueres, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, Laura Chinchilla, Luis Guillermo Solisand Carlos Alvarado – sent President Chaves requesting that he reconsider his decision, the president assured that he is evaluating it and “we still have time”.
The decision to appoint Vargas in the General Secretariat of SICA “was not an occurrence,” said Chaves. “The eight foreign ministers of the countries involved unanimously agreed to grant their heads of state these recommendations,” he added.
The Costa Rican president recalled that there is an agreement signed in 2017 by the countries of the region, according to which the appointment of the secretary general of SICA must be made every four years on a rotating basis and, in correspondence with the agreed rotation, it was up to Nicaragua to assume the Secretary General for the period 2021-2025. But, until June 23, the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo had made no progress in their four attempts to hold office.
“There is more here than that”
On three occasions the short lists presented by the Ortega regime were rejected by the eight SICA foreign ministers, since they lacked the necessary diplomatic experience to hold the position. Finally, on June 23, the Nicaraguan regime proposed Werner Vargas, who was director of SICA from 2014 to 2020, for which the foreign ministers decided to support him.
Faced with this situation, President Chaves assured that he is listening to the opinions of its allies in the region, to then make a final decision.
“Like all Costa Ricans, I love democracy, freedom of the press, freedom of expression, democratic political elections, I do not think that any country should have any political prisoner, but there is more than that here,” said the president. Costa Rican.
“We have a neighbor through which electricity passes when we export it, our products, we have to create conditions to allow Costa Rica and Nicaragua to have a relationship. Although it is true that Costa Rica does not endorse certain things that happen in that country, but of cordiality and peace as neighbors, although we obviously have very important differences,” said Chaves.
The Costa Rican president also pointed out several elements that he is considering to make his decision. “The first, and the most important, is the well-being and the people of Costa Rica. The second, if there is space left, is to promote the values that we want. That is the answer to put in the context to the citizens what is happening with that situation”, he concluded.
