President To Begin To Work From Casa Presidencial Today
The new president of Costa Rica, Óscar Arias Sanchez, has decided to make his first appearance at Casa Presidencial today (Monday), one week after being sworn in as president.  Arias is expected to leave his house in Rohrmoser this morning, ready for work at his office in Zapote, after using his private residency for his office for the past week.

Arias has proposed moving Casa Presidencial from its current location to the old Fábrica Nacional de Licores, which currently houses the Centro Nacional de Cultura (Cenac) in downtown San José.

The president had said last week that he would use his private residence to govern while analyzing the decision to move the current government offices.  However, for reasons not made clear, the president will this morning arrive at his office, which appears to be for the next four years.

Arias said publicly that he did not like the presidential offices, the same office he occupied during 1986 to 1990, and that his home was much more comfortable, where during the his first week in office received a number of foreign dignitaries and met with his cabinet and advisors.

The president said that the idea is to move the government offices to the Cenac, responding to the "necessity for the country to have a Civic Centre".  Arias added that the question of the move will be discussed in cabinet at the appropriate time.

For the president, on his second term, his first day at Casa Presidencial will be to meet with the 25 legislative deputies representing the Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN) in Legislature, along with the new Ministro de la Presidencia, Rodrigo Arias (the president's brother and closest advisor) to discuss the plans for the new government.

"This will be the first meeting of the PLN deputies at Casa Presidencial and will be used to discuss our legislative agenda and priorities of this administration", said the commander in chief.

Arias said that these meetings will be a regular part of the presidential agenda with the objective of maintaining a dialogue with the legislators and to know their concerns and priorities.