President Arias In Washington, Will Meet With President Bush Tomorrow
Tomorrow, 6 December, Costa Rican president, Oscar Arias, and U.S. president, George W. Bush, will meet face to face in a scheduled meeting at the White House in Washington. The meeting for the two leaders to meet was announced some time ago.

Arias, accompanied by Hacienda (Finance) minister, Guillermo Zuñiga, has been in Washington since yesterday, meeting with the presidents of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz, and Rodrigo de Rato of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Arias was pitching to the World Bank and the IMF the same line he will be pitching president Bush, forgive Costa Rica's debt so that it can invest in protecting the environment and education.

The meeting at the White House is scheduled ofr 11:00am EST (10:00am in Costa Rica) and is to last one hour, as a number of U.S. officials will join president Bush and Arias and his four ministers.

Another item of discussion between the two leaders is the Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) - free trade agreement with the United States (CAFTA-DR) - that Costa Rica is the only signatory country yet to ratify. The other Central American countries in the deal - Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic - have all ratified and have the trade deal in place.

Arias, in between meetings of the IMF, World Bank and conservationists of the "Campaña Osa", a group that is trying to raise us$32.5 million dollars for conservation of the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica, was caught off guard by a BBC news reporter who asked him what will happen if the Costa Rican legislature does not approve the TLC.

Arias' answer was short. "Nos lleva al diablo" (It will takes us to hell).

President Arias then added that "it would be a great harm to Costa Rica" if the trade deal is not approved.

Arias, during his trip to the United States, following his attendance to the swearing in of Mexico's new president, Felipe Calderón, has been busy with a number of other meetings including talking to the Consejo de las Americas, a group that promotes the freedom of private enterprise in the Americas.

Today, Arias will be with the U.S. Commerce Secretary, Carlos Gutierrez, and will visit the Organización de Estados Americanos - Organization of American States (OAS) - the organization that former Costa Rican president, Miguel Angel Rodríguez, was head of for just a month before stepping down to face corruption charges at home - and the U.S. Senate.

The amount of the debt that Arias and his finance minister will be asking for Bush to forgive is not quite clear, other than for what finance minister Zuñiga calls a "minor amount" of the the debt that Costa Rica has with other countries amounting to us$313 million dollars.

Last month, while in Urugay, Arias presented the same idea to Spain to forgive a debt of us$69 million dollars with the same purpose as he will be asking president Bush. Spain has yet to give its response.

Arias said that the idea of debt forgiveness for the country to invest in the environment and education is still needs a lot of work, saying "it is a diamond in the rough".

The Costa Rican president added that it will not be easy to convince the U.S. in such an idea as it has eyes on nations with lower incomes and financial problems, like the African nations, and not Costa Rica which has a medium income level.