Costa Rican President Calls for New
Constitution
Costa Rican president Oscar Arias is joining
the trend in Latin America calling for
constitutional changes that would expand
executive powers, allow re-elections and get
rid of unnecessary checks on presidential
authority.
Arias has nine months to go before his
second term as president and can't run for
re-election.
His brother, Rodrigo Arias, however, who has been the ministro de la Presidencia in the current
Arias administration has expressed interest
in running for the presidency in 2014.
Arias’ call has been received with broad
skepticism. La Nación, Costa Rica’s leading
newspaper, said that trying to make the
government more efficient through a
constitutional convention was like “killing
a mouse with cannon fire.”
The newspaper also said that the idea of
dismantling the checks and balances on
executive power sounds like an effort to
create an “imperial presidency.”
However, the most disturbing aspect of
Arias’ call was his harsh criticism of the
media.
Borrowing from the script of Rafael
Correa in Ecuador and Hugo Chávez in
Venezuela, Arias described news outlets as
“corporations interested in making a profit”
that don’t necessarily pursue the “public
good.”
He asked the media to “tone down” its
criticism of government officials, and said
that journalists “should understand their
role within a higher framework.” He
complained that news outlets claim to
represent the public interest, without any
control or accountability.
That a politician with a thin skin complains
about media criticism is hardly news.
However, the fact that Arias did it while
calling for a new constitution that would
change the institutional and legal framework
of Costa Rica (including the role of the
media) should be interpreted as a threat to
freedom of the press.
Most people outside Costa Rica see Arias as
an accomplished democrat who won the Nobel
Peace Prize for his efforts to bring peace
to Central America during the 1980s.
Most
recently he attempted to mediate the
conflict in Honduras after Manuel Zelaya was
removed from office.
However, many
people in Costa Rica fret about what they
perceive as an increasingly controlling
style of governing by Arias and his brother,
intimidating the media, bullying the
opposition, crowding key government posts
with allies and cronies, and now hoping for
a dynastical succession in 2014. |
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