Costa Rican President Oscar Arias turned heads with his role in the Honduran mediation process, and now he’ll be turning on TVs.
Because of his work in conflict management in the Central American region and his accomplishments in diplomacy, Arias will be featured on The Biography Channel in a program set to air at 8 p.m. on Sept. 13, his 68th birthday.
According to the daily La Nación, Arias will be the first Central American and the second standing president – the first was United States President Barack Obama – to be profiled by The Biography Channel.
The 90-minute program will chronicle Arias’ early years growing up in a prominent coffee-growing family and will extend through his academic life, including the influence authors such as the late British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had on his career. The program also highlights his role in the Central American peace process of the 1980s, for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize.
It was Arias’ role as peacemaker that caught the producers’ attention. His political philosophy “not only allows him to govern a small nation without an army and with a long democratic tradition, but it also gives necessary credibility with Costa Rica’s Central American counterparts to practice the difficult role of conflict mediation,” according to The Biography Channel.
Arias’ ex-wife, Margarita Penón, and daughter Sylvia Arias collaborated in the production, along with his brother and Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias, Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno and political analysts Constantino Urcuyo and Eduardo Ulibarri.
–Chrissie Long
