The Costa Rican government has confirmed President Oscar Arias on Friday will attend the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, an event the government has been billing as the first opportunity for Arias to finally come face to face with U.S. President Barack Obama.

Meeting through Sunday in Port of Spain, leaders are expected to discuss the global economic crisis, poverty, job creation, the environment and sustainable development, among other topics, according to a Casa Presidencial press release issued Tuesday.

Obama likely will also face a barrage of criticism over U.S. policy toward Latin America following a legacy left here by his disliked predecessor, George W. Bush. Latin American leaders have been calling on Obama to live up to his drumbeat for change.

“I would love it if President Obama were thinking of a good neighbor policy,” Arias said in a statement.

According to 34-member-state Summit of the Americas informational Web site (www.summit-americas.org), the event's “overarching objective is to attend to the needs of the 800 million citizens of the Americas.” The Trinidad summit will be the fifth, following the 2005 summit in Mar de Plata, Argentina, 2001 in Quebec City, Canada, 1998 in Santiago, Chile, and 1994 in the U.S. city of Miami, Florida.

Accompanying Arias this Friday will be Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno, Communications Minister Mayi Antillón, Environment Minister Jorge Rodríguez and Costa Rican Ambassador to the Organization of American States Jorge Enrique Cantillo.

Ahead of the summit, on Thursday Obama travels to Mexico City to engage in an ongoing dialog with Mexican President Felipe Calderón on drug-fueled violence, a topic that will possibly earn a spot on the agenda later in Trinidad.

But Cuba's continued exclusion from the OAS and its summits could top the agenda, at least for the growing number of Latin American leaders advocating closer U.S. engagement with the Caribbean island nation.

United States' longstanding trade embargo on Cuba faces ever greater opposition in Latin America, where the last holdouts in shunning Cuba – Costa Rica and El Salvador – have promised to reestablish diplomatic relations with Havana.

The United States, however, took a critical step this week toward thawing the government's Cuba policy, lifting restrictions on Cuban American travel and the sending of remittances and gifts to the Caribbean country, as well as enabling U.S. telecommunications firms to begin dealing with Cuba. Click here for details on Washington's new policy on Cuba.

President Daniel Ortega and the other presidents of the Central American Integration System (SICA) will finally have a chance for a sit-down meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on April 19 in Trinidad, immediately following the Fifth Summit of the Americas, Nicaragua's first lady Rosario Murillo said Tuesday afternoon in a press release.

The meeting with Obama was confirmed by the U.S. Embassy in Managua, which said that the White House's invitation to meet with Central American leaders went through President Ortega, the president pro tempore of SICA.

A meeting held last month in Costa Rica with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was skipped by Ortega and Honduran President Mel Zelaya because it was organized by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias “on the margins” of SICA.

Following the Biden meeting in San José, Sandinista economist and former Nicaraguan Minister of Foreign Trade Alejandro Martínez Cuenca said the United States had missed an opportunity to lay the groundwork for a new era of relations with Central America by "prioritizing personal relations with Arias over respect for Central America's institutional order."

Martínez stressed the need for a new chapter in U.S.-Central American relations based on “mutual respect and cooperation.” But he stressed that it is important for diplomacy to be done properly and through formal channels, which in the case of Central America means going through SICA.

Emilio Alvarez, former Foreign Minister of Nicaragua, says another reason Ortega snubbed the Costa Rica meeting was because of his ego.  

“He likes to think he is a big international leader,” Alvarez said.

The Obama administration's nod to Ortega and SICA yesterday could serve to repair the Nicaraguan leader's damaged ego and reinforce his claims to a leadership role in Central America.

Ortega said last month that he thinks the United States should give Central America its own bailout plan. In past weeks, Ortega has also repeated his call for the United States to end the embargo on Cuba.

It remains to be seen if those are the issues he will push in the SICA meeting with Obama, and what the other Central American leaders will have to say about the agenda that's presented.

A groundbreaking moment in the case against former Costa Rican President Rafael Angel Calderón Jr. occurred Monday, when a key player confessed to channeling money to the former leader.

Walter Reiche, then president of Fischel pharmacy company and acting in representation of a Finnish medical equipment firm, paid Calderón roughly a half million dollars to facilitate the purchase of $39.5 million worth of medical equipment by the Costa Rican Social Security System (Caja).

On Monday, he told judges at the Treasury Courts that Calderón accepted his payment and agreed to help Reiche sell the equipment to the Costa Rican government.

Reiche said during his testimony that former deputy and president of the Caja, Eliseo Vargas, recommended he approach Calderón because he was “someone who could make (the deal) happen,” according to newspaper reports in La Nación and La Prensa Libre on Tuesday.

Yet, Reiche's testimony does not in itself prove Calderón was guilty of aggravated corruption, the charge for which he currently stands trial. To prove Calderón guilty, prosecutors must show that he distributed or caused funds to be distributed to government officials in return for assistance in closing the deal.

The transaction with Reiche's company occurred more than five years ago, which is nine years after Calderón (1990-1994) left the Casa Presidencial.

Calderón, who was arrested in late 2004 along with former president Miguel Angel Rodríguez, maintains his innocence regarding the situation, saying the transfer of funds was payment for legal consulting services.

In a letter published on his Web site before the trials began in November, Calderón wrote, “I am happy that the end has come, the moment to demonstrate with facts, documents and evidence that I have not committed any crime…This fills me with peace and tranquility because the truth will prevail over the lie.”

Meanwhile, Calderón's political party, the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC), which quickly fell from the political stage following Calderón's arrest, is scrambling to reinvent itself in time for the 2010 election.

PUSC leaders are expected to make an announcement about the future of the political party in an event scheduled for Wednesday.

Following a year of contraction in Costa Rica's tourism industry, officials are hoping a new advertising campaign will tap into Ticos' inner longing for adventure and travel, by encouraging them to “discover their country.”

The campaign Aquí se cura todo (Everything's cured here) will consist of television and radio commercials, and “live” billboards across the country such as the one photographed above (in western San José), featuring people portraying adventure scenes like kayaking and mountain climbing.

“We need to consolidate domestic tourism in Costa Rica,” Allan Flores, director of the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT), said Tuesday during a press conference to announce the campaign, which starts up this week.

About 63 percent of Ticos take overnight vacations and 20 percent go on day trips, according to an ICT study of more than 2,700 Costa Ricans at the end of last year.

ICT Marketing Director María Amalia Revelo said only 16 percent of those interviewed prefer not to do either of those activities.

“The study demonstrates that the Costa Rican does travel in his (or her) country and that they do it twice a year on average,” Revelo said.

Revelo added that national travel promotion such as this one is key to helping boost the numbers during the current financial downturn.

The ICT is investing ¢194 million (about $346,000) for this campaign, which will last until October.

The Tourism Board is also promoting another campaign called “Precio Chiquitico” (“A very small price”), in which locals can receive up to a 35 percent discount during the rainy off-season at various hotels or travel agencies across the country and 20 percent during the peak season.

The Central Bank this week reported that the hotel sector has contracted for the 12th month in a row, showing an 8.7 percent drop in February of from the same month last year.

Joxan Obando, manager for the Villablanca Hotel in San Ramón, said that the campaign is a good idea to reactivate a sector that has been heavily affected by the global crisis.

“This campaign gives us a new alternative for filling out our rooms,” Obando told The Tico Times.

The hotel, located in San Ramón, a coffee town northwest of San José, has experienced a 10 percent drop in reservations during the past few months, Obando said.