Top on President Óscar Arias' agenda when he arrived for the fifth Summit of the Americas on Friday was convincing his peers in neighboring countries to reduce the flow of weapons through Latin America.

He began his campaign with a statement on Wednesday, calling on U.S. President Barack Obama to halt all sales of arms to Latin America countries.

“Every time a country spends its resources on arms, it's a hospital that can't be built, it's one university fewer, one highway fewer and one school fewer…” Arias said.

As if he had been listening, Obama announced on Thursday in the company of Mexican President Felipe Calderón that he would press the U.S. Senate for a ratification of a Latin American arms trafficking treaty, which has been stalled in the senate since President Bill Clinton signed it in 1997.

The treaty would work to reduce the illicit sale of firearms by establishing a system for importing, exporting and transferring firearms and would increase coordination by law enforcement agencies investigating illegal arms trafficking.

“I feel very pleased with the decision of President Obama,” Arias said in response. “Without a doubt, this goes in the right direction to recoup levels of security within Latin America and to reinforce a message of cooperation and responsibility adopted by the Obama administration.

Bruce Bagley, chairman of international studies at the University of Miami, in a conversation with The Tico Times on Wednesday, estimated that 90 percent of the weapons in Latin America are sold through the United States.

But Arias took his plea a step further this weekend, asking fellow leaders to reduce the amount of money spent on their militaries. He said the world spends $300 billion each year to support armed forces, which is 13 times more than international development aid granted to the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“More artillery helicopters, more combat airplanes, more rockets and more soldiers will not bring one crust of bread to our families, nor one desk for our schools, nor one (container) of medicine for our clinics…” Arias said, urging countries in the Americas to redirect state funding.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias said Central America has high hopes after Sunday morning's much anticipated sit-down meeting in Trinidad and Tobago between fellow heads of state from this region and U.S. President Barack Obama.

“Now there's a different president in Washington, a president who listens, who wants to learn,” said Arias, according to a government press release issued shortly after the meeting of Obama and leaders from the Central American Integration System (SICA). The meeting came just at the end of the weekend-long Summit of the Americas.

“Without a doubt we have big expectations that relations between the United States and Latin America, and particularly with Central America, will be stronger, where … everything achieved will be done through respectful dialogue,” Arias said.

Joining Arias and Obama Sunday were leaders of the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and El Salvador, who discussed issues such as immigration, the global economic crisis and drug- and weapons-trafficking.

Obama said the U.S. is committed to engaging the region, and listening some more.

“I'm looking forward to hearing more about how the United States can be an effective partner with all the countries represented,” Obama said, according to several news reports citing a White House statement.

The U.S. president also delighted Costa Ricans by giving the “small country” special mention.

"We recognize that other countries have good ideas, too, and we want to hear them," Obama said, according to the newswire Associated Press. The fact that an idea comes "from a small country, like Costa Rica," should not diminish its benefit, he added.

See the April 24 print or digital edition of The Tico Times and The Nica Times for more on this story.

During the second round of free trade negotiations last week, China's negotiating team discussed allowing 94 percent of Costa Rican goods to access the Chinese market, but left out key products such as coffee, sugar, beef, pork and chicken.

Chief negotiator for Costa Rica, Fernando Ocampo, said his team will continue to negotiate for these products in upcoming rounds, and sees initial resistance as part of the Chinese team's strategy.

“This is part of a negotiation process,” Ocampo told reporters via a videoconference from Shanghai Friday (Thursday evening in Costa Rica), the final day of this round of talks.

Other issues on the table included customs proceedings, trade accessibility, intellectual property and technical obstacles to trade.

“Costa Rica is also interested in environmental services (such as protection of biodiversity),” said Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz. “We need to further study this issue so that both sides come to an understanding.”

The Foreign Trade Promotion Office (PROCOMER) and the Agricultural Ministry representatives were present at the negotiations this past week.

Meanwhile, in Beijing, Agriculture Minister Javier Flores reached an agreement on sanitary measures with his Chinese counterpart for Costa Rica to export leather to China.

“This is excellent news for an important sector of our economy. We are allowed to export these products to China without any problem,” said Flores in a statement.

In addition, goods produced in free zones, such as certain electronics, will receive preferential rates, Ocampo said.

Costa Rica exported $1.4 billion worth of goods to China in 2007, a 30 percent increase over 2006. Most of exports, about $1 billion worth, came from Costa Rica's Intel factory (TT, Jan 25, 2008). Also, 54 percent of exported goods in 2007 were manufactured in free zones.

The next round of negotiations will take place in Costa Rica in June.

Frustrated by the slow progress in solving sanitation problems at Costa Rica's popular central Pacific Manuel Antonio National Park, the local mayor said Friday he wished to see the park closed in order to find a sustainable, long-term solution.

Óscar Monge, mayor of Aguirre canton, whose territory includes the national park, told The Tico Times that “politics” would prevent the park from closing, but stressed that shutting Manuel Antonio's gates could be in its ultimate best interest.

“Politicians cannot allow the park to close, because it would be an embarrassment for the country,” Monge said. “I would love for it to close for about four months to build a (wastewater treatment) plant, to maintain the works that are there and to make something well-put together that would last 15 to 20 years.”

On Feb. 27, Health Minister María Luisa Ávila gave the Environment, Energy and Telecommunications Ministry (MINAET) a four-month extension to resolve the park's longtime sewage pollution problems, after previously threatening to shut down the park following a 10-day deadline. At the time, MINAET promised to install portable toilets while beginning construction on new, permanent bathrooms and a sewage treatment facility for the park.

Now, nearly two months have passed and MINAET has installed 20 portable toilets and leveled a building for park guards that had been emitting sewage into the park. But progress has been slow on the permanent bathrooms and sewage treatment facility, local business and government leaders said, prompting Monge to call for the local government to assume control of the park from MINAET.

“One day,” he said, “this municipality will have control of this national park, because it is our territory, and I believe we could do things well – maintain the infrastructure, keep the trails clean and regulate the entrance to the park.”

Monge estimated that 90 percent of the local population relies on the park, directly or indirectly. Other local leaders, therefore, said the mayor's position on closing the park would be harmful to the local economy.

“We can't permit” Manuel Antonio to close, said Luis Alberto Bolaños, owner of Best Western Kamuk Hotel and Casino in Quepos, and one of the locals behind the park's creation. “We have to work so that will not happen. Otherwise, we will see our own economic crisis.”

Between 1,000 and 2,000 tourists attend the park every day, making it the second-most visited national park in the country, and generating over ¢1 billion (nearly $1.8 million) last year in revenue.