Put'er there: Laura Chinchilla, Costa Rica's vice president, greets Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom, during a meeting in Peru between Latin American leaders and Spain's foreign minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos (seated left from Chinchilla), and Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Chinchilla and other officials represented Costa Rica while President Oscar Árias nursed his irritated vocal chords.

Alberto Martin |EFE

Costa Rica lobbied European authorities for greater access to the EU market this weekend at a summit in Peru for heads of state from Latin America, Europe and the Caribbean.

Vice President Laura Chinchilla, representing President Oscar Arias at the two-day summit, asked Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering  for speed and fairness in negotiations over a free-trade agreement between Central America and the European Union.

The free-trade deal is the most controversial part of a larger accord that includes political dialogue and EU development aid to Central America. Costa Rica and its neighbors are demanding greater and quicker tariff reductions than the EU has been willing to give – especially on agricultural goods such as bananas and pineapples. Costa Rica also asks that negotiations finish by the first semester of 2009. 

“Costa Rica and the Central American countries want to make clear to the EU that we won't pay dearly for a second-class agreement,” Roberto Echandi, head of the Costa Rican negotiating team, told the daily La Nación.

Also at the summit, some 60 delegations held discussions on inequality, poverty and social harmony, according to a Casa Presidencial press release. Heads of state discussed strategies to deal with surging food prices, and Zapatero pledged to create a fund to ensure that the region's poor have access to water.

In a speech about global threats to the environment, Chinchilla emphasized Costa Rica's tree-planting campaign and its pledge to become carbon neutral in 2021 – more than a decade after Arias leaves office.  

Arias could not attend the summit because his vocal chords are seriously irritated.