Word: costas
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...smiles and bonhomie that usually attend summitry. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Saavedra and his Salvadoran counterpart, Alfredo Cristiani, kept their distance during photo opportunities, and the 20 hours of negotiations sometimes grew strained. But when the five Central American Presidents emerged from their seventh regional summit near San Jose, Costa Rica, they signed a final communique that referred to a common commitment to nudging a stalled peace process...
...November 16 slayings of the previously untouchable Jesuits, their live-in cook and her daughter came at a pivotal time for the region, which had been nearing an international settlement mediated by Costa Rican leader Oscar Arias...
Although SA-7s can be obtained in arms bazaars around the world, there was little doubt that the weapons were shipped from Nicaragua. Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez firmly backed Cristiani in blaming Ortega, who did not even bother to deny the charge. Instead, Ortega noted the many flights that originated from San Salvador's Ilopango airport to ferry weapons to the contras fighting his government. "So what's the scandal?" he asked...
Dismantling an army, of course, is an extraordinary step. The only precedent is provided by Costa Rica, which discarded its military in 1949. In Switzerland any such development would change the fabric of the nation, given the unique and even mythic status the army enjoys. For a country that has so many fault lines involving competing religions and languages and a federal government that is weak by design, the army is that rare thing, a truly national institution. The experience of military service is the most common denominator among Swiss men (women are not conscripted), and creates a strong sense...
...cynic might suspect that one arm of the Government had protected another. The CIA swore to Attorney General Dick Thornburgh that if Joseph Fernandez, its former station chief in Costa Rica, were to use certain classified documents to defend himself at his Iran-contra trial, the nation's security would be endangered. Thornburgh last week repeated the claim in an affidavit to Federal Judge Claude Hilton. So Hilton dismissed all charges against Fernandez, even though Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh scoffed that the "fictional secrets" had already been disclosed in the press...