Word: ricas
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Costa Rica...
...Costa Rica was the country I least expected to become a pirate's sanctuary. Costa Ricans have always prided themselves on calling their country "the Switzerland of Latin America" because of their government's political integrity...
...popular President as well as their economy. Diminutive (5 ft. 3 in.) José Figueres, 66, known affectionately as "Don Pepe," is something of a national hero. In 1948, he successfully led a ragtag 700-man force against Communist revolutionaries and military reactionaries who were trying to destroy Costa Rica's democratic system. Don Pepe, who was elected to his second nonconsecutive presidential term in 1970, concedes that some of his business investments have gone sour in recent years. He readily acknowledges that his San Cristobal holding company, which produces, among other things, coffee bags made of sisal, "needed...
...bucolic, balmy Central American paradise: that is how many Costa Ricans proudly regard their nation, and with good reason. In contrast to its neighbors, little Costa Rica (1.9 million people living in an area about the size of West Virginia) has a genuine democracy and no army to speak of. It also has the highest literacy rate and third highest per capita annual income (about $539) in Central America. Recently, however, both its tranquillity and its reputation have been somewhat impaired by the presence of fugitive American Financier Robert L. Vesco, who moved there a year ago and has remained...
Shortly after his arrival, Vesco began investing heavily in the Costa Rican economy, to the tune of at least $25 million. He poured funds into low-cost public housing, a water works and the country's nationalized banks. Initially, Vesco was welcomed in Costa Rica as another potentially helpful American benefactor. Then came accusations that his investment money was part of a $224 million hoard that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged him with "diverting" from Investors Overseas Services, the Geneva-based mutual-fund enterprise. Later came the unpleasant news that Vesco had been indicted, together with...