ELON COLLEGE, N.C. — Oscar Arias, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former president of Costa Rica, will speak at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 6, in the Elon College Community Church. The speech, which is sponsored by the Elon College Liberal Arts Forum, is free and open to the public.
Arias served as president of Costa Rica from 1986 to 1990. In 1987, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the decades of political violence in Central America. In constructing the Arias Peace Plan, he brought together presidents of nine Latin American nations, calling for internal dialogue, cease-fire, freedom of speech and free elections in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. His plan also called on world superpowers to stop aiding insurgent forces operating in the region. His efforts culminated in the signing of the Esquipulas II Accords by all the Central American presidents.
Arias used the Nobel Prize funds to establish the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress. The foundation established three programs to promote gender equality, civil rights and demilitarization in the developing world.
Since the conclusion of his presidency, Arias has continued to serve as an international spokesman for the Third World and a promoter of peace and security. He and seven other Nobel Prize laureates have introduced an International Code of Conduct on Arms Transfers, calling on nations to agree to curtail the global arms trade.
Arias is a compelling lobbyist for the concept of redirecting the world’s military spending to projects that increase literacy, control population and pay for basic food and health programs. He draws a moral connection between the flow of weapons from rich nations to poor ones and the flow of drugs in the opposite direction. He claims that the end result of both is the death of innocents.
Arias will speak with two classes at Elon during his visit to campus, and will meet with many of the students, faculty and staff members who have traveled to Costa Rica recently in the college’s study abroad programs.
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