Our experience shows that security does not lie in weapons or fences or armies.
The world does not lack the financial resources to feed, educate and clothe its inhabitants. Rather, it lacks leaders committed to addressing the problems of the impoverished.
Although fostering a peaceful, prosperous and equitable hemisphere is clearly in the best interest of the United States, Washington has not always supported Central America's struggle for economic survival.
On Dec. 1, 1948, after the triumph of the revolution, which insured the final victory of the will of the people expressed through elections, President Jose Figueres abolished the army in my country.
A nation that mistreats its own citizens is more likely to mistreat its neighbours.
Nuclear arms kill many people all at once, but other weapons kill many people, little by little, every day, everywhere in the world.
Latin Americans hold on tight even to pain and suffering, preferring a certain present to an uncertain future. Some of this is only natural, entirely human. But for us, the fear is paralyzing; it generates not only anxiety but also paralysis.
Peace is a never-ending process, the work of many decisions by many people in many countries. It is an attitude, a way of life, a way of solving problems and resolving conflicts.
Poverty and lack of education are ruining our planet.
In 1995, world military spending totaled nearly $800 billion. If we redirected just $40 billion of those resources over the next 10 years to fighting poverty, all of the world's population would enjoy basic social services, such as education, health care, nutrition, reproductive health, clean water and sanitation.
I do not believe that the hungry man should be treated as subversive for expressing his suffering.
Mine is an unarmed people, whose children have never seen a fighter or a tank or a warship.
The Central American isthmus is a region of great contrasts, but also of heartening unison. Millions of men and women share dreams of freedom and progress.
