Posted on 08/15/2006 7:25:20 PM PDT by shield
San Jose, Aug 15 (EFE).- Costa Rican President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oscar Arias dismissed here Tuesday an insult proffered by Cuba's vice president and reiterated his desire to see democratic change on the Communist-ruled island.
"I have many defects, but I'm no liar," Arias told reporters in response to Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage's characterization of him as "a liar." "I plead for, and have always done so, I haven't changed my mind, for a regime change and not for a monarchical succession" in Cuba, said Arias, who won the 1987 Nobel Prize for his efforts to end civil wars in Central America.
In an open letter to Arias, published Monday in Havana and San Jose, Lage responded to a statement by the Costa Rican president who said he had suspended a meeting with Cuban officials scheduled for last week in Colombia because they imposed limits on what subjects could be discussed.
"The initiative for the meeting had always come from his government; Cuba never asked for it and it wasn't you or any of your officials who suspended the meeting because 'they tried to limit the agenda.' It was me who did it," Lage said.
Arias told the press last week that the meeting was going to be held on Aug. 7 in Colombia, but that he had suspended it because "they limited the agenda" when the Cuban vice president learned that he wanted to discuss the democratization of Cuba.
For its part the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry said Tuesday in a communique that the government had not received any note from the Cuban government and that "it would not discuss the disrespectful commentaries contained" in Lage's open letter. The official communique added that in the meeting, Arias "was interested in conversing with Mr. Lage about Cuba's future" and "considered that if they couldn't talk about the future of Cuba, the meeting would serve no purpose." "Costa Rica takes the opportunity to reiterate its permanent commitment to freedom, democracy and human rights, and to renew its solidarity with the Cuban people," the communique said.
A decent leader of a third world nation?
I'm SHOCKED!
Costa Rica in recent yrs is coming of age. And gets it. This man knows Castro has nothing more than a bunch of thugs....Chavez is another thug.
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