RIGHT AND WRONG. WE ARE SICK TO DEATH OF THEIR ATTEMPTS TO CONTROL OUR LIVES. WE ARE SICK TO DEATH OF THEIR CONTINUOUS INVOLVEMENT IN POLITICS.

The Central American country that Dr Oscar Arias Sánchez led from 1986 to 1990 has had no army for nearly 60 years. Following a civil war that lasted just five weeks, but killed 2,000 people, the victorious leader José Figueres made a revolutionary pronouncement on 1 December 1948: ‘The Regular Army of Costa Rica today gives the key to its military base to the schools… [T]he Government hereby declares the National Army officially abolished.’ As a result the nation’s limited resources were channelled into infrastructure, especially education and health, which rewarded the country with the highest living standard in Central and South America.

‘Atpeople in Costa Rica, who have real threats frm their close border neighbours).”

Precisely, EnufDictatorship! That is a truly profound statement!

Costa Rica has enjoyed peace since it abolished its army after a brief civil war in 1948, while its Central American neighbors suffered from war, and Costa Rica’s per capita income is twice that of its neighbors, because it invested in its civilian economy what its neighbors spent for their military.

Most Haitians do not see their army as a force that protects them from aggression. They rather see it as a threat to their personal security. It has violently overthrown democratically elected governments and carried out arbitrary arrests, torture and murders.

Oscar Arias Sanchez, former President of Costa Rica, who won the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in