Gasolina para los golpes

Aquí hay un chiste para la presidenta Bachelet, que una vez en Estados
Unidos contó el chiste de por qué no hay golpes militares en Estados Unidos
(porque no hay embajada estadounidense en Washington D.C)  El nuevo chiste
es or qué no hay golpes militares en Costa Rica  (donde sí hay embajada de
Estados Unidos)?  Porque no hay fuerzas armadas costarricenses.



EL presidente de Costa Rica Oscar Arias, en su columna del Washington Post
de hoy jueves 9 de julio, subraya el punto del gasto militar en América
latina.  En eso, Chávez y Uribe tienen la misma línea, hay que gastar.
Uribe tiene mejores razones para hacerlo. En el caso de Chile, eso es
obviamente un tema.  El 10% de las ventas de Codelco no se justifica.  Ese
10% debería ir directamente a un fondo para mejorar la educación. A ver si
alguno de los candidatos presidenciales se anima a proponerlo. O si,
aprovechando su enorme popularidad, Bachelet se anima a poner en riesgo algo
de su capital (que de lo contrario solo le va a servir para llevárselo a la
casa y esperar que no se devalúe para 2013) y empuja la propuesta simple y
poderosa que permitirá tener recursos para mejorar con más rapidez y
eficiencia la calidad de la educación en Chile.



Aquí la columna de Oscar Arias en el Washington Post,



Pato Navia



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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/08/AR2009070803
551.html



Fuel for a Coup
The Perils of Latin America's Oversized Militaries

By Oscar Arias
Thursday, July 9, 2009

Latin America is enveloped in a climate of uncertainty and turmoil that I
had hoped our region would never experience again. The recent coup d'état in
Honduras, which has embroiled that country in a constitutional crisis, has
provided a sad reminder that despite the progress our region has made, the
errors of our past are still all too close. I have been asked by the leaders
of our region to serve as the mediator in this crisis. Once again, we must
trust that dialogue -- so often scorned as too slow or too simple -- is the
only path to peace and the light that can guide us through these dark hours.


The resolution of the Honduran conflict will be known in time. Yet we need
not see into the future to know that this incident should serve as a wake-up
call for the hemisphere. We should recognize that such events are not random
acts. They are the result of systematic errors and missteps that many of us
have been warning about for decades. They are the price we pay for one of
our region's greatest follies: its reckless military spending.

This coup d'état demonstrates, once more, that the combination of powerful
militaries and fragile democracies creates a terrible risk. It demonstrates,
once more, that until we improve this balance, we will always leave open the
door to those who would obtain power through force -- whether a little or a
great deal, approved by the majority or only by a few. Furthermore, it shows
what happens when our governments divert to their militaries resources that
could be used to strengthen their democratic institutions, to build a
culture of respect for human rights and to increase their levels of human
development. Such foolish choices ensure that a nation's democracy is little
more than an empty shell, or a meaningless speech.

This year alone, the governments of Latin America will spend nearly $50
billion on their armies. That's nearly double the amount spent five years
ago, and it is a ridiculous sum in a region where 200 million people live on
fewer than $2 a day and where only Colombia is engaged in an armed conflict.
More combat planes, missiles and soldiers won't provide additional bread for
our families, desks for our schools or medicine for our clinics. All they
can do is destabilize a region that continues to view armed forces as the
final arbiter of social conflicts.

None of this is news. These are skewed priorities that many of us have spent
years struggling to change. These are skewed priorities that prompted the
government of my country to propose the Costa Rica Consensus, which would
create mechanisms to forgive debts and provide international aid to
developing countries that spend more on education, health care, housing and
environmental conservation, and less on weapons and war. This initiative
would do more to defend human rights and protect regional democracies than
any agreement or declaration ever could.

At one time in the history of the Americas, weapons and armies were
associated with liberty and independence, and with new opportunities for our
peoples. At one time in the history of the Americas, there were liberating
armies. But today, we have seen far too many stories of tyranny, violations
of human rights and political instability -- stories traced in the dust by
the boots of our militaries. The liberating army we need in the Americas
today is one of leaders who come together in peace, in the spirit of
cooperation. We need an army of doctors and teachers, of engineers and
scientists. We need a force that recognizes that only through development
and liberty, through education and health care, through better priorities
and wiser investments, can we achieve the stability we seek.

Two decades ago, when I introduced a peace plan designed to end the violence
that was sweeping our region, I dreamed of a Central America that would
embrace these principles. I hoped for a Central America that would become
the world's first demilitarized region. Despite the tremendous gains and
improvements we have made since that time, the recent events in Honduras
have confirmed that this dream of peace is as urgent and as challenging as
ever. Those of us who seek to protect democracies in this hemisphere have no
time to waste. I urge all leaders in the Americas to see the Honduran crisis
for what it is: an urgent call for the profound social and institutional
changes our region has delayed for far too long.

The writer, who won the Nobel Peace Price in 1987, is serving his second
term as president of Costa Rica.