Costa Rican Statesman to be Next Chubb Fellow

Nobel Peace Prize-winner Oscar Arias Sanchez will deliver a Chubb Fellowship address at Yale on Wednesday, March 24, at 8 p.m. in the Luce Hall Auditorium, 34 Hillhouse Ave.

Arias’s talk, “Peace in the Age of Globalization: Confronting Poverty, Inequality and Militarism,” is free and open to the public. A reception will follow in the Luce Hall Common Room.

During his tenure as president of Costa Rica (1986-1990), Arias won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for settling a long-term conflict among the nations of Central America.

Born in 1941, Arias was educated in the United States and England, where he earned his doctorate with a dissertation titled “Who Rules Costa Rica?” He launched his political career in 1970 as assistant to Jose Figueres, who was elected to the presidency of Costa Rica in 1972. At that time, Arias was named to the cabinet as Minister of National Planning and Political Economy and rose to leadership positions in the National Liberation Party.

Elected president of the country in 1986, Arias intervened against the U.S.-backed Contras who were then operating on Costa Rican territory. He brought together the presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua and persuaded them to adopt a plan for peace that he had drafted.

Arias remains a spokesman for peace and social justice. In an opinion piece for the Washington Post last month, he criticized President Clinton for proposing to expand the American defense budget. Furthermore, he argued, “By holding itself to high moral standards on weapons sales, the United States would affirm a key maxim for the post-Cold War world: Security today is not found in unilateral build-up and aggressive posturing.” He argued in favor of directing resources into anti-poverty programs and extending adequate education, health care and nutrition, potable water and sanitation to all those lacking basic social services. He urged the United States to make “an increased commitment to international cooperation and on a renewed investment in the health, education and well-being of all humanity.”

In 1936, Hendon Chubb (Yale 1895) established a fund for “the encouragement and aid of students interested in government and public affairs.” The Chubb Fellowship Program, created in 1949, brings four or five distinguished men and women every year to Yale as Chubb Fellows. Based at Timothy Dwight College, the Chubb Fellowship has hosted such visitors as journalist Walter Cronkite, writers Toni Morrison and Norman Mailer, political activists Jesse Jackson and Robert Redford, numerous senators, governors and heads of state, including Jean Bertrand Aristide of Haiti and Shimon Peres of Israel; and Presidents George Bush, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. For further information, call 432-0770.