“A Bold Peace”

Soul Force Media LLC

90 minute cut

FINAL SCRIPT (2016)

Written By: Matthew Eddy

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Line 1: A Soul Force Media Production (color: White)

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Line 1: A BOLD PEACE (color: White)

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00:47

Every gun that is made, every warship launched,

every rocket fired signifies in the final sense,

a theft from those who hunger and are not fed,

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those who are cold and are not clothed.

1:04 We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat.

1:08 We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed

more than 8,000 people.

1:16 This is not a way of life at all.

1:18 It is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

1:22 This is one of those times in the affairs of nations

when the gravest [[serious/ life and death]] choices must be made

if there is to be a turning toward a just and lasting peace.

1:31 It calls upon them to answer the question –

[black screen] 1:37  Is there no other way the world may live?

Chapter 1: Another Way

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Line 1: Chapter 1 [color: Red]

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Narrator: 1:59   65 years ago, the small Central American country of Costa Rica did something unlike any nation before –

2:08  it abolished its own army.

2:10  Costa Rica invested in social programs, developed widespread literacy,

and access to schools and universities.

2:20  The people enjoy universal health care and they now live longer

than the people of the United States.

Luis Garita Bonilla:

2:26  We don’t have an army. We don’t have an army, because we have a social program.

We don’t have an army because we have a national health system.

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Line 1: Luis Garita Bonilla  (color: White)

Line 2: Banco Popular [Popular Bank] (color: White)

Position: Lower Right

Mirta Gonzalez Suarez:  2:35  We don’t have an army since 1948,

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Line 1: Mirta Gonzalez Suarez (color: White)

Line 2: University of Costa Rica (color: White)

Position: Lower Left

and this is one of the great things that happened to this country.

[2:39 t-shirt: “The end of Costa Rica’s military spirit – 1948 – No Army”]

2:41  Because we don’t spend any money on armies, so we can use that for health services,

for other services that the state provides.

Mariano Figueres:

2:50  We were able, because of the abolishment of the army,

to create an army of teachers and of students in Costa Rica.

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Line 1: Mariano Figueres (color: White)

Line 2: Son of Jose Figueres Ferrer (color: White)

Position: Lower Left

2:59  And to create a social health care system that covers the whole country.

Carmen Morales:  3:06: One of the slogans about the abolition of the army

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Line 1: Carmen Morales

Line 2: Morales Elementary School

Position: Lower Right (but above the subtitles)

was ‘A Better Education for All.’

David Boddiger:

3:12 Throughout the years, we’ve been discussing Costa Rica’s decision to disband its army and invest in education and the effect that that’s had,

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Line 1: David Boddiger

Line 2: Tico Times

Position: Lower Right

3:20  so we have high literacy rates, we have a well-educated populace,

and education has been a pride of Costa Rica for many decades.

3:30 And so their experiment,

their social democratic experiment has been marvelous.

3:35 They shot for the pie in the sky and I think they’ve achieved incredible things.

Narrator: 3:41 What does national security really mean?

Costa Rica has wrestled with this question while living without an army for over 65 years.

It remains the largest nation in the world without a military or a military base on its soil.

President Oscar Arias: 3:59  We have shown the world that it is possible

for a country like ours to live without an army.

It is not possible to arm ourselves and to

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Line 1: Oscar Arias

Line 2: Former President of Costa Rica

Position: Lower Left

4:12  develop Costa Rica economically and socially.

We have to choose between rifles and tanks

and electricity and roads,

4:23  we have to choose between hospitals and schools

and machine guns.

4:29 And we have chosen already.

Luis Solis: 4:32

The most important consequence of not having an armed force in Costa Rica

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Line 1: Luis Solis

Line 2: University of Costa Rica

Position: Lower Right

was the financing of public institutions. And most of them related to social well-being.

4:41 In other words, the bonus of not having a military was the capacity of the state

to invest in the people.

Oscar Arias:4:49  We decided a long time ago to build a welfare state,

while our neighbors instead built a garrison state.

And in a way the political stability and social stability you find in this country

is because most of the basic needs of our population are being taken care of.

Luis Villanueva:  5:10 Our proposal to the world

is to better invest our resources

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Line 1: Luis Villanueva

Line 2: Legislative Assembly

Position: Lower Right

precisely so that there can be peace.

5:20  And to build peace, we must invest in health, in education,

and in the struggle against poverty.

5:25  Never invest in an army. No.

[Man on the street]:

5:27  I will be a happy father if I never see this kid in the military.  

I don’t even let him play with toy weapons, actually,

we are not made for that.

[Woman on the street]:

5:41  It makes me very happy as a mother

to know that our children here in Costa Rica

will never have to join the armed forces or experience wars.

Luis Solis: 5:53 There’s a peace monument, at the University of Peace in Costa Rica

and it says ‘Happy is the Costa Rican mother who knows upon the birth of her child

that he will never be a soldier.’ That’s the essence of it – it’s a deeply grounded belief

that we will never be soldiers, regardless of what happens. 

Narrator: 6:15  Costa Rica has been a leader in environmental policies. 

Christiana Figueres: 6:19  Several years ago Costa Rica committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2021, which is quite a bit in advance of

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Line 1: Christiana Figueres

Line 2: Daughter of Jose Figueres Ferrer

Position: Lower Left

the carbon neutrality commitments that other countries, and increasingly many companies

are undertaking for themselves, but who are attempting to do it by 2040, 2050, and some

even after the second half of the century.

6:45  Costa Rica’s carbon neutrality pledge is not easy.

It means revamping [reorganizing] the transportation sector.

That is where we have our highest emissions,

and that is where most of the work is going to have to go

over the next few years. 

Gloria Bejarano de Calderon: Approximately, more or less 1/3^rd of our country is protected.

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Line 1: Gloria Bejarano de Calderon

Line 2: Former First Lady of Costa Rica

Position: Lower Left

Mario Grant Saenz:

7:06  The commitment of Costa Rica towards natural preservation...

well, it’s a recognition that what we have is not up for grabs.

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Line 1: Mario Grant Saenz

Line 2: Friends Peace Center

Position: Lower Right

It’s not something you can take away, it’s something you leave here, you enjoy living here.

Narrator:  7:22  Today, out of 151 nations, Costa Rica ranks #1 in the Happy Planet Index – a measure of environmental sustainability as well as human health and happiness.

[7:34 sign: “Welcome to the happiest country in the world”]

7:35  Additional studies show that Costa Ricans, or as they call themselves, “the Ticos,” rank among the happiest people on the planet. One study ranked Costa Rica #1 in self-reported happiness and #1 in Happy Life Years.

[Young woman on the street]:

7:50  I think Costa Ricans are happy because we just take every day as it comes.

We don’t have to, I mean,[that does not need to be translated]

We do plan ahead, but not as much.

We just have fun and go with the flow.

DR. ESTEBAN GONZÁLEZ RAMÍREZ: 8:06  I think that with the globalization –

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Line 1: Dr. Esteban Gonzalez Ramirez

Line 2: Hospital Mexico

Position: Lower Right

like stress and the way of living is the same in the whole world, right?

But here in Costa Rica, we chill [relax] a little bit more.

[Surfer on the beach]:

8:16  Some countries, they love to have war with other countries, you know?

We don’t need it because we’re not good for that, I think.

We’re only good for parties. The truth. Only for parties.

So bring all the people to party – come bring

them here, pure life.

[Coffee Picker]: 8:35  The thing about Ticos is that we are

straightforward with everyone.

We can be pranksters, but at the same time,

when needed, we take things seriously.

David Boddiger:

8:46  Costa Ricans hate conflict, they’ll do anything they can to avoid it.

So, even when you see two men fighting outside of a bar,

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Line 1: David Boddiger

Line 2: Tico Times

Position: Lower Right

they might be calling each other bad names but at the same time they’re saying ‘usted’ which is ‘you’ with sort of respect, so you can imagine ‘expletive [curse word] usted,’

which I think says it all. But yeah, Costa Ricans will do anything they can to avoid conflict.

Narrator:9:15  With the money saved by having no military,

Costa Rica has been able to preserve and strengthen its now decades old systems

of social security and universal health care.

The health care system not only helps Costa Ricans live longer,

it also costs just 15 percent of what the U.S. spends on health care per capita.

[Woman in the park]: 9:37

Social security in this country is very, very important.

It’s one of the gifts that God sent for us. And we’re trying to protect that.

So here, the people pay monthly payments. So if you earn a lot, you’re gonna pay more,

if another person don’t earn enough, he’s gonna pay a little bit.

You cannot pretend everybody’s going to earn a lot of money, because it’s not real,

it’s just a fantasy. If the people need to work in cleaning the streets,

that person cannot earn a lot of money, but he deserves to get social security at the same time, because you maybe can work in the office, but you need someone outside cleaning the streets. If you don’t want to do that, somebody has to do that.

Dr. Esteban González Ramirez: 10:26

It’s very satisfactory that if you don’t use that much your insurance,

you’re helping other people, and eventually, other people are going to help you.

Every person has a right to live and to be helped by other people,

like brothers and sisters, right?

Mirta: 10:44  It is surprising to me

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Line 1: Mirta Gonzalez Suarez

Line 2: University of Costa Rica

Position: Lower Left

when in the U.S. people say that they have to save

so that their kids may go to college or to the university. Here, we have a state university

and everybody that can pass the SAT may get in here. They don’t have to pay for tuition. We believe that education and health is a right. 

Gloria Bejarano de Calderón: 11:08  This is a country in which the value of solidarity

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Line 1: Gloria Bejarano de Calderon

Line 2: Former First Lady of Costa Rica

Position: Lower Left

is one of the most important values that we share.

Father Pablo Richard: 11:21   Peace is not just an absence of arms.

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Line 1: Father Pablo Richard

Line 2: Ecumenical [Interfaith] Research Center

Position: Lower Left

11:24  It’s also an attitude of non-aggression

to the poor.

Receive poor people, homeless people,

to be attendant in the public hospital.

And similarly, in the education system, there is this attitude.

I think that education here has a lot of values of solidarity, peace,

this education for peace, in general, no?

Christiana Figueres: 11:54  I think Costa Rica is able to make these very bold policy decisions, whether they be in the field of peace or whether they be in the field

of environment, because we just have boldness baked into our cultural and political

DNA. If it wasn’t present before, it is definitely present after 1948, 

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Line 1: Christiana Figueres

Line 2: Daughter of Jose Figueres Ferrer

Position: Lower Left

after the revolution that my Father led,

and where he just baked boldness right straight into us.

Chapter 2: The Abolition of the Military

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Line 1: Chapter 2 [Color: Red]

Line 2: The Abolition of the Military [Color: White]

Position: Center

Narrator:  12:23  How did Costa Rica create such a peaceful society?

The pivotal event of modern Costa Rica – the act of abolishing the military,

was shaped by a series of struggles which shook the country to its foundations.

As the world reeled amid a great depression in the 1930s and early 1940s,

people everywhere demanded greater fairness and justice in their societies.

In Costa Rica, a progressive vision of human rights and Social Guarantees emerged.

Francisco Cordero Gene: 12:54  It’s very interesting, 1940 we start with Calderon Guardia

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Line 1: Francisco Cordero Gene

Line 2: Friends Peace Center

Position: Lower Left

being President, elected by 80% of the vote. And then he starts a change, of a modernization of Costa Rica, with the labor code and the social guarantees.

Gloria Bejarano de Calderon: 13:11  I think that the reason that we don’t have an army,

is that in Costa Rica, thanks to the social reform, we have the conditions that make it possible not to have an army. Because all the social struggles disappear – in other countries, in order get a code of work, they have to fight, people die for that, in order to have a social security system. In Costa Rica, during my father in law’s government, of Calderon Guardia, the social state was established, so it was easy to establish the absence of an army.

Luis Solis: 13:48  Costa Rica fought its last civil war in 1948.

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Line 1: Luis Guillermo Solis

Line 2: University of Costa Rica

Position: Lower Right

That war was the result of the opposition of the Costa Rican bourgeoisie,

to the social reforms that had been enacted since the 1940s by a very unusual alliance

of the Roman Catholic Church, the Costa Rican Communist Party, and a sector of the Costa Rican elites. That coalition led by a man called Rafael Angel Calderon Guardia resulted in the changing of the Costa Rican constitution to include a chapter on social guarantees, including the creation of the Costa Rican social security system, the re-opening of the university, and the labor code.

Narrator:  14:30  In this window of opportunity before the Cold War, Calderon built a robust social welfare state with the support of Archbishop Sanabria and Manuel Mora – founder of Costa Rica’s Communist Party. The coalition succeeded partly because Mora’s communism was moderate and open to compromise. Calderon and Archbishop Sanabria were strongly influenced by the Catholic social teaching of their day – which led them to reject both the far left’s utopian vision of communism and the far right’s utopian vision of unregulated free markets.  15:04  Their coalition with Mora sought a middle path to a good society.

Luis Solis: 15:10 It was a very successful alliance that lasted for almost a decade, until 1948, when in the elections of that year, former president Calderon attempted to run again for president. Then upon losing the elections, decided to commit a fraud in order to gain political power again, and that was the drop that made revolution start. And as a result of that, and the desire of Costa Rican elites to turn back the social revolution, a number of forces were unleashed.

Gloria Bejarano de Calderon: 15:41 All these reforms, at that moment, were not very well accepted. Because of course it affected the interests of the wealthy people.

Luis Solis:15:50  But the elites did not count on the cleverness of the man who was going to lead the military effort, a non-military man, named Jose Figueres Ferrer.

Victor Ramirez: 16:02 Jose Figueres Ferrer -  

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Line 1: Victor Ramirez

Line 2: Former Assistant Minister

Position: Lower Right

– known by all Costa Ricans as Don Pepe – was the main builder of the modern Costa Rica.

Narrator:16:13  As a young man Jose Figueres came to the United States intending to enroll at MIT, but instead he pursued a program of self-education. He often said that his alma mater was the Boston Public library.

Luis Solis: 16:27  Jose Figueres was a very interesting character. He was extremely intelligent and he was a self-taught man. He studied in Boston and he generally talks about how much he learned by going to the Boston library and the library in New York for hours and hours, reading in the libraries at night, and working as a blue collar worker in the mornings, he learned and read extensively from the U.S. founding fathers, he liked to quote Jefferson.  He also learned from the socialist utopians – the European socialists. By and large, I think Figueres’s philosophical roots were probably there. He also referred to the pacifists, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Tolstoy. So he was an extraordinary man in the sense that he tried to apply those teachings in real life and the influence was not small. 

Narrator: 17:21 Figueres said his readings in the Boston Public Library “set his mind on fire...dreaming of a more perfect world.”

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Line 1: “...set my mind on fire

Line 2: dreaming of a more perfect world”

Position: Center

17:31  It was here that he read H.G. Wells’ book The Outline of History. In the closing chapter, Wells advocates for a future in which “There will be no armies, no navies, and no classes of unemployed people either wealthy or poor.”

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Line 1: “There will be no armies, no navies,

Line 2: no classes of unemployed people

Line 3: either wealthy or poor.”

Position: Center

Victor Ramirez: 17:48  That bright idea, that unique idea in the history of mankind,

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Line 1: Victor Ramirez

Line 2: Former Assistant Minister

Position: Lower Right

to abolish the army, was not a bright idea that came out of the blue.

That was an idea that was in him, many years before that.

Narrator:18:06  The influence of reading Tolstoy and the utopian socialists was decisive: when Figueres returned to Costa Rica, he immediately established a collective farm which he ran much like a community cooperative.

Victor Ramirez: 18:19  He was in 1942 a man completely devoted to his land, to his farm,

and to his books. So, one of the paradoxical traits of Jose Figueres,

was that a man who was completely apart from politics, became at one moment, one of the main figures of the political history of our country.

18:47  In the middle of the second world war, there were some riots in Costa Rica.

And Costa Rica was in shock. And Figueres rented a space in a radio station,

and made a very extraordinary speech.

Narrator:19:04  In his address, Figueres denounced the government’s incompetence

and intolerance of political dissent.

Before he could finish, police barged into the radio station,

arresting Figueres and sending him into exile.

19:20 While living in Mexico, Figueres became convinced that Costa Rican democracy

was slipping into another tropical tyranny.

19:30 And it was in Mexico that Figueres encountered pro-democracy revolutionaries

who called themselves the Caribbean Legion. A band of political exiles from every corner

of the Caribbean Basin, they dreamed of overthrowing dictators in their home countries.

19:45  Many were ex-soldiers, and Figueres came to believe their military experience

might one day help Costa Rica.

Victor Ramirez: 19:53  Figueres had the sharp intuition, the political intuition to say,

‘They are not going to give up power by democratic means.’ And that came true in 1948, when Calderon Guardia was one of the candidates, Otilio Ulate was another candidate... Otilio Ulate won the presidency, but...

Calderon didn’t recognize the victory of Ulate.  

When the situation in Costa Rica was really terrible...

a man who won the presidency, but was not able to be a President.

Figueres appeared on his farm, with 7 other men. That was the beginning of a revolution that had the support of most of the Costa Ricans.

Narrator: 20:41 Now Figueres drew upon his contacts with revolutionaries in Mexico,

forming a pact with the Caribbean Legion. In return for helping install a new

Costa Rican democracy, Figueres would offer Costa Rica as a base

for overthrowing dictators in their home countries.

20:58 As the Caribbean Legion secretly flew to Costa Rica and joined Figueres

he was poised to strike.

Rod Paris:  21:06  I was about 12 or 13 and one could feel the tension in society.  

I saw what I saw,

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Line 1: Rodrigo Paris

Line 2: Former United Nations

Line 3: Senior Officer

Position: Lower Left

and I know what I know.  I know that the government was morally guilty and that they tried to terrorize the population and to suppress the people who were fighting for the elections to be respected.

Narrator: 21:30  After 5 weeks of fighting and the loss of over 4,000 lives,

Figueres and his revolutionary army emerged as the victors.

Francisco Cordero Gene: 21:40  After Figueres comes in, he actually eliminates the army.  But he didn’t do so immediately. He did it after he was threatened by a coup

of his own men.    

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Line 1: Francisco Cordero Gene

Line 2: Friends Peace Center

Position: Lower Left

His Secretary of Security actually tried to make a coup, in order to go back to the times that there was no labor code, there was no Social Guarantees, and he tried to actually take a right-wing position against the previous changes that had been made in the government of Calderon. 22:18 And Figueres had already pacted with the Communists that he would not eliminate these things.  It’s called El Pacto de Ochomogo, and the Pacto de Ochomogo was what made it possible for Figueres to actually guarantee that the communists would disarm. 22:36  So, he first disarms the Communists, then he eliminates the army, and then he disarms his own army that was expecting that he would go on to make war against the generals that were dictators in the rest of Central America.

Narrator:  22:51  As Figueres embraced demilitarization, he broke his pact with the Caribbean Legion. But in the years to come, Figueres took great risks supporting their efforts to overthrow U.S.-backed dictators.

Luis Solis: 23:05  Upon winning the war, he decided to do two things that were going to be essential for the future of Costa Rica, one, in my opinion, the most important thing that has occurred in our recent history, was the abolition of the armed forces as a permanent institution in the country. Which was revolutionary in and on itself.

23:25  But the other one was to preserve Calderon’s social reforms and enhance that reform, in fact furthering it by creating a social welfare state based upon the logic of the New Deal, and Keynesian economics. That combination, of disarmament on the one hand, and the blending of social concerns with the modernization of the state in order to have it take care of the common good, was one of the most significant events in Costa Rican history and explained the countries stability for over half a century after that.

Narrator: 24:04   In a ceremony on December 1^st 1948, Figueres abolished the army

using a sledgehammer to strike a symbolic blow

against the battlements of the nation’s military barracks.

24:19  It was at once visionary and grounded in ideals as old as the hills.

A century before, the founder of Costa Rica’s Republic, José María Castro, had warned, ‘The sword is the enemy of freedom. Let us not give it power.’

Concluding the ceremony, Figueres gave a brief speech:

24:41 “The Regular Army of Costa Rica, which is the successor to the Army of National Liberation, surrenders the key to this barracks to the schools, to be converted into a center of culture.

24:55  The Junta of the Second Republic officially declares the dissolution of the national army, because the security of our country is sufficiently protected by the police force.

25:08  We firmly maintain the ideal of a new world in America.

To that country of ideals of Washington, Lincoln, Bolivar, and Marti,

we wish today to declare: 25:22  ‘O, America! Other countries, your children also offer you

their greatness. Little Costa Rica wants to offer forever, as now, along with its heart,

its love of civility and democracy.”

Victor Ramirez:  25:43  It’s a very short speech, like the Gettysburg speech.

He knew that he was talking to history. He knew that he was doing something extraordinary. Anybody can say, “How do you dare to do that? You have a lot of enemies. You have powerful enemies.” He was an enemy of the main dictators of the Caribbean basin - Somoza, Trujillo, Batista, Perez Jimenez. They hated him. S

26:13  So how does a man with this kind of enemies abolish an army? He’s a man who is so brave... That’s why he was able to do something that is unique in the history of mankind.

A victorious general, who abolished his own army...surrounded by powerful enemies.

Journalist #1: 26:37  Don Pepe, why are you abolishing the army? Tell us your reasons.

Jose Figueres:26:42  Why not? Most nations need an army like they need a hole in the head. Costa Ricans have always been devoted to democracy and now we practice this belief by dissolving the army.

Journalist #2:26:55  What about the dangers of communism?

Jose Figueres:26:58  Militarism is as grave a danger as Communism.

Luis Solis: 27:03  After the Civil War ended in April of 1948, Calderon and his allies, largely the Communist Party were furiously repressed. 27:13  And so, many of the members of the former government and clearly, most of the combatants, left the country. Some of them, the leaders went to Mexico, and a group of them stayed in Nicaragua which is closer to home, and where they found the support of Anastasio Somoza, the American supported dictator of Nicaragua, for several decades. 27:36  Very early on, Calderon and his supporters decided to start a counter revolution against Figueres, based in Nicaragua.

Narrator:27:47  From their base in Nicaragua, the Calderonistas sought to return to power in Costa Rica.

Luis Solis:27:53  So there were two attempts, that were made from Nicaragua, to topple Figueres. One in 1949, less than a year after the triumph of Figueres, and the other one in 1955, both had support of Somoza.

28:06  And so Figueres was very successful in drafting a citizen’s militia to fight against those two incursions from Nicaragua and he was successful in both of them. He was one of the first presidents in the Americas to invoke the Inter-American Treaty of Mutual Defense of 1947, by which all the countries of the Americas would support any country of the region that was attacked by a foreign power.

Narrator:28:34  With his mix of idealism and pragmatism, Figueres cast a vision of a more civilized world. When criticized for spending government funds on cultural and music programs, he remarked, “What good are tractors without violins?”

28:52  In 1954, when his arch-enemy, Nicaraguan dictator Somoza, challenged Figueres to meet him at the border for a pistol duel, Figueres sent back a reply: “Grow up”

Jose Figueres: 29:05  The army is a thing of the past. War is not normal in human life,

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Line 1: Jose Figueres

Line 2: Former President

Line 3: of Costa Rica

Position: Lower Left

or in life on Earth or anywhere else.

29:14  War is a fever. Peace is normal.

29:19  Why not abandon the fever and the causes of the fever? 

29:24  War represents the tribal past of mankind.

Narrator: 29:29  After Figueres’ victory in the civil war, he led a junta, or interim government, for 18 months.

[29:35  sign on screen: Junta Government of the Second Republic]

29:36  In addition to abolishing the military, his junta gave women and Afro-Caribbeans the right to vote for the first time, issued a one-time 10% tax on the wealthy, and required the giant U.S. corporation, the United Fruit Company, to pay taxes on its profits in Costa Rica.

29:53 The junta also expanded the social security system. It nationalized the banks and the electric industry - which greatly increased people’s access to credit and electricity. To further safeguard democracy, the junta strengthened an independent elections tribunal.  The reforms forged a society with greater opportunity and equality.

30:17 Claiming as his models, the New Deal as well as Denmark’s middle-of-the-road socialism, Figueres said, “Our movement is really a revolution of the middle class.”

Christiana Figueres: 30:27 The junta that my Father led for just one year was led by his firm conviction and dedication to social justice

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Line 1: Christiana Figueres

Line 2: Daughter of Jose Figueres Ferrer

Position: Lower Left

and they dedicated themselves to this very far-reaching network of institutions that provided social inclusion like it had never been done before in Costa Rica.

Narrator:30:46  With democracy restored and the welfare state expanded, Figueres voluntarily walked away from power - turning over the government to the man widely considered the winner of the 1948 elections, Otilio Ulate.

31:03  Figueres returned to civilian life where he helped to form the social democratic party of Costa Rica.

31:10  Figueres would be elected to the presidency in 1953 and again in 1970.

Victor Ramirez: 31:18  I am sure that if Jose Figueres would have lived

in a bigger country like the United States, or France, or England,

he would be a planetary personage.

31:29  The things that he did in this little country,

if he would have done that in a bigger country, I am completely sure, that he would be a political figure of enormous transcendence

in the history of mankind in the twentieth century.

Mariano Figueres: 31:47  Don Pepe was not only an entrepreneur, not only a business man,

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Line 1: Mariano Figueres

Line 2: Son of Jose Figueres Ferrer

Position: Lower Left

he was a writer, he was a scientist, he was a philosopher, he was a politician, he was a strategist, he was a victorious general and he was the man that also abolished the army.

Luis Solis: 32:06  Jose Figueres was the man who destroyed the armed forces as a concept in Costa Rican political culture. I think we are quite clear in this country where the real base of our peace lies, and that is in the vision that Figueres and his generation had.

32:21  I don’t want Don Pepe to be forgotten by the new generations.  

Chapter 3: New Challenges

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Line 2: New Challenges [color: white]

Position: Center

Narrator: 32:35  Having survived two invasions without a standing army, a still greater challenge to Costa Rican demilitarization came in the 1980s. Central America became a bloody battleground in the Cold War as the United States tried to force Costa Rica into a protracted military conflict. With his back against the wall, Costa Rican President Luis Alberto Monge became the first president to proclaim Costa Rican neutrality, setting the stage for a high-stakes showdown with the Reagan administration.

Aron Arguedes: 33:04  President Monge came in in 1982.

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Line 1: Aron Arguedas

Line 2: National Autonomous University

Position: Lower Left

There is the war going on in Nicaragua, Reagan is pressuring to use Costa Rica as a base to attack Nicaragua. The pressure of the United States was huge.

Narrator: 33:15  When the Sandinistas toppled the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua in 1979, the U.S. government responded by sponsoring a counter-revolutionary force called the Contras. The U.S. aimed to establish military bases in Costa Rica, giving the Contras a southern front against the Sandinistas.

David Barsamian: 33:35  The Contras were wholly subsidized, U.S.-backed military group, mainly composed of former members of the hideous Guardia Nacional, the National Guard of the hated dictator Somoza.

33:51  Reagan saw the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua as a threat, the threat of a good example. If it succeeded, if they were indeed to establish a solid state where there would be more economic and gender equality, that might be a good example for other states in the region where there are gross inequalities, to emulate, and so he immediately coupled the Nicaraguan revolution with Soviet communism.

President Reagan:34:23  To do nothing in Central America is to give the first communist stronghold on the North American continent, a green light to spread its poison throughout this free and increasingly democratic hemisphere.

Luis Solis: 34:35  Costa Rica was threatened by the Central American crisis which was the most important significant, political and military crisis the region had faced in its history.

34:44  It was clear that Costa Rica could not withstand the pressures of the United States if it did not take the initiative. And one way to do that was by proclaiming its neutrality. And so the neutrality policy can be understood with this very Costa Rican attitude of taking distance from the United States without destroying that relationship.

35:08  In fact, Monge was probably one of the most significant allies of the Reagan administration in Central America at the time.

35:14  But this was preserved by taking distance from some of the administrations most aggressive policies. And even the recommendation at the time of Ambassador Jean Kirkpatrick, of Costa Rica being forced to recreate an army. She suggested that very directly, and Monge stood back and said, ‘No way.’ And the way in which he did that was by making the Neutrality Proclamation.

Narrator: 35:41  In 1983, in order to gain leverage against U.S. pressure, President Monge turned to Europe, visiting heads of state, and soliciting their support for Costa Rica’s Neutrality. 35:52  Back in Costa Rica, President Monge declared the Neutrality Policy in an official ceremony, asserting that Costa Rica’s tradition of peace made it a “spiritual power.”  36:03  Monge’s declaration was welcomed by the Catholic Church and almost every nation in the world. A poll found that 83% of Costa Ricans approved of the neutrality declaration.

Luis Solis: 36:15 The United States did not support the Neutrality process, obviously.

Aron Arguedes: 36:20  The United States channeled all the money to support the Contras, to support civil wars, instead of looking into a civil movement to end the bloodshed.

Narrator: 36:31  U.S. policy in this period was guided by the domino theory – which argued that if one nation turned communist, other nations in the region would quickly follow.

Francisco Cordero Gene:  36:41  The Sandinistas had won. At that moment, the Sandinistas were supposed to be the danger for the rest of Central America, because there was this domino theory that once one went, the others would also tumble.

36:55  And of course, if it hadn’t of [had not have] been for the neutrality of Costa Rica being declared the way it was, and at the moment it was, Caspar Weinberger and Oliver North and other military of the United States would have put Costa Rica in the situation that it had already put Honduras.  Honduras has one of the biggest military bases of the United States in the continent, it actually homed 36,000 troops in Honduras. 37:22 If we would have been, co-opted by the military, Costa Rica would have lost all its tradition of demilitarization.

Narrator: 37:31  As the Monge presidency ended, and the civil war in Nicaragua raged on, Costa Rica’s 1986 election become a national referendum on demilitarization.

37:42  Would the Costa Rican people affirm demilitarization even as the Nicaraguan civil war was spilling across the border? 37:49  Running in the 1986 election was the son of the former President Calderon.

Luis Solis: 37:55  In the campaign of 1985 to 86 when a new president was going to be elected, there were two visions that were confronted in that campaign. One, that was defended by the son of former President Calderon, who was basically supportive of the U.S. perspective. 38:14  The other one, by the name of Oscar Arias, who was adamantly opposed to the military solution that the U.S. government pursued. And those 2 visions clashed in those elections.

Narrator:38:26   During the election, the Reagan Administration publicly threatened to end U.S. financial support of Costa Rica if it continued its path of neutrality.

38:38  Nevertheless, in a come-from-behind victory, Oscar Arias won.

Luis Solis: 38:42  Oscar Arias won with a very solid victory. The Costa Rican populace was against the militarization of our relations and the militarization of Costa Rican politics altogether.

Victor Ramirez: 38:53  During the political campaign of 1985, in which I was very much involved, working with Oscar Arias, we made a lot of polls trying to know what was the thinking of the Costa Rican people. 39:09  And it was fantastic, what the Costa Rican people said. They were, 80% of the people, against the Sandinista regime. But in the same amount of people, more than 80%, they were completely against any kind of militarization of Costa Rica.

Oscar Arias: 39:27  When I decided to run for office,

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Line 1: Oscar Arias

Line 2: Former President of Costa Rica

Position: Lower Right

I was 44 years old, and Central America was living a very bloody conflict where the two superpowers were involved, 39:45  both the Soviet Union with Mr. Gorbachev and the U.S. with President Reagan. And I decided to differentiate from my opponent, so I picked the cause of peace. 39:59 The U.S. government supported my opponent. 40:05  Eventually I won, I won with the support of young people and women. 40:13  Because I used to tell the Costa Rican electorate that Central America was the region where mothers were burying their sons and not the opposite.

Narrator: 40:26  Costa Rica’s ability to pursue peace and to resist Reagan’s militarized Central American agenda now depended on President Arias.

Norman Solomon: During the Reagan administration

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Line 1: Norman Solomon

Line 2: Institute for Public Accuracy

Position: Lower Right

you had just flat out zeal to promote war in Central America. There was tremendous pressure during the 1980s from the Reagan administration to get Arias and others to buckle down and get with the Washington program. 40:52  The Reagan Administration was worried that peace might break out in Central America.

Victor Ramirez: 40:57  Costa Ricans were completely against the Sandinistas.

Even so, we were not afraid. That’s a very important national trait, national character.

41:09  The paranoia... That is one of the paradoxical traits of the powerful. 

The United States is a very good example of that.

It’s a very paranoid country. They are so scared of everything.

41:25  And we had a very strong power, just north of our border,

and we were not scared.

41:32 We said, “We are not going to militarize our country.”

David Barsamian 41:36 Reagan said that Nicaraguan vehicles were only two days drive from Harlingen, Texas.

[Map: Harlingen, Texas]

41:42  You just have to laugh out loud. What vehicles? They had no armored force to speak of, no air force. But it was used as a scare tactic, to whip up fervor again.

Oscar Arias: 41:54  Eventually, well, I was invited to the White House. It was December of 1986. That was the first meeting with President Reagan. In the next 9 months, I believe I visited him 4 or 5 times, always to talk about Nicaragua. He was obsessed with the Contras, he referred to them as “freedom fighters,” and I kept telling President Reagan that the Contras were not the solution but the problem.

Narrator: 42:26  Once again, Costa Rica turned to Europe for diplomatic support.

Oscar Arias: 42:31  I visited almost everybody in Europe, from the Pope to Mrs. Thatcher. And against all odds I was able to persuade my colleagues that the destiny of millions of Central Americans was in our hands, and that we simply couldn’t fail. This is what I told my colleagues: “I’m gonna to lock this door here in this hotel, and we won’t leave until we have reached an agreement.” 43:04  And that happened on the 7^th of August, early in the morning. When we went down to the lobby there were hundreds of reporters from all over the world. 43:18  And they were shocked, when I told them, well, we had finally reached an agreement. I read the peace plan we had signed, and I could tell you that both the US government as well as the Soviet government were very upset.  43:35  Then suddenly I was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in October. The Nobel Peace Prize helped a lot our cause. It was a signal to the world that what we were doing was the right thing to do.

Narrator: 43:53  It was the peace plan of Arias that finally moved Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras towards peace.

Alison Brysk:44:00  The US had openly threatened Costa Rica with a cutoff of aid,

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Line 1: Alison Brysk

Line 2: University of California

Line 3: at Santa Barbara

Position: Lower Right

and Arias went to the people and campaigned and said, “We’re going to lose some US aid but we have to do this, we have to do this for our future, we have to do it for our national interest.” And he was able to get popular support and defy the US mandate for the region. I think Oscar Arias showed tremendous leadership and tremendous vision.  

Victor Ramirez: 44:27  I am convinced

that the pacifist culture of the Costa Ricans

was the main trait

that made it possible for Costa Ricans

to withstand the pressure that we had

from the American government to try and be

involved in a military intervention in Nicaragua.

Narrator:44:51  In 2003, the United States once again tried to draw Costa Rica into a military conflict. This time the target was half the world away, and it would take a grassroots movement to keep Costa Rica out of it.

Dan Rather (TV news anchor):45:05  Secretary General Kofi Anon has now ordered UN weapons inspectors and other personnel out of Iraq.  250,000 American troops are poised to strike.

President Bush:45:14  Events in Iraq have now reached the final days of decision.

Alison Brysk: 45:17  There were moments when Costa Rica’s vision wavered, or where Costa Rica did retreat to a more conventional vision of national security. Certainly, when we consider how under the administration of Abel Pacheco, Costa Rica became part of the US Coalition of the Willing to Iraq.  

Norman Solomon: 45:38  Coalition of the Willing was always a bunch of B.S. [propaganda]. It was sort of a PR [Public Relations] operation and it’s a way of saying, “We are the world,” in a way. The Pentagon and the United States government represents the world. We all know that we are the strength, but we need a lot of others signing on.

David Barsamian: 45:55  In my view, the war on Iraq

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Line 1: David Barsamian

Line 2: Alternative Radio

Position: Lower Left

is one of the greatest atrocities of the modern period, to which no one has been held to account. The impunity of military and political leaders to international law, I think speaks volumes to the collapse of morality in the United States today.

Francisco Cordero Gené:  46:21  Abel Pacheco when he was President, he was actually not very willing to get into the war with Iraq. It was our Ambassador who came from Washington to the Presidential house, and he told Abel Pacheco: “We have to go in, it’s in our benefit, all they need is that Costa Rica say, ‘Yes.’” We reacted very much against this, because we were neutral, supposedly, since 1982. A suit against the president was presented by a very good friend of ours, at that time he was still a student of the law school.

Roberto Zamora: 46:59  It’s 2003, President Pacheco is in office. He decides to issue an official support to the Coalition of the Willing,

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Line 1: Luis Roberto Zamora Bolanos

Line 2: Constitutional Lawyer

Position: Lower Left

which was openly rejected by the population of Costa Rica, as polls showed, revealing numbers up to 99% of rejection of that measure. 47:19  At that time, I was in law school and I was talking with my friends, and somebody said, “Well we’re law students, we should do something.” And I said, “We gotta [have to] file a suit against the president.” And then everybody just had a reaction.

Narrator: 47:37  Zamora’s classmates feared that taking legal action could have personal consequences – arguing that they might be banned from traveling to the United States for life.

Roberto Zamora:47:47  Their reasons for not suing the president, were not really convincing to me, so, I came back home, quite upset with everybody, wrote the suit and filed it. The Court decided to take the case.

Narrator: 48:02  Although he was only a law student, Zamora won the case, forcing the withdrawal of Costa Rica from the Coalition of the Willing. In its ruling the Supreme Court declared that support for the invasion of Iraq violated the Costa Rican Constitution and its tradition of peace.

Narrator: 48:25  In 2010, on the river marking the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Costa Rica’s security model was again put to the test. In a shocking provocation, the Nicaraguan military suddenly occupied an island belonging to Costa Rica. 

Luis Solis: 48:43  Costa Rican territory was invaded by troops of Nicaragua in October of 2010. It was a clear act of aggression against a part of our territory that had always been in our maps and international maps. Had Costa Rica had an armed force, that would have been war.

Narrator: 49:03  Initially, Nicaragua blamed Google Maps for the border confusion,

[on screen: Actual Border; Google Border – 2 KM South of Actual Border]

but rather than retreat, the Nicaraguan military doubled their forces on the border.

49:13  As the crisis reached into week six, Costa Rica’s President Laura Chinchilla marked the 62^nd anniversary of Military Abolition Day by giving a speech that was unusual by Costa Rican standards: She called on Costa Ricans to join the Armed Forces Reserves and accelerated the training of border police. 

Rod Paris: 49:34  When President Chinchilla realized her popularity was seriously

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Line 1: Rodrigo Paris

Line 2: Former United Nations

Line 3: Senior Officer

Position: Lower Left

sagging, she was losing it rapidly, she thought that promoting a nationalistic upsurge, using Nicaragua’s aggressive behavior as an excuse, could help her.

Luis Solis:  49:56  Rene Castro was Foreign Minister at the time and in the heat of the events, he suggested that Costa Rica maybe needed a defense force to prevent events such as the invasion from Nicaragua to repeat themselves. This view was over-ruled by a massive opposition from the Costa Rican public.

David Boddiger:50:14  After the conflict started, when Costa Rica declared that Nicaragua had invaded Costa Rican territory, they took their case to the Hague and the International Court of Justice, because Costa Rica is actively involved in international legal bodies – the UN, the Hague, human rights agreements. Costa Rica not only believes in those types of international legal frameworks, but actively participates in many different things around the world in order to promote the validity of those agreements. 50:46  So, this was a case where Costa Rica was actually referring to those international bodies for assistance and I think that has helped to cool down the tempers that have been going on between Managua and San Jose.

Roberto Zamora: 51:01  When Nicaragua invaded, we went to the Court, we trusted in the mechanisms,

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Line 1: Luis Roberto Zamora Bolanos

Line 2: Constitutional Lawyer

Position: Lower Left

and the results are not only an outstanding victory of international law, but an outstanding victory of peace as an international policy and as a self-defense policy. Not one bullet was shot, and an international dispute is pending resolution without a war.

Chapter 4: Costa Rica’s National Security Model

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Position: Center

Narrator: 51:35  Although located in one of the world’s most violent regions, Costa Rica has lived safely for over 65 years without a military. How has it worked for Costa Rica?   

Mario Grant Sáenz:  51:48  When I was growing up, well, it was a very simple story: it was abolish the military to avoid the problems of the rest of Latin America, where the army has been an instrument of some groups to seize power. So, we could get rid of those situations and dangers, just by getting rid of the army.

Narrator: 52:13  For precisely these reasons, the mainstream media in the United States, including TIME magazine, has often praised the Costa Rican model.

[TIME magazine article, title and subtitle: “Costa Rica Shows How, Again: One way to defend democracy: get rid of the army”]

Narrator:  52:22  Evidence of Costa Rican security in the absence of a military is found in the fact that Costa Rica ranks in a three way tie for the safest country in Latin America.

Aron Arguedas: 52:32  Costa Rica doesn’t seem to need an army. Why? We don’t have enemies! This is the key issue to understand why we don’t need an army. Who are our enemies? Nobody!

Christiana Figueres: 52:44  I do think the fact that Costa Rica has been army free, military free, for so many years which has now actually turned into generations, I think it has made us very conflict averse, a very friendly people, and we prefer to solve conflicts by negotiating with each other, by talking to each other. We just don’t like this thing about taking to the arms.

Narrator: 53:11  While many Costa Ricans think of their nation as pacifist, the Costa Rican Constitution as well as the national anthem envision a nation with no standing army, and a citizen’s militia in emergencies.

Aron Arguedas:53:24  If Costa Rica gets invaded, the President, by Constitution, can call citizens to defend the country and people will come.

Francisco Cordero Gené: 53:31  OK, so here in El Parque La Espanadad [The Spanish Park] we have a plaque that is dedicated to our national anthem. The national anthem is a commitment to have no standing army, the same as in the United States, the founding father Thomas Jefferson had proposed for a democracy that did not need an army.

Narrator: 53:56  In 1787, Jefferson wrote a series of letters urging James Madison to include a ban on a standing army in the U.S. Constitution, but the final result was a clumsy compromise.

David Barsamian: 54:10  Jefferson saw that the concentration of power in the military could have deleterious consequences for the needs of a democratic society - the United States would use its military for acquiring land by force, for invading other countries.

Norman Solomon: 54:30  A standing army

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Line 1: Norman Solomon

Line 2: Institute for Public Accuracy

Position: Lower Right

whether it’s conscripted [drafted], whether it’s volunteer, is really a welcome sign,

a blinking neon message that we’re here, we gotta [have to] be used.

Jose Figueres: 54:41  We hear a great deal of criticism

because we unilaterally disarmed ourselves

and put it into our constitution

that armies are forbidden forever.

54:53  It may be so,

but the fact is that for 40 years,

we have used a substitute for arms and for armies,

which is the... international legal system.

55:04  Just as you protect your home

by calling on the police or calling on the judge or a lawyer,

not by holding a gun,

Costa Rican is protecting our country

by applying law, international law.

I think that we are, in that particular regard,

a little bit more civilized

than many other communities on Earth.

Luis Solis: 55:25  Figueres abolished the army because he wanted to make Costa Rica’s security an issue for international organizations. A few days after the abolishment of the army, Costa Rica became the 14^th signatory of the Rio Treaty. Therefore the Treaty of Inter-American Defense entered into force, and that gives an idea of the importance that Figueres gave to international law.

Narrator: 55:47  Over the years, this national security design has been tested in times of crisis, and Costa Ricans have protected their country by appealing to international laws and organizations to arbitrate disputes.

56:01  Critics allege that Costa Rican demilitarization is only made possible by the security umbrella of the U.S. military. But that claim overlooks how often the U.S. has de-stabilized Costa Rica and the entire region.

56:15  It also overlooks how Costa Rica has cultivated diverse networks of support, often turning to Europe and Asia for diplomatic and development aid. The national soccer stadium was built as a gift by the Chinese government.

Oscar Arias: 56:31  What comes to my mind when you talk about a culture of peace is the possibility of solving conflicts through diplomacy, through dialogue, through negotiations, and not through force. And to teach young people that it is always possible to try and try very hard.

Narrator: 56:56  Other nations know that any attack on Costa Rica would backfire, as world opinion would rally behind neutral, demilitarized Costa Rica. This is why Costa Rican presidents have sometimes referred to the “moral force” of demilitarization as a form of defense.

Oscar Arias: 57:14  Our best defense is to be defenseless. Not having an army doesn’t make you weaker but stronger.

Jose Figueres: 57:23  Because we are too weak to be invaded, because our moral force is much more powerful than atomic bombs. No one can invade us. The entire world, the political opinion of the world is our army.

Arun Gandhi: 57:37  My grandfather thought

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Line 1:Arun Gandhi

Line 2: M.K. Gandhi Institute

Line 3: for Nonviolence

Position: Lower Left

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Line 1:Arun with his grandfather

Position: Lower Right

the same about moral force, he felt that soul force,

moral force is much more powerful than any weapon

in the world that we have created.

Narrator:57:49  Although powerful nations have taken little notice, Arias undertook campaigns to export the Costa Rican model and to abolish the armies in Panama, Haiti, Uruguay, and several nations in Africa.

Alison Brysk: 58:02  The Oscar Arias Foundation played a critical role in demilitarization in Panama and Haiti by holding a series of workshops, exchanges, planting the agenda. And this was a combined role with Oscar Arias’ role in elite diplomacy and networking. 

58:22  Clearly, Panama and Haiti have not been able to demilitarize as completely and successfully as Costa Rica, but we have to keep in mind that the starting conditions were much more challenging in both of those places.

David Boddiger: 58:34  The fact that Panama decided to disband their army I think is a very positive step in the region. And following in Costa Rica’s footsteps, it forms part of Oscar Arias’s original vision, before the Peace Accords were negotiated, to have an entire region that was demilitarized. That was his goal and that was his dream.

Oscar Arias:  58:54  In my Peace Plan in the 1980s, my dream was to make of Central America the first demilitarized zone in the world. I failed to do that, I wasn’t able to persuade my colleagues that they should get rid of the armed forces completely.

59:11  I tried to persuade governments in sub-Saharan Africa to get rid of their armed forces, but I never got the support from the industrialized world. You know?

59:25  I do remember many conferences organized by the Arias Foundation with defense ministers in Tanzania, I never got the support.

59:39  You know, the 5 permanent members of the UN should be doing that precisely. If they are responsible for bringing peace to the world, they should be doing that. On the contrary, they are the main exporters of arms.

Roberto Zamora:  1:00:00  National security at least to me, is not that complicated at all. It depends on how you frame it. But let’s just get practical on this. Let’s say we have an army of 10,000 people with a 5 million dollar budget for the entire year.

1:00:31  And let’s say that the United States decides to invade us again. Are we really going to stop the US?

1:00:40  I mean just one rocket cost more than what we can have as a yearly budget. Do you really want to have a self-defense force that is not going to defend you at all?

1:00:55  It just makes no sense. Or let’s say, Mexico decides to invade Honduras.

1:01:03 The Honduran Army is not going to defend Honduras from a Mexican invasion because there is no capacity. So having a military in small countries is ridiculous, unless you are a member of the US State Department in which you understand that small militaries in small countries are to give coups, so they elect a President that you don’t want, then you have a coup d’etat.

1:01:33  That’s the only reason why there are small militaries, so the US can impose via coup d’etat the dictator they want. But it just makes no sense. What are we going to do with an army? Costa Rica – with an army? Are we going to attack somebody? 

1:01:52  No, unless it’s the Cocos Island or Easter Island, maybe we could invade Easter Island, we could have a tug of war there. It just makes no sense.  And that’s the brilliant vision of Figueres when abolishing the army, he said, “This just makes no sense. Let’s put the money in education and health care and let’s give a chance to development.” Voila, you have the results in a stable country with high education levels, with fantastic technical education and university education levels, a solid democracy. The last elections just showed that the democracy is solid. It just makes no sense.

Then: Black screen, then type this out on screen [at 1:02:46]

 …from 1898 to 1994, the U.S. government intervened successfully

to change governments in Latin America a total of at least 41 times.

[pause and skip a line]

In 24 cases, the U.S. government played an indirect role.

That is, local actors played the principal roles, but either would not

have acted or would not have succeeded without encouragement

from the U.S. government.”

- John H. Coatsworth
Revista: Harvard Review of Latin America, March, 2005

Oscar Arias:1:03:16  Look at the peace dividends here in Costa Rica. If are able to spend 8% of GDP on education, it’s simply because we don’t spend a penny on armed forces.

1:03:29  There are 1 billion people who have no access to clean water.

There are 1 billion people who are illiterate.

You know, with a tiny percentage of military spending, we could bring potable water to everybody on this planet, and we could educate every single body.

1:03:47  I am convinced as a Costa Rican that there is nothing more perverse than spending our scarse resources in arms and soldiers, if we haven’t been able to satisfy the basic needs of our people.

Arun Gandhi: 1:04:07  I think Costa Rica is an example that the world needs to follow,

that we disband military establishments and invest the money in human resources,

and that we can live peacefully and nonviolently with the rest of the world,

show greater compassion for people and have better relationships.

Chapter 5: Threats to Peace

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Line 1: Chapter 5 [color: red]

Line 2: Threats to Peace [color: white]

Position: Center

Narrator: 1:04:42  Today Costa Ricans perceive numerous threats to their culture of peace.

Coffee picker: 1:04:47  What I don’t like are all the false politicians.

It’s gotten to where we don’t trust those people anymore.

It’s just lies all the time, and little support for workers.

Woman: 1:05:00  The problem we have

in this community is a lot of poverty.

We also have a problem with sewage.

When it rains, the sewage flows onto the sidewalk,

and you can’t walk.

People can’t live in this kind of poverty.

The government has promised to help.

We’ve been waiting on their promises for 20 years.

As you can see, this place is not livable.

Narrator: 1:05:32  Across town, extravagant new homes

illustrate how far Costa Rica has strayed from its traditional social contract.

Roberto Zamora: 1:05:41  Wealth distribution is the founding basis of Costa Rican democracy. When you have wealth well-distributed, then you have balance in the powers of society. And when you cannot impose over the other party, you got to sit down and talk. That’s what builds democracy. And our political system was based on that material situation that we had to talk. That’s how the founding of our democracy was so strong, and that’s why democracy has been through a hole in the recent years, because economic disparity is just going crazy.

Luis Solis: 1:06:25  In my estimation, the biggest threat the country has is inequality.

We are as unequal as we have ever been in our history. And this is a major threat.

We are losing the capacity we had in the past, of allowing income distribution to be part of Costa Rican daily lives – by public education, good public health services.

We were able to shape a society where redistribution of wealth allowed for the flourishing of democratic values. For me that’s fundamental to understand the human progress that Costa Rica was able to achieve after 60 years of a solid welfare state. But the logic of the welfare state was to allow the Costa Rican citizen to feel respected, to achieve a sense of human dignity.

It was a society that was able to dream, to look at the stars. We’re losing that dynamism, that belief that a better future is possible.

Mariano Figueres: 1:07:38  The world today of a 1% and a 99% is simply not sustainable.

Society without a very big middle class is not possible.

If there’s no middle class to consume, how you gonna produce? How you gonna sell?

Who you gonna sell to?

Capitalism today is committing suicide because of the excess of concentration of wealth, and the consistent destruction of middle classes. This is starting to feel like a pressure cooker, and every day there’s more steam coming out.   

1:08:14  When in the South of the United States you have to build a wall, something ain’t [is not] right.

I may live in the safest highest wall around me with all the security wire you want,

but if my neighbor is not making it, I’m in real danger.

He’ll climb that wall.

Narrator: 1:08:40  In recent years, Costa Rican politics has been crippled by corruption.

But a new generation of leaders is emerging. Among them is Luis Solis,

a history and political science professor who is running in the 2014 presidential election.

But Solis is part of a small political party, and Costa Ricans have not elected a 3^rd party candidate in 50 years. With 3 months to go before the election, polls report that Solis has attracted only 4% of voters.

Luis Solis: 1:09:14  I’m running for President because I want to preserve my country’s autonomy and do it well.

Luis Solis (interviewed by TV): 1:09:22  It is unacceptable that a nation like ours

has 1.3 million poor people,

of whom 350,000 are living in extreme poverty.

Luis Solis campaign advertisement:  [Music...]

1:09:43  I’m Luis Guillermo Solis,

a citizen just like yourself,

and I hope we can get to know each other.

Narrator: 1:09:54  After the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, was signed into U.S. law in 2005, Costa Rica faced mounting pressure from U.S. officials

to embrace free trade. As a result, in 2007, Costa Ricans voted on CAFTA in a national referendum. The measure passed by a slim margin and it remains controversial, as Costa Ricans closely watch the effects free trade is having on their culture.

Francisco Cordero Gené: 1:10:23  Our social democracy actually did give a welfare state.

This welfare state is being disassembled, by all this free trade neo-cons, and the worst part of it is, that they’re actually saying that we even have to privatize our social security.

Mariano Figueres: 1:10:43  The erosion of our middle class and the rising social instability

is due to things like globalization, like the free trade agreement that was imposed on us

and you start seeing the effects of these things very fast.

For example, the disappearing convenience stores in the neighborhoods

and at the same time you start seeing big Wal-Marts all over the place.

Wal-Mart – which is the company that has more labor disputes in the world,

and has come to Costa Rica to do the same thing.

1:11:19  And you see how globalization and the free trade agreement

invade with all these multinational companies.

We got a Starbucks in Costa Rica and we produce maybe the best coffee in the world.

And you want us to produce Starbucks?

1:11:40 And now globalization and the free trade agreement bombard us

with 5-star hotels from multinational companies.

They come in with all included packages, so the locals can’t see any benefit at all.

So what we see today is that through all these processes of globalization,

they undermine the possibilities of sustaining and growing our middle class

and that fundamentally is what is causing the loss of our well-being,

the loss of our peace, the loss of our happiness.

Luis Solis: 1:12:18  The concentration of wealth is based upon the attitudes

of a very small part of the population. They are the owners of most political parties.

And their reluctance to do what they have to do in any democratic, capitalist, modern society which is pay their dues in ways of taxes or allowing for public policies to develop

without the resistance of their representatives in Congress.

The logic of a lot of these elites has to do with this globalized notion that development somehow can be achieved by the private sector only.

And that regulations to enhance these policies of redistribution should not be pursued

and that’s nonsensical, I mean the result of those policies, so-called neo-liberal proposals of the 1980s and 1990s clearly prove that after 20 years of enactment,

those proposals result in crisis.  There is no such thing as a democratic regime

without the preservation of the common good. You cannot have unrestrained capitalism working within the society because you will kill the society and you will kill capitalism.

Oscar Arias:  1:13:31  What we need is to put principles before profits.

What we need is different values for the 21^st century.

I don’t think it is fair to start the new century with the values of the 20^th century,

with so much greed, so much individualism, the lack of solidarity, the lack of compassion,

so much cynicism.

Jose Figueres:1:13:57  American civilization has produced a type of human

being called the businessman,

who is very successful in making things available to many people.

But all this has a price.

There’s a great danger

of turning society into a good machine for producing goods and services,

and doing away with many of the spiritual aspirations of mankind.

Chapter 6: The Permanent Warfare State

TC in: 1:14:22

TC out: 1:14:28 (drop when switching to new footage)

Line 1: Chapter 6 [color: red]

Line 2: The Permanent Warfare State [color: white]

Position: Center

Narrator: 1:14:23  While inequality and globalization threaten Costa Rica’s tradition of social democracy, a new threat has emerged for Costa Rica’s tradition of demilitarization – and there are no signs of it going away any time soon. Just as in the past, it is a threat closely linked to the United States – the Drug War.

Gloria Bejarano de Calderon: 1:14:43  We don’t have an army in a time in which we have really serious problems with drug traffic. So, we have our police corps, but sometimes we ask – “Is this enough?”  

Mariano Figueres: 1:14:58  Today in Central American and the Caribbean, we’re stuck in the middle of a sandwich, where we have drug production in Latin America like Colombia or going south, and the biggest drug market in the world in the United States. It’s a sensitive issue to us.

1:15:17  Number one, because the United States has a history of invading any country they want in Latin America, of overthrowing any government. Secondly, because it’s not any little boat that is coming in, they are military boats that are coming into Costa Rican waters and to Costa Rican ports.

TV host: 1:15:37  The Costa Rican government will allow an arsenal of U.S. warships and infantry to set up shot in their country, but opposition leaders there are crying foul.

Eva Gollinger: 1:15:46  They’re seeing that what’s been authorized is a completely disproportionate amount of U.S. military force and that it doesn’t pan up to the needs of the counter-narcotics operations. And certainly, Costa Rica didn’t ban having its own armed forces so that another countries’ armed forces could come in and take over the role of security and defense – I mean, that’s not what’s going on.

Narrator:1:16:08  Acknowledging the Drug War’s notorious failure to reduce drug trafficking, some Costa Ricans fear the Drug War is merely a pretext for U.S. militarization of the region.  

TC in: 1:16:16 (quick fade in)

TC out: 1:16:21 (slow fade out)

Line 1: U.S. Military Bases in Latin America [color: white]

Position: Lower, Center

David Barsamian: 1:16:21 The U.S. ranks number one in the world on weapons exports, far and away,

[Chart: Global arms sales, 2004 – 2011 (in billions 2011 USD)]

no one even comes close to the level of money that the U.S. generates from selling its weaponry around the world. So there’s almost an institutional imperative to drive for war, to drive not for diplomatic solutions, but for military outcomes of what are in most instances political problems. 

News excerpt: 1:16:50  America struck its single biggest arms deal when Saudi Arabia ordered 60 billion dollars worth of arms.

David Barsamian: 1:16:57  The Pentagon is sucking out what little fat there is left in the federal budget and where is the money coming from? It’s being cut from education, it’s being cut from health care. People are asked to make more sacrifices. When is the Pentagon going to make a sacrifice? When is the military industrial complex going to make a sacrifice? You know, aren’t people sick and tired of the permanent warfare state?

Narrator: 1:17:27 Reflecting President Eisenhower’s ominous warning of a military industrial complex, the permanent warfare state demands ongoing cuts to social spending and education. This lack of social solidarity in the U.S. fosters an unwavering commitment to militarism at home and abroad.

Norman Solomon: 1:17:48 The permanent war economy has a ring to it because it rings true. We’ve lived that reality in the United States for many decades. But at the same time it’s a psychological permanence, the belief that we’ve got to have war, we’ve gotta have the funding for war and the notion of readiness is concentric politically and militarily with the emotional readiness to say – “Hey, we’re ready for war.”

President Bush:1:18:15  We must stay on the offensive, we must be determined and we must be relentless.

President Obama:1:18:21  We will be relentless in defense of our citizens.

Norman Solomon: 1:18:24  Diplomacy is now almost a dead letter in the United States. It is talked about sometimes, but it’s just rhetorical gloss and sometimes going through the motions of jetting from one capital to another.

1:18:37 Real diplomacy would involve health care, education, housing, we’d drop medicine and blankets on people rather than bombs. And also treaties against land mines, and cluster bombs and small arms trade and large trade and also the use of nuclear power which leads to, through its export, nuclear proliferation.

Narrator:1:19:02  For years, President Arias has promoted an Arms Trade Treaty which would prohibit the selling of arms to dictatorships and to governments who spend more on arms than on social welfare. 1:19:15  In 2006, when the Arms Trade Treaty was discussed at the UN, 153 nations supported it, 24 nations abstained, and only one nation voted against it – the United States.1:19:29  When the UN finally debated the treaty again in July of 2012, 51 U.S. Senators went on record as opponents of the treaty.

David Barsamian: 1:19:38  The Arms Trade Treaty is badly needed, and certainly a very noble attempt to put some kind of constraints on this out of control trafficking in weaponry around the world, of which the US is number one arms trafficker.    

Narrator: 1:19:59 In September of 2013, Costa Rica became the 5^th nation in the world to ratify the Arms Trade Treaty. So far the U.S. government has refused to ratify it. And the prospect of ratification may be dim, since the U.S. has the world’s highest rate of failure in ratifying international agreements. 1:20:18 Each of the following treaties ratified by Costa Rica, still awaits a commitment by the U.S. government:

Treaties named here by Costa Ricans:

1:20:25  Costa Rica has ratified the

Biological Weapons Convention.

1:20:32  ...and also the Rome Statute

of the International Criminal Court.

1:20:35  ...and the Uranium Weapons Ban.

1:20:39  ...and the Convention on the Elimination

of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

1:20:45  ...and the Arms Trade Treaty.

1:20:47  ...and the Convention on the Rights of Children.

1:20:50  ...and the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty.

1:20:53  Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture...

1:20:57  Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty...

1:21:00  International Covenant on Economic,

Social and Cultural Rights...

1:21:03  The Cluster Bomb Treaty...

1:21:06  ...and the Kyoto Protocol.

Narrator:1:21:09  Although it struggles and sometimes falls short of its ideals, we glimpse in Costa Rica a different way the world might live – the way of demilitarization, solidarity, diplomacy and international law.

Woman in park: 1:21:25  To protect all the people you need to understand that we need to love each other – everyone, you know, because I cannot protect just my family, just my friends. So we need to understand that maybe I don’t have friends in some neighborhoods, but they are my people too. They live in Costa Rica too, they build this country too, they help this country too, and they are working for this country too.

Luis Solis: 1:21:49  The ultimate attitude of the country against armamentism, against the existence of an army, has to do with the process of sedimentation of values that have occurred since 1949, through this educational system. The Costa Ricans in general are adamant against the military. Once and once again you find the limit between war and peace, between recreating the armed force and not doing it, in those profoundly grounded values of not having an armed force.

Oscar Arias: 1:22:20  The world doesn’t need to spend 1.3 trillion dollars in arms and soldiers.

Mariano Figueres:1:22:28  Violence does not in any moment, prevent more violence, or cure a society of violence.

Luis Garita Bonilla:1:22:35  We don’t want to participate in wars, we want to develop pacific ways of solving conflicts.

Gloria Bejarano de Calderon:1:22:42 Countries need a vision to follow, that everybody gets involved and we’ll work for the same ideals.  

Francisco Cordero Gené:1:22:50  The neocons want us to be their servants, or maybe just global consumers. We want to be global citizens, and that’s why we uphold international law.

Mirta Gonzalez Suarez:  1:23:04  We don’t have an army and that means we don’t have to be afraid of the army.

Roberto Zamora:1:23:10  We believe that justice is stronger than war, and that the instruments of justice are stronger than the instruments of war. The degree of respect you have for international law is the degree of respect that other nations have for you and by those measures, Costa Rica is a huge country.

Narrator: 1:23:32  In 2013, the Costa Rican soccer team qualified for the World Cup.

1:23:44  They would later go on to reach the World Cup Quarterfinals.

TV announcer:1:23:48  And Costa Rica will play the Dutch in the Quarterfinals.

Narrator: 1:23:54  And the revolutionary passion of Jose Figueres

lives on in his daughter Christiana

who now brings her visionary leadership to the global stage.

TV host:1:24:04  There is now a new UN Climate Chief as of the middle of May.

She is Christiana Figueres, a Costa Rican citizen...

Christiana Figueres:  1:24:12  Only governments can lead the world more rapidly

to a low emissions future and prepare societies for the climate change already on the way.

Governments need to continue to deliver this through the UN negotiations,

every time taking bigger, bolder steps to keep us ahead of the storm.

Christiana Figueres [street interview]:  1:24:32  This is it, we are running out of time,

we have to get to an ambitious global agreement by next year.

Christiana Figueres:  1:24:39  I do feel that I’m following in my Father’s footsteps.

There is something that runs through our veins which is a fundamental confidence

in international law. My Father, certainly, was able to outlaw the army

because he had trust that international law would come to Costa Rica’s rescue,

should something happen. And I have devoted my life to international law

in the field of climate change where we are actually trying to get all these countries together

to collaborate with each other and rescue each other out of a very, very unsafe zone

that we have put ourselves in.

Narrator: 1:25:21  And the campaign of Luis Solis gained momentum in the final weeks before the election. He was endorsed by Figueres’s son Mariano. And Costa Ricans embraced Solis’s promise to tackle inequality and corruption. In the end, it was said that Solis “came out of nowhere” to garner the most votes in the February 2014 election.

Two months later in a run-off election, he was elected President.

Luis Solis: 1:25:51  We have made very clear through our history

that social justice is the base of our progress.

The Costa Rican people are saying,

here we are, all of us,

to build a responsible, inclusive, and fair country.

the land of the eternal values of Costa Rica.

With the embrace of the people,

we shall make politics an instrument for all,

and make our land a crucible where

we can build the future of Costa Rica,

the Costa Rica of hope, the Costa Rica of happiness,

that will take us into the 21^st century as a new country,

as a new Costa Rica!

TC in: 1:26:42 (fade in)

TC out: 1:26:51 (fade out)

Line 1: In December of 2015, the International Court of Justice

Line 2: ruled the disputed border territory belongs to Costa Rica.

Line 3 and 4: Blank

Line 5: Nicaragua agreed to abide by the ruling.

Position: Center, Center

[Black screen]

TC in: 1:26:53 (fade in)

TC out: 1:27:01 (fade out)

Line 1: To date, the United States has not ratified

Line 2: any of the treaties or agreements mentioned in this film.

Position: Center, Center

[Black screen]

Credits: 1:27:07 to 1:29:46

[END]