Oscar Arias Sánchez

Oscar Arias Sánchez was the president of Costa Rica from 1986 to 1990, during which time he acted as the primary mediator of the Esquipulas Agreement, which negotiated an end to the wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. For this effort, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987.

Arias Sánchez was an exceptional leader for many reasons. First, he held a Ph.D. and was a noted scholar in both political science and economics. He taught at the University of Costa Rica and published many books and articles in his fields of expertise. Arias Sánchez won the presidential election in 1986 by insisting that Costa Rica not be drawn into any war in Central America. Soon after being elected, Arias became an active peace broker, trying to bring all the warring Central American factions together.
Building on an earlier peace plan that had not been successful (the Contadora Pact), Arias developed a new peace plan that was broader in scope. The ten-point plan called for immediate cease-fires in all the guerrilla wars in the region (Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador), the end of insurgents' use of outside countries for their guerrilla efforts, national reconciliation commissions that worked for negotiated settlements of all the regional disputes, amnesty for insurgents, repatriation of refugees, the end of states of emergency, the protection of human rights, democratization of the political systems in the region, and continuing regional consultations in summit meetings. Although they were initially reluctant, Arias was able to sell this plan to regional leaders as well as to international leaders, including those in the U.S. Senate and eventually to President Reagan (though Reagan opposed the plan initially). After much prodding and fine-tuning, the five Central American heads of state met in Guatemala City in August 1987, where they signed the peace plan. The plan went into effect three months later, on 7 November 1987.

In awarding the Peace Prize, Nobel Chairman Aarvik highlighted two points about the Arias peace plan that had most impressed the committee. First was that it was the product of Central American presidents themselves, who wanted outside intervention to cease. Second was the fact that the plan coupled democracy with peace. Arias had long advocated the indivisibility of those two concepts. Speaking at the Nobel ceremony, he declared, "Peace is a never-ending process. It is an attitude, a way of life, a way of solving problems and resolving conflicts. We seek in Central America not peace alone, not peace to be followed some day by political progress, but peace and democracy, together, indivisible, an end to the shedding of human blood, which is inseparable from an end to the suppression of human rights" (Abrams 1988,252).