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Inauguration Day in Costa Rica

May 8 will be a day of famous personalities and traffic jams

by the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The May 8 inauguration of Óscar Arias Sánchez is shaping up to be a major meeting of world leaders. And there will be major traffic jams.

Hugo Chávez of Venezuela has sent word that he will attend. The US delegation will be headed by Laura Bush, wife of the president.

Former Polish president Lech Walesa, like Arias a Nobel Peace Prize winner, also has confirmed. The president of Taiwan, Chen Sui-Bian, is coming with a delegation.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is on the list, as is Martin Torrijos of Panamá and other Central American leaders.

These guests and others were listed Thursday by Bruno Stagno, the future minister of Relaciones Exteriores y Culto, in a summary to reporters.

The Spanish crown prince of Asturias and his wife also are expected. But Fidel Castro is not.

The event will cover two days. May 7, a Sunday, is when the foreign delegations will present themselves formally at Casa Amarilla, the foreign ministry. Diplomats will work overtime to make sure people like Laura Bush and Venezuelan President Chávez don't meet on the stairs.

Then Abel Pacheco, in one of the last acts of his presidency, will host the heads of state and missions at a dinner that night at the Teatro Nacional. Arias will hold a special reception later.

The inaugural day begins for the public at 7 a.m. when police close off the highways near the Estadio Nacional in Sabana Oeste from the Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería on the south to the Banco Interfin on the north. The Rohrmoser boulevard also will be closed as will an area in the vicinity of the Arias house from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Large sections of the downtown will be closed, too, in anticipation of afternoon inaugural events.

Arias will walk from his house to the stadium with plans to arrive there at 11 a.m. He lives less than a kilometer away.

The presence of world leaders, many of them controversial, means tight security, and at least 1,300 policemen will be involved in the security screen at the stadium and other locations where inaugural activities are.

Admission to the stadium is being limited to those with invitations. Guests will be bused in.

At 2:30 p.m., Arias is to be the host of a luncheon for heads of state and missions at the Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo in the Centro Nacional de Cultura.

Then at 4:30 p.m. Arias is scheduled to get to work by holding his first cabinet meeting with his new ministers at the nearby Casa Amarilla.

Arias is expected to issue a flurry of decrees attacking problems, like roads, that were not managed satisfactorily by the Pacheco administration.

Others in the various missions will be hosted at additional events around town, including a luncheon at Pueblo Antiguo in the Parque de Diversiones in La Uruca.

Other events are planned all over the country for those who can't make the trip to San Jose. These may include dance events and other celebrations of the peaceful change of power.

The Comision Nacional de Traspaso de Poderes is in charge of the inauguration. The commission said it had a budget of 100 million colons, or about $200,000.

When Abel Pacheco accepted the sash of office May 8, 2002, the ceremony was in the Teatro Popular Melico Salazar downtown, and guests walked to a luncheon at the Teatro Nacional.

The only information about the makeup of the US delegation has come from the commission. They seem well-briefed there with information including where delegation members may be housed.

The White House has not yet announced the designation of Mrs. Bush as delegation leader, and US Embassy employees said they were in the dark as late as Wednesday.

Chávez of Venezuela has become standard bearer for the left in Latin America and at odds with the United States. He claims the United States tried to unseat him in a coup, a charge the Bush administration denies.

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