An Apt and Able Middleman

Costa Rican President Luis Alberto Monge Alvarez, 57, was inaugurating a new agricultural reform project last week at the village of Cipreses outside San Jose. He was in the midst of his speech when the ground began to shake. In a matter of minutes, the earthquake was over and Monge finished his remarks. Afterward, climbing behind the wheel of a white Landcruiser, he smiled and cracked, "I speak and the earth moves, yet my opponents say I lack charisma!"

It is political earthquakes that Monge has had to worry about most since assuming office a little more than a year ago. Like Honduras, Costa Rica feels particularly threatened by Central America's growing militarization and ideological polarization. Monge and other Costa Rican officials must be especially careful not to appear too much in the pocket of Uncle Sam. Monge stresses what might be called the liberal critique of the Central American crisis. As he told TIME Diplomatic Correspondent Strobe Talbott last week: "For decades there has been repression of the people of Central America by oligarchs. This has created a serious dilemma for the U.S. Is it going to support unpopular oligarchs against guerrillas controlled by the Marxist-Leninists? Costa Rica wants to be identified with whatever chance there is for a peaceful solution to the problems of the region."

Costa Rica is Central America's stablest democracy. It does not have an army: that institution was abolished in 1949, and order is maintained largely by 7,000 lightly armed civil and rural guardsmen. The country's 1982 per capita income of $1,164 is the second highest, after Panama, in Central America, and its society is largely lacking in the unhealthy extremes of wealth and poverty that afflict Guatemala and El Salvador.

Despite those advantages, Costa Rica is a land of anxiety. It is, for one thing, virtually bankrupt. In the past two years, the colon has been devalued by almost 600%, and the country shows few signs of being able to repay an estimated $4.2 billion in foreign debt. While still relatively tranquil, Costa Rica has begun to experience tremors of violence that in some cases can be traced to the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua, whose rise Costa Ricans enthusiastically abetted. Providing sanctuary and financial support for the Sandinistas during their 1979 revolution was a top priority of Monge's predecessor, Rodrigo Carazo Odio. Now, however, Monge is convinced that Nicaragua is becoming increasingly repressive and dangerously dependent on the Soviets and the Cubans.

As a result of that change in attitude, Costa Rica has become a haven for refugees from the Sandinista regime, a role that has not gone unnoticed in Nicaragua. In recent weeks, Sandinista-inspired agents have been arming and instigating Costa Rican squatters to take over land in the area of Guapiles, 25 miles northeast of San Jose, the capital. A Sandinista agent two weeks ago tried to plant a bomb in the Costa Rican headquarters of a Nicaraguan dissident group. The device exploded prematurely, killing the agent.

In manner and speech, Monge is not a crowd-stunning kind of politician. Yet he and his National Liberation Party were swept into power with 57.3% of the vote in February 1982. A lifelong social democrat and veteran labor organizer, Monge has introduced a financial austerity program that has helped bring inflation down from 100% to 22%. He has also strengthened ties to the U.S. In recognition, Washington is giving Costa Rica $145 million in aid this year.

But their economy is still sicker and their neighbors more threatening than Costa Ricans would like. Some opposition groups and segments of the press have begun attacking Monge as indecisive and too subservient to the U.S. Yet his accomplishments so far are impressive by almost any standard. Says an admiring U.S. official in San Jose: "Once in a great while the right man comes along." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.