Cuba, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Socialism

[cwellen <cwellen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I greatly admire Castro and the achievements of the Cuban Working
Classes.  However, recently I visited Costa Rica.  I was extremely
impressed.  Costa Rica has ecological protections more advanced than
those in the US.  (In fact, an American who tried to cut trees down on
his own property in Costa Rica--Guanacaste Province--was recently
deported).  Pensions are guaranteed by the state, Corporations are
heavily taxed to create the pension funds as well as a national health
scheme.  Life expectancy is higher or equal to that in Cuba; infant
mortality is lower.  Literacy and levels of education are equal or above
those in Cuba.  The entire time I was there I saw only two beggars--in
San Jose.

Costa Rica has no army and every citizen is very proud to announce this
fact.  People enjoy a full range of both economic guarantees and
guarantees of free speech and freedom of assembly.  Trade Unions
function freely.  Wealth is distributed quite equitably, more so than in
other Latin American countries I have lived in and visited:  Mexico,
Colombia, Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela (more equitably than in the US, I
might add).

Marx himself would, I believe, find Costa Rica more congenial to his
sense of social justice than any other country in this hemisphere.  This
is not to say it is a Socialist Paradise.  Historical accidents have
blessed Costa Rica:  excellent soil nourished by volcanoes and few
resources that the imperialists would covet.  Unlike Nicargua to the
north and Panama to the south, no one ever wanted to build a
trans-american canal there.  William Walker, the American who invaded
Nicaragua in the last century and made himself President for five years,
failed in his attempt to conquer Costa Rica, when Mora organized his
militias (on a voluntary basis); and Juan Santamaria single-handedly
burned down his most important fort.

Should we not hold up the achievements of Costa Rica alongside those of
Cuba and Nicaragua, however less dramatic they may seem?

Sincere Regards,

A man called Wei En Lin





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