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428080565
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Telephone conversation with President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, February 26, 1990
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doc
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document
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1
Source metadata
id
428080565
contentType
document
title
Telephone conversation with President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, February 26, 1990
citationUrl
collections
Records of the National Security Council (George H. W. Bush Administration)
Presidential Telcon Files
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Costa Rica
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428080565
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item
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26
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1990-02-26
month
2
year
1990
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nara-archive
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1
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document
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2303ca98a4dae168
ocrText
CONFIDENTIAL
CONFIDENTIAL
1559
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
DECLASSIFIED
PER E.O. 12958,
AS AMENDED
2000-0429-F
MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION
32 8/21/09
SUBJECT:
Telephone conversation with President Oscar
Arias of Costa Rica (U)
PARTICIPANTS:
The President
Oscar Arias, President of Costa Rica
Interpreter: Stephanie van Reigersberg
Notetaker: Donald C. Johnson
DATE, TIME
February 26, 1990, 6:35 - 6:38pm EST
AND PLACE:
The Oval Office
The President telephoned President Arias concerning the
results of the Nicaraguan elections. (U)
The President: Hello, how are you? (U)
President Arias: I'm very well. (U)
The President: I want to tell you that UNO's victory is also
your victory and a victory for the peace process. I want to
salute your support for the electoral process, which was clearly
decisive. ($)
President Arias: I appreciate your call. (U)
The President: I have sent a message of congratulations to
Violeta Chamorro. I feel the transition will be peaceful.
President Perez of Venezuela told me that he also thinks it will
be peaceful. ($)
President Arias: It will be a peaceful transition. Violeta will
have to negotiate many issues with the Sandinistas. But we in
Latin America are used to negotiations of this type. Aylwin has
had to do this in Chile. We can solve the difficulties that may
come up. (d)
The President: We'll try to do what we can, and we'll be in
touch with the Europeans to help. I'll try to get Gorbachev on
the same wave length. But there is no need for the contras to be
fighters any more. (f)
President Arias: Congratulations to you for what you have
achieved with President Gorbachev.
(f)
GONFIDENTIAL
Declassify on: OADR
CONFIDENTIAL
IDENTIAL
CONFIDENTIAL
2
The President: We have to keep working with him on this issue.
(f)
President Arias: I spoke to Vice President Quayle in San
Salvador yesterday and told him that Violeta would win.
()
The President: Yes, he called and told me about his conversation
with you. (d)
President Arias: I learned a great deal about elections from
reading the book entitled The People's Choice, about the
Roosevelt-Wilkie presidential race in a small community in Ohio.
I was convinced that if the Nicaraguan people were given the
chance to vote freely, that they would choose Violeta. So the
outcome was no surprise to me. (d)
The President: A lot of people here had given up on the
opposition's chances in the election because of those damned
polling results published in the Washington Post.
(d)
President Arias: Those polls relied on friends of the
Sandinistas. They were cheating. According to polls done by
organizations here in Costa Rica, Violeta was going to win by a
large margin. (C)
The President: I remember you told me that there had been a very
good poll for her some months back. (C)
President Arias: We made a poll to see who was the most popular
politician in Nicaragua, and she won. (L)
The President: She's an important symbol, but she will need lots
of help and advice. This would be better if it comes from Carlos
Andres Perez and you, as you know the area better than we do.
But we'll try to do what we can to be helpful. (X)
President Arias: Thank you, Mr. President. (U)
The President: Good going. Bye-bye. (U)
CONFIDENTIAL
-CONFIDENTIAL