by Rod Hughes

It is a sign of the Arias Administration’s lukewarm relations with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that the government is treating an offer of $100 million in economic aid as if it were a Trojan horse. But the most enthusiasm Costa Rican ambassador to Nicaragua Antonio Tacsan will allow himself is that he will “listen” to the Venezuelan offer.

Arias is expected in Managua early this morning and will meet with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro at a summit meeting in Managua, Nicaragua, where economics will be the main topic. Chavez himself will not attend due to illness, according to the news service Agence France Presse. But presidents of Central America, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage are expected to be at the Crown Hotel to discuss, among other topics, the worldwide crisis of rising food prices.

Relations between Arias and Chavez were not the best even before Arias took office in 2006. The Venezuelan urged Costa Ricans to reject the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), in which Arias had a great deal of political capital invested. The two president have engaged in long-range verbal sniping but lately the tone has lowered.