by Rod Hughes

MANAGUA, Nicaragua– President Oscar Arias pledged his government to spend $70 million in agricultural stimulus in the face of the worsening world food price crisis. He told the summit of Latin American respresentatives that he would present his plan to Costa Rican Legislative Assembly within the next few hours with a special tax proposal.

The rapid rise in food prices may be worldwide, but Arias is especially sensitive to the effects of the petroleum/food crunch on the meager pocketbooks of the poor in this country. This double blow endangers gains in his struggle against poverty made in the first two years of his current administration. Under his new plan, small farmers would receive $15 million in technical aid immediately.

Added to this would be $22 million in credit to basic food raisers as well as for financing of equipment and machinery. Basic food crops such as corn has been weighing on Arias’s mind for some time. In his State of the Nation address to the Legislative Assembly early this month, he made an indirect swipe at U.S. President George W. Bush’s scheme to convert corn into ethanol fuel, a move that has hiked prices on that grain all over the world. Corn is a basic foodstuff in most Latin American countries.

The “Security and Alimentary Sovereignty” summit was convoked by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. Only five presidents are attending the meeting but 17 countries have sent official high level representatives. The speeches have taken on a leftist cast with “anti-imperialist” addresses from Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Arias refused to sign a declaration against free trade–not surprising, considering his trade agreements with other countries including the U.S. and pending negotiations with the European Union and China.