page 10, February 28, 1986

by ROB-PATRICK TAYLOR

“We don’t want you to
come to Costa Rica,’’ said the
government official, ‘‘there is
a dangerous climate here.’’

This was the response that
the group of 300 international
peace marchers received from
a country which was once
called ‘‘the Switzerland of
Latin America’, and was well
known for its free and demo-
cratic principles.

“Not Quite a Country

Torril Eide, an ‘internation-
ally known Norwegian peace
march organizer, was a key
figure in the planning of the
march. Each country had
what was called a ‘‘Watchdog
Committee’ of people in their
countries in case any prob-
lems arose. Some of these
people included Ed Broad-
bent, Jesse Jackson, Willy
Brandt, Julie Cristie and Des-
mond Tutu.

 

“we found out out that 30 percent

of the people sent back were killed”

 

“It became clear that there
was an inverse relationship
between the amount of U.S.
aida country receives and our
welcome in that country,’’
said Diane Jacobs, a North
Vancouver resident who par-
ticipated in the march. The
peace march started on De-
cember 3 in Panama City and
continued for 6 weeks, with
all ora contingent of partici-
pants visiting Panama, Costa
Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador,
Guatemala and Mexico. The
participants came from many
of. the Western European
countries, Canada, U.S., Ja-
pan, Australia and New ‘Zea-
land.

In fact, the only countries
where there was free passage
were Panama, Nicaragua and
Mexico. Numerous problems
were encountered by the mar-
chers, and in Honduras, Gua-
temala and El Salvador, and
the participants only came in
to these countries by the
handful on innocuous tourist
visas. The group was given a
three day visa in Costa Rica,
but it was revoked when they
arrived in the capital, San
Jose.

   
 
   
   
   
    

founded
Security,
was born
the U.S.
ation of

‘What’
President

tries, she
aguan sol

 

 

“there was an inverse rel

between the amount of
country receives and our

  

 

‘‘We couldn’t cross the
border for a day and the
Costa Rican security officers
checked each passport and
compiled a list of the march-
ers which they sent to the Sal-
vadorean government,’’ Di-
ane said. ‘’When we arrived
in Costa Rica, about 50 peo-
ple, all men, tried to assault
us with stones, cans and
bottles but the support people
there made a passage to the
hotel for us.’’ However, 16
people were injured in this
incident, all of them Costa
Ricans.

  

&

  
   
    

have been
They were
guns. The
egos tied
pons.’”. Th
personal
ident Orte