Nobel Costa Rica: A Timely Report on Our Peaceful Pro-Yankee, Central American Neighbor

This informal but informed portrait of ``a multifaceted jewel of a country,'' where the principal domestic product is peaceful tranquillity, also depicts its celebrated young leader, Oscar Arias, whose pragmatic neutrality balances this army-less republic between Nicaragua and Panama, Ortega and Noriega, the Contras and El Salvador's rebels. Rolbein notes that in becoming Costa Rica's president and winning the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize, Arias achieved two of his major goalsthe third being to serve as secretary-general of the United Nations. Included are a brief history of the country, with emphasis on the career of Jose Figueres, Arias's political godfather and the man who abolished the army in 1948, an outline of the Arias peace plan for Central America and a transcript of Arias' rousing after-dinner address in Oslo. Rolbein writes for Boston magazine. (Dec.)