Nobel Peace Laureate

Oscar Arias Sanchez has indeed served the cause of peace, and the Nobel Peace Prize honors what he, and the other Central American leaders, have done. This recognition, at this crucial time, will surely help the process that he has set in motion.

The accord, signed Aug. 7 in Guatemala City, “laid solid foundations for the further development of democracy and for open cooperation between peoples and states,” the Nobel committee affirmed. So it does.

Arias himself has made an “outstanding contribution to the possible return of stability and peace to a region long torn by strife and civil war.” So he has.

There is a realism in those words. The committee speaks, not of accomplished fact, but of the creation of a foundation on which democracy can be better constructed. It speaks of the possible return, not the return, of peace to the battlefields of Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. But the creation of a foundation and the development of a possibility for peace are not small accomplishments. They deserve this international celebration.

Arias symbolizes the hopes for Central America in many ways. He is, at 46, among the younger leaders. He is president of one of the smallest of the Latin nations, Costa Rica, but its first and perhaps also its most authentic democracy. He leads a nation without a standing army and resisted efforts by the United States to convert his nation to a military base more heavily armed.

He was asked, not long ago, to explain the views of the Central Americans, after they signed the peace agreement, in contrast with the skepticism President Reagan has repeatedly expressed regarding the peace plan. “The fundamental difference between my position and that of President Reagan’s Administration,” he said, “is that we are convinced that if there is to be any change of government in Central America it must be by means of votes and not through the use of weapons.” That is the hope that attends the Guatemala City accord.