Kwon Jin Moon represents True Mother at the launch of IAPP in Central America

Kwon Jin Moon, the first of True Parents’ children to be born in North America, recently traveled with his wife Hwa Yun Moon to Central America and South America to represent his mother, our True Mother, in inaugurating chapters of the International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace in San Jose, Costa Rica and Asunción, Paraguay. This article will provide background to the Costa Rica event, which took place as part of an International Leadership Conference, which ran from October 6 to 8. On the final day, the inauguration of IAPP, which attracted political figures and other prominent members of society, took place.

Distinctly Costa Rica

Roughly to its north and south, respectively, Costa Rica is between Nicaragua and Panama and to its east and west, respectively, the nation of 4.85 million souls is between the North Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Costa Rica’s main natural hazard is volcanic eruptions. In fact, Juan Santamaría International Airport had closed for nearly twenty-four hours in late September, and during time of the ILC, in early October, the Turrialba volcano continually spewed into the atmosphere ash that rose to a height of about five hundred meters.

Costa Rica is a country that has long charted its own course. It does not simply copy what others do. Costa Rica is one of only eight countries in the world that have more than one vice-president. More surprisingly, in the 1949 constitution, which established having two vice-presidents, Article 12 states, “The Army as a permanent institution is proscribed.

For the vigilance and conservation of the public order, there will be the necessary forces of police.” Costa Rica does not have an army but its police are reportedly well equipped.

Ana Helena Chacón Echeverría, Costa Rica’s second vice-presidents was among the many prominent figures that attended the inauguration of IAPP in San Jose, the nation’s capital.

According to the US Congressional Research Service (CRS), in an important area, Costa Rica is a country that other nations could learn from for its “strong conservation system and innovative policies, which have done much to restore Costa Rica’s environment.”

The CRS report goes on to state, “Costa Rica’s efforts also have led many observers to recognize it as a world leader in environmental protection and have enabled the country to play an outsized role in the formulation of global environmental policies.”

Central American Parliament

A member of Parlacen, the Central American Parliament, Guillermo Osorno Molina, attended the IAPP. He was once a presidential candidate in Nicaragua, representing the Party of the Christian Path. Parlacen, which has been active since October 1991 and is based in Guatemala City, Guatemala, is an outgrowth of efforts to mediate an end to widespread disruption in Central America, which had been ignited by civil wars in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala in the 1980s. Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic are the member states. The citizens in each member state elect twenty representatives and deputies to the Central American Parliament and all former presidents and vice-presidents are members for a fixed number of years. Parlacen’s primary goal is Central American and Dominican integration; thus, it proposes legislation and draft treaties that move toward that aim. It supports human rights, peaceful coexistence and security in Central America.

Neighbors and friends

A large contingent of public figures came to the event from the Caribbean island nation, Dominican Republic. (The Dominican Republic shares the Island of Hispaniola with Haiti.) A senator, nine members of Congress, a leader of a non-governmental organization and a scholar attended the inauguration as did two businessmen.

Amarilis Santana Cedano, a member of the Dominican Republic Senate from the Dominican Liberation Party, representing the Province of La Romana, spoke at the event about the International Leadership Conference and the Universal Peace Federation. Also on hand for the ILC and IAPP inaugural were José Alberto Alfaro Jimenez, vice-president of the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica. Others from Costa Rica included Antonio Alvarez Desanti, president of the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly; Four members of that assembly, Nidia María Jiménez Vásquez, Jorge Rodríguez Araya, Daniel Gayardo and Marco Vinicio Redondo attended as did Mrs. Estrella Zeledon Lizano, widow of Dr. Rodrigo Carazo Odio (1926–2009) and Jhon Fonseca, Costa Rican vice-minister of Foreign Trade. Juan Ramón Jiménez, member of the National Assembly of Nicaragua and Donna Elizabeth Hunte-Cox, consul general of the Consulate General of Barbados in New York City also took part.