San Jose Mayor Johnny Araya and ex-Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias were in full cry during the weekend, both National Liberation Party primary candidates for the presidential nomination. Both held rallies before the unofficial holiday “cease fire” on the trail.

Araya put forth his program before an estimated 4,000 educators brought to Belen in chartered buses, a base the Araya campaign believes pivotal to his run, not only in the primary, but in the May, 2014, elections should he win.

Arias, on the contrary, was rather on the defensive, defending the “arista” program of neo-liberalism to a crowd in El Coyol de Alajuela. His campaign is predicated on continuing the swing to the right that his brother, ex-President Oscar Arias, initiated for the party in 2006.

Araya brings along many party dissidents from the Arias policies–people like former President Luis Alberto Monge, his brother Rolando who was defeated in 2002 by former President Abel Pacheco, and his campaign organizer Antonio Alvarez (Desanti).

All three figures refused to support Arias or current President Laura Chinchilla but are very much back in the Liberation fold behind the more liberal Araya, who leads as of the last poll.

Monge rated a warm applause as did Fabio Araya, father of the candidate, and longtime Liberation stalwart Walter Coto, former representative from Turrialba. Monge, elder statesman of the party, was brutally frank in saying that President Chinchilla is of no help in attracting votes to the party.

Arias, in Alajuela, had his own supporters in his entourage, mostly easily recognizable figures from the present administration. Notable among them was current party floor leader on the Legislative Assembly, Fabio Molina who supports the Arias wing of the party.

Also present were Arias supporters such as former adviser Mario Alvarez, former consul Victor Lascarez and former Security Minister Mario Charpentier.

They claim that the leftists have never forgiven Oscar Arias for defeating them in the referendum that ushered in CAFTA, the free trade treaty with the United States, and the right attack them because of their commitment to social concerns.

Meanwhile, the two competitors for the nomination have rather eclipsed for the moment a third candidate, Fernando Berrocal. But he has his own ways of attracting attention.

Source: Fijatevos.com