U.S. Secretary of State To Visit C.R. Next Week

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be in Costa Rica next week as part of a Latin America tour that also will include Brazil, Chile, Guatemala and Uruguay.

The announcement was made Wednesday by the U.S. State Department.

Clinton will visit this Central American country, a close U.S. ally, on March 3, where she will be the keynote speaker at the Pathways to Prosperity in the Americas Ministerial Meeting. Clinton has said she believes the Pathways initiative, a 14-nation network to promote the benefits of free trade, will help improve the distribution of economic benefits to women, farmers in rural areas and small businesses, as well as to indigenous and African descendents who have been left on the sidelines of the open market.

The event will be at the Hotel Intercontinental in Escazú, west of San José.

In addition to her speech, the secretary of state is scheduled to meet with President Oscar Arias. Her visit also will be a chance for President-elect Laura Chinchilla to meet the once-aspiring candidate to become the United States’ first female president.

Clinton’s visit comes on the heels of a brief stopover here last week by U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd and Sen. Bob Corker.

More information on the Pathways to Prosperity event can be found at the Web site: www.pathways-caminos.org.

–Tico Times