UPeace campus to be named after former president Rodrigo Carazo

The University of Peace will name its campus after university co-founder and former Costa Rican president Rodrigo Carazo in a ceremony Friday.

The event falls on the year anniversary of Carazo’s passing, who died in Hospital México on Dec. 9 of a heart condition. He was 82.

During his time in office (1978-1982), Carazo brought the idea of a University of Peace to the floor of the United Nations, proposing his mountainous Central American country as the university’s home.

Long-time assistant to the secretary general and U.N. adviser Robert Muller promoted the idea and was eventually able to convince a hesitant United Nations to pursue it (TT, Dec. 2009).

Former UPeace rector Martin Lees said in 2004, “In those days, Central America was in pretty deep trouble, and the idea of a peace university [here] was not in great favor by some major governments. If you started talking about peace in Central America, people thought that this was kind of left-wing thinking.”

But it was precisely the conflicts of the 1980s that led Carazo to propose the idea.

Friday’s ceremony also corresponds with celebrations for the 30^th anniversary of the university.