Reverend Fred Morris, who lives in Costa Rica, Central America, spoke to an audience of about 35 DeKalb residents Sunday on the recent Nobel Peace Prize winning Arias Peace Plan.

Morris is a Methodist Minister from the United States. He said he speaks on the Arias Peace Plan to make more people aware of what is happening in Central America

Morris said, “Most people of the United States don’t care what’s going on in other countries, and that’s unfortunate.”

He backgrounded his lecture with a brief history lesson of Central America. He said people first must understand the hardships and poverty of these countries before they can understand the effects of the peace plan.

Morris said the people of the Central American countries “began to feel they had nothing to loose.”

e then described the wars going on in the Central American countries to illustrate the then growing need for some kind of peace plan there.

Morris talked about how President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, with whom he is personal friends, developed a plan. He said Arias was the strong candidate for peace in May 1986. Morris quoted Arias as saying, “I am going to bring peace to Costa Rica.”

Morris outlined the problems with the original version of Arias’ plan. These problems were not including all Central American countries—Nicaragua was not represented—and having all new elections. Morris said the heads of the Central American countries decided the plan needed to be revised to meet these problems before they would sign it.

The revisions then were made and the plan recently was signed. Morris said the deadline to meet the steps outlined in the plan is Nov. 7. However, he said he did not think the deadline would be met.

Morris said, “Everyone in Central America has a vested interest in making this (the plan) succeed … Nicaragua will benefit the most because they are the one suffering the most. They desperately want this to work.”

Morris closed his lecture by addressing questions from the audience. Some of the questions centered around the issue of freedom of the press because Morris is a journalist who was kidnapped by the Brazilian army in 1974. He was imprisoned and tourtured for 17 days before he was expelled from Brazil.

Morris will participate in a debate tonight with Reagan Administration Representative Yvonne Thayer. The debate will be held in the Regency Room of the Holmes Student Center at 8:00. It is open to the public.