Costa Rica: U.S. Trojan Horse in Central America

by George Tower, translation by Cinder Hypki

Escalating efforts by the Reagan administration to destroy the Nicaraguan revolution have put neighboring Honduras in a key role as a training ground for the contras and a conduit for military aid and supplies. More recent reports reveal the Salvadoran military's role in training contra forces as well. However, the North American press says little or nothing about Costa Rica. The role of Costa Rica in the Reagan administration's war against Nicaragua deserves attention. Not only does it shed light on the changing tactics of that war, but it reveals the bitter trade-offs for the Central American nations involved.

Costa Rica, Nicaragua's neighbor to the south, encompasses an area roughly the size of West Virginia with 2.5 million inhabitants. It has one of the highest per capita debts in the world - $5 billion - on which it can pay only the interest. "Soft" loans and donations account for an additional $5 million a day in U.S. aid. The country suffers from a sharp, irreparable but well hidden socio-economic crisis partly due to a weak agricultural base and an insipient pseudo-industrial sector.

This tiny nation is a strategic territory for Washington, which has gradually drawn it into a circle that is rapidly closing in on the Sandinistas. By Constitutional mandate, Costa Rica has not had an army since 1948. Although traditionally allergic to warlike activities, it is slowly being militarized by the U.S.

Over a year ago, the United States sent approximately 20 military advisors to train Costa Rica's police and security forces. Two months ago, under the guise of combating drugs and tuna pirating, construction began on two naval bases, the first in Costa Rica's history. One is located on the Pacific and the other on the Caribbean coast, both very near the Nicaraguan border. In addition, the Reagan administration has delivered large shipments of military material each year including four "push and pull" airplanes suitable for bombing missions.

The presence of U.S. military advisors has been carried out under the pretext of preventing terrorism in a country where the few acts of terrorism in recent times have been committed by right-wing elements in the military and the contras, who are tied to the CIA.

The pretext for establishing the naval bases and providing military equipment and advisors is not convincing. Not a single case of tuna pirating in Costa Rican waters has been reported in over 8 months. In fact, tuna exploitation has been turned over to North American transnational corporations in recent questionable contract negotiations.

At the same time, the paramilitary forces in Costa Rica now number over 20,000. Although the majority lack adequate training for all out warfare with another nation, they are prepared to act as shock troops against union and student groups, to combat armed groups that might emerge in a crisis situation, or participate in a joint operation of several nations against another.

The country's few decimated progressive and pacifist groups have denounced the strategic and military route that Washington has imposed on Costa Rica, but there is little or nothing that the political hierarchy can do - even if it had the political will to resist this course. Occasionally, objections are raised on the issue, and it is suggested that

(see Costa Rica, page 14)

Costa Rica

Costa Rica's proclaimed neutrality should conform to the Statute of Absolute Neutrality officially approved 3 years ago, by which the country cannot intervene nor lend its territory for military purposes against any other nation. If the issue of neutrality is seen as a rock, then the debt crisis with its related ties to the U.S. is the hard place, and Costa Rica is clearly caught between the two.

Despite its highly touted military neutrality, Costa Rica's territory is travelled regularly and without problem by the diverse factions of the contras.

Occasionally, for appearance' sake, Costa Rican authorities detain a few members of the contra or dismantle one of their hospitals or training camps. But in San José the capital city, and in the zones of San Carlos and Upala on the Nicaraguan border the armed contras move with ease.

Periodically, these contra groups attempt to create problems in southern Nicaragua after crossing the San Juan River which forms the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. It is only the armed confrontations they have suffered and the strong Sandinista opposition they encounter which curbs these incursions and forces them to await the day of a total invasion.

Costa Rican authorities admit, in a rather low voice, that f the U.S. decides to invade Nicaragua, all the military apparatus erected on Costa Rican territory will not only serve as support but will act as a vital tool in such a high-scale military action.

For the moment, in its chess game played on the Central American board, Washington has been able- far more successfully than Ulysses in ancient Troy - to prepare Costa Rica as its war horse for the final checkmate.