The president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, affirmed this Wednesday that “under the current circumstances” his government would not allow the installation of a US military base in response to the presence of Russian soldiers in Nicaragua. However, he assures that they are in communication with the US State Department.
The questioning of the local press occurred due to the visit of the General of the United States Army, Laura Richardson, commander of the United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), who this week arrived in the country to hold meetings with President Chaves, the Minister of Public Security, Jorge Luis Torres and other government leaders.
“Costa Rica is a country of peace, here children grow up, thank God, without seeing tanks or planes. Right now I don’t see the need. However, our communication with General (Laura) Richardson and with the State Department, with the White House, is constant and permanent,” the president declared.
The Costa Rican president added that these talks include issues of territorial security and sovereignty. Therefore, “we are vigilant and we will do what needs to be done,” he replied.
He then emphasized that at this moment they are not thinking of bringing military equipment or foreign soldiers, “beyond our relations abiding by international law, which is what gives Costa Rica strength, which 71 years ago abolished the Army,” he said.
As reported by the United States embassy in Costa Rica, the meetings will address issues of “long-standing bilateral security” between the two countries and “collaborative efforts to address security threats and challenges of mutual interest.”
The Vice Minister of Public Security of Costa Rica, Daniel Calderón, added in the press videoconference that “joint patrols” are carried out in this nation, but this is carried out with the United States Coast Guard, not with military units and it is for the drug trafficking issue.
“It is not an activity of military objectives, God save, we are very happy that in Costa Rica there are no armies of our own and much less foreign ones,” President Chaves reaffirmed.
This Tuesday, the United States announced the donation of a team of drones and a secure communication network to Costa Rica, valued at 13.7 million dollars, in order to strengthen the fight against drug trafficking and border surveillance.
“It is a modern communication network to carry out operations and other critical missions with the confidentiality that is required (…) and a long-range drone system,” explained the president.
Russian presence in Nicaragua
A report of the National Institute for Strategic Studies on Russia’s relations in Latin America revealed that the Daniel Ortega regime has established a strong and solid political alliance between Nicaragua, Russia, and Iran to “evade international sanctions, move resources in the international financial system, and promote disinformation and espionage strategies.”
The investigation indicates that in the police training center, directed by Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Surov, of the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Federation, they have trained “very small, trustworthy groups in espionage and intelligence in the region. There are people from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, who have come there to be specifically trained”.
It also highlights that Russia maintains between 300 and 350 military personnel in Nicaraguan territory. These personnel rotate from time to time, “but there is a permanent presence of more than 300 troops on the ground, which is not under observation, nobody knows what they are doing, but they are there,” the researcher on issues said in an interview with Esta Semana. of national security, Douglas Farah, co-author with Marianne Richardson of the Report “Dangerous Alliances: Russia’s Advance in Latin America”, prepared in December 2022.
In June 2022, President Chaves assured that they had “very serious concerns” with Nicaragua, after learning that Ortega invited the Russian Army to send troops and equipment. “We have not had an Army since 1949. Imagine how we feel: worried, with good reason,” the Costa Rican president argued at the time.
