U.S. role in Costa Rica-Nicaragua border dispute
By
Berta Joubert-Ceci
Published Dec 5, 2010 10:22 PM
The latest conflict in Central America is a dispute between Costa Rica and
Nicaragua. It has hardly been covered in the U.S. media. Still it could
increase U.S. military intervention and have dangerous consequences for the
region’s stability.
One simple issue stands out: the two countries’ alliances. Costa
Rica’s government is aligned with U.S. imperialism. Nicaragua is a member
of the Bolivarian Alliance for Our America or ALBA, which includes Cuba,
Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Dominica, Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda. The U.S. State Department considers ALBA
hostile to U.S. interests.
Nicaragua’s government is led by President Daniel Ortega, who also led
the country during 1979-1990 after the Sandinistas (FSLN) overthrew the
pro-U.S. Somoza dictatorship. Ortega faces election in 2011, one Washington
would like to see him lose.
Washington has been able to use Costa Rica against its neighbors in the past.
The U.S.-backed anti-Sandinista contras in the 1980s used Costa Rica as a safe
base. In June 2009 the U.S.-sanctioned coup-makers in Honduras kidnapped
President Manuel Zelaya and flew him to Costa Rica. Zelaya had also signed his
country into ALBA.
Facts behind the border dispute
On Oct. 18 the Nicaraguan government began dredging the San Juan River, which
flows from Lake Nicaragua to the Caribbean through Nicaragua. Part of it forms
the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border. Residue accumulated over the years made river
transport to and from the Caribbean coast nearly impossible.
Nicaragua has been ravaged first by the 1980-1990 U.S.-Contra war against the
Sandinista government and then by the next administration’s neoliberal
policies. This history has left 75 percent of Nicaragua’s 6 million
people in poverty.
To improve the economy of this extremely poor country, the government began
developing transportation to increase exports, particularly to South America
and other ALBA countries.
On Oct. 21 the Costa Rican government, led by right-wing President Laura
Chinchilla, falsely accused Nicaragua of invading its territory and occupying
Costa Rica’s Calero Island. On Oct. 22 Chinchilla sent a military
contingent to the Nicaragua border and demanded Nicaragua stop dredging, which
she claimed damaged the environment and violated Costa Rica’s
sovereignty.
Costa Rica complained to the Organization of American States, the International
Court of Justice in The Hague, and the Ramsar Convention, which deals with
wetlands around the world, and requested a U.N. meeting on Nov. 29. Similar
border disputes go back centuries. The one over the San Juan River, in
particular, has always been ruled in Nicaragua’s favor.
An OAS team flew over Calero Island on Nov. 8 and reported that neither the
Nicaraguan flag nor its army was there. Nevertheless, the Chinchilla government
continues the accusations.
It’s also still fanning the flames of racism and xenophobia against
Nicaragua, and the half-million Nicaraguans living and working in wealthier
Costa Rica face discrimination. However, Costa Rican groups, unions and
political parties are not participating in this and are opposing their
government’s actions.
Up to now, the Costa Rican government has refused Ortega’s request to
begin bilateral negotiations.
Though the Costa Rican government promotes the country as an “ecological
paradise,” there are contradictions. There are plans for open-air
exploitation of a gold mine close to the San Juan River that would poison the
waters with cyanide and other toxic chemicals. That activity is opposed by both
Nicaraguan and Costa Rican environmental organizations working together. The
timber industry and cattle raising are abundant in northern Costa Rica, causing
environmental damage.
Even though Costa Rica does not have a formal army, according to a report
published in “El Libro Blanco” (“The White Book: The Truths
That Costa Rica Hides”), $240.3 million per year is spent on the military
— five times more than by Nicaragua. (el19digital.com)
The Nicaraguan military does patrol the San Juan River, intercepting any drug
traffic that goes through the area. In early October the Nicaraguan army broke
up a drug trafficking team in the river, arresting six people and informing
Costa Rican authorities, since the team was operating from Costa Rica.
Washington’s role
The major threat not only to Nicaragua but to the whole region is the
deployment last July of 46 war ships, along with 7,000 U.S. troops, to Costa
Rica on the pretext of fighting drug trafficking. Costa Rica has been on the
U.S. president’s list of countries with the most illicit drug
trafficking.
This has turned Costa Rica into a U.S. military base. U.S. troops can move,
armed to the teeth, throughout the whole country and enjoy the characteristic
impunity to any of their crimes that accompanies these imperialist enforcers
throughout the world. Their contract to patrol ends at the end of 2010, but
there are many places the U.S. military, once in, has refused to leave.
This move into Costa Rica fits with the increased U.S. military role in Latin
America, including the re-establishment of the Fourth Naval Fleet, the
Pentagon’s deal to use seven military bases in Colombia, the occupation
of Haiti, new bases in Panama, and an additional U.S. base in Honduras. It is
part of Washington’s confrontation with the ALBA countries, including the
recent coup attempt in Ecuador.
It is crucially important for the progressive and anti-war movement in the U.S.
to actively oppose the U.S. government’s hostile actions in Latin America
and the Caribbean. This should not be separated from the wars against Iraq and
Afghanistan and the threats against Iran and the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea. Washington should not be allowed to use a border dispute to
wage war against the peoples of Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
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