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INSIDECOSTARICA.COM
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COSTA RICA NEWS
BRIEFS
| Thursday
16
December 2010 |
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US
Military
Presence
in Costa
Rica
Rejected
Costa
Rican
opposition
parties
expressed
their
rejection
to the
entry of
more
soldiers,
ships
and
helicopters
from the
US to
Costa
Rica, on
a
pretext
to fight
drug
trafficking.
The
Costa
Rican
Legislative
Assembly
is analyzing a new
authorization
for the
arrival,
stay in
port and
landing
of war
ships,
helicopters
and
US
Marines
between
January
1st and
June 30.
"We are
quite
much
worried
with
such an
excessive
military
force to
fight
drug
trafficking,"
said
Victor
Emilio
Granados,
from
Partido
Accesibilidad
sin
Exclusion
(PASE) -
Accessibility
without
Exclusion
Party.
Granados
said the
permission
should
be
analyzed
carefully,
and will
generate
polemics
at the
local
Congress.
The US
naval
force
will
operate
in
exclusively
economic
zones of
Costa
Rica, in
the
Pacific
Ocean
and the
Caribbean
Sea.
In the
middle
of this
year,
the
Costa
Rican
Parliament
authorized
the
arrival
of 7,000
soldiers,
46 war
ships,
more
than 200
helicopters,
10
Harrier
planes
and two
submarines.
The
permission
provoked
the
rejection
of
opposition
parties
and
social
sectors,
regarding
it as
anti-constitutional,
and
something
violating
the
national
sovereignty.
Costa
Rican
deputy
Luis
Fishman,
from the
Social
Christian
Unity
Party,
presented
a
protest
before
the
Constitutional
Court,
considering
that the
drug
trafficking
fighting
agreement
invoked
to give
the
authorization
did not
include
authorization
for
foreign
military
forces
entering
the
national
territory.
Other
parties
such as
Frente
Amplio
and
Accion
Cuidadana
also
rejected
the US
military
presence.
Civil
society
organizations
convoked
for a
protest
in front
of the
host
building
of the
Parliament
Monday
at 3
P.M.
local
time,
when the
Legislative
Assembly
session
began.
The
authorization
if part
of the Programa
de
Patrullaje
Conjunto
(Joint
Patrol)
which
exists
since
1999. |
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