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Where it all begins!
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INSIDECOSTARICA.COM
| COSTA RICA
NEWS |
Wednesday 09 March 2011 |
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Costa
Rica May
Not Look
At
Nicaragua
– Or
Itself –
The Same
Way
Again
The
border
dispute
with
Nicaragua
had
Costa
Ricans
rethinking
its lack
of army,
and
while
the
ruling
from the
International
Court of
Justice
in The
Hague provides
an
institutional
solution
to the
border
conflict,
many
fear the
psychological
damage
has
already
been
done.
When
faced
with
threats
of
invasion
from
Nicaragua
in the
past –
in 1948
and 1955
– Costa
Rica
successfully
defended
itself
with a
combination
of
volunteer
militias
and
diplomatic
offensives.
But in
response
to the
current
conflict,
Costa
Rica has
relied
mostly
on its
diplomatic
and
legal
efforts.
Costa
Rica
made the
historic
decision
in 1948
to
abolish
its army
and
entrust
its
sovereignty
and
national
defense
to the
untested
guardianship
of
international
law.
Since
last
October
when the
dispute
over the
Isla
Calero
began
with the
alleged
invasion
by
Nicaragua's
army,
Costa
Rica
faced
the
greatest
challenge
to
neutrality.
“For our
country,
the
armed
invasion
is a
challenge
to our
way of
life and
the
defense
of our
national
sovereignty,
which is
based
exclusively
in
multilateralism,”
Costa
Rican
Foreign
Minister
René
Castro
told the
press
during
the last
couple
of
months.
“Costa
Rica is
a
civilized
and
peaceful
country,”
he adds.
“But
sometimes,
those
ideals
are
challenged
by
reality
and our
principles
are put
to
test.”
The
fears
mounted
as the
dispute
continued.
If Costa
Rica had
lost (in
The
Hague),
there
would
have
surely
been a
strong
push to
militarization.
A
CID-Gallup
poll at
the end
of
January,
three
months
after
the
conflict
began
and a
week
after
The
Hague
hearings,
Costa
Ricans
were
more
rattled
by the
conflict
that
Nicaraguans.
While
91% of
Nicaraguans
believed
the
crisis
was
caused
by
unclear
border
limits,
73% of
Costa
Ricans
believed
the
crisis
was due
to
Nicaragua's
military
invasion
of their
country.
The
conflict
provoked
debate
on
whether
Costa
Rica is
"neutral"
or
"pacifist".
“The
Swiss
are a
neutral
country
but will
rally an
armed
force if
invaded.
But a
pacifist
country
turns
the
other
cheek or
appeals
to
international
entities,”
says
Carlos
Denton,
president
of
CID-Gallup.
The
CID-Gallup
poll
also
underscored
how, for
Nicaragua,
crisis
is a way
of life
– with
the
current
dispute
no
exception.
More
than
half of
Nicaraguans
polled
erringly
said
that
Costa
Rica has
an army.
And
almost 1
in 2
Nicaraguans
fear
Costa
Rica
could
invade
their
country
at any
moment,
according
to the
CID-Gallup
survey,
despite
it
lacking
anything
by way
of
military
tanks or
fighter
jets.
Nicaraguans
seem
constantly
on the
lookout
for
foreign
meddling
and
prepared
for
crisis.
Oscar
René
Vargas,
a
Nicaraguan
sociologist,
says his
country
has been
“in a
constant
political
crisis"
for more
four
decades,
which
has come
to
define
the
national
identity.
Having
lost
territories
in the
past to
Colombia
and
Costa
Rica,
Nicaragua
has a
longstanding
shrinking-country
complex.
“Nicaragua
is the
only
country
in the
world
that has
lost
territory
to a
smaller
and
weaker
nation,”
says
Nicaragua’s
Edén
Pastora,
who is
heading
Nicaragua’s
river-dredging
operation
to
“rescue”
the San
Juan
River.
Nicaraguans
seem
constantly
on the
lookout
for
foreign
meddling
and
prepared
for
crisis.
Oscar
René
Vargas,
a
Nicaraguan
sociologist,
says his
country
has been
“in a
constant
political
crisis"
for more
four
decades,
which
has come
to
define
the
national
identity.
Having
lost
territories
in the
past to
Colombia
and
Costa
Rica,
Nicaragua
has a
longstanding
shrinking-country
complex.
“Nicaragua
is the
only
country
in the
world
that has
lost
territory
to a
smaller
and
weaker
nation,”
says
Nicaragua’s
Edén
Pastora,
who is
heading
Nicaragua’s
river-dredging
operation
to
“rescue”
the San
Juan
River.
Costa
Rica did
send
heavily
armed
police
to the
border
region
last
November,
but that
move was
seen
more as
bark
than
bite – a
claim
that
seemed
to be
supported
by a
Jan. 11
report
in the
Costa
Rican
daily
Diario
Extra
that
said
deployed
officers
suffered
from
"profound
fear of
fighting
against
Nicaraguan
soldiers.”
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Source
Apdo. 2133-1000, San José, Costa
Rica
Tel: (506) 2231 3205 / (506) 8399
9642
Fax: (506) 2232 6337
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