US military bases in Costa Rica?

Chapter 9 / US Intervention

Compiled by Martin Mowforth

Costa Rica’s undeserved reputation for neutrality and pacifism may be coming to an end soon when Laura Fernández takes office as the country’s new President on May 8th this year.

Fabián Silva Gamboa, a constitutional lawyer who advises the President-elect, has proposed a reform to the political constitution that would allow the United States to establish military bases there. Fernández has already signalled her intentions to replace the model of the country that arose from the 1948 civil war which abolished the country’s army and built the foundations of a welfare state.

Thanks to the neoliberal turn in the 1990s and 2000s and thanks to US pressure to militarise the country’s police force from the 1980s onwards, much of the welfare state is now in poor condition, poverty is not falling and violence and citizen security has been getting worse in recent years.

In recent years, Costa Rica has become a significant territory, especially its coastal areas, for storing and moving cocaine bound for the United States and Europe, and along with this violence has also increased. Silva Gamboa suggests that the presence of US bases will help to deter the incidence of drug trafficking. Others might suggest the opposite.

One might ask why a newsletter dedicated to environmental issues should be reporting on overtly and internationally political issues such as the US interference in other country’s national affairs, but quite apart from policy influence, the environmental pollution record of former US military bases is extremely abusive, as Costa Rica’s southern neighbour can testify. (See earlier ENCA Newsletters on the toxic pollution left behind in Panama by the former US bases.)

Given that Costa Rica abolished its army in 1948, the proposal would require a constitutional amendment, a broad legislative majority that the 31 legislative seats won by the PPSO are not sufficient. To move forward with this initiative, at least seven opposition legislators would need to join them.

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