Costa Rica Warns of Nicaragua’s Attempt to Create an Incident
…in order to divert attention from its internal crisis
“Costa Rica warns about any attempt to create artificial problems or controversies as a means of distracting attention,” affirms the Costa Rica foreign minister
HAVANA TIMES – On Monday, January 21, Costa Rica rejected Nicaragua’s protest note denouncing the supposed operation in Costa Rican territory of a band that recently attacked Nicaraguan police. In rejecting the note, the Costa Rican foreign minister warned of an intent to create “artificial” problems to “divert attention” from the crisis in that country.
“In the face of the grave political and social crisis that Nicaragua has been experiencing since last April, Costa Rica warns of any attempt to create artificial problems or controversies as a means of diverting attention,” stated a communique from the Costa Rican foreign ministry.
The official missive indicates that Nicaragua’s protest note “generates doubts about its intention”, since before being officially sent to Costa Rica, it was forwarded with its respective English translation to “a numerous group of countries, international organizations and aid agencies”.
“For that reason, Costa Rica rejects not only the complaint registered by Nicaragua and the alleged events, but also any attempt on the part of the Nicaraguan government to utilize this situation for its own ends,” alerted the Costa Rican government.
The document adds: “it’s surprising that despite the existence of binational mechanisms to handle situations like the supposed one denounced by Nicaragua in their note, the choice was made to ignore them in order to prioritize to a large-scale international media effect.”
On January 19, the Nicaraguan government informed that it had sent an “energetic protest” to Costa Rica for sheltering in their territory a presumed band of delinquents who had killed four police officers and wounded another three.
The Police officers were patrolling a sector of the Nicaraguan municipality of San Carlos in the south of Nicaragua when they were objects of a “cowardly” attack “with firearms, by the delinquent group known as the El Jobo band, that commits crimes of assault, drug trafficking and cattle theft from their base in Costa Rica,” accused the Nicaraguan National Police in a communique.
In its note this Tuesday, the Costa Rican government denied, “any suggestion of a possibility that Costa Rica holds responsibility” for those events.
It underlined the fact that “an insurgent Nicaraguan group has claimed responsibility for the attack in a publicly posted video.” The attack occurred “twelve kilometers (just under 7.5 miles) from the border with Costa Rica.”
“For that reason, serious doubts exist regarding the authors of that lamentable attack, their purpose and other circumstances surrounding it,” sustained the Costa Rican foreign minister.
Due to the protests against Daniel Ortega’s government, Nicaragua is suffering a grave crisis that’s left 325 dead since April, according to the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, although some groups have claimed that the number of mortal victims is actually 561. The executive branch has recognized only 199 fatalities and complains of an attempt to stage a coup d’etat.