Nicaragua recalls ambassador from Costa Rica

Nicaragua recalls ambassador from Costa Rica


MANAGUA, Sept. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Nicaragua said Friday that it had decided to recall its ambassador from San Jose and accused Costa Rica of "jeopardizing peace" amid the recent escalation of dispute over a border river.

The Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry said it recalled Ambassador Francisco Fiallos Navarro for consultation for an indefinite time because Costa Rica intended to carry out armed patrols on the San Juan River and had taken the border dispute to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) based in The Hague.

Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco said Thursday that the CostaRican ambassador to Holland, Edgar Ugalde, had presented the case to the ICJ "in defense of the Costa Rican rights" to carry out armed patrols on the river.

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The San Juan River, which marks the border between the two countries but runs through Nicaraguan territory, has been a hot spot since 1998, when then-Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Aleman banned armed Costa Rican police patrol boats from the river and began charging Costa Rican tourist boats to ply the river.

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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-10/01/content_3570678.htm

Don't they know that you should just attack? Nicaragua probably has weapons of mass destruction. If they don't fight the battle there, they will have to fight it in Costa Rica.

Oh yeah, Costa Rica has no standing army. That would make it a little difficult for them to attack now wouldn't it..

are showing us how disputes are handled in civilized countries. To a Court

In 1996 I was on the San Juan on an ecotour. To my knowledge we did not enter Nicaraguan territory, but who knows? The Costa Rican "presence" consisted of 3 or 4 dudes wearing t-shirts and speedos armed with M-16s in a john boat.

While not having a formal army Costa Rica does have some armed muscle. On the same trip we found ourselves in the middle of a general strike in Limon. Platoons of heavily armed black uniformed police patrolled the streets amid burning tires and dismantled road blocks. The strike started as a strike of dock workers against the exploitative banana companies, then escalated. The people we met in Limon were very gracious and helpful to us hapless gringos and got us out of that mess.