Southern Command in Costa Rica: US Occupation Disguised as Humanitarian Aid
Southern Command in Costa Rica: US Occupation Disguised as Humanitarian Aid
Saturday, March 18, 2017
By Santiago Navarro F. and Renata Bessi, Truthout | Report
A helicopter of the Southern Command in the Alto Telire, Talamanca, takes part in Operation
Pura Vida. (Photo Courtesy of The Ministry of Public Security of Costa Rica)
From the top of the great Talamaca mountain range in southern Costa Rica, you can see the Caribbean Sea and the houses of the Bribri and Cabécar Indigenous groups. According to their cosmology, their ancestors are in every tree, in every river and in every living being found in this reserve close to the border with Panama: The place is sacred. But to the Costa Rican government and the United States Southern Command, its value lies in its mineral deposits and oil.
Costa Rica hasn't had an official army for the last 68 years. However, in 2013, people in the Talamaca region were surprised by the arrival of a helicopter full of uniformed military personnel, whom they immediately identified as being part of the United States Southern Command. The military personnel were playing the role of missionaries, giving Bibles away. However, simultaneously, they were carrying out various military training activities in the area around Alto Cuen, a Bribri community.
"They said they were missionaries, but no one believed them," Bribri tribe member Leonardo Buitrago Morales told Truthout. "We knew they were looking for something more. The truth is that they want our lands and our forests to make money."
In addition to the locals, the organization Ceiba Amigos de la Tierra, which promotes sustainable societies through social, economic and environmental justice, also spoke out against the arrival of the eight military personnel, who carried sophisticated equipment including GPS, cameras, altitude and topography meters, firearms and other weapons. The non-governmental organization even filed a complaint with the Costa Rican government, but "the Public Ministry never followed up on it. On the contrary, the complaint was dismissed," says Henry Picado of the Costa Rican Biodiversity Network.
More:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/39898-southern-command-in-costa-rica-us-occupation-disguised-as-humanitarian-aid
Editorials and other articles:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016181251
