So how's that working out for Costa Rica?
An ongoing border dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica has pushed the “Switzerland of Central America” to the brink of a national identity crisis.
Sixty-two years after Costa Rica made the historic decision to abolish its Army and entrust its sovereignty and national defense to the untested guardianship of international law, Central America’s standard bearer of peace and democracy is facing what it considers its greatest challenge to neutrality: an alleged border invasion by Nicaraguan troops.
“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 Monitor in an e-mail.
Not so well, I guess.
You'd think that this administration would want to help Costa Rica to keep them from having to build a real (and expensive) military (that could potentially decide to seize power, too, at some point in the future--although I'd like to think that the country has moved beyond "banana republic" thinking).
After the whole botched Zelaya Affair over Honduras, it's almost like the lefties in the White House have a soft spot for that communist Daniel Ortega who rules Nicaragua. Why else side with Zelaya? Why else would the administration fail to back Costa Rica in ejecting the Nicaraguans from Costa Rican territory?
But no. Costa Rica has gotten no effective support from the international community (what a shock) or America (what a disappointment). So they may build an army.
With Nicaragua's aggression, we once again see a petty thug unmoved by the soothing balm of hope and change. Ortega needs a good thumping--not another pointless outreach.
