Nicaragua quasi-invades Costa Rica in desperate pursuit of pro Sandinista votes

I’m heavily biased towards the Costa Rican side, so take that into account. This is a good roundup of what’s going on, especially once you append that an entire province (Guanacaste) is regarded by the Nicaraguans is regarded as having been stolen since its annexation by CR way back in the day. The force multiplier for the story is the potential for a Chavez/China/other? funded alternative to the Panama canal, which is still at conspiracy theory status but interesting nevertheless. No doubt Cornelius Vanderbilt would be spinning in his grave had he not been successfully staked, on account of his original effort to get the canal built through the San Juan River rather than the Panamian isthmus.

The US has yet to stake a position on this beyond vague murmurs, which is especially interesting given the relatively large Marine unit operating off the CR Caribbean coast on “drug interdiction and humanitarian” missions. That came at the tail end of a hugely controversial level of Chinese economic work in Costa Rica, wherein a Chinese funded and built giant stadium (the preferred conduit of politician bribery everywhere) was at the center of it. It is unclear whether that’s just linear Chinese foreign policy work or part of their broader arable land focused policy, which seems focused on poorer countries with land distribution setups that can be more aggressively gamed.

Interesting article, thanks. The conspiracy sounds nuts in the face of Ortega simply wanting another term. :/

The funny thing is that Eden Pastora is a Sandinista who revolted in the 80s (and kinda-sorta was affiliated with the Contras), and was pretty anti-Ortega. I guess time changes everything.

Not just that, but Pastora hid out in Costa Rica for a few years, a fact that is problematic in a lot of ways so not that many people are talking about it. In any case, the original speculation was that Pastora was doing it on his own in order to boost his status to challenge Ortega directly. It’s only recently and in the international press that I’ve seen it presented as something that Ortega orchestrated, so it’s possible he’s since co-opted the plan or that nobody really knows what’s going on.

So now the theories have coalesced around Venezuelan backing and a preemptive move for the massive hydroelectric project upriver. We all know how much fun they are for the surrounding land.

Do you live in CR Lizard? I will read up on this story, thanks for bringing it to my attention.

No, not anymore. But I grew up there, and it’s part of my family and professional life.

Anyhow, with these stories it’s easy to get sidetracked with the political smears and conspiracies being tossed around, just as they were with the Honduran president incident not that long ago. A lot of longstanding partisan divisions coalesce neatly around moments like these.