Fijatevos.com - Look Deeper

Pity poor Security Minister Jose M. Tijerino. While his cops have only to face gangsters, he has to face a political crossfire. While it was recently discovered that illegal immigrants were streaming past a police outpost in Los Chiles without the cops intervening, opposition party leaders charge that he is allowing the anti-narcotics effort to become "militarized."

In other words, apparently his police are not doing enough or are doing too much. It should be noted that "militarization" is a bad word in Costa Rica. The shock of finding Costa Ricans organizing to actually kill other Ticos during the short 1948 civil war resulted in a new constitution banning the military in 1949.

The discovery of a well-beaten path traversed daily by illegals from Nicaragua nearly past the front door of the Los Chiles police outpost on the northern border made headlines Sunday in the country's leading Spanish-language newspaper, La Nacion. By now, Tijerino is quite accustomed to charges that his cops are lazy. He soothingly promised the hole would be plugged "within 24 hours."

He had no sooner sat down at his desk after the Chinchilla Administration had assumed power in May when he found that police were disobeying his orders to patrol trouble spots in the metropolitan area. Since this was a Chinchilla campaign promise, to get the cops out on the streets, he had to bang a few heads. (See earlier story.)

This latest accusation, that Chinchilla's government has given carte blanche to the United States Navy to patrol Costa Rican territorial waters, had Tijerino and his anti-narcotics chief, Mauricio Boraschi, scrambling on the unusual mission of personally visiting La Nacion offices to explain.

Both deny letting U.S. participation in the drug war get out of hand, pointing out that the Navy contingent is under the direction of the U.S. Coast Guard and that no violation of the 1999 treaty giving the U.S. permission to mount anti-narc operations has occurred.

Still, the U.S. forces on patrol appear sizable, especially to a small nation like Costa Rica. They consist of 46 ships, most of them warships, 7,000 men, 200 helicopters and 10 Harrier jet fighter-bombers. It should be remembered that this country has two coasts and many thousands of square miles of territorial waters, far too much for its handful of coast guard patrol boats.

But the leaders of Citizen Action and Social Christian Unity parties are intent on making political hay from the issue. The loudest voice is Legislative Assembly deputy Luis Fishman who is calling for a thorough review of the treaty.

This sniping from the opposition is not without its political risk, should Chinchilla decide to paint them as obstructing vigorous action against the war on drug traffickers. This country is a strategically located bridge between Colombian drug lords and their markets up north.