A Photo with Reagan for the Sovereignty of Costa Rica

By Alvaro Umaña Quesada Reprint | | Print |

SAN JOSE, Oct 1 2012 (IPS) - As part of the research for a book on Central America’s tragic 30-year war, which lasted until 1987, I consulted recently-declassified official U.S. government documents with the expectation that 25 years later it would be possible to make known the facts surrounding the so-called Iran-Contra affair and the policy of then-President Ronald Reagan.

Iran-Contra involved the illegal sale of weapons to Iran by high officials of the Reagan administration between 1985-1986. The weapons had been seized from the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) by Israel and given to the U.S. A part of the proceeds of the sale was secretly funnelled to the Contras, the armed resistance to the government of Nicaragua, in order to subvert a ban Congress had passed prohibiting the use of public funds for this cause.

Reagan was a big supporter of the Contras and was trying to overthrow the Sandinista regime, which had ousted the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in 1979. The conflict expanded beyond the borders of Nicaragua and throughout Central America.

Then-CIA director William Casey found a way to get around the congressional prohibition in the person of lieutenant colonel Oliver North, who directed the operation from the National Security Council. North and retired general Richard Secord set up the Udall Research Corporation in Panama to cover the purchase of land and construction of an airport in Costa Rica’s Potrero Grande, which was key to the opening of the so-called Southern Front supporting the Contras.

The airport was built in the first months of 1986. On March 17 of that year, according to White House records (document 42), then-Costa Rican Security minister Benjamin Piza met with president Reagan. Also present were North and Joe Fernandez, the CIA representative in Costa Rica, who testified before the CIA that Piza had asked for the meeting and a photograph taken with Reagan as the only condition for supporting construction of the airport. North prepared the following memo for the president:

“Minister Piza has been key in helping us to organise the Southern Front opposition to the Sandinistas. He intervened before Costa Rican president Luis Alberto Monge on numerous occasions and collaborated on the development of a logistical support base of the united opposition in Nicaragua for the forces deployed in the north of Costa Rica.(…) Though minister Piza will leave that position in May 1986, when the Arias regime takes office, he will continue to play an important role in Costa Rican politics and diplomacy. As such, he is a key figure in maintaining support for our policies in the region.”

Reagan told Piza: “Admiral Poindexter spoke to me of your dedication to the cause of democracy in Central America. (…) We hope that your support will continue after May 8 and that the Nicaraguan democratic resistance will have what it needs to achieve a democratic outcome.”

They went on to take the photo together. All achieved their goals: Reagan consolidated his support for the Contras, Piza got his picture, and North got his airport to open the Southern Front.

But there was one major loser: the sovereignty of Costa Rica.

After the meeting, Piza met with Secord. A reconstruction of this encounter was part of the testimony of Fernandez, who accompanied Piza. Referring to the airport, Piza said (document 40): “I am worried by what we are doing in hiding this airport.” Piza then dictated a memorandum that Udall Research Group would address to him (document 39): “In response to this verbal request, the Udall Research Corporation has the pleasure of placing at the disposition of the government of Costa Rica an airport in the area of Potrero Grande. In our understanding, this area is necessary for the training of the Civil Guard and as an emergency alternative airport.”

The new Costa Rican president, Oscar Arias, who had campaigned on the necessity of bringing peace to the region, had stated that the airport could not be used after his administration took office on May 8, 1986.

On May 8, I was present as a future minister of Natural Resources when Arias assumed the presidency. The U.S. delegation was led by vice president George H. W. Bush and included Elliott Abrams, assistant secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs. Ambassador Lewis Tambs had already informed him that Arias did not support the use of the airport’s runway. Abram’s response was, “We’ll have to squeeze his balls.”

Arias was not aware of this comment at the time and the airport continued to be used. When he learned of this, he ordered the runway covered with sandbags and riddled with holes, rendering it unusable.

The political weakening of Reagan after the Iran-Contra scandal blew up paved the way for the signing of the Arias Peace Plan on August 7, 1987, by the five presidents from Central America, putting an end to 30 years of regional conflict and winning the document’s author the Nobel Peace Prize for that year. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)

* Alvaro Umaña Quesada, an economist and environmental engineer, was the Costa Rican minister of Natural Resources from 1986-1990.