Costa Rica News – Obama visited Mexico to both push his immigration bill and to talk about security both in regards to the drug war as well as the exchange of guns. Immigration reform is the biggest agenda in Mexico. Now fast forward to Costa Rica.
A few hours ago Obama landed in a Costa Rica that was trying to present itself as a disciplined global country ready to be taken seriously. Well guess what CR, all you are doing is putting lipstick on a pig.
The fact that you have to shut down the entire capital city and surrounding areas to try to look good to the foreign dignitary means you do not have control over anything. I am assuming that when President Obama flies to the UK or Egypt or Mexico they did not have to shut down the government and take a day off.
The main issues that were supposed to be addressed on this meeting by Obama and the leaders that are part of SICA, Central American Integration System, are trade, security, and energy.
This is a group of leaders that do not really care about the group as a whole but instead are going to try to push individual agendas or each country. I would like anyone to name something that any of these countries has done lately for the greater good of the region?
Trade
The results of CAFTA has been quite positive. Trade between the U.S. and Costa Rica has grown 8 percent each year since 2006, jumping from $30 billion in 2005 to $61 billion in 2012.
Let’s be honest though this is already in place and not much is going to change unless Costa Rica comes up with some product that the US needs that they are not already importing.
Security
The U.S. State Department has outlined five goals for the region: to create safe streets for Central American citizens, interrupt the transit of drugs and criminals within the region, help develop strong and capable governments in the region, increase security presence in the region and facilitate coordination between governments in the region.
All of these things are great ideas but there is so much corruption through out the ranks of Costa Rican government and the local police which get paid next to nothing, that this is not going to change unless there is a complete overhaul of the system.
The Costa Rican government is not willing to make changes in this area as it would consist of implementing a system of accountability which no one wants in the Costa Rica government. Basically the Costa Rica government is like the mob, they want to keep the money in the family.
Energy
More than 90 percent of Costa Rica’s energy comes from renewable sources, and the country hopes to attract U.S. investment to that sector. This would be great except for that if the USA gave money for investment in this sector and did not actually build the infrastructure themselves it would go into the pockets of the Costa Rican government officials and the project would either halt half way through it or built to shoddy standards and break down shortly after being built.
The only other thing that the US could be interested in is research in Costa Rica is doing for hydrogen production as an alternative fuel source, primarily for transportation sectors. That research is being conducted by Ad Astra Rocket Company, founded by Tico astronaut Franklin Chang, and the U.S. company Cummings.
Guess what with the fact that Cummings is already a part of this the research will be readily available for the USA.
Summary
The entire purpose of this trip was really to meet with Mexico and push immigration reform.
So what will come of this visit for Obama in regards to changes in Costa Rica….ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. If any money is invested the CR government will think of a way to siphon it into their retirement funds.
Look at all the other ex-presidents in Costa Rica that do not come back here because of all the corruption in which they were involved.
But at least the pig got to put on lipstick today and walk around like they were king of the barnyard and the government officials got another 3 day weekend after the national holiday on Wednesday. Business as usual in Costa Rica.
