Death of a Small Country
Niman, Michael I.
DEATH OF A SMALL COUNTRY It's the U.S. presence that's killing Costa Rica BY MICHAEL I. NIMAN The Osa Peninsula on Costa Rica's Pacific coast is under virtual U.S. occupation. Past the cattle...
...military entered the Osa Peninsula in March for a project it calls "Roads for Peace...
...At that time, Natural Resources Minister Alvaro Umana, who has been widely praised by international environmental organizations, promised the group that while "there exist areas where you cannot mine—like our national parks—the majority of the area is certainly open to exploration...
...The U.S...
...Osa's future looks grim...
...Army vehicles transport them to their positions in a scene more typical of Guatemala or El Salvador...
...The expansion of the cattle and lumber industries and the possibility of new citrus plantations threaten to devour thousands of wilderness acres...
...military presence is not the only threat to Costa Rica's environment...
...Announcements posted in local stores promise gifts for children who come with their families for a festive community workday...
...Using their own ships and aircraft, the U.S...
...But the emerging reality of Costa Rica is ecocide...
...A U.S...
...Air National Guard for its own project, called "Prime Beef...
...I don't think you'd recognize the country...
...Army food, termed MREs (for meals ready to eat) in military jargon...
...Residents have taken a liking to U.S...
...Southern Command in Panama and from Fort Ben-ning, Georgia...
...military...
...We'll be back for more of the same, and eventually we'll be back to stay...
...Hand-painted signs, written in English, welcome the soldiers to their communities...
...Geological Survey, the Los Alamos National Laboratories, and the University of Costa Rica have confirmed the existence of large gold deposits on the Osa Peninsula...
...The U.S...
...With easier access to the remote areas, prospectors promise to inflict serious damage to the frail ecosystem...
...With the help of a foreign investor, these squatters are in the process of acquiring a gasoline-fired pump to speed up their operation...
...Behind the fires, cattle graze the leveled land...
...military personnel—some in full camouflage gear, others looking more like surfers with Task Force Costa Rica caps and shirts clashing with their pastel shorts and Guatemalan bracelets—have become a regular sight in Puerto Jimenez, Osa's largest community and only bona-fide town...
...Recent arrivals to the peninsula, most have extended a typically warm Costa Rican welcome to their new guests...
...We're not doing this for nothing," one soldier told me, expressing a common sentiment...
...It's a scene that is becoming familiar in armyless Costa Rica...
...military involvement in Honduras, the U.S...
...But things here are going to really change...
...Units from North Dakota, New Jersey, and Arkansas are constructing school houses and community centers to serve the burgeoning population in seven of Osa's towns...
...Some, who had been stationed in Panama, suspected that Costa Rica, and especially the isolated Osa Pen-ninsula, was being viewed by their superiors as a friendly host for the U.S...
...forces enter and leave with no formal inspection of their equipment...
...Army is sending combat engineers to Costa Rica for a series of "humanitarian projects...
...They hope to open up the henrik dr esc he ft hill in time for the rainy season, channeling the rainwater to further erode the soil and expose the better gold reserves for panning...
...As part of "Roads for Peace," the U.S...
...Many Costa Rican intellectuals fear that once the population adjusts to the growing military presence, it will eventually accept U.S...
...forces entered the country illegally...
...Flames of deforestation border a freshly graveled road...
...Osa residents don't seem to echo these fears...
...I'd love to come back in two years when my time is up...
...soldiers, accompanied by 418 pieces of heavy equipment, relentlessly push their way into Osa...
...Chowing down on gourmet fare of such strange food items as barbecued beef, franks and "bean component," and beef stew, served up from brown and khaki vacuum pouches, the locals adjust to what they think is North American life...
...Logging trucks brim with the carcasses of trees centuries old...
...The troops involved in "Roads for Peace" came from the U.S...
...One look at a map will clarify what is meant by "other countries...
...The troops possess neither Costa Rican tourist cards nor visas to be in the country...
...Dressed in camouflage, they go about their work, cutting roads into the peninsula's wilderness...
...Open-surface mining is already devastating land and choking rivers near the boundary of Corcovado...
...Army Corps of Engineers constructed Camp Rugged Seahorse, complete with a heliport, which services a large number of military flights, mostly to and from Panama...
...It now rivals Brazil for the fastest deforestation rate in the hemisphere...
...troops from Panama to "other countries...
...MREs aren't the only offerings...
...Even the occasional gringo faux pas, such as landing a helicopter on Puerto Jimenez's soccer field and blowing the roof off an adjacent building, barely causes a ripple...
...Children wearing camouflage caps and bandannas, as well as adults wearing Rambo garb, work side by side with their gringo counterparts...
...Past the cattle ranches and the lumber camps, more than 750 U.S...
...training maneuvers and, finally, bases...
...In an effort to attract foreign capital for further development of the gold industry, Costa Rica fueled environmentalists' fears by hosting an International Gold Conference in 1987...
...The deforested areas are becoming a wasteland...
...And the potential for further military development, while promising attractive perks for the fast-growing population, threatens devastating social and political consequences in addition to the seemingly irreversible pattern of ecocide...
...Article 121 of the Costa Rican Magna Carta requires permission of the legislative assembly for such a landing...
...As in the early days of U.S...
...For three months, American soldiers paved roads and built bridges, regardless of the costs to the environment...
...Passengers on a bus through the Osa peninsula press their faces to the dusty windows, gawking and waving at a group of the soldiers, who wave back...
...home to the Osa Forest Reserve and Cor-covado National Park, hosts more than 500 species of trees, 285 species of birds, 116 species of amphibians, and 139 species of mammals including jaguars and tapirs...
...Heavily armed Costa Rican police officers, who look and act like soldiers, guard the entrances to Camp Rugged Seahorse, the road, and Puerto Jimenez...
...Roads for Peace" is expected to resume operations by the end of this summer, near the Nicaraguan border...
...He lived in Costa Rica for several months in 1988 and 1989 and worked with the publication Mesoamerica in San Jose...
...Costa Rica touts its national park system for containing some of the few pristine wilderness areas and the only rain forest on Central America's Pacific coast...
...The U.S...
...Studies conducted by the U.S...
...The environmentally sensitive Osa Peninusla, Michael I. Niman is an instructor of alternative media in the American Studies Department of the State University of New York at Buffalo...
...The soldiers are now reconstructing the building better than it ever was...
...The locals find the comida norteamericana, which is distributed free to all who ask, to be que rica, very tasty...
...Some of these giants are so large that a tractor-trailer can haul only one section of a tree at a time...
...Meanwhile, Camp Rugged Seahorse is being used by the U.S...
...Making matters worse, Costa Rica seems on the brink of a new gold rush...
...soldier summed the situation up: "This is a beautiful country," he said...
...The closest known gold camp to the Corcovado National Park is a mere 300 meters from the southernmost ranger station...
...Many of the men working in the jungle construction effort discounted the training value of the project...
...The president of the Costa Rican National Assembly, Jose Luis Valenciano, has asked for an investigation on grounds that the U.S...
...presence is taking its toll on the Osa Peninsula...
...The evidence seems to point to an increased U.S...
...While landless campesinos have met with little success panning tidal pools on the beach, international fortune seekers are becoming principal players in many of the more destructive undertakings...
...Recently proposed sanctions against Panama call for the possible relocation of U.S...
...From there, the miners hike upriver to a primitive strip-mining operation using water hoses to wash a hillside into the river...
Vol. 53 • August 1989 • No. 8
