Q COSTA RICA – Costa Rica’s ambassador to Washington, Roman Macaya Hayes, said the budget cuts planned by the Donald Trump government for 2018 do not compromise the cooperation promised by the United States to Costa Rica to combat drug trafficking and organized crime.
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump proposed to Congress a national budget plan that includes a cut in cooperation to other countries, including Costa Rica and the rest of Central America and Mexico.
Under the proposal, aid to Costa Rica in 2018 would go from US$1.8 million dollars annually to US$400,000.
Macaya added that the US Department of State has set aside about US$30.7 million from the 2017 budget for equipment and assistance to the security authorities in the country for the next three years.
He said that the cooperation announced by Washington in August last year, which includes boats, airplanes and security equipment, is already underway and continues.
For his part, Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis, said that it will be the US Congress that decides on the budget.
“It will be the Congress of the United States that resolves on a highly cut budget, not only in its components of international assistance but also its components of the local budget,” said President Luis Guillermo Solís on Thursday morning.
There is also the scenario of continuity with the budget if the US Congress fails to reach an agreement to approve Trump’s proposal.