QCOSTARICA – Agustin Reyes Aragón, a name little known in the conflict between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, is the man who in 2010 made public the alleged invasion of Costa Rica’s wetlands of the northern region by Nicaragua.
Reyes, 40 years of age, is also a drug trafficker, arrested ten months ago by the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) in Delta 1, known as Isla Calero.
From his 10 square meter cell in the San Sebastian jail in San José, Reyes, aka “Tarzan”, talked to the Diario Extra of some of the secrets in that northern area of the country.
Months ago, Reyes said, he received notice that opens the possibility of his being extradited to Nicaragua to serve out his sentence for drug trafficking in his country of birth.
Reyes assures that Eden Pastora, one of the greatest political figures of Nicaragua, is behind the extradition in order get him back to Nicaragua to have him killed.
In the interview with the Diario Extra, Reyes said he was part of the Nicaraguan guerillas in the early 1980’s, but after three years came to Costa Rica with his family for security reasons.
“Police arrested me because I am supposedly linked to drug trafficking, but they can’t say they have found a milligram of drugs on me, much less weapons,” said Reyes.
The alleged narco says Nicaragua and Pastora, have made a number of allegations against him and wants him dead.
“In 2010, Eden Pastora wanted to buy from me a property in Isla Portillo, which was a legacy for my children, offering me US$500.000 dollars, but I told him no. Three days later 50 soldiers arrived and took my property, they shot at me and had to flee to survive. That was in October 2010,” said Reyes.
Reyes said that Pastora personally spoke to him to purchase the 280 acre piece of land, saying he needed the land to make a canal to the sea, to move drugs with speed boats.
The conversation, according to Reyes, took place the weekend before the alleged invasion by Nicaraguan soldiers on the area claimed by Costa Rica, sparking a conflict between the two nations, and is today being discussed before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Reyes alleges that Pastora has placed a price of a million dollars on his head, payable to anyone who delivers him on a silver platter.
“It is all a plot by Pastora, it is political persecution against me, because I wanted to denounce to authorities in Costa Rica what the Nicaraguan army was doing in the border area,” says Reyes.
Agustin Reyes Aragón will be facing a hearing in the coming days in the Limón criminal court to where his fate will be decided.
Months ago, the Nicaraguan newspaper, La Prensa, published a statement by Eden Pastora himself, asserting that he knows Reyes and his family.
Source: Diarioextra.com – “Edén Pastora trafica droga por Isla Calero”
This story is too cryptic to draw any inferences, but a couple points stand out to me.
First and mainly, it is common knowledge that the area Nicaragua allegedly invaded is primarily used by drug traffickers. I have never understood why Nicaragua hasn’t made this an issue in the World Court, since previous rulings by the Court made Costa Rica responsible for policing the area and it has clearly not done so. It seems a slam dunk to point out that Costa Rica has shirked its Court-ordered responsibilities in this area, but to my knowledge Nicaragua hasn’t so much as mentioned this.
Second is the puzzle of whether or to what extent the Nicaraguan government is involved in the drug trade. There is evidence that in his role as head of the military during the early 1990s, Humberto Ortego (Daniel’s brother) was using the military for drug trafficking. We also have good reason to believe that at least earlier the CIA was a knowing a willful participant in the drug trade. Fast forward to the present and we have the puzzle of why the “drug problem” in Nicaragua is so much smaller than it is in countries to its north, and maybe even to its south. It only makes sense to conjecture that maybe the Nicaraguan government is currently controlling the drug trade for its own advantage, although this is only conjecture.
I doubt Pastora has much agency in any of this, although he probably believes he does. Daniel and Humberto Ortega long ago figured out how to manipulate and use Pastora, who frankly gives all evidence of being pretty stupid. Basically, if Pastora is doing something, you can guess that someone else is directing him.
Though I have no idea from this cryptic story what exactly is going on.