RICO’S Q —Costa Rican President Laura Fernández, during a joint press conference on Tuesday in Barranquilla with Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella, generated significant media coverage by using the word “basura” (garbage/trash) to describe members of Colombia’s organized crime and drug trafficking networks.
Her literal quote regarding criminals fleeing law enforcement operations in Colombia was:
“The effort that the president is making in the fight against drug trafficking, that cleansing he is carrying out in Colombia, does not mean that Costa Rica is going to receive the garbage that you are cleaning out of your homeland.” (Original: “El esfuerzo que el presidente realiza en el combate del narcotráfico, esa limpieza que está realizando de Colombia, no significa que Costa Rica vaya a recibir a la basura que usted está limpiando de su patria.”)
President De la Espriella used similar terminology during the meeting, stating to Fernández: “I am not going to let the garbage pass over to Costa Rica, do not worry.”
The “trashy” interchange occurred when the Colombian President asked Fernández to consider eliminating the visa requirement for Colombian citizens entering the country.
Currently, Colombia does not require visas for Costa Ricans, whereas Costa Rica maintains that requirement for Colombians, and therefore De la Espriella proposed moving toward “migration reciprocity.”
With her clumsy use of language, Laura Virginia embarrasses the country and creates unnecessary problems.
According to media outlets like Teletica and El Observador, Fernández specified that she was referring to hitmen, drug traffickers, and transnational organized crime groups trying to relocate operations to Costa Rica, not the general Colombian populace.
She often has to backtrack, explain, and justify what she meant by what she said, rather than what she meant by the words written for her.
Among these, the President’s statements regarding Mexico, Panama, Nicaragua, and Colombia.
On March 6, Fernández stated that, for her, Mexico represented an example of “where we do not want to end up,” referring to organized crime and the situation in certain cities within that country.
Subsequently, between May 15 and 20, she addressed the situation with Panama, declaring that she would not allow domestic producers to be mistreated; this occurred amidst disputes over agricultural trade restrictions and accusations of a trade blockade.
On June 12, regarding Nicaragua, Fernández spoke of “the form of government they have chosen to have,” referring to the political situation under the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
Later, Foreign Minister Manuel Tovar publicly explained that the Costa Rican government’s position was to condemn the repression and advocate for the restoration of democratic processes in that country.
Without doubt, such expressions reflect a problem in the way international relations are being handled.
“There is no doubt that Laura Fernández is far from possessing the understanding and respect required in international relations, especially with Latin America. Her clumsy use of language and speech embarrasses the country and creates unnecessary problems,” former presidential candidate Claudio Alpízar recently published a hard-hitting opinion column titled “En Boca de Callada No Entran Moscas” (No Flies Enter a Closed Mouth).
International relations are fundamental to the exchange between nations—now more than ever; the care and strategic approach we must adopt as a country in this area are of paramount importance. This necessitates a foreign policy characterized by dignity and sovereignty within a multipolar world.
“If the country continues to take clumsy steps and make ill-advised statements—appointing ambassadors who seek a four-year sabbatical rather than representing the nation—we could find ourselves in a real mess at any moment due to verbal indiscretions and actions that compromise us in conflicts that are not our own,” Alpízar noted in his column.
The summit. The state visit focused entirely on establishing a security alliance to counter regional “narco-terrorism” and improve maritime and intelligence-sharing capabilities between the two nations