Costa Rica hasn’t had an army since the 1940′s after a violent civil war, but the US is trying to change that by bringing it’s own military presence inside the Central American country best known to most people as being a popular adventure tourism destination.

From Narco News:

On July 1, Costa Rica’s unicameral Legislative Assembly, with 31 votes out of 57, approved the US Embassy’s request to open the country to 46 US warships, 7,000 US soldiers, 200 helicopters and two aircraft carriers. This permission was granted through at least Dec. 31 of this year, officially justified by the necessity of fighting drug-traffickers, providing humanitarian services and providing a place for US ships to dock and refuel. While most reports have put a Dec. 31 expiration date on the agreement, the Nicaraguan media last week reported that Costa Rican Foreign Minister Rene Castro, in a meeting with Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Samuel Santos, said that the agreement is for five years.

Costa Rica and the U.S. have reported an increase in cartel activity in Costa Rica but it should be noted that under the controversial Mérida Initiative Costa Rica is getting millions of U.S. dollars to fight the cartels, not to fight growing issues of poverty, which some say is the real cause of a jump in crime there.

While it isn’t quite fair to make a comparison between Mexico and Costa Rica, the negative impact that the militarization of the drug war in Mexico funded by the U.S. has been pretty clear to some. This, combined with Costa Rica’s history of avoiding militarization led to a court challenge on the constitutionality of U.S. military presence. The Costa Rican Supreme Court last week agreed to take the case, essentially putting the plan on hold until a decision is a made. In the meantime, Costa Rican citizens have started their own campaign against the U.S. military presence.

Gotta love the musical choice in the video below