Costa Ricans became aware in early December that a group of about 100 citizens had begun to undergo military training, ostensibly to prepare for the eventuality of war with Nicaragua. The government has condemned the initiative, which is headed by a former police chief, and warned that it could become a threat to the country’s institutions.
It was Telenoticias that broadcast on 2 December the news that a group of men wearing military fatigues had been training somewhere close to the Caribbean coast in infantry tactics. Their leader, retired commissar José Fabio Pizarro Espinoza, proclaimed, ‘We must prepare for the worst, for the ultimate situation that could present itself, which is an armed conflict — and that is what we are doing [...] National sovereignty is not negotiated, it is defended.’ He dismissed suggestions that his organisation, the Frente Patriótico para la Defensa Nacional (FPDN) was a paramilitary force. Pizarro, after a stint as chief of the country’s Policía de Fronteras (PF, border police), had served as director-general of the Fuerza Pública (FP, national police) from 2007 to 2009.
On 5 December one of the ‘cells’ of the FPDN which calls itself Patrulla 1856 stated on Facebook , ‘We are not a threat to the government’ — then went on to claim that when they had offered to assist the FP they had been rebuffed. ‘We were not surprised,’ said their communiqué, ‘but this makes it clear that the government continues to accumulate mistakes [...] ignoring and disdaining the pure will of the people to prepare to defend their land if needs be. We want to make it clear to our President, Mrs Laura Chinchilla that we are not guerrillas, that we are not interested in striking at the weak system that governs us. We will continue to abide by the law and will not carry out operations without authorisation, but will continue to exercise our right to defend ourselves.’
Public security minister Mario Zamora told the Nicaraguan newspaper El Nuevo Diario, ‘It is a warning call that our régime of public liberties allows mercenary groups to start forming by free association, beyond all institutional and civil control [potentially] posing a threat to the rule of law and our democratic system.’
He went on to say, ‘I regret these types of actions which bring to our country the seed of what led other nations to sort out their internal problems by force. When these groups appear they always seek legitimacy by association with a good cause. In the end the big questions are who controls them, where is the civil power controlling these groups; who do they serve and by what criteria do they select their members.’
In another public statement Zamora noted that there was an established institution for those who wished to support the police, namely, the FP reserve. Indeed, since 2008 the government has tried to boost the reserve’s strength.
On 15 December a large group of FPDN members turned up at the headquarters of the FP reserve with the declared intention of enlisting. Though they had given advance warning of their arrival, they found the doors closed. They told journalists that they would try again, and underlined that many of their members, as former FP officers, were well acquainted with the reserve. The FPDN has announced a second large training event, to be held in San José in late December.
Link: FPDN’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/fpdnCR
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