Cold November Rains and a return of the cold war?

What a beautiful morning here.  Well, not really.  Last night some sort of tropical storm blew through and knocked out power for most of the night.  I guess it’s not bad because we are all in bed, but living here, I like to have the perimeter around my house lit up like a downtown Manhattan. 

Then this morning, we hear that those members of the Nicaraguan army had been seen on Isla Calero, a piece of land on the Costa Rican side of the Río San Juan. Pictures and video reveal a Nicaraguan flag has been placed on the property. The flag is located on the same property, known as Finca Aragón, where trees were cut down and sediment was deposited by a Nicaraguan dredge that is deepening the Río San Juan.

“A flyover this morning above Isla Calero revealed the presence of Nicaraguan troops in national territory, Costa Rican territory,” a Costa Rican ministry official said. “There is a Nicaraguan flag and tents belonging to the Nicaraguan army. ..

As we all know, we have no army here in Costa Rica and the Nicaraguan one has been battle hardened by years of civil war that only ended a decade ago.  They have 15 Soviet made The Mil Mi-8 is a medium twin-turbine transport helicopter that can also act as a gunship and over 50 operational   T-54 and T-55 tanks.

I guess the ‘good thing’ is that we have about 7000 US Marines and about 50 USN Ships here on a drug combat mission.  Along with about 2 dozen harrier Jump jets, 200 helicopters and AWACS that I always see flying over my house on its way to land in Liberia, I don’t see Nicaragua as attacking anytime soon.

Of course, maybe the USA presence has fueled tensions instead of abating them?  Due to the long history of US intervention in Latin America (perhaps most notably in neighboring Nicaragua), the region is clearly justified in its concern over the disproportionate and virtual invasion of troops into an area that could potentially provide such a logistical and geographic striking point.

We hear all about Iran, but very little about our own hemisphere and the increased US military spending down here and in the Caribbean.

Anyways, no point in stressing just yet.