Nicaragua display of Russian weapons a ‘veiled threat’: Costa Rica

Nicaragua this week showed off weapons including a new Russian combat tank in what its neighbor Costa Rica said Wednesday amounted to a “veiled threat.”

“The display of this materiel is not constructive, but constitutes a veiled threat, yet Nicaragua should not see Costa Rica that way. We are not an aggressive country,” Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis told reporters.

He called the exhibition Monday of the Russian-made tank as well as navy and air force systems and artillery as “an unnecessary demonstration of force that is not suited to this time of peace.”

The weapons, he added, were not appropriate for other uses, such as fighting drug smuggling.

Nicaragua’s military has not confirmed media reports that it has purchased some 50 T-72B1 combat tanks and other weapons from Russia, including boats and helicopters, that are to be delivered this year and next.

But it has said it is modernizing and boosting its capability.

That has unsettled its neighbors, particularly Costa Rica — which got rid of its own military in 1948.

Costa Rica and Nicaragua have strained relations punctuated by border disputes, migration issues and conflicting political ideologies.

While Costa Rica is a big destination for US tourism and investment, Nicaragua’s president, Daniel Ortega, has allied himself with anti-American governments in Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba.

Ortega is running for re-election in November.