Costa Rica to Boycott Next Contadora Meeting

The government will boycott a Contadora Group meeting next month and may recall its ambassador from Nicaragua over an alleged border violation and detention of a border violation and detention of a man who sought asylum in Costa Rica, officials say.

Reacting to the border incursion charge, Nicaragua’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement Thursday in Managua denying “that this or any other type of incident violating Costa Rican sovereignty has occured.”

In the climate of deteriorating relations between the two countries, Costa Rican President Luis Alberto Monge did not send a delegation to Thursday’s inauguration of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

Costa Rica conditioned its attendance at a meeting called for Feb. 14 by the Contadora Group ---- Colombia, Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela ---- on the resolution of the case of Jose Manuel Urbin1629506657 Lara, a Nicaraguan who spent almost five mmonths in the Costa Rican Embassy in Managua, was detained Christmas Eve by Nicaraguan authorities under unclear circumstances.

“This does ot signify a lessening of Costa Rican support and interest in the efforts of the Contadora Group,” said Costa Rican Foreign Minister Carlos Jose Guiterrez.

The Contadora Group called the meeting of the five Central American nations to review a revised draft of a peace treaty aimed at settling conflicts in the region.

In another source of tension, Costa Rica charged that two armed Nicaraguan patrol boats entered Costa Rican waters near Agua Dulce Lagoon on the Caribbean coast Tuesday and Wednesday.

A report issued by the civil guard director, Col. Oscar Vidal said that 15 Nicaraguan soldiers, protected by air cover, disembarked in “a new act of agression agiainst Costa Rica”before retreating after an exchange of fire.

A Costa Rican Foreign Ministry spokesman said the government has not yet decided what steps to take in the incident.

He said the recall of the Costa Rican ambassador to Nicaragua is possible “because the Managua regime does not attend to the protest notes that the government has presented for the constant (territorial) violations.”

Monge said late Thursday that Costa Rica has not discarded the possibility of invoking the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, under which an armed attack on one of the treaty’s signatories is considered to be an attack on all of the rest. Most of the members of the Organization of American States including the United States, signed the pact nearly four decades ago.

Although Monge’s statement underscored the seriousness of this country’s problems with the Sandinista regime in Managua, Monge said that “the moment has not arrived to adopt such as serious measure as breaking relations.”