- Published: Tuesday, January 21, 2020-




By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

In a meeting today, President Carlos Alvarado is expected to ask the U.S. Secretary of State for his country to reconsiders the unilateral change in the crime warning classification of Costa Rica.  The secretary, Michael Pompeo, heads the department that lowered the safety classification from level 1 to level 2."

"Costa Rica has categorically rejected this change, applied since Jan, 7, and considers it unfair and disproportionate," the government said in its statement.

This new classification, comparing Costa Rica with countries that are among the most violent in the world, ignores the efforts made by the country in response to all requests for improvement in tourism security requested by the U.S. Embassy, the government said.

In fact, Costa Rica is not alone as a major travel destinations that is designated level 2. Other countries with the same rating are, among others, Belgium. Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Guatemala, India, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Perú, The Philippines, Colombia, El Salvador and Cuba. Some of the European security concerns are believed to stem from the possibility of terrorist attacks. The full list is at Travel State site.

According to the information provided by the government, Pompeo on a working tour in Colombia, and Jamaica, as well as Costa Rica with the goal of renewing the deep commitment of the United States with its hemispheric neighbors."

Pompeo also comes to the country to talk about other issues as "the situation in Venezuela and Nicaragua, the increase in migratory flows and the impact in Costa Rica and the joint efforts in the area on the fight against drug trafficking," said the government.

Pompeo will be in meetings accompanied by Michael Kozak, acting assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs; Sharon Day, the U.S. ambassador; Morgan Ortagus, American government official serving as spokesperson for the U. S. Department of State; Ricky L. Waddell, a lieutenant general in the U. S. Army Reserve, and Alyssa Servello, who is responsible for taking note of the meetings.

Pompeo will visit Costa Rica after traveled to Bogota, Colombia, where he spoke at the Third Western Hemisphere Counterterrorism Ministerial and met with president Iván Duque Márquez and other regional leaders.

Coming from Colombia, Pompeo is expected to arrive today at 10:40 a.m. local time. From the airport he will go to the Presidential House in Zapote, where he will have the meeting with Alvarado.

After that meeting, Pompeo is to visit this afternoon the Joint Operations Center of the Ministry of Public Security, located in Base 2 of Juan Santamaría International Airport in Alajuela.

Then Pompeo will leave the country for Jamaica.

In the meeting with Pompeo, Costa Rican officials will also participate, including the foreign minister, Manuel Ventura; the minister of Foreign Trade, Dyalá Jiménez; Public Security Minister Michael Soto, Costa Rica's ambassador in Washington, Fernando Llorca-Castro, among others.

According to the official statement of the State Department, the last visit of a top secretary of state was former secretary of State, Hillary Clinton in April 2010.



In response to concerns on the warning on crime issued to travelers, last week Llorca met with a U.S. State Department official, Marta Youth. Youth is the director for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas at the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the meeting, the ambassador presented an exposition on the improvements made by the country in terms of security and asked for a better explanation of what were the technical parameters of the new qualification methodology that motivated the reduction of security level.


Also, last week, the minister of Foreign Affairs met with Julie J. Chung, principal deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, as well with Day, the U.S. ambassador in Costa Rica to express concern over the crime warning issued in Washington.

According to the foreign ministry, Ventura expressed to Chung the country's' concern after the recent decision of the U.S. to reduce the level of safety for travel to Costa Rica.

"Both diplomats are confident that this decision will not negatively impact the high number of U.S. citizens tourists that the country receives," said the ministry said in its statement, referring to Ventura and Chung.

According to the U.S. Embassy, Chung visited Costa Rica for the first time to discuss top U.S.-Costa Rican priorities, such as security, trade and foreign policy. Despite the visit being her first here, she is no stranger to Latin America. Her online biography says she was the deputy political counselor in Bogota, Colombia, where she managed the U.S. government’s largest extradition program, including paramilitary and narco-trafficking cases.

During her official three-day visit, Chung met with Costa Rican government officials and visited several U.S. companies in Costa Rica, said the embassy.

 


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Which other top U.S. Department of State executive should visit Costa Rica?  We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com