The tragic events of September 11^th, 2001 shook the entire world. The terrorist attacks perpetrated by al-Qaeda left a deep mark on the psyches of many people, including a few from Costa Rica.

Author’s Note: Portions of this article were originally published by The Costa Rica Star on September 11, 2013. They are being reprinted in memoriam.  

Fourteen years after the calamity, most people in Costa Rica are closely following the developments related to armed conflict in the Middle East, but a few Ticos and expats will take time today to reflect on how their lives have changed since September 11.

In 2002, the old Sunday Magazine of national newspaper La Nacion told the story of the following Ticos:

• Sylvia Loria Quiros, whose husband Kevin Connors sadly disappeared when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) in Manhattan collapsed.
• Gladys Meza, whose brave son Jerome Dominguez was a law enforcement officer involved in rescue operations at Ground Zero when he died.
• Karla Pericon Ortiz, who was in the north tower offices of Bank of America at the WTC when one of the hijacked airliners hit. Not surprisingly, Ms. Pericon struggled with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for years after 9/11.
• Pilar Madrigal Zamora, a public official from Costa Rica who was exiting one of the subway stations at WTC when tragedy began.
• Rogelio Pardo Maurer, a Pentagon employee and member of an elite United States special operations unit who had a dentist appointment on 9/11. A year later, La Nacion found Mr. Pardo in Kandahar, engaged in combat against al-Qaeda fighters near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan.

It is amazing to lear of the many lives in Costa Rica that were affected in the aftermath of 9/11. The War on Terror moved a few Ticos to join the U.S. military and support the fight against the al-Qaeda terrorist network. This war against terror, which somehow went off-track after a couple of years, would forever change the lives of two Tico families.

In 2011, the Costa Rica Star published and article about the families of the late Lance Corporal Alexander Scott Arredondo, United States Marine Corps, and Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia of the Florida Army National Guard. The stories of these two Ticos are well-known among pacifist circles who believe things had gone to far by the time former U.S. President George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, and even worse after he declared the end of major combat operations from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier.

The following year, the Costa Rica Star published an article about Staff Sgt. Andrew Trevor Britton-Mahalo, an Army Special Forces operator who was born in Costa Rica and killed in Afghanistan during a “green-on-blue” incident that called attention to a disturbing trend in the War on Terror and its heavy toll.

Costa Rica would like to see nothing less than peace 14 years after 9/11. This is evident from the position the country has previously taken with regard to possible military airstrikes in Syria. Another example took place years ago during the administration of former President Abel Pacheco, who initially supported President Bush and the invasion of Iraq.

After strong opposition by the people of Costa Rica to remove the country from the “coalition of the willing,” President Pacheco had a change of heart. These events would later inspire Japanese video game designer Hideo Kojima, who is a pacifist, to write the story of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and base the action in Costa Rica.

Recommended reading:

The Wall Street Journal, September 12, 2001: Terrorists Destroy World Trade Center, Hit Pentagon in Raid with Hijacked Jets