A resolution by the Legislative Assembly on the long-standing, contentious and tiresome issue of foreign military aircraft, specifically from the United States, entering Costa Rica airspace and landing in our country was recently issued.

The President of the Legislative Assembly, Rafael Ortiz Fabrega, representative of Alajuela for the opposition Christian Social Unity Party (Spanish initials: PUSC) announced that aircraft not equipped to conduct offensive or defensive maneuvers against other aircraft, vessel or ground element, may enter Cost Rica airspace and land here without legislative permission.

Moreover, U.S. military aircraft that may be considered “warplanes” due to their armament and equipment may conduct operations in our airspace and even land by means of an expedited approval process. The requests must be made to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which in turn must present them to the plenary within 24 hours, and the legislators must decide whether the aircraft can operate in Costa Rica within eight days.

Minutes after the resolution was announced and filed at the Legislative Assembly, the U.S. Embassy issued the following press release:

The U.S. Embassy welcomes the National Assembly’s unanimous approval of its resolution on aircrafts (sic) permit to enter the country.

The action significantly facilitates the process by which unarmed aircraft are permitted to enter and operate within Costa Rica. The new resolution will facilitate the United States’ long-standing and highly-successful aerial anti-narcotics support to the Government of Costa Rica, and is a clear sign of the Government of Costa Rica’s firm support for the fight against narcotics trafficking in Costa Rica and in the region.

Recent history shows that the U.S. has been the only nation to have complained about these legislative approvals in Costa Rica. Military vessels and aircraft from Colombia, Ecuador and The Kingdom of the Netherlands had no problems waiting for legislative permits to be issued. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, U.S. military aircraft have flown over, and landed in, Costa Rica without permits on more than one occasion; in fact, U.S. Coast Guard aircraft have been ordered to leave the country due to this issue.

Although the resolution was approved unanimously and without any hints of planned appeals, a cursory review of the document shows that potential legal challenges may arise insofar as the electronic countermeasures (ECM) installed in most modern military aircraft. In fact, some sections of the document could be construed to indicate that even flares used to throw off heat-seeking missiles could be considered equipment that adheres to the principles of warfare, thereby opening the door to a legal challenge. Another potential issue is that the resolution lightly mentions aircrews; it is understood that a helicopter carrying an armed U.S. airborne infantry squad with a full tactical load will certainly need a request for a legislative permit, but what about weapons carried by the members of the crew?

On the other hand, the resolution has strong preambles based on the Constitution, which is certainly refreshing given the number of laws that are too easily challenged in Costa Rica due to their dubious constitutionality.