Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis inaugurated Saturday a US$2.5 million Coast Guard Station in the country’s south Pacific. The station was donated by the United States military’s Southern Command (Southcom).

The president’s office said in a statement that the station, located in Golfito, Puntarenas province, was inaugurated by President Solis, Public Security Minister Gustavo Mata, National Coast Guard Director Martín Arias, and U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica Fitzgerald Haney.

“This project is an important step in security cooperation between the two countries. Cooperation between our countries is at a historical point. Our efforts are just one more example to improve the safety of our people,” Haney said in an official statement.

The Costa Rican president thanked the United States for their “solid contribution towards the fight against organized crime,” and for “the most important cooperation agreement in bilateral history.”

“We continue to embrace a single cause of struggle against transnational organized crime,” said Solis, who called the coast guard station “an extraordinarily important contribution.”

The new station comprises an area of ​​543 square meters and can accommodate 70 officers.

The facility consists of bedrooms, toilets, showers, dining room, kitchen area, an operations center, a communications center, an armory, and a warehouse for storage of spare parts and maintenance materials.

The construction was overseen by the United States Navy Corps of Engineers by means of a subcontracted company.

In addition to the facilities, the U.S. government also donated a 45-foot-long interceptor boat valued at US$549,000.

“This will strengthen the search and rescue operations, the protection of coastal marine resources, as well as anti-drug actions throughout the south Pacific area bordering Panama,” added the president’s office.

The coast guard station and the boat are part of the cooperation agreements that Costa Rica signed with the United States in 2016 and approved in fiscal year 2017, for about 30.7 million dollars, mainly to reinforce the fight against organized crime.

President Solís said on Saturday that these projects being implemented with the United States are not at risk with the reduction of aid provisioned for Central America in U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2018 budget proposal.

Trump’s budget proposal contains cuts in aid to Central America for development and institutional strengthening.

According to Trump’s plan, Costa Rica would get US$400,000, compared to 1.8 million in fiscal year 2016.
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