On Wednesday morning, two Sikorski UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, allegedly configured as HH-60 combat rescue aircraft for service in the United States Air Force, were seen flying over the community of La Palma, not far from Ciudad Neilly in the southern region of Costa Rica. According to a news report filed by Manuel Estrada of daily tabloid Diario Extra, the two helicopters landed on a forest clearing, whereupon the engines were turned off for a few minutes before taking off again.

 

The colorful Mariano Figueres, Director of Intelligence and Security, explained to Diario Extra that the landing had been previously coordinated by his agency. The Director furthermore explained:

 

[The helicopters] were flying to Panama on a humanitarian mission. They landed for a few minutes while weather conditions improved. Later, they got airborne and left Costa Rica. They are not armed helicopters, and they had all required permits to land in our country.

 

The permits that Director Figueres mentioned happen to be issued by the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica, and they are usually subject to intensive debate, prolonged voting and coordination issues. Military aircraft, vehicles or vessels that carry armament do not usually get such permits. If the Black Hawks that landed in Costa Rica yesterday were in fact HH-60 Pave Hawks, they would normally be armed with twin 7.62mm mini-guns, or else an airborne variation of the M2 Browning .50 caliber gun. Perhaps during a humanitarian mission, as described by Director Figueres, such armament may have been taken off.

 

Local residents did not see any crew members step down from the U.S. aircraft, which were painted in a solid dark color.

 

As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, residents of the remote southern regions of Costa Rica tend to be leery of helicopters flying in their airspace. In 2013, the Ecological Communities Association of la Ceiba and Friends of the Earth in Costa Rica (Spanish acronym: COECOCEIBA), reported the suspicious landing of an unmarked helicopter in Alto Cuen, Talamanca:

 

[A group of ] so-called missionaries wore woodland pattern camouflage uniforms similar to the M81 Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) worn by United States military forces until 2006. According to Bribri leaders who followed the men from a distance after they went door-to-door in the village distributing bibles, the visitors were clearly skillful in mountain survival. They did not carry water and did not drink from the rivers -they knew how to extract it from bamboo.

 

Indigenous communities in southern Costa Rica have also rejected proposals from the U.S. Southern Command to establish Talamanca as a staging area for humanitarian missions. The Bribri people of Costa Rica simply do not want foreign military aircraft in their territory.