To honor the victims on the 30th anniversary of the bombing, and to renew calls for an end to impunity in the case, The Tico Times has compiled a series of stories as told by victims, journalists, investigators and others affected in the aftermath.
To honor the victims on the 30th anniversary of the bombing, and to renew calls for an end to impunity in the case, The Tico Times has compiled a series of stories as told by victims, journalists, investigators and others affected in the aftermath.
On Sunday, Oct. 5, 1986, a young Sandinista soldier named José Fernando Canales Alemán sighted a Fairchild C-123K cargo plane in Nicaraguan airspace near the Costa Rican border. He fired a Russian-made shoulder mounted SAM-7 surface-to-air missile and brought down the plane. One man survived. His name was Eugene Hasenfus, and his subsequent capture by Sandinista forces led to the unraveling of a complex web now called “The Iran-Contra Affair.”
On Aug. 7, 1987, five Central American presidents signed a peace accord known as Esquipulas II, named after the city in Guatemala where the first round of meetings had taken place the previous year. The accord included a number of provisions for cooperation between the five countries, and most notably, it called for an end to support for “irregular forces” by all of the signatories.
Costa Rica’s former President Óscar Arias is correct in his assessment of the cause of the current U.S. “child immigration problem.” The clear takeaway is: If you interfere in the internal affairs of another country you create a responsibility for the outcomes. At least, try not to be shortsighted to the point of repeating past mistakes.
To honor the victims on the 30th anniversary of the bombing, and to renew calls for an end to impunity in the case, The Tico Times has compiled a series of stories as told by victims, journalists, investigators and others affected in the aftermath.
