Rodrigo Alberto de Jesús Chaves Robles

And Costa Rica said no, flat out.

President Rodrigo Chávez refused to pay.

But by May 8th, the pressure was so intense he did something almost unheard of in the cyber world.

He declared a national state of emergency.

up at the border.

And then on May 8th, brand new President Rodrigo Chavez did something unprecedented.

He declared a national state of emergency, not for an earthquake, not for a hurricane, but for a cyber attack.

That was a first in cybersecurity history.

In 2023, El Salvador documented a record-breaking homicide rate of 17.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, more than double the rate registered during the 2010s.

Earlier this year, Fernandez and her conservative predecessor and mentor, Rodrigo Chavez Robles, had Costa Rica joined the U.S.-led Americas Counter-Cartel Coalition, A3C, also known as the Shield of the Americas.

Since then, countries such as Colombia have signed agreements with the United States allowing for possible joint strikes with the U.S. against narco-terrorist groups operating in Colombian territory.

Ecuador, another A3C member, has participated in several joint operations with the U.S. against narco-terrorist groups, most recently dismantling a floating refueling station used by Ecuador's deadly Los Choneros narco-terrorist organization last week.

for cocaine being smuggled in various different ways.

And that's put a lot of pressure on the new presidency of Laura Fernandez, the acolyte of former President Rodrigo Chavez.

And so although Costa Rica continues to be a U.S.-friendly, cooperative country, some of the measures that Fernandez has tried to... take to crack down on homicides and into groups that have accompanied those flows have caused her to get into a lot of, a number of fights with the judiciary, whether, again, who's trying to kind of check some of the actions that she is taking and some of the authorities that she is claiming for the executive.

And so you see a bit of political fighting, which is a reflection of the attempt of this government to get its arms around, again, the Increased violence and insecurity, which in many ways has horrified and surprised the Costa Rican people over the past couple of years, just as that same process we've seen has occurred in other places in the region, like otherwise once peaceful Ecuador, just to name one other example.

for cocaine being smuggled in various different ways.

And that's put a lot of pressure on the new presidency of Laura Fernandez, the acolyte of former President Rodrigo Chavez.

And so although Costa Rica continues to be a U.S.-friendly, cooperative country, some of the measures that Fernandez has tried to... would take to to crack down on homicides and into groups that have accompanied those flows have caused her to get into a lot of number of fights with the judiciary whether again who's trying to kind of check some of the actions that that she is taking and some of the authorities that she is claiming for for the executive and so you see a bit of political fighting which is a reflection of the attempt of this government to get its arms around again the Increased violence and insecurity, which in many ways has horrified and surprised the Costa Rican people over the past couple of years, just as that same process we've seen has occurred in other places in the region, like otherwise once peaceful Ecuador, just to name one other example.

And quickly, with 30 seconds, Panama.

In other words, by the late 2010s, it was clear Costa Rica's time as a chilled paradise was coming to an end.

By the time Rodrigo Chavez was elected president in 2022, the warning lights had been flashing for quite some time.

Homicide numbers were increasing steadily year over year, peaking in 2023 at 906, nearly six times higher than that of El Salvador.

And that's when you know you're completely f***ed.

In Costa Rica, after two lawmakers criticized a 2025 presidential decree banning Huawei and other Chinese 5G vendors, the State Department revoked their US visas.

Earlier this year, five of the seven board members of the newspaper of record, La Nación, also had their visas revoked as the newspaper maintained critical coverage of former President Rodrigo Chávez, a close Trump ally in Central America.

In Panama, two politicians criticized a sweeping security agreement between their country and the United States in June, 2025.

Days later, they were notified that their US visas had been pulled.