Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06SANJOSE58
2006-01-09 21:37:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy San Jose
Cable title:  

COSTA RICA'S RESPONSE ON THE JANUARY 9 MEETING ON

Tags:  PREL SMIG ECON ES NU HO EC DR CO GT CS 
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SAN JOSE 000058 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/09/2016
TAGS: PREL SMIG ECON ES NU HO EC DR CO GT CS
SUBJECT: COSTA RICA'S RESPONSE ON THE JANUARY 9 MEETING ON
U.S. IMMIGRATION PROPOSALS

REF: SECSTATE 2995

Classified By: DCM Russell L. Frisbie for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

Summary
--------
C O N F I D E N T I A L SAN JOSE 000058

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/09/2016
TAGS: PREL SMIG ECON ES NU HO EC DR CO GT CS
SUBJECT: COSTA RICA'S RESPONSE ON THE JANUARY 9 MEETING ON
U.S. IMMIGRATION PROPOSALS

REF: SECSTATE 2995

Classified By: DCM Russell L. Frisbie for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

Summary
--------------

1. (C) Foreign Minister Tovar told us he would not sign a
Mexican-authored communique on U.S. immigration proposals
merely as a gesture of solidarity, especially if the document
is "confrontational." End Summary.

Costa Ricans Have Their Own Immigration Problems
-------------- --------------

2. (C) Per reftel, Charge delivered the demarche to Foreign
Minister Tovar on January 6, 2006. Tovar, having been
apprised of the subject of the meeting, had called in the
Costa Rican ambassador to Nicaragua who happened to be in
town. The Costa Ricans see parallels between the illegal
immigration problem in the U.S. and the southward migration
of Nicaraguans, who are now believed to number 500,000 in
Costa Rica out of a total population of 4 million.


3. (C) Tovar said he was not happy about having to go to the
meeting in Mexico because he did not know the specifics of
the Mexicans, objections to the U.S. immigration proposals
and he did not want to be pressured to sign a document that
might be confrontational. He suspected that the Mexicans
were motivated by their own elections, feeling a need to take
a tough stance on behalf of their expatriate population.


4. (C) Tovar agreed that immigration law was a matter of
national sovereignty, and he wondered aloud whether the
Mexicans, objections had any &international legal basis.8
He said that the Nicaraguan government is always complaining
about how its citizens are treated in Costa Rica and even
threatened to take Costa Rica to the Inter-American Human
Rights Commission after a Nicaraguan citizen was mauled and
killed by a Rottweiler while police stood by.

Comment
--------------

5. (C) Costa Ricans cannot support a position that can
later be used against them by the Nicaraguans. Tovar and
Costa Ricans in general appreciate the need to protect a
country,s borders against illegal immigrants. But Tovar, a
lawyer, is interested in whether the Mexicans base their
objections to H.R. 4437 on some supposed contravention of
international law. Short of that, he likely would not be
supportive of the Mexicans. But if the Mexican communiqu is
sufficiently benign, Tovar could well bow under pressure from
the other foreign ministers present.
LANGDALE