President Luis Guillermo Solís seems to have figured out that the key to flying in a jet with a tainted history is to do so after the police have seized it and given it a fresh coat of paint, and not while its owner is suspected of having links to drug cartels, an oversight that rocked former President Laura Chinchilla (2010-2014).
The simulator, the first of its kind in Costa Rica, copies the cockpit of a Piper Seneca III aircraft and runs training programs in great detail. It cost $305,000 and was delivered to Public Security Minister Celso Gamboa, who thanked the U.S. government for the donation.
Costa Rica's Foreign Minister Manuel González Sanz on Thursday expressed concern over the country's chilly relations with the Sandinista administration of Daniel Ortega to the north. González spoke about Costa Rica-Nicaragua relations during a two-hour hearing at the Legislative Assembly’s International Affairs Commission.
“Russia is facilitating armaments for Nicaragua, [including] ships, and they have discussed the purchase of aircraft and other types of armaments. I fear trouble,” Enrique Castillo said in an interview with the daily La Nación, published Sunday.