Nicaragua militarization

The $80 million T-72B tanks are a significant purchase for the hemisphere’s second poorest country, which spent $71.6 million total on its military in 2015, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

A week after Costa Rica celebrated the 66th anniversary of the abolition of its armed forces, President Luis Guillermo Solís criticized growing arms spending in Latin America during a speech at the Ibero-American Summit in Veracruz, Mexico, on Sunday. In his remarks Solís noted a “troubling” tendency in the region toward militarization.

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.