Costa Rican President Laura Fernández fired Foreign Minister Manuel Tovar on Thursday, saying he had failed to alert her to the Shield of the Americas meeting attended by Trump. Her government said the omission harmed Costa Rica’s strategic interests.
Tovar attended Tuesday’s meeting while Fernández was on an official visit to Colombia. Created by Trump, the forum focuses on regional security and drug trafficking. The alliance proposed collective sanctions on 24 organized-crime groups it considered an immediate, shared threat; U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also attended.
The groups named included El Salvador’s Mara Salvatrucha, Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, major Mexican drug cartels, Colombia’s ELN, Brazil’s Primeiro Comando da Capital and Comando Vermelho, and Peru’s Shining Path.
