Costa Rica’s Foreign Ministry released a U.S. invitation to President Laura Fernández after the meeting it concerned had already taken place, leaving unclear whether she ever saw it. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio invited her to a Shield of the Americas meeting at U.N. Headquarters in New York on 22 September. The ministry gave a copy to the San José daily La Nación on Friday, 9 October, after the paper asked about it.
The central question remains: who in the executive branch received the invitation, and when? The ministry hasn’t said when it arrived or when it went to Casa Presidencial. Fernández blamed an “error” in passing it to her but hasn’t identified who received it or when. The paper trail doesn’t show that the president saw the invitation before the 19 September registration deadline.
A diplomatic invitation, an internal blame game
The Foreign Ministry said: “We are sharing the respective invitation sent virtually by the State Department, passed on through ordinary diplomatic channels.” It confirmed Washington addressed the invitation to Costa Rica’s head of state and that it reached the ministry. It didn’t establish that Fernández received it.
Fernández didn’t attend. On 22 September, she was in Barranquilla, Colombia, for security talks with Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella. In a 21 July interview, she had said she would skip the U.N. General Assembly to focus on issues at home.
Two days after the meeting, Fernández dismissed Foreign Minister Manuel Tovar, who had led Costa Rica’s delegation in New York. Casa Presidencial said: “Tovar attended the session without giving prior notice or informing the President of the Republic of his participation.” It called the alleged negligence the cause of “great strategic damage” because Fernández missed the session. Tovar had spoken publicly about a high-level Shield of the Americas meeting in New York at least since 17 September. Since his dismissal, he hasn’t given his version of events or answered La Nación’s interview requests.
At an official event at the Golfito marina on the southern Pacific coast, Fernández apologised to U.S. Ambassador Melinda Hildebrand for missing the meeting. The public still has accusations, not a clear account of who handled the invitation inside the government.
A U.S.-led security agenda
Donald Trump launched the Shield of the Americas on 7 March 2026 in Doral, Florida, according to the San José news site Delfino. The coalition’s agenda covers organised crime, drug cartels, irregular migration and the influence of outside powers in the hemisphere. The New York session was its second meeting. Rubio said Trump would join later; Trump arrived after the meeting began and led part of it, though the invitation card sent in Rubio’s name didn’t mention him.
The U.S. State Department’s public schedule, released the evening before, listed only Rubio’s meeting with Shield heads of state and foreign ministers. CR Hoy reported that the official agenda didn’t mention Trump. The 15 participating governments issued a joint declaration against 24 groups they described as narco-terrorist and said they would seek a consultation at the Organization of American States under the Rio Treaty, a 1947 mutual-defence pact.
Officials had announced the meeting publicly beforehand. Paraguay said on 18 September that President Santiago Peña would attend, and the Dominican Republic listed President Luis Abinader’s participation the next day. Fernández won Costa Rica’s 1 February 2026 election for Pueblo Soberano, the governing party aligned with her predecessor, Rodrigo Chaves; that electoral handover hasn’t answered the immediate question of how information moved through the executive.
Tovar’s only public comment beyond a brief farewell message has been a Bible verse on X: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The report said nothing suggested Costa Rica was leaving the Shield of the Americas, and no visa, travel, trade or investment rules had changed because of the dispute.