Costa Rica’s Foreign Ministry released a formal invitation from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio asking President Laura Fernández to attend a Shield of the Americas meeting in New York on 22 September. She never showed. The ministry gave a copy to the San José daily La Nación on Friday, 9 October, after the newspaper asked about it.
What the Invitation Says
The card addressed a head of state or government. It named U.N. Headquarters at 405 East 42nd Street as the venue and set the meeting for 2 p.m. Attendees had to register by 19 September. The ministry explained how it received the card: “We are sharing the respective invitation sent virtually by the State Department, passed on through ordinary diplomatic channels.”
What the ministry hasn’t said matters just as much. It hasn’t said when the invitation arrived or when officials forwarded it to Casa Presidencial. Without those dates, nobody can tell whether Fernández or her staff had a fair chance to respond before the deadline.
A Minister Fired, a President Elsewhere
On 22 September, Fernández was in Barranquilla, Colombia, for security talks with Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella. Back on 21 July, she’d said in an interview she would skip the U.N. General Assembly to focus on issues at home.
Two days after the meeting, on 24 September, she dismissed Foreign Minister Manuel Tovar, who had led Costa Rica’s delegation in New York. Casa Presidencial issued a blunt statement: “Tovar attended the session without giving prior notice or informing the President of the Republic of his participation.” It said his negligence caused “great strategic damage” by keeping Fernández out of 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 offered his version of events. Apart from a brief farewell message, his only public comment has been a Bible verse on X: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” He hasn’t answered La Nación’s interview requests.
Fernández won the 1 February 2026 election for Pueblo Soberano, the governing party aligned with her predecessor Rodrigo Chaves. She has blamed an “error” in passing the invitation to her, but hasn’t said who received it or when. At an official event at the Golfito marina on the southern Pacific coast, she apologised to U.S. Ambassador Melinda Hildebrand for missing the meeting.
The Coalition She Missed
Donald Trump launched the Shield of the Americas on 7 March 2026 in Doral, Florida, according to the San José news site Delfino. The U.S.-led coalition focuses on organised crime, drug cartels, irregular migration and the influence of outside powers in the hemisphere. The 22 September session was its second meeting.
Rubio said Trump would join later. Trump did, arriving after the session began and leading part of it. The invitation card, sent in Rubio’s name, doesn’t mention Trump. The State Department’s public schedule, released the evening before, didn’t mention him either; it 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. They also said they would seek a consultation at the Organization of American States under the Rio Treaty, a 1947 mutual-defence pact.
The meeting wasn’t a secret. Paraguay said on 18 September that President Santiago Peña would attend, and the Dominican Republic listed President Luis Abinader’s participation the next day.
What Hasn’t Changed
The ministry’s release confirms Washington sent the invitation through ordinary diplomatic channels and that it reached the ministry. It doesn’t establish that Fernández saw it. 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.
Why This Matters:
Costa Rica sat out a session where 15 governments committed to confronting cartels and seeking a Rio Treaty consultation. For a country that depends on stable relations with its largest partner, the basic machinery of government is what’s on trial here. A formal invitation moved through diplomatic channels and still didn’t reach the president in time—or didn’t register when it did. Nobody has said which. The undisclosed arrival dates leave the public unable to judge who failed. Security cooperation against organised crime and drug cartels runs on trust and reliable process. A government that can’t show how officials handled an invitation invites doubt about how it handles harder files. Costa Ricans are owed a plain accounting.