Costa Rican president evacuated after blast heard near illegal mining zone

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Security forces evacuated Costa Rica’s president on Friday during a tour of a mining area after a loud explosion rang out.

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Conservative populist President Laura Fernandez later told reporters she was unharmed after the scare in the town of Crucitas near the border with Nicaragua.

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Fernandez and several lawmakers were touring an area known for having unlicensed gold mines when the blast of unknown origin prompted bodyguards with guns to rush her away into a car, video footage from the scene showed.

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“It felt like what you see in a movie,” Fernandez said. “They grab you by the hair, throw you to the ground and put you” in a car, she said.

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“They examined me as per protocol, but I am fine,” she added.

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The footage shows Fernandez initially lying on the ground after the explosion with bodyguards covering her as protection.

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The president told reporters the incident showed what she described as the danger that exists in this area, where criminal gangs mine for gold illegally and pollute the environment.

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“I strongly condemn today’s attack against the President (of Costa Rica),” Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino said in a statement on X.

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“Organised crime cannot break us. I’m glad to know she is okay.”

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On June 3, the government of this Central American country said it had received information about an alleged plot, hatched in a prison, to assassinate Fernandez.

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Fernandez, 39, succeeded her political mentor, Rodrigo Chaves, as she took power in May.

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She easily won the February 1 elections on a promise to crack down on crime in a country long considered one of the safest in the Americas.

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In January, Chávez, too, said he was the target of an assassination plot, but the government never provided hard evidence of this.

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Costa Rica and Nicaragua agreed in March to work together to crack down on illegal mining along their shared border.

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AFP

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