There is also an Intelligence and Security Directorate in place and The United States Coastguard is extremely active in Costa Rican waters. Armed forces personnel are active duty military personnel, including paramilitary forces if … Due to the lack of military spending, Costa Rica has been able to redirect that funding into more positive, constructive ventures for the country including education, security, and culture which has made it unique in Central America.

Costa Rica maintains its military-free status and does not command any military units or house any war weapons. In 1996, the armed Police Force was created as the nation’s security forces to patrol the Nicaraguan and Panama border and control operations against drug trafficking as well as to provide general law enforcement. But not so fast. One amazing fact is the Costa Rica Military has been gone for nearly 70 years, since 1948.

The police force, small security forces and the Coast Guard help to maintain internal piece. They are actively involved in intercepting drug shipments and other illegal trades in this area. Numbers of those fit for military service are a bit lower at males 971,224 and females 936,978.Today, Costa Rican maintains their Police Guard forces with around 8,000 active duty personnel that accounts for 0.4% of the country's GNP. Barash went on to credit Costa Rica’s absence of a military—which it formally abolished in 1948—as contributing to the country’s happy population and well-preserved ecology. Costa Rica remains a peaceful nation despite the continuing violence in neighboring countries. In fact Oscar Arias Sanchez declared December 1st as Military Abolition Day. Generally speaking, countries have a military to protect their soil and freedoms from being overrun by other countries. The border between Costa Rica and Panama became the only non-militarized frontier in … Costa Rica is in general a peaceful country that has not endured a civil war since 1948, unlike its neighboring Central American countries.In 1996 the Ministry of Public Security established the Public Force which reorganized the Civil Guard, Rural Assistance Guard, and Frontier Guards as separate entities.

After the demilitarization, Costa Rica turned its attention towards developing political stability and set a police force in place, promotes education, fights for environmental protection, public health and national, cultural preservation. However, Costa Rica has a different philosophy and they have abolished their military. Costa Rica’s army ceased to exist when disbanded Dec. 1, 1948, by President Figueres Ferrer after he called together armed forces and won its civil war. Additionally, the absence of an army makes it possible each year to fund all of the country’s public universities, as well as several public hospitals. On December 1, 1948, President José Figueres Ferrer of Costa Rica abolished the military of Costa Rica after victory in the civil war in that year. They have existed in peace despite civil wars and other conflicts experienced by most of its neighbors.

Their main responsibilities are ground security, law enforcement, counter-narcotics, and border patrol functions.Manpower available for military service between the ages 16 to 49 currently are around 1,134,205 males and 1,095,763 females. Now the Costa Rica government is making big changes regarding human rights and climate change as well as animal rights.You may wonder that without a standing army, who protects the country in case of conflict? In a ceremony in the Cuartel Bellavista, Figueres broke a wall with a mallet symbolizing the end of Costa Rica's military spirit.