Why Costa Rica Has No Military 

Hey! Costa Rican here! Nice video, pretty accurate and well documented. We're far from being a developed industrialized nation, but certainly have higher life quality and political standards than our neighbors. Thanks for sharing part of our history with the world!

Investing the army money on education was the key to be one of the happiest countries in the world and the better on the region

Blessed is the Costa Rican mother who knows that her son at birth will never be a soldier," Ryōichi Sasakawa

In my opinion, the difference between Figueres and many other revolutionary leaders who gained power after a civil war, is that he was a true ideologue. A social democrat, who actually believed in his cause and didn't care much for power for power's sake, didn't believe in authoritarians or dictatorships, and who took power only because he believed it was the only way to save his country, and in the long run he was right. I believe he truly is one of the great leaders of the 20th century, and he is woefully overlooked.

As an American I can say our wars have been exhausting and pointless over the past 20 years. Nothing is more dangerous than a politician with a large standing army, they always seem to want to use it. A strictly regulated defense force such as a National Guard and Coast Guard is good but I would caution a standing army.

Amazing history! Did not know about this.

It is a case of a sucessful revolution that changed the culture of a country and gave it an important part of its identity. Grandpas now were born after the civil war in 1948, so dads and grandsons nowadays grew up with the military being something that other countries have. There is controversy about the motivations to abolish the military at the time, but that decision has been benefitial in the long run. The oddity is that when the winning side of the civil war defeated the government, they did keep their word of leaving power and having democratic elections. And they even kept the social policies of the defeated government (worker's rights and social security) Of course, there is a minority that would like to have a military back, but usually the big majority want to keep it military free. The 80's were pretty strange, knowing that pretty much all of our neighbours were going through really bloody conficts. That's also a reason why there are so many immigrants from Latin America here in CRC. And that's why we have thousands of Canadians, Americans and Europeans living here as retirees. It's not a fairy tale here though, we do have poverty, corruption and violent crimes, as it is everywhere, but... it goes slowly but steadily up. Instead of coups now we have the neverending bickering of a modern democracy, pretty much without the fear of descending into caos. Annoying as hell, but works better than the authoritarian ways. This is not a "poor poor" country, but so far it's been a "middle income" country for quite a few decades. "Third world" no longer fully fits. But what we lack in income, we do make up with freedom of speech and freedom of the press, which is something we do take for granted. I can publish my opinions about our politicians without any nasty consequence. And in my own opinion, we are not afraid of our government. They are more afraid of 'we the people'.

Thanks for the video, info and insight, very well done and presented for teacher and students. My recommendation would be a simple one, try to use the correct (Original) pronunciation of the names. That´s all! Thank you!

Brilliantly put Thank you 💗

Exactly. Latin America has historically shown its inability to control its Armed Forces. It is Costa Rica who did not only realize that but it proved that point to the entire world.

Commenting 4 algorithm

The country has been an example of how it's possible to thrive without an army. And while it's true that not all countries can survive without one, CR isn't in some idyllic peaceful oasis without external conflicts: Nicaragua, whose dictatorship has been turning the country into a totalitarian state close to Cuba or N Korea, invaded CR in 2010, when troops took a little strip of deserted land and established some military tents. Luckily it didn't go beyond that, and the costarican answer to it was going to the International Court of Justice, and after some years of the process, Nicaragua was sentenced to retrieve and fix the environmental damage they did. Not to forget that CR is located in Central America, one of the most violent and dangerous regions of the world not currently in war. While crime and unsafety in the country don't do anything but rise every year, it's been much safer than the rest of the countries in the region. Also, it's been the one country that catches more drug trafficking and responds the best to natural disasters in the region, all that without an army. Most armies in the world are useless and all they do is delay the progress of their countries☮🕊

Bom vídeo.

yes I did also nice beard

Beard Wednesday!

The U after the G is silent in Spanish so its actually pronounced "Figeres".

It's the biggest thing we have ever achieved. It's a Solution only for countries without or with very few enemies. Many countries wouldn't be able to do this or it wouldn't be smart

Cool! greetings from Costa Rica. Still there are people that hate Figueres and his party as much as people that love it, but a great majority of us are happy without a banana republic´s army.

Not so chaotic

Sooo what would happen if. Nicaragua military invades.. ?

Nica short fuse

Costa Rica 🇨🇷 is in Central America, and Bolivia is in South America my friend 😉, 👍❤️. Pura Vida

And with no gun laws to protect the good citizen... Our lives are in the hands of criminals.. nowadays more than before (10 years ago was totally different its growing fast in a Negative way) ... All that drug smuggling has gotten worse.. Im my case despite those laws I rather choose prison than cemetery... Unfortunetly

Costa Rica has no external threat. So military isn’t needed.

Lol this is not a good idea 😂

Ok how does Costa Rica protect itself from foreign invasions?

Also Figueres kinda scamed FIdel castro