The world's biggest country without an army way more peaceful than its neighbour

San Jose in Costa Rica

Costa Rica spans 51,000 square kilometres and has a population of around five million people. While by no means the biggest country in the world, it’s famous for its beautiful white sand beaches, tropical climate and stunning scenery.

And while it has everything you’d expect a country to have – a capital city, a police force, and a government – what it does not have is any form of official armed forces.

This makes Costa Rica unusual in that there are very few countries in the world that don’t have an army. The last time Costa Rica had an army was in the late 1940s, nearly 80 years ago.

Different historians have different views about why Costa Rica doesn’t have an army. Some say it was because of a change in government whilst others say it was to prevent internal tensions from rising up.

A black and white photo of José Figueres Ferrer

According to Cristina Eguizabal, it was politics rather than pacifism that led to Costa Rica abolishing its army. In Americas Quarterly she wrote that it was done by Jose Figueres Ferrer who led the National Liberation Army.

She explained: “Between 1940 and 1948, the country experienced intense political polarization. The social reforms of Christian democratic President Rafael Calderón Guardia-backed by a coalition ranging from the Catholic hierarchy to communists-drew ferocious opposition from commodity exporters, the business community and anticommunist activists, who began taking up arms.

“Calderón lost reelection in February 1948 but had Congress annul the result-at which point a group of young intellectuals, supported by a sector of the ruling elite, formed a rebel army and marched on the capital, demanding that the outcome of the popular vote be respected. As leader of the resulting junta, in a surprise move, Figueres consolidated Calderón’s progressive social reforms.

“He disbanded the defeated armed forces, as well as his own troops, in order to guarantee civilian rule in the future. Not only was Figueres shielding future civilian governments from potential threats, he was also freeing up resources for public education and health care.”

COSTA RICA-POLICE-DEMONSTRATION

42 years earlier, in 1981 Tord Høivik and Solveig Aas wrote that Costa Rica’s demilitarisation “was a response to an internal conflict rather than a deliberate international policy”. They said that by the time Figueres came to power Costa Rica’s army was one “stripped of almost all its functions”.

The authors added: “Its remaining function was as a repressive apparatus containing social conflict.

“However, it performed poorly and was not able to defeat the military forces organized by Figueres. This explains why the army proper could be disarmed and dismissed without more resistance.”

Despite the abolition of the army, Costa Rica has managed to thrive in the 75 years since. UNESCO claimed that the country’s abolition of the army has proved both a political and financial point about their decision.

Waterfall, Cocos Island.

UNESCO said: “The decision gave institutional strength to the regime of civility of Costa Rica’s political life. At the international level, the abolition of the army marked a new experience for diplomacy, giving pacifist will and credibility before the world, and showing it is possible for a country to live without an army, without armed forces, and investing these resources in greater and better social development.

“It proves that a State can be voluntarily disarmed, achieving a better distribution of richness, prioritizing the development of social aspects such as health and education as not investing in weapons, contributing to a population with more rights, more stable and developed.”

Today, Costa Rica does not have an army but it still has police in the form of the Public Force of Costa Rica. Meanwhile, neighbouring Ecuador is embroiled in violence as drug gangs clash with police.

Following weeks of violence, Ecuador’s new President Daniel Noboa has voiced to “neutralise” the country’s drug gangs who have been fighting with local police. Mr Noboa, 36, has ordered the army to step in as he declared that Ecuador was in a state of “internal armed conflict”.

Speaking to the Daily Express US, Dr Luis Schenoni has warned the violence could just be the start: “In Colombia, Mexico, and many other contexts where crackdowns were implemented but groups were very well entrenched and had no exit options, this led to more violence.”

Dr Schenoni added that he was worried about the impact of a crackdown. He explained: “Given Ecuador’s size and geography, as well as the recent capacity shown by these criminal organisations, I would be concerned about the prospects of a crackdowns approach intensifying violence.

“In general, when newcomers like Noboa take power this shakes the networks of protection-collusion with corrupt policemen and politicians-which in turn generates a violent backlash, but these criminal organisations are already entrenched in the region, even if usually in the shadows.”