Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves on Monday agreed to create a “League of Nations,” a bloc of like-minded smaller developing countries with common objectives in security, economy, and other areas.
The prospective and yet-to-be formally named group, President Chaves explained, will start with El Salvador and Costa Rica, and aims to promote joint ideas and propose them to the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and to the rest of the world.
Both presidents made the announcement in remarks given after a private meeting on the occasion of Bukele’s two-day visit to Costa Rica.
“We’re going to look for small countries to start with, clear-minded and robust in purpose: security and prosperity, and that we’re going to start working to the point where we want to formulate joint proposals to the rest of the world and to the new U.S. government,” Chaves said.
Chaves stated that both presidents had a “spark” during their bilateral encounter for the creation of the prospective bloc, which would be similar to the Hanseatic League, a group of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe that operated between the 12th and 17th centuries.
The Costa Rican president further explained that the objective of the prospective organization would be to transform “crisis in prosperity,” stressing that they do not aim for it to be “a very big club, precisely because it is a very distinguished club” focused on security and prosperity issues, “obviously within the framework of democracy.”
Chaves listed foreign direct investment, international trade, cross-border security, the fight against drug trafficking, and immigration as some of the issues the group’s members would address.
“And that vision of taking our places among the most prosperous nations in the world, today, after an hour of work, is born and with God’s help and hard work we are going to make it germinate,” Chaves said.
President Nayib Bukele attributed the idea of the prospective group to his Costa Rican counterpart and stated that his country will do the required proceedings and will begin to build the headquarters of the prospective “League.”
“We are going to sit down to invite countries that have governments that think like ours and want to bring their citizens the best of prosperity, economic growth, trade, the security so that we do not always see progress pass us by,” Bukele said.
“The worst thing you can do in a crisis is not to take advantage of it, the best thing would be not to have it, but if there is a crisis we have to take the good things,” Bukele continued. “I am sure there are leaders in the region who think like that, who are in favor of the welfare of their people and we will invite them in due time and we will be able to sign the protocol of understanding of the founding partners of this League of Nations.”
Bukele celebrated the announcement in a brief message on his Twitter account that read, “The League of Nations.” Bukele accompanied the text with the flags of El Salvador and Costa Rica, and noted, “more flags coming soon.”
Bukele’s two-day visit to Costa Rica reportedly resulted in the nations signing several agreements in fields such as economy and energy. President Chaves also awarded Bukele with the Juan Mora Fernández National Order in the Grand Cross Gold Plate degree — the highest distinction that Costa Rica grants to heads of state. Bukele received the award in recognition of El Salvador’s advances in security, largely as a result of Bukele’s crackdown on gang violence.
The Salvadoran president also announced that El Salvador will send a plane with humanitarian aid and a rescue worker delegation to Costa Rica on Tuesday to assist the nation’s local authorities after torrential rains caused by Hurricane Rafael hit Costa Rica.
Bukele asserted that humanitarian aid and rescue workers were also “ready” to go to Valencia, Spain, to assist the European country in the aftermath of the deadly Dana flash floods, but that the Spanish government “for some reason” is not accepting international aid, so he will send them to Costa Rica instead.
“See? These are the visits that pay off. I thank you from the bottom of my heart and may God bless you,” President Chaves told Bukele.
Bukele will reportedly conclude his visit to Costa Rica on Tuesday with a visit to a local San José prison and a joint press conference with reporters.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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