A few days ago, we spoke with the Costa Rican Ambassador to the State of Israel, Antonio López Escarré, who, amidst the growing tension between Israel and Iran, has been the voice of Costa Rica.
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Today He is at the epicenter of the conflict where every day is a test of resilience and commitment. Through his words, we discover how a small country can have a significant impact on the search for peace and stability.
Don Antonio is a native of San Jose, near Paseo Colon, and was ambassador to Spain for four years, then ambassador to Panama for two years, after He resigned for personal reasons.
He is an honorary member and one of the founders of Fedecámaras Costa Rica and was a presidential pre-candidate of the Libertarian movement in the country.
Did you know that Costa Rica and Israel have maintained diplomatic relations since 1954? With a Costa Rican embassy in Tel Aviv and an Israeli embassy in San Jose.
For the last 5 months, Don Antonio has been in Israel, as he said “at the foot of the cannon, receiving all the rockets and bombs”.
Today, at almost 80 years of age, he says he is not afraid of anything, and then adds that his greatest fear is not being able to help others in the face of the conflicts in the Middle East. Although both the president of Costa Rica and his family have asked him to return to his country, He says he is staying in Israel, working 24/7 at the embassy, with the help of an Israeli assistant, a driver, and the long-time honorary consul, whom he considers “a magnificent, honorable person who knows a lot”.
López Escarré emphasized that, amid the conflict between Israel and Iran, he has been with two cell phones: one of them satellite “because in a war communications are lost, any Costa Rican who has an accident, I have to call immediately for assistance. And so we have taken out many people, others unfortunately we could not help them and some left on their own because they had their tickets, the flights were delayed, people got desperate”.
How to get out of Israel in the middle of the conflict?
Many of the people in Israel wanted to leave through the airport in Ben Gurion, very close to Tel Aviv, Don Antonio said that every time a missile was launched, there was no way out, but only to Jordan, there was also the situation of people who did not want to go through Jordan…
“Another option was to board a ship and go to Cyprus. We were going to take some people out through a container ship, but in the end, the Chancellery said it was better not to, the Spanish Government invited them, and we took other people out through the Port of Jordan, I helped a lady with a 9-month-old baby to leave through the airport and that was very gratifying”, he said.
There are 140 embassies in Israel. In the 12 days of war, the ambassador helped more than 50 Costa Rican people to leave the scene of the conflict.
For him, everything has been very strong “You have to have a lot of emotional stability, I have become a psychologist. I have spent sleepless nights. I have also felt the bombs falling, one fell very close and it shook a lot”.
The Costa Rican ambassador also told us that he was prepared in a certain way for the confrontations, “but as the war situation changed every day, since the ships to Cyprus at a certain time said that they would not sail because they could be bombed, but not Jordan since the air space was not lowered by the airplanes because the shells were coming from above Jordan”.
He also lived in moments of conflict in Venezuela and Spain
Don Antonio had already had difficult experiences in other countries such as Venezuela during the Caracazo, at that time he was not a diplomat, he belonged to the Miami Chamber of Commerce. There was a curfew in Venezuela and he helped some people to calm down and took them to the Hilton Hotel in Caracas.
And in Spain, it was not easy when he was told that he was going to be kidnapped by ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) terrorists, because in Costa Rica there was an ETA prisoner who had come from Nicaragua called “El Pistolas” and they wanted to exchange him for him. There was a moment when ETA was throwing bombs and one fell next to the Ministry of Economy.
“There I studied in the sense that well, I am not afraid, I have kept myself, but I understood the strength that terrorists have where they do not care about anything, not even people’s lives,” he said.
ETA was responsible for more than 850 murders and at least 76 kidnappings.
Lopez Escarré emphasized that “likewise here in Israel, how many Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists have killed Israelis? So terrorism must be eliminated from the world”.
In his opinion, the worst situation that exists these days is practically the murder of a person, it is the most vile thing that can be done to a human being and it is the most cowardly thing that you can imagine, where the human being is not a human being, but is worse than an animal.
When asked how he visualizes the conflict between Israel and Iran, and if he considers that this situation can end at this moment, he answered “We have peace now -in inverted commas-, because Israel is still at war with Gaza terrorists.
The Costa Rican ambassador answered “We now have a peace -in quotation marks-, because Israel is still at war with the terrorists in Gaza. I think there is an evolution and I think that as Trump and Netanyahu say, peace is going to come even here in the Gaza Strip within 15 days. Let’s see how that evolves.”
In his view, U.S. President Donald Trump wants to fix the situation. Both Israel and the U.S. are two friendly countries that continuously cooperate. “If it were not for that cooperation, Israel would not exist because I experienced it being here. This war was fought with the most advanced technology there is total strategy. Imagine, how is it possible for an unseen plane to arrive, drop a bomb and explode inside the terrain, make a hole, and drop three bombs through the same hole”.
Don Antonio, as a witness, added that Israel attacked only with airplanes, they did not drop any bridges. “In the year 2023, the terrorists in the Gaza Strip killed 1500 more Israelis. They went in and killed them. I went to the border with Lebanon and Syria, and I saw cities, and farms destroyed by Hezbollah terrorists.”
Good relations and purposes for Costa Rica
Ambassador Antonio Lopez has maintained good relations with the President of Israel, Mr. Isaac Herzog, whom he considers a wonderful person; he also maintains good communication with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and with Mike Huckabee, U.S. Ambassador to Israel, and a person very close to Trump “I have become very good friends with him”.
Among Don Antonio’s intentions for Costa Rica, is to agree so that the Israeli national airline can have a direct flight to San Jose, he says he is working on it. “It is one of my commitments to my country, to give more investment, more exports to Costa Rica, more tourism, and more peace”.
Message for Costa Ricans
For Don Antonio, in conflict situations and in general, you have to have common sense, he says that people should be prepared to immediately grasp the ideas, always generating good communication, and maintaining good relations.
He recalled that one person told him that it was not ethical to have a free trade agreement between Israel and Costa Rica. Then the ambassador invited him to go to Israel and check personally in Gaza, to go anywhere and then speak, to express his opinion, but knowing the real situation.
“There are people who have in their heads that the enemy is the US, what I say is that they should read, and study, because the conflicts in the Middle East are many years old, many centuries old. The state of Israel was created in the year 47, but if you read the Bible, you will find out from there about the history of the Israelites, of the Jews, that they have always been persecuted for more than 3000 years. So that is my message to the Costa Ricans”.
He concluded by adding that one must have both sides of the coin and then judge…
