Rubio Says Costa Rica to Receive US Aid Freeze Waiver

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Feb. 4 that Costa Rica will be exempted from the United States’ 90-day freeze on foreign aid, citing its history of cooperating in countering drug trafficking and illegal immigration. Rubio has justified the broad freeze, saying that foreign aid is sometimes misused, but this was not the case with this Central American nation. “We’ve issued a waiver today because in Costa Rica, we have a trusted partner and an ally who has proven that they have taken aid from the United States and used it to fix the problem, to help us to do it in a way that actually helps the United States,” Rubio said at a press conference with Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves Robles in the nation’s capital, San Jose....