President Obama cancels Costa Rica trip over pothole, bridge concerns

April 1^st, 2013 (InsideCostaRica.com) The White House confirmed today that President Barack Obama has canceled a planned May visit to Costa Rica due to concerns over the number and depth of the country’s thousands of potholes.

The statement also mentioned concerns that the numerous Bailey bridges used throughout the country may not be able to support the weight of the presidential limousine and motorcade, which is heavily armored.

“The potholes could become a real security issue, as the motorcade would be forced to swerve all over the road,” a Secret Service agent said on the condition of anonymity.  “In addition, holes large enough to swallow the presidential limousine have opened up on major highways there in the past.  It is a risk we simply cannot afford to take,” the agent continued.

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The Obama Administration is concerned that large holes in Costa Rica’s roadways, such as the one pictured above, could potentially swallow the presidential limousine.

Gotcha!  

Editor’s Note: This story was an April Fools Day prank that we published on April 1st, 2013.  

We tried to leave a few clues when it was published, including bolding the “April 1st” part of the dateline, and adding “April Fool!” at the end of the article, spelled backwards, in addition to the “grinning Obama.”  We also published the article with ‘noindex/nofollow’ tags to prevent it from being picked up by search engines.

We hope you found the humor.

Additional Editor’s note:  We received an email in which the reader thought that we were taking an unfair or passive-aggressive “jab” at Costa Rica.  That certainly wasn’t our intent, but rather to have a little fun and not take certain issues that happen in this beautiful little country so seriously.  It was meant to be lighthearted.  We by no means meant to offend Costa Rica or Ticos in general, and in fact our Costa Rican readership seems to have found the most humor in the gag.  It should be noted that Costa Rica has indeed made significant strides in improving its infrastructure over the last several years.  Some of the issues touched on in the spoof article (such as the Platina bridge) are more like “inside jokes” for Ticos and those residing here, that Costa Ricans themselves often use as the butt of jokes.   Costa Rica is a wonderful country which we love, or we of course would not have been here for the past 10 years.  We are quite certain that Mr. Obama will be impressed with the beauty and people of Costa Rica, and will enjoy his visit here.