Obama will not make public appearance during Costa Rica visit, security concerns cited

April 23^rd, 2013 (InsideCostaRica.com) U.S. President, Barack Obama, will not be making any public appearances during his visit to Costa Rica on May 3^rd and 4^th, Chancellor Enrique Castillo stressed yesterday.

Castillo said “publicly exposing (Obama) is ruled out,” and also refused to disclose where the U.S. president would be meeting with Central American leaders.

“There are some Costa Ricans who want to snub (Obama) and use his visit as an opportunity to protest, forgetting the courtesy that should be given to a visitor as distinguished as him…They want to spoil the party and this minimizes the chances that Obama will have contact with the general pubic,” Castillo said.

“Nobody wants to expose (Obama) or the other presidents to that,” Castillo continued, adding that Obama’s visit would focus on economic development.

Castillo said that security measures during the summit of the Central American Integration System (SICA), for which Obama will be attending, will be particularly strict, due to both internal threats of protests as well as recent events in the United States.