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Guard Builds Relationship in Costa Rica
The New Mexico National Guard transported
several Costa Rican dignitaries, including
the vice minister of public security and the
U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica, via UH-60A
Black Hawk helicopter yesterday so they
could observe the progress of exercise
Fuerzas Aliadas Humanitarias 2009.
The exercise is designed to test and improve
regional and national disaster response
capabilities within Central America and the
Caribbean Basin.
New Mexico National Guardsmen are heavily
involved in the exercise, performing
search-and-rescue rehearsal missions,
exchanging disaster response techniques and
procedures with Costa Rican emergency
officials, performing remote-location
medical treatment and interacting with
residents all over the country.
In an interagency meeting to assess the
simulated disaster in Costa Rica, Coast
Guard Cmdr. Mark Camacho, the military group
advisor for the U.S. ambassador, said this
is the first time the National Guard's State
Partnership Program has been used in a
disaster relief exercise in a foreign
country. It also is the first time
helicopter assets have been transported and
used in a state partnership country.
The military group has been working on
putting the exercise together for more than
a year.
"It's very exciting to see this realized,"
Camacho said. "We are really pleased with
everything that's going on."
The State Partnership Program is a national
diplomatic program that links the National
Guard with foreign nations to promote
regional security, peacekeeping and
humanitarian operations, counterdrug
operations, and to promote open trade
markets. It is instrumental in building
worldwide stability by nurturing
collaborative relationships with foreign
countries around the globe, officials said.
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