Neo-Nazism in Costa Rica

The first group to have notoriety for the media coverage it represented was the so-called National Socialist Party of Costa Rica, whose leader named Gregorio and known by the alias "Pretoriano SS" was interviewed by the newspaper La Nación in 2003. Gregorio himself was the son of Nicaraguan migrants, although he claimed that they were "white". Other groups that have records of their existence, at least virtual, are the Costa Rican National Socialist Youth, New Social Order, Costa Rican National Socialist Ideological Resistance (which appears as the Costa Rican member in the World Union of National Socialists) and the esotericist Costa Rican Society of the Hyperborean Spear[2] attached to the esoteric hitlerism of Miguel Serrano.[3]

In April 2012, it became publicly known that a Costa Rican police officer posed on social networks using Nazi symbols and carrying out the fascist salute, causing a furore among public opinion.[4] Moreover, the officer himself claimed not to be alone but that there was a full group of supporters of German Nazism among the police.[5] Although this was never determined, it was established that the person was a police officer.[6]

The young man was identified as Ronald "Murdock" Herrera and father of three daughters. Herrera was suspended almost immediately and then fired for loss of confidence, being the only person so far to be fired from the Public Force by Nazi sympathies.[7]

Subsequent reports showed that after his departure from the police, Herrera had serious difficulties in finding a job and taking care of his family, and suffered threats from anti-Fascists. It was reported that he committed suicide on April 2, 2016.[8][9]

In 2015, the Simon Wiesenthal Center asked the Costa Rican government to shut down a store in San José that sells Nazi paraphernalia, Holocaust denial books and other products associated with Nazism.[10]

In 2018, it transpired that a series of pages of the social network Facebook of neo-Nazi inclination openly or discreetly carried out a vast campaign instigating xenophobic hatred by recycling old news or divulging Fake news to take advantage of an anti-immigrant sentiment after three homicides to tourists allegedly committed by migrants (although from one of the homicides the suspect is Costa Rican).[11] A rally against the country's migration policy was made on August 19, 2018, in which neo-Nazi and hooligans took part. Although not all participants were linked these groups and the majority of participants were peaceful, the protest turned violent and the Public Force had to intervene with a balance of 44 arrested, 36 Costa Ricans and the rest Nicaraguans.[12][13] To the neo-Nazis were confiscated different types of sharp weapons, Molotov cocktails and other items, as well as being identified with swastika flags.[14] A subsequent anti-xenophobic march and solidarity with the Nicaraguan refugees was organized a week later with more assistance. A second anti-migration demonstration but with the explicit exclusion of neo-Nazis and hooligans was carried out in September with similar assistance.[15] In 2019 Facebook pages of extreme right-wing tendencies and anti-immigration position as Deputy 58, Costa Rican Resistance and Salvation Costa Rica called an anti-government demonstration on May 1 with small attendance.[16][17]