Article 12 of the Constitution of Costa Rica

Costa Rica's army was abolished soon after the end of the 1948 civil war by decision of the Constituent Assembly and the enactment of the Constitution on 31 October 1949.^[6] Costa Rica's Army headquarters, the Cuartel Bellavista in the capital San José, is transferred to the University of Costa Rica and is where currently Museo Nacional de Costa Rica is located.^[7]

Although several figures have claim authorship of the idea, generally the victorious caudillo of the war José Figueres Ferrer is credited for its abolishing. Whilst some critics point his motivations more as an effort to avoid an impending coup (and indeed Costa Rica hasn't had a coup since 1949, something unusual for the region) others reasons have been signaled including the fact that the army at the time was made mostly of foreign mercenary of the Caribbean Legion^{[citation needed]} or that it was obsolete and an unnecessary use of resources that were redirected on education and healthcare.^[8]

Despite this, Costa Ricans in general show pride for this event and the country has a very rooted pacifist and anti-militarist culture.^[5][8][9]

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Criticism about the issue are split generally into two camps. On one side critics mostly on the left of the spectrum question the effectiveness of the measure and believe that Costa Rica's abolition of the army was in name only, and that Costa Rica still in effect has a pseudo-military in the Public Forces, which they claim are used both for internal repression,^[10] and also for both domestic and international US-led military operations.^[11]

The opposite criticism come mostly from far-right circles who question the decision of not having an army and advocate for its re-installment.^[12][13]