Why was a P-3 in a land-locked country?
Best Aircraft for the job.

The press is known for misidentifying aircraft types. The P-3 many have
been an EP-3.

Actually, the planes are from Brunswick therefore it was not an ARIES Orion.
The NASB public affairs spokesperson was vague on which squadron owned the
plane. One of two scenarios could be the case.

First possibility is a P3C Anti-Surface Warfare Improvement Program (AIP)
aircraft belonging to either VP 8, 10 or 26. This new mission is one of the
reasons the name of the wing was changed from simply "patrol wing" to
"patrol and reconnaissance wing" in the mid-nineties. The other possibility,
and might explain why no mention of the squadron is the plane belongs to
VPU-1, a special patrol projects unit homeported at Brunswick the Navy
prefers to acknowledge as little as possible.