President Luis Guillermo Solís is calling for a new inter-institutional strategy in order to tackle the wave of homicides currently afflicting Costa Rica, particularly the capital San José and the Caribbean port city of Limón, which local authorities attribute to a rise in organised crime.
President Solís’s announcement, which he made on 15 October, came on the heels of a proposal presented by Security Minister Gustavo Mata and backed by the attorney general, Jorge Chavarría, which would create a specialised unit in the judicial investigations office (OIJ), a branch of the supreme court (CSJ), to be exclusively tasked with investigating organised crime. Mata also told reporters that on 11 August he had met the president of the CSJ, Zarella Villanueva, to whom he formally presented a proposal regarding the creation of the new unit which would be tasked with coming up with comprehensive national policies to address organised crime.
A 13 October official statement by Mata notes that 426 homicides were committed between 1 January and 9 October, most of which are believed to be linked to organised crime as rival gangs compete for the same territory. This figure suggests that the total number of homicides registered in 2014 (477 – a rate of 10 per 100,000 inhabitants) is set to be surpassed.
The same statement by Mata also cites studies which were carried out up to August 2015 (at which point 370 homicides had been registered), which attribute 202 (55%) of these murders to organised crime. According to the same statement, so far this year, authorities have dismantled 110 criminal organisations, of which 27 were international drug trafficking organisations (DTOs) and 83 were local DTOs.
Recent drug hauls also indicate Costa Rica’s growing usage as a transit country for narcotics. Most recently seven individuals linked to the N’drangheta Italian criminal group for allegedly smuggling cocaine to the US were arrested on 14 October (see sidebar). According to Mata, so far this year the authorities have seized 14 tonnes (t) of cocaine while the most recent (2015) US State Department International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) notes that Costa Rican law enforcement seized 26t of cocaine in 2014, up from 19.8t in 2013.
While security is emerging as a priority for the Solís government, it is worth pointing out that it is not the chief public concern. According to a survey by the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR) carried out in August and September, among the main problems cited, 29.4% of respondents listed unemployment, followed by the high cost of living (18.3%) and the poor performance of the government (16.5%). Just 9.4% of respondents said that security was their main concern.
- Links to N’drangheta
In the latest sign of international drug trafficking activity in Costa Rica, on 14 October the local authorities announced the arrests of seven people (a Cuban national and six Costa Ricans) who are suspected of smuggling several tonnes of cocaine to the US and Europe. The seven are thought to be part of a crime ring linked to the N’drangheta Italian criminal organisation and allegedly run out of a New York pizzeria.
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