Jacó More Than Beach
Playa Jacó is expecting some 80.000 tourists for the holiday season, and with some us$200 million dollars in investment, "No one but God can stop growth here", said Jacó's mayor, Fernando Villalobos.

However, with the explosion of growth in both commercial and tourism and the number of hotels and condominiums being built, the area is besieged with growing crime, prostitution and drug trafficking.

Jacó has two faces, one smiling at the growth in tourism and commerce in the area, and the other full of vices.

Proof of the problems at Jacó are being faced by the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) and the Feurza Pública who are overwhelmed with the criminal activity in the area and their efforts to curb it.

The most recent violent case for the authorities to deal with is the finding of a Nicaraguan woman lying naked on the beach. María Zamora Medina, 27 years of age, had been murdered and the body thrown in the ocean. The body was discovered in the early morning of November 11.

The OIJ office at Jacó has seen a increase in denouncements over 2005, when there were only 1.018 while so far this year the number has reached 1.232.

What the numbers really mean is that eight OIJ officials at the Jacó delegation handle some 154 cases a year each.

Authorities says that most of the reports are for auto break-ins mostly targeting tourists at Playa Hermosa, who park their cars while surfing, followed by robberies against tourists. The Fuerza Pública says it attends to 3 to 4 reports a day.

Many Costa Ricans visiting Jacó have thing in common to say, "it is not the Jacó of the past".

At night, Jacó is filled with prostitution and drug deals and assaults. According to authorities, the sale of crack, cocaine and marijuana has increased as well as the number of prostitutes working Jacó. Many prostitutes leave San José for the weekend to work the higher paying tourists of the beach town.

There are couple of bars that tourists can meet any type of woman: tall, blonde, brunette, morena, etc. and just about any nationality, Costa Rican, Colombian, Nicaraguan, Dominican and even North Americans.

Sex at Jacó can also be found on the streets, as minors who are not allowed into the bars offer their services on the streets openly.

Police are impotent facing the problem. Arrests and detentions do not deter the trade. A raid by police and immigration officials last Thursday netted 22 women who were in the country illegally. By Friday night, all was normal, life continuing as nothing had happened the night before.

Many say that the show at Jacó has to continue. Tourists ask for it and the demand has to be met.