Costa Rica is Taking on
the Mexican and
Colombian Cartels
By Barnard R. Thompson
Costa Rican efforts to
fight incoming and
national crime could be
a model for all
countries in the
hemisphere that are
struggling against drug
cartels and the violence
their henchmen
perpetrate.
In early October top law
enforcement officials
from throughout the
Americas gathered in
Mexico City, for the
2008 Meeting of
Ministers Responsible
for Public Security in
the Americas (MISPA),
where they discussed a
wide range of national
and transnational public
security matters. And
not only were problems
of multinational
wrongdoing key topics,
the domestic impacts of
crime on a number of
nations in the region
were plainly detailed in
the summit sponsored by
the Organization of
American States.
Costa Rica was possibly
the most illustrative
case presented, in
heartrending accounts of
foreign drug traffickers
and other criminals
moving into the once
peaceful country. But
too, part of Costa
Rica's strategy and plan
to combat the inward
blight could –
hopefully– become a
model for all countries
in the hemisphere in the
fight against drug
cartels, and the
violence perpetrated by
drug lords and their
henchmen.
Janina del Vecchio, the
ministra de Seguirad
Pública, said that over
the past year Mexico's
Sinaloa Cartel, headed
by prison escapee
Joaquín "El Chapo"
Guzmán Loera, has
heightened its presence
and activities in Costa
Rica, using the country
as a warehouse for drugs
(mainly cocaine) shipped
in from Colombia and,
ultimately, destined for
the United States.
"We are finding that,
for some 12 months,
Mexicans have been
shifting to Costa Rica
or Nicaragua in order to
pick up drugs that are
stored by the
Colombians," Del Vecchio
stated at a press
conference.
Furthermore, she said
that in recent years the
country of 4.5 million
people has gone from
being a transit
territory to a consuming
nation. According to Del
Vecchio, there are some
12,000 drug users in
Costa Rica.
And this drug presence
and consumption, in
turn, is now causing
increases in crime,
robberies and violence
in the Central American
country, including an
increasing demand for
synthetic drugs and
"crack," she noted.
Other sources say that
with just 10,000 police
for 4.5 million
residents, and crime
figures for murders,
robberies, assaults and
other offenses
increasing daily, Costa
Rica is suffering due to
its key position between
Colombia, a drug
producer, and the United
States and Mexico, both
consumption and
contraband markets.
Janina del Vecchio
observed that due to
pressure put on
Colombian and Mexican
drug traffickers by the
respective governments,
the cartels and their
gangsters are taking
refuge more and more in
Central American
countries. She also said
that Mexican cartel
members are bogusly
marrying Costa Rican
women in order to
legitimize their
presence in the country,
and to facilitate their
transshipment
operations.
Antonio Acosta, who
heads the United Nations
Office on Drugs and
Crime, said that Central
American and Caribbean
countries "are trapped
in the cross fire of
drugs and arms." He went
on to say that one-half
of the world's cocaine
is consumed in the
United States, whereas
its entire annual
production is in South
America. And Mexican
cartels have displaced
most of their Colombian
partners – including the
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC)
– in the delivery of
drugs to the United
States, much of this now
through Central America
which is caught in the
middle.
At the MISPA meeting,
Del Vecchio called for
the formation of a
regional (Interpolesque)
police agency dedicated
to the fight against
organized crime and drug
trafficking, with
personnel "who are
incorruptible," she
added.
And after the two day
Mexico City meetings,
Costa Rica revealed its
developing homeland
security and crime
fighting plans.
Following a six week
civil war in 1948, Costa
Rica abolished its army.
This was enshrined in
its Constitution in
1949, which gave the
responsibility for
maintaining law and
order to civil police.
In 1996 the system was
changed with the
establishment of the
Public Force, a single
entity under the
Ministry of the Interior
that replaced the
nation's Civil Guard,
Rural Assistance Guard,
and Border Guards. A
police force that today
is responsible for
security, law
enforcement,
counter-narcotics, and
border patrol functions.
The Costa Rican program
is to set up a mass
crime fighting and
reporting network
through community and
business security
committees. A
countrywide grid of
neighborhood, citizen
and school watch
committees seemly
similar to the
informational
undertakings of
community groups that
surfaced immediately
after the 1985
earthquake in Mexico
City, rather than the
politically oriented
Cuban Revolution Defense
Committees that keep Big
Brother watch over local
citizens.
"The program is
preventative and without
firearms," Diana Solano,
who heads the Community
Security Department of
Costa Rica's Ministry of
the Interior, told the
correspondent from the
Mexican newspaper El
Universal. "We will
(provide) training on
(crime) prevention in
homes, public places or
schools. For example,
students are the ones
who know who the dealers
are that sell drugs in
their schools," she
said.
The plan is to detect
suspicious individuals,
vehicles and movements
of drug trafficking and
other criminal
activities in
neighborhoods and
shopping areas, and to
keep from being the
victim of crime.
"The information is
delivered to the police,
based on close ties with
the community, so that
they can take action,"
Solano said. Using
"watch codes," such as
with whistles, sirens or
lights deployed in 4,700
localities and 5,000
businesses nationwide,
98,300 community
watchpersons are helping
to catch the criminals.
However, "the committees
are complementary to the
police, and (citizens)
are not armed with clubs
or pistols in order to
chase assailants," she
added. Confrontations
with lawbreakers and
crime stopping, Solano
said, are still the
exclusive responsibility
of state security
authorities.
Police and the military
alone cannot stop the
crime and violence of
the drug trade and the
cartel perpetrators, be
they from Mexico,
Colombia, Central
America, the United
States or elsewhere. And
while governments and
responsible politicians
must take the lead,
certainly security is
everyone's concern and
business.
Just maybe massive
citizen watch and
community security
programs will work,
albeit in far too many
areas the police and the
criminals are one in the
same so reporting
becomes a problem. Thus
the questions arise on
how to overcome the
sociocultural reluctance
to report crime and
criminals in Latin
America due to the fear
of grave retaliation?
This along with how can
crime and corruption be
weeded out of law
enforcement agencies and
related government
offices?
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