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COSTA RICA |
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Arias Criticized Those Who Say Costa Rica Is
Unsafe During Police Raise Signing Ceremony
Members of Costa Rica's four police forces
will be getting a raise in their salaries in
the coming year following an agreement
signed by Costa Rican president, Oscar Arias
and leaders of the various unions
representing the country's police forces.
The agreement, that is being called
historic, will raise police salaries an
average of 15%.
Present at the signing ceremony at Casa
Presidencial was the ministra de Seguridad
Pública, Jannina Del Vecchio, the director
of Migración (immigration), Mario Zamora,
the viceministro de la Presidenica, Roberto
Thompson and for the unions, Albino Vargas
of the ANEP and Xiomara Rojas of the Siteco.
On hand were also the top brass of the
police forces: Fuerza Pública (police),
Policía Penitenciaria (penitentiary police),
Policía de Tránsito (traffic police) and
Policía Migratoria (immigration police).
The agreement calls for increases in salary
based on tenure and position and varies from
police force to police force.
For example, officers of the Fuerza Pública
penitentiary officials will receive a 25%
hike retroactive to October 2009, while
Tránsito officials will see a hike between
8% and 50% taking effect on December 11.
Immigration police officials will get a
¢32.000 colones a month increase in their
base salary.
In a speech after the signing ceremony,
president Arias took the podium for more
than a half hour to praise the national
police forces and criticized anyone who says
Costa Rica is an unsafe country.
"Everything is relative", said Arias.
Arias added "if compared to Brazil that has
a militarize police force and very few
criminals, we can conclude that the country
has a lot of crime. But, if we make the
comparison to El Salvador where they have
some 4.000 murders a year - on average 10 a
day - we are doing ok".
Arias blamed the media for giving the
perception that Costa Rica is unsafe,
talking about crimes and murders constantly.
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