Once tranquil Costa Rica eyes Salvadoran-inspired response to crime
surge
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[January 23, 2024]
By Alvaro Murillo and Isabel Woodford
SAN JOSE/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Long a byword for laidback
environmental tourism, Costa Rica is now wrestling with a surge in
violence so striking that its government is borrowing a page from nearby
El Salvador, which took draconian steps to tackle its own crime
problems.
In an effort to cut a homicide rate that has soared 40% in the last year
alone, Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves has introduced tough new
legislation to combat crime, dubbing El Salvador a "reference" point.
"Chaves is planning a crackdown... He's a security hardliner pushing for
a course correction," said Chris Dalby, director of the World of Crime
think tank. "'Mano dura' (firm hand) talk plays well."
Chaves' ideas include increasing jail sentences for minors to the adult
maximum of 50 years, allowing extraditions, and extending use of
preventive detention, making it easier to hold suspects with limited
evidence.
"Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures," Chaves said as he
presented his National Security Plan in November.
Costa Rica is one of a growing number of Latin American countries
seeking to tackle the expansion of drug cartel activity by emulating
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's sweeping crackdown.
Bukele's suspension of constitutional rights, which among other things
allows police to indefinitely detain suspected gang members without the
right to a lawyer, has elicited strong condemnation by human rights
campaigners.
But it has had a significant impact on crime and is domestically
popular, putting Bukele on the verge of a historic re-election next
month. And it has become a beacon for regional politicians battling
gangs, from Chile to Ecuador.
While Chaves insists he doesn't want to become exactly like Bukele, his
plan is still a radical shift for Costa Rica, which has traditionally
taken a gentler approach to crime prevention.
Many in the opposition-controlled Congress publicly still cleave to that
approach, but even there, whispers of support for tougher policies are
growing, fueled by fears for the country's $2 billion tourism sector.
"(Bukele's) work dismantling organized crime has been excellent and
worth analyzing to replicate in Costa Rica," David Segura, a lawmaker in
the opposition conservative New Republic party said in a recent social
media post.
Costa Rica saw its murder rate jump to 17.2 per 100,000 people in 2023
from 11.7 in 2018. By contrast in El Salvador, the rate plunged to 2.4
after being the highest in the world less than a decade earlier.
Bukele was voted Costa Ricans' favorite political leader in an October
survey by research firm Indice. Meanwhile, Chaves' own poll ratings have
plummeted nearly 30 percentage points since his election in May 2022.
CHANGING WINDS
Analysts say Costa Rica's spike in homicides has been driven by gang
warfare among cocaine traffickers. Gang recruitment was helped by
growing social discontent and unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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A police officer stands next to men briefly detained to frisk them
for drugs and weapons during the "Costa Rica Segura Plus" operation,
carried out in tough neighborhoods by security forces, in San Jose,
Costa Rica, December 8, 2023. REUTERS/Mayela Lopez/File Photo
Political friction with neighboring Nicaragua and Honduras has also
hindered regional security cooperation, which analysts say has fed a
sharp drop in cocaine seizures in Costa Rica.
Costa Rica's traditionally light-touch handling of suspects - who
are often simply given precautions in lieu of arrest - has also
fueled the problem, according to Jorge Torres, Chaves' security
chief.
"How can a strong 17-year-old boy who killed a citizen with an AK-47
be treated like an 8-year-old boy who stole some candy?," Chaves
said in October, arguing criminal groups recruit minors precisely
because they often get off scot-free.
For now, Chaves' "mano dura" bill is stuck in Congress, with
opposition critics calling it anti-Costa Rican and authoritarian.
"We live in a democracy. We're not El Salvador or any of those
countries that violate individual rights," said Gloria Navas, a New
Republic lawmaker who heads the congressional committee on Security
and Drug Trafficking.
Chaves needs the backing of at least 29 of 57 lawmakers for most of
the proposals, and his party currently has only nine seats. But he
has been able to previously pass legislation with support from other
conservative factions.
Chaves' other challenge is that Costa Rica is less used to pursuing
narcos than its neighbors, having abolished its army over 70 years
ago to prioritize progressive welfare policies.
Proponents of the welfare-first approach say historically that
helped to shield Costa Rica from violence long prevalent in much of
Central America, and that more welfare spending could do so again.
Laura Chinchilla, president from 2010 to 2014, said she had
successfully curbed violence by preventing the poor from falling
into crime.
"I don't think we have to resort to the militarized models of other
countries," she told Reuters. "If we've done it (the peaceful way)
for a lifetime, we should be able to do it now."
Others in Congress think Chaves' plan doesn't go far enough.
Opposition conservative lawmaker Lesley Bojorges recently backed the
idea of harsh El Salvador-style prisons, while judicial chief
Randall Zuņiga has expounded the merits of more detentions.
Sergio Araya, a political scientist at the Konrad Adenauer
Foundation, a conservative think tank, said such tougher approaches
were on track to become more popular with Costa Ricans weary of
crime in the coming months and years.
"There's likely to be growing support for ideas in the so-called 'Bukele
model,'" he said.
(Reporting by Alvaro Murillo in San Jose and Isabel Woodford in
Mexico City; Editing by Christian Plumb, Dave Graham and Rosalba
O'Brien)
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