QCOSTARICA – Géiner Gómez is the agent of the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) – Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigative Agency – who was killed on October 5 while doing his job.
Given the pain and shock that this event produces, it is worth remembering the warning issued by the OIJ director Rándall Zúñiga, in the sense that “if a change does not occur soon”, there will be “failed areas” in the country in which “the police will not be able to enter”, areas were “the criminal groups that are going to dominate in those places.”
On that occasion, Fiscal General (Attorney General) Carlo Díaz also reacted with no less seriousness, stating that “unfortunately it could be expected. The level of violence is quite high and we expected that this type of situation could arise. They have already appeared with the Fuerza Publica (National Police) and unfortunately now with the OIJ and we do not rule out that it could even with prosecutors.”
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This event and these reactions testify to the difficult and complicated security situation that the country is going through. At the time of writing these lines, the OIJ statistical portal reports that from January 1 to December 4 there have been 847 homicides throughout the country. An historic humber, taking into account that 2022 closed, according to the OIJ, with 654, the highest on record at the time.
Meanwhile, since the installation of scanners at APM Terminals at the port of Limón on July 1 of this year, 538 kilos of cocaine have left that port to different countries, in particular Europe, according to data from the Public Ministry updated as of November 28.
Aimless
In addition to the high number of homicides, two notable aspects of 2022 had already painted the picture that awaited the country for 2023. On the one hand, the budget proposal of President Rodrigo Chaves and the Minister of Finance Nogui Acosta, for this year, included a cut to the Judiciary of ¢7.8 billion to the Judiciary. At that time, the then director of the OIJ Wálter Espinoza (r.i.p.) explained that with the cut, that institution would enter ‘technical closure’ starting in April.
Months back, the Contraloría General de la República (CGR) – Comptroller General – released a report highlighting the lack of direction in the matter and ordering the Minister of Justice, Gerald Campos, to start the process of creating a national citizen security policy.
In its report, the CGR pointed out the absence of short, medium and long-term lines of action in matters of citizen security and ordered the development of a national policy in this matter.
At the end of October, the Ministor de Seguridad Publica (MSP), Mario Zamora said that it would be ready for announcement in Novmeber.
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“We have been working with soul, life and heart on this project. We have the honor to inform you that we now have the document ready for presentation to proceed for (legislative) approval, and we will proceed to make it public to the different authorities in the country.
Meanwhile, the fiasco of the “Costa Rica Segura (Safe Costa Rica)” initiative, which included a massive protest by police officers over the proposal to reduce their rest time, cost Jorge Torres his position as Minister of Security, who was immediately replaced by Mario Zamora, a former minister of that portfolio of the Chinchilla administration (2010-2014) and who served in the Ombudsman’s Office.
Precisely, the Ombudsman’s Office requested details of this security policy, after learning that the Government intended to make it public until August 2024.
Finally, on November 22, Chaves and Zamora presented their security policy plan, titled “Secure Costa Rica Plus,” in an event in which, in the midst of what clearly seemed like a tantrum, the president ordered the withdrawal of the five security bills that he had presented to the Legislative Assembly and in his speech he tried to assign responsibility for the crisis to the Legislative and Judicial powers.
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Thus, the year ends as it began, with the authorities of the Executive Branch trying to place responsibility on the other powers of the Republic. Of course, with 847 more victims, and counting…
Adapted and translated from SemanarioUniversidad. Read the original here.
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