The first two months of 2023 couldn’t be any worse for Costa Rica, as the homicide rate surged by 20 per cent, prompting the country’s president to request an emergency meeting with the Chief Justice.
President Rodrigo Chaves has requested that alongside the Chief Justice, Rodrigo Arias, president of the Legislative Assembly, also be a part of this emergency meeting called to find a legal solution to the crisis. Punishing those in possession of weapons, setting minimum jail sentences for certain offences and tapping telephone calls of suspected criminals, are among the options the government is considering in its bid to stem the violence.
According to Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency, there were 164 murders in the first 73 days of 2023, a 20 per cent increase from the same period last year. Data released by the agency showed that at least one homicide occurs every 12 hours in the country of just five million people.
The province of San José reported the highest homicide count.
Most homicides are attributed to drug gangs, which in recent months have been fighting among themselves to control domestic cocaine sales and the seaports that often serve as transit points for Colombian drugs en route to Europe and the United States.
Former president Laura Chinchilla confirmed that an increasing number of Costa Ricans are getting addicted to drugs these days. “Our own people are using drugs and making it possible for these crime groups to exist,” she told the Washington Post.
As pressure builds up around the government to deal with the drug gangs, Arias told reporters that as many as five legislative bills would be tabled shortly to strengthen the criminal justice system.
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