In the midst of criticism of the sustained increase in violent crimes in the last decade in Costa Rica, crimes that in 2022 have left more than 650 homicides, President Rodrigo Chávez launched a special operation against organized crime and has said that he will everything possible to avoid a state of exception in the style of the president of El Salvador Nayib Bukele.
On this topic we have interviewed Paul Ulloa, news director and columnist for Radio Monumental de Costa Rica.
Paul Ulloa: The state of exception, constitutionally, is not very easy to establish in Costa Rica. It requires two thirds of the Congress and the ruling faction barely has ten deputies out of the fifty-seven necessary and it has to do everything by consensus, and consensus, and the consensus is not to reach that state of exception. All the work is being done to avoid reaching the state of emergency, but even so, the legislative factions have marked the field for him and have told him not to even think of sending that, because he will not have the support of the deputies to create a state of exception.
R.F.I.: What is the special operation against organized crime announced by President Rodrigo Chávez, who is already celebrating one year in power?
Paul Ulloa: The resources that Costa Rica has are very limited, what has been thought is to increase the number of officers of the public force. Currently the public force of Costa Rica has 8,000 troops. If we divide that figure by the amount of territory and the number of turns that have to be done, it is insufficient. The number of public force officers will increase. For that, he has asked the legislature for an extraordinary budget, which will be approved soon to start hiring more police officers. There is another very important front, which is the situation of scanner financing at all border posts. That was one of President Chávez’s campaign promises that still, a year later, has not materialized. Costa Rica is a warehouse for a large amount of drugs that go to the United States. It is a meeting point between what leaves Colombia and what goes to Mexico or Guatemala and further north. It is a neuralgic point in that sense and that is where it is also necessary to strengthen a little, not the ports, but also the coasts and the airspace.
R.F.I.: Is it likely that Rodrigo Chávez will ask at some point that Costa Rica be given an army again?
Paul Ulloa: It doesn’t look feasible. We do not see with good eyes the establishment of an army. We have witnessed that other sister countries have experienced tremendous historical episodes of coups d’état for having an army, and we Costa Ricans are proud not to have a military institution. It is very unlikely, and that also entails political support that the executive branch would never have.
