A.M. Costa Rica:

Here are the top 10 reasons Costa Rica is incapable of dealing with organized crime:

(1) Money: The criminal organizations have it, Costa Rica doesn't. It would take a massive investment of capital in every aspect of the antiquated crime fighting machinery to bring the country up to the levels of competency that developed countries had 50 years ago.

(2) Corruption: Fighting organized crime requires confidentiality of operations. If criminals have prior knowledge of investigations, they can avoid them. Officials at every level of government can and have been bought by criminal enterprises, so to expect that sensitive information will remain confidential is just plain silly.

(3) The courts: The courts are already dysfunctional. To add the burden of large, complex cases of the kind associated with organized crime would only hasten a complete collapse of the system.

(4) Judges: They demonstrate again and again their unwillingness to put even small time, habitual criminals behind bars where they belong, instead turning them loose to prey upon the public. And organized crime has a long and colorful history of bribing and/or threatening judges who hear their cases. How can anyone expect these spineless jurists to bring down violent, well-funded criminal organizations?

(5) The police: They're under staffed, under equipped, over tasked and shamefully under paid, which makes them targets for corruption as well. In most rural areas they don't even leave their offices after dark.

(6) Investigative resources: Since the police and district attorneys have little or no past experience in dealing with organized crime, it is logical to assume that they lack the investigative skills to mount a serious campaign against them.

(7) Scientific resources: I don't believe Costa Rica has the equipment or the know-how to effectively investigate crime scenes.

(8) Border control: The borders with Nicaragua and Panamá are porous, allowing the easy movement of drugs, weapons, people and money in and out of the country, and the coast guard doesn't have the capacity to control the seas.

(9) The Laws: How can a country that doesn't even have laws against CONSPIRACY hope to fight organized crime?

(10) Witness protection: The new laws mandating the protection of victims of and witnesses to crimes, while certainly well intentioned, aren't worth the paper they're written on, and the public knows it. Who's going to protect them and their families and their places of business, the same police who haven't been protecting them in the past? Testimony against organized criminals, or even unorganized criminals for that matter, will continue to be a suicidal proposition that very few Costa Ricans will undertake.

How about scrapping the plans to use $70,000,000 of communist Chinese money to build a soccer stadium and re invest it in law enforcement?

Dean Barbour
Manuel Antonio
It's too late to fix country,
so he moved to Colombia

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

[b]Regarding crime in Costa Rica:

It's too late. The horse is out of the barn. The sucking sound you hear is the black hole of crime and danger that is rapidly consuming the individual's right to live in peace and safety.

The "teeter totter" has tipped and no one is on the high side to restore balance to the society. It's supposed to be about human rights, not criminal's rights!

Any middle school civics student knows what happens when the government fails to act responsibly and in it's citizens best and basic interest:

Impunity prevails in Costa Rica:

Impunity means "exemption from punishment or loss". It refers to the failure to bring perpetrators to justice. It constitutes a denial of the victims' right to justice and redress. Impunity is especially common in countries that lack a tradition of the rule of law, suffer from corruption or that have entrenched systems of patronage, or where the judiciary is weak or members of the security forces are protected by special jurisdictions or immunities.


"Impunity arises from a failure by states to meet their obligations to investigate violations; to take appropriate measures in respect of the perpetrators, particularly in the area of justice, by ensuring that those suspected of criminal responsibility are prosecuted, tried and duly punished; to provide victims with effective remedies and to ensure that they receive reparation for the injuries suffered; to ensure the inalienable right to know the truth about violations; and to take other necessary steps to prevent a recurrence of violations."

When Don Oscar and his fellow peaceniks finish studying Civics 101 they should stay after school and google "Anarchy," because that's the next social disorder in store for Costa Rica.

A ninth grade history course might be of value too. Nero fiddled while Rome burned. The Costa Rican government passed new and "not worth the paper they are written on" laws.

The Nobel Prize people should add an asterisk next to Senor Arias' prize with a footnote,"he later went on to sit on his hands while his country destroyed itself from within." Don't bother closing the barn door. It's too late! Anyone with any sense is already gone or making plans to flee.

The vigilantes have already entered the void created by government failure. San José now has handicap access to it's pensiones, everyone has nice clean T shirts and the marching bands have new found purpose. Good work, Señor Presidente.


Robert Rutgers Venhuizen
Former resident of Lourdes, Montes de Oca, where everyone lived in fear.

Currently residing in Medellin, Colombia...where the words "law and order" mean something.