10 Year Strategy to Reduce Crime in Costa Rica

President Laura Chinchilla signed a joint declaration of a 10 year strategy to reduce the crime in Costa Rica. She promised to boost public security spending by 50 percent. The security minister said that over the next 3 years they will spend an estimated $250 million to combat organized crime and drug trafficking.

To help modernize Costa Rica’s police force, 13 members of Colombia’s National Police are here training Costa Rican officers on public security tactics, part of a joint Colombian-Costa Rican law enforcement exchange that could last two years.

Chinchilla reiterated that fighting crime is one of her “biggest commitments.

Costa Rica: Safest Country in Central America

The Director of the OIJ (Costa Rica’s FBI equivalent), Jorge Rojas just spoke about the crime rate in Costa Rica, stating that, "There are significant downward trends. It is important that citizens know this even though there is a widespread belief that crime is rising,"

The statistics vary minimally, depending upon the source, however across the reports Costa Rica remains the safest country in all of Central America.

Below are the statistics for the Central American Countries with regard to homicide:

1. El Salvador has a homicide rate in 2009 of 76 per 100,000 inhabitants
2. Honduras has a homicide rate in 2009 of 66.8 per 100,000
3. Guatemala has a homicide rate in 2009 of 48 per 100,000
4. Panama has a homicide rate in 2009 of 24 per 100,000
5. Nicaragua has a homicide rate in 2009 of 13 per 100,000
6. Costa Rica had a total of 494 homicides for a homicide rate in 2009 of 11 per 100,000 and only 10.65 in 2010