Q COSTARICA — On February 4, after several days of fighting for his life, Geiner Zamora Hidalgo, interim deputy chief of the Pococí and Guácimo Regional Delegation of the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ), succumbed to his injuries at Calderón Guardia Hospital. He had been shot multiple times in a restaurant on January 31.
At that time, the director of the OIJ, Randall Zúñiga, called for national unity, stating that “the main risk to Costa Rican democracy right now is organized crime.”
Instead, the Executive Branch responded with further controversy. Justice Minister Gerald Campos, a former OIJ official, even used the term “grand swindle” in July to criticize Zúñiga’s management.
The government’s insistence on talking about, for example, the scanners in Moín and Caldera, which are still not operational, does nothing to quell public discontent, so much so that Chávez himself ended up claiming that “the public security disaster isn’t as bad as they’re making it out to be.” At least, amidst his eagerness to excuse his questionable administration, the president was able to acknowledge the state of affairs.
He said so on August 20th, and less than a month later, his Minister of Security, Mario Zamora Cordero, admitted before the Legislative Assembly’s Finance Committee that “we only have one crime out of control: homicide.”
Information released by the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) indicates that as of December 2nd, there were 805 homicides, a figure very similar to and only slightly above the 800 recorded on the same date last year, which ended with 880 and was the second highest in history, after the record of 907 also achieved by this administration in 2013.
Thus, while Chaves has shifted from “they’re killing each other” to “the disaster isn’t that great,” his Minister of Security has tried to defend his administration, claiming that he has achieved a decrease in property crimes, a decrease that, as SEMANARIO UNIVERSIDAD demonstrated, is due to a trend that predates Chaves’s rise to power by at least five years and is explained by the advance of organized crime.
On the other hand, as the SEMANARIO also reported in August, figures updated to July showed another worrying record: the lowest amount of cocaine seized in the decade, with 18,878 kilograms accumulated up to that month. This represents a 30% reduction compared to the previous year, and up to 60% compared to the seizures of 2020 and 2021.
Meanwhile, among the few positive developments of 2025 is the recent dismantling of the so-called South Caribbean Cartel. However, this comes in a context where the director of the OIJ, who had begun an aggressive campaign to take down criminal gangs, is suspended from his post while allegations of sexual assault against him are investigated. In this case, it was revealed that a woman allegedly received a pre-written complaint against the official from the executive president of the National Institute for Women (Inamu).
Deficient
Jonathan Flores Mata, a lawyer, criminologist, and member of the board of directors of the Association of Public and Private Employees (ANEP), explained that the security crisis is “a social phenomenon that has been developing for some time and accumulating like a snowball.”
He emphasized that Costa Rica, “in the last three years, and this year will be the fourth, has reached its highest historical figures in terms of registered intentional homicides, which unfortunately coincide with this administration, which has been criticized for many of its decisions.”
He drew attention, for example, to the number of so-called collateral victims, those who lost their lives in shootings or attacks in which they had no involvement, and who “in 2025 alone exceeded 30.”
He also observed that “increasingly younger people are participating in both common crime and organized crime.” He indicated that in the Southern Caribbean, there have even been cases of people as young as 13 being investigated for contract killings.
He considered the current administration’s management, and not just this year, to be “questionable,” since “there have been numerous scandals and criticisms at the political, technical, and other levels from various groups regarding security decisions made without any technical basis whatsoever.”
He recalled criticisms such as the withdrawal of the National Coast Guard Service (SNG) from Drake Bay and Sixaola, “where considerable drug trafficking occurs”; or the withdrawal of the Drug Control Police (PCD) from docks, airports, and borders, where “police intelligence is gathered for higher-level investigations.” “At one point, the police were also withdrawn from Crucitas, a decision that was later reversed, but it did happen,” he added.
He also criticized the Costa Rican Institute on Drugs (ICD) for “not updating its National Drug Plan” and emphasized that “we have the smallest Financial Intelligence Unit in Latin America, despite Costa Rica being a key hub for organized crime, and specifically drug trafficking.”
Therefore, he summarized that “in 2025, and with everything that has been happening snowballing, this administration has been, at the very least, deficient, if not to be characterized by any offensive objective.”
He concluded that “our authorities in various institutions—because this doesn’t only concern Public Security—are not acting in the same direction as the interests of the honest people of this country.”
Article translated and adapted from 2025: un año más con los homicidios “fuera de control” published by SemanarioUniversidad.com. Read the original in Spanish here.