Q COSTA RICA — The police offensive against organized crime in Costa Rica may lead to arrests, seizures, and temporary weakening of criminal structures, but it will hardly be able to definitively stop the violence if the country does not address the conditions that allow for the recruitment of new members.
Karen Jiménez Morales, head of the Police Science program at the Universidad Estatal a Distancia (UNED) — National Distance Learning University, issued the warning, alerting authorities to a particularly worrying trend: the growing presence of younger people in criminal organizations and leadership positions.
“The reality is that arresting ringleaders doesn’t solve the problem of violence on its own. New leaders emerge, and the worrying thing is that, according to the trend we’re observing, they are increasingly younger,” Jiménez explained.
The expert maintains that police operations remain essential to contain the activities of groups involved in homicides, drug trafficking, and other criminal activities, but she believes that these actions must be accompanied by sustained social prevention measures.
The problem, she explained, arises when an organization loses one of its leaders but maintains the conditions that facilitate the arrival of new members. In such cases, the power vacuum can quickly become an opportunity for someone else to assume leadership.
According to the expert, this dynamic can cause Costa Rica to remain trapped in a cycle where authorities capture ringleaders, while new generations join criminal organizations.
“We are not going to stop it simply with police pressure, increasing sentences, or creating more prison space,” she stated.
For Jiménez, one of the main challenges lies precisely in preventing state intervention from occurring only when criminal structures are already consolidated.
A police operation can arrest individuals linked to serious crimes and temporarily disrupt an organization’s operations, but if the social factors that encourage recruitment remain, others can fill those positions.
The phenomenon takes on an even more delicate dimension when those joining these groups are teenagers and youths.
The criminologist believes that, beyond asking who will replace a particular criminal leader, the country must analyze why a young person would be willing to assume that role and what social, familial, or economic factors are facilitating that decision.
“If we only intervene when a young person is already part of a criminal organization, we are arriving too late. Prevention has to begin much earlier, within communities, families, schools, and through the opportunities that we as a society are able to offer,” she stated.