COSTA RICA BLOG — Every expat who migrated to Costa Rica has looked and looked again to find comfort, a place we can call home. It is not simple and certainly not easy with so many choices and so many considerations.
Most important, newbies to Costa Rica must think about crime. Corruption is inevitable, but crime can be and should be stopped or controlled. There is a reason for all those steel bars on windows, guards on patrol, electric gates and the reason is that finding safety is paramount to “home”.
Our Costa Rica system of law enforcement leaves a lot to be desired. Perpetrators rarely find prison time and victims rarely, ever again, feel safe.
A cousin, a well known person, was stopped, robbed, gun whipped on Route 27 and then his car was stolen as well. He was left in a ditch to heal his wounds or die. He is in his mid-70s.
As a precaution, my cousin has a dead-man’s switch on his car that shuts the engine off in less than a ¼ of a mile if ever stolen. The fear was; the criminals would return and kill.
Crime has become violent and life not even measurably close to its value. Criminals do not hesitate to kill and for no apparent reason because it is a pretty good bet that if ever captured they will not serve time in prison. In fact, by Costa Rican measures, only 2.6% of criminals ever are convicted of anything.
While our president, Luis Guillermo SolĂs rhetorically called out corruption in his latest discourse, he avoided the word “crime” which, like soccer, has become one of our national pass times. And, crime is the epitome of a degenerate society; one of disparity, one lacking the valued qualities of life itself.
Finding a place you can call “home” and sleep while feeling protected is becoming more difficult each day. We are not Honduras or Caracas, but we are Costa Rica and violent crime is ramped, no matter who says different.
Mr. President, please stop it.
When one must make a trip to the city to make a report of a crime to the OIJ, and nothing is ever done about reported crime, it is a pretty safe bet that crime will be grossly under-reported. That being said, Costa Ricans are extremely distrustful (where else do cashiers closely inspect every piece of currency, even those valued at less than $@USD?). The bars and razor wire are serious overkill and are more a function of irrational perceptions and Spanish culture than of actual threat.
I’m not sure what the police do here most of the time, but about all one ever reads about are drug busts, a major waste of time except in the cases of major traffickers. Costa Rica does need to get tough on violent crime. Clearly, the courts have been ineffective at taking violent criminals off the streets. Perhaps a study of those cases that have been to court would reveal why prosecuters fail to get convictions in some cases and why harsher sentences are not handed out for individuals who are convicted. Those findings may point to the need for changes in the law or to the directions given to the courts.