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It must have been music to the government’s ears and it could not have been better timed: former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010), during a public interview in Costa Rica, endorsed President Laura Chinchilla’s plan of creating a “security tax” akin to the one he implemented in Colombia to fight against narco-trafficking groups. More importantly, the statement was made just a few days after Chinchilla had returned from an official state visit to Mexico, where she also signed several bilateral agreements with the administration of President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, establishing mechanisms that will become vital in joint counter-narcotics operations and transnational collaboration against organised crime (see sidebar).
President Chinchilla is calling for the creation of an annual security tax to be paid by all limited liability companies registered in Costa Rica (of US$300 a piece), but her initiative has been stalled in congress for several months amid constant political battles between the ruling Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN) and the opposition coalition that took control of the legislative branch earlier this year [RC-11-05], which has left it barely able to operate. Uribe, who used a similar tax upon taking office to double the number of policemen on the streets (from 70,000 to 140,000), said the involvement of the private sector “generated a lot of trust and gave us credibility to seek out cooperation from other countries”.
For Chinchilla, the answer to Costa Rica’s problems lies with more money and better knowledge. Thus, the president is intent on learning lessons from Colombia and from Mexico, but she is also keen on increasing spending on security, especially to strengthen the rule of law and the state’s presence in border areas before the problem blows out of control. Uribe - who asked a local journalist “why are you so worried [about narco-trafficking]?” because the problem in Costa Rica is still very small in comparison to other Central American nations- congratulated the government for its “early-riser” measures and backed Chinchilla and her attorney general, Jorge Chavarría, in their reading that securing border areas should be their top priority to thwart the strengthening of transnational criminal groups.
“It is a pertinent warning: the infiltration of criminal organisations always happens from bottom to top...where there is no state, the functions [of the state] are taken over by narco-traffickers. They charge taxes, they give protection. The [key] issue is that they don’t win that territory [border areas] from us”, said Chinchilla in late August. Partly in response to insecurity, and partly in response to the current border dispute with Nicaragua, Chinchilla announced an increase in the border security budget of US$3.5m on 17 August. The US$3.5m in additional funds will come from the committee for national emergencies (CNE), whose remit is to handle natural disasters like floods and mudslides. “We are taking money away from the committee because we don’t have fresh funds either to address security on the streets or border security”, said President Chinchilla.
- Intelligence sharing agreement
During an official state visit to Mexico (21-23 August), President Laura Chinchilla and her Mexican counterpart, President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, signed an agreement whereby both countries made a commitment to exchange intelligence information about the operations, membership, money laundering techniques and routes used by organised criminal groups in each other’s country. A second agreement stipulates the return of airplanes and cars seized during counter-narcotics operations to their country of origin. Costa Rica will now move to sign similar deals with Guatemala and Nicaragua.
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