Caribbean & Central America - February 2015 (ISSN 1741-4458)

Gustavo Mata, a former deputy director of Costa Rica’s judicial investigation organisation (OIJ), was appointed as the country’s new security minister on 5 February, following the resignation of Celso Gamboa a few days earlier.

Highlighting the challenges that Mata will face in office, the local media accompanied the news of his appointment with statistics showing a steadily rising murder rate. Mata said that his priority was to deal with “everyday” crimes, such as robbery, assault and theft. “Costa Ricans are worried,” he said.

Mata served in the OIJ for most of his career, though for the last nine months he worked as Gamboa’s deputy at the security ministry. As well as tackling everyday crime, Mata also promised to improve relations between the police and the investigative authorities to ensure crimes were solved more readily. “Many times when we get to crime scene, it has not been sealed off, and that is a problem. […] We have been very successful at our work, but we must be more effective, in order to secure more convictions and to remove criminals from the streets.”

Over his year in office Gamboa had succeeded in bringing down, albeit very slightly, the number of assaults; violent robberies had been brought down more effectively. Nevertheless, the murder rate has risen significantly over the past year. Last year 471 homicides were recorded, up from the 407 in both 2012 and 2013.

The OIJ’s deputy director, Geraldo Campos, said that the increase in murders was linked to drug-trafficking. In November 2014, Costa Rica created a new court system designed to handle cases relating to drug trafficking. While Costa Rica has avoided much of the violence prevalent in neighbouring Central American countries due to the drug trade, there are increasing signs of gang infiltration in the country. Over the past few years, Costa Rican police have seized ever increasing quantities of cocaine.

Gamboa, who was appointed by the former president Laura Chinchilla (2009-2014), is the first cabinet minister to leave the Partido Acción Ciudadana-led administration of President Luis Guillermo Solís. He will now work as an assistant prosecutor in the attorney-general’s office. Gamboa gave little indication of why he wanted to leave the job after just a year.

A government wobble

Gamboa's departure comes at a delicate time for the Solís administration, and he was forced to deny reports that he had stepped down to take up a job as minister for the presidency. The man in that position, Melvin Jiménez is facing a huge amount of pressure to quit from the opposition, but so far both Jiménez and Solís have shown no signs of backing down.

Jiménez, the right-hand man of the president, has faced repeated calls to quit by legislators who argue that, as he is Lutheran bishop, he should be prohibited from holding public office, as per the Costa Rican constitution.

The pressure on Jiménez to step down continued to grow after one of his closest advisors was forced to quit on 17 January, following accusations of political bribery.Daniel Soley, the now former deputy presidency minister, is accused of offering the attorney general, Ana Lorena Brenes, an ambassadorial post in return for her willingness to work cooperatively with the Solís administration. In his resignation letter, Soley made no reference to the specific allegations, but only the injury to his dignity the furore had provoked. In a congressional hearing on 22 January, Soley denied offering Brenes a job in any underhand fashion. Though desperate to find some evidence linking Soley’s actions to a specific request from his boss, Jiménez, no smoking gun was found. Jiménez, and Solís, have made it clear the minister is not going anywhere.

• New PLN president

On 7 February the opposition Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN) elected José Maria Figueres Olsen, Costa Rica’s former president (1994-1998), to lead the party for the next four years. Figueres, the son of the party’s founder, beat former deputy and president of congress (2006-2010) Francisco Antonio Pacheco Fernández by 89-46 votes. Pacheco represented the wing of the PLN aligned with Oscar Arias Sánchez, the two-term president (1986-1990; 2006-2010).