Deputies Analyze All the Flanks of Violence and Insecurity in the Metropolitan Area

Shocked by the murder of 2 young people in the last month -in the surroundings of the capital city-, the legislators of the Special Permanent Commission on Security and Drug Trafficking, approved summoning leaders of various institutions to a hearing to analyze the problem from all angles and look for solutions and alternatives of greater security.

The Minister of Public Security, Jorge Torres; the Regional Director of San José Randall Picado; the Mayor of San José, or whoever holds that position; The Director of the Police of the Municipality of San José Marcelo Solano, the Director of Intelligence and Security Hans Segura, were the first summoned to refer to the problems of insecurity that the capital is experiencing.

The legislator who proposed this call, Gilberto Campos, explained his motivation. Congresswoman Gloria Navas Montero drew attention to the problem that, apparently, those responsible for this act are 2 underage individuals, which she is concerned about because of the involvement of young people in such serious crime. She insisted that recommendations should already be made so that they are fixed in public policies and not wait until the commission advances in its work.

Another motion, presented by deputy Andrea Álvarez Marín, will bring Mrs. Eugenia Mata Chavarría, in charge of prevention policies in educational centers, and Marcela Ortiz Bonilla, an intelligence analyst from the Institute on Drugs, ICD, to an audience so that they can refer to the diagnosis and problem of the increase in the entry of drugs into schools and colleges.

Legislator Alejandra Larios Trejos proposed –and it was approved– that Sergio Sevilla Pérez, Vice Minister of Security and Peace, be summoned to a hearing so that he could refer to the prevention of violence, coordination with community institutions and organizations, and the operation of the Civic Centers for Peace. The National Director of PANI, Gloriana López Fuscaldo; Katherina Müller, Minister of Public Education and Álvaro Ramos, Executive President of the CCSS, with the purpose of referring to the care of children and youth on the issue of domestic violence and safety in educational centers.

Similarly, 2 motions were approved to send condolences from the members of this commission to the relatives of the young Manfred Barberena and Marco Calzada, recently deceased in the capital city.

Archiving the file

The legislators received Mr. Carlos Tiffel, from the Criminal Sciences master’s degree at the University of Costa Rica, and Judge Rosaura Chinchilla, who recommended that file 23,104 Incentives Law for Complaints in the Fight against Crime be archived.

Judge Chinchilla specifies that what is proposed in the file is already in force, such as organized crime, serious crimes and complex processing, and that related to the issue of the ‘crown witness’. She insisted that what is intended is a duplication of aspects that are already regulated in the legal system.

Public service corruption

For his part, the specialist Tiffel was clear that the reason for the proposal to encourage the reporting of cases of corruption in the public service is not the most important thing, since all crimes are public action and therefore do not require a complaint. “The bodies in charge of the investigation should be able to initiate an investigation, even if there is no complaint”, said the expert.

Lastly, it was clear that the project makes one believe that the more complaints there are, the fewer crimes will occur and that if more complaints are made, there will be more convictions, “which is completely and absolutely false”.