Costa Rica is a popular holiday destination and is traditionally considered safe. But now the murders in the drug milieu are increasing – and with them the concerns about tourism.
It’s travel time. The holiday planes to Costa Rica are full again. The Central American country is a popular travel destination for German holidaymakers looking for tropical nature and sustainable tourism. Costa Rica is not only an island of peace and security in a region known for violent excesses and drug-related crime. The country is also a pioneer in terms of democracy, environmental and climate protection and offers a wide range of opportunities for sustainable and ecological travel.
However, a growing spiral of violence threatens the model character of the country. Because 2022 was the most violent year in Costa Rican history. The number of homicides reached a record high of 656. This corresponds to a murder rate of 12.6 per 100,000 inhabitants and is twelve percent higher than the previous year’s value. In comparison, Germany had a homicide rate of 0.25 in 2022.
There is concern that the rise in violent crime is a longer-term trend that has not yet peaked. This year the number of killings is already 41 percent higher than the previous year. What is the reason for this surprising development in the Central American model country Costa Rica?
(Source: Konrad Adenauer Foundation)
To the author
Evelyn Gaiser has been the head of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s Costa Rica office in San José since January 2020. Previously, she was the country representative in the Asia and Pacific team for India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Central Asia and the topic of climate and energy in Asia.
Significantly responsible for drug-related crime
Drug crime, which has been able to spread rapidly in recent years, is largely responsible for the escalation of violence. 62 percent of the murders recorded in 2022 can be traced back to “settlements” in the drug milieu. Costa Rica is on the transit route for drugs from South America to Europe and the United States. With the storage of larger quantities of drugs in the country and the payment of couriers with drugs – especially in the past decade – more and more illegal substances have been circulated within Costa Rica.
The emergence of a domestic drug scene and rising cocaine use in the country eventually led to turf wars between drug traffickers and the various groups to which they belong. Costa Rica thus developed from a transit country, which was mainly dominated by Mexican cartels, to the home of local drug gangs.
The operating cartels are gradually expanding their territories with gang wars and are increasingly laundering their money in the legal economy. Today there are about 300 organized crime organizations in Costa Rica. Most recently, the Costa Rican government warned against the formation of a domestic “mega-cartel” in the style of the large Mexican cartels.
The KAS is a think tank that is ideally close to the CDU and, among other things, advocates European understanding.
Inequality and lack of prospects as drivers of insecurity
On the one hand, growing social inequality and a lack of prospects, which particularly characterizes the poor and structurally weak regions of the country, are seen as the cause of the increase in drug trafficking. On the other hand, savings in security forces and preventive measures are used as an explanation for the spiral of violence.
Drug crime in Costa Rica originated primarily in the Caribbean region of Limón, one of the poorest and least developed provinces in the country. The deep sea port there is now the starting point for drug smuggling in containers to Europe and the USA and is said to have strongly favored the presence of the cartels in the region.
Turf wars between cartels and local groups
But even in the country’s poorest province, Puntarenas, crime and murder rates have risen drastically in recent years. Since 2017, the homicide rate in the Pacific Province has more than doubled. This is related to cartels, which since 2018 have expanded their activities into the Pacific region, fighting turf wars with local groups there.
Puntarenas is on the strategic north Pacific route for drug trafficking. Districts that are characterized by poverty, social exclusion and a lack of educational and employment opportunities for young people are particularly affected by the increasing violence.
The drug gangs’ development of new spheres of influence from the Caribbean coast has also spread to the rural Pacific region of Guanacaste, whose coastal hotels are particularly popular with US travelers. Between 2021 and 2022, the number of homicides there nearly doubled.
