One in five companies claims to have been a victim of crime this year, and 80% say that about 10% of their operating costs correspond to security.
From a statement issued by the Costa Rican Union of Chambers and Associations of Private Business Sector (UCCAEP):
December 18, 2017The situation of insecurity that the country is experiencing is also hitting private sector companies hard.This has been revealed by the IV Quarterly Business Survey "Pulso Empresarial" (Business Pulse), prepared by the Costa Rican Union of Chambers and Associations of the Private Business Sector (UCCAEP).
In the first eight months of the year in Costa Rica, the theft of 107 containers was reported, generating losses of about $5.7 million for the business sector.
Theft of vans and containers in Costa Rica has been increasing in recent years.Between January and September of this year, 16 more thefts were reported than in the same period in 2016.
In addition to the usual problems of crime facing cargo carriers in the Northern Triangle, the union has denounced an increase in robberies on Costa Rican roads.
Inequality and lack of coordination in security measures that are implemented in each of the Central American countries is preventing better results from being achieved in combating robbery of freight trucks.
Added to the factors already deteriorating competitiveness in the export sector are increased thefts of merchandise on the country's roads and infiltration of drug trafficking in exports.
The National Chamber of Cargo Carriers (Canatrac) reports that attacks on trucks on roads in the country have increased since 2012.They state "... on average 12 assaults used to be committed per year, however the figure has risen to 20 in recent years'."
Another case of drugs found in cargo which came from Costa Rica highlights the imperative need to improve controls and implement the use of scanners at export ports.
EDITORIAL
How many more drugs have to be found in commercial export cargo before the authorities in Costa Rica put into operation the scanners which were donated by the Chinese government eight years ago?
An alarming trend has been confirmed on the government of Costa Rica involving self-supply between institutions and public companies under contracts that avoid the participation of private enterprises.
EDITORIAL
The legal tangle that regulates state purchases in Costa Rica is a machine that forces to go out on a pilgrimage in order to acquire, for example, electronic bracelets for prisoners.
Entrepreneurs who do business overseas could see their commercial operations affected if the country is included in the list of non cooperative nations in the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing.
EDITORIAL
The demonstrated difficulty of the Solis administration in governing, understood as the management of conflicts between different sectors of the population, makes it difficult to be optimistic and believe that it eill be able to approve, before July 15th, the laws against money laundering and terrorism financing, which would prevent the country from being included in the list of non-cooperative countries on these issues.
Alcoholic beverages, technological equipment and chemical products are some of the products most affected by the disappearance of containers which has been denounced by the union of importers in Costa Rica.
The Costa Rican Chamber of Importers has expressed its concern at the "extreme" security measures which have to be taken to ensure that containers with imported goods reach their destination without being stolen in transit.Its director, Katherine Chaves, told Diarioextra.com that in some cases the containers disappear from thestorage zones.
In order to try to control the growing air traffic of drugs an initial purchase will be made of two radars while funds are sought for eight others.
An article in Nacion.com reports that "...The Ministry of Public Security is looking for resources to purchase 10 expensive mobile radars to detect planes engaged in transporting drugs in the country. "
A list of people and companies involved in international money laundering includes brothers Abdul and Nidal Waked, another 6 individuals, and 68 companies, among which is Balboa Bank.
The businessmen Abdul and Nidal Waked and companies such as Grupo Wisa, Vida Panama and Balboa Bank, have been included in the "Clinton" list which indicates which people and related organizations are linked to money laundering and drug trafficking activities.
The figure is an estimate made by the Intelligence Directorate in Costa Rica released by the US State Department, along with information that indicates a rise in criminal organizations based in the country, and little capacity to combat them.
Money laundering is a criminal activity that handles amounts that are difficult to measure. For example, the report "Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2004-2013" by Global Financial Integrity says that during the aforementioned 10 year period, the flow of illicit money from Costa Rica exceeded $11 billion, that is about $1.1 billion a year.
The complexity of drug cartels' internal structures, their strategies of "marketing and customer service" and the way they operate increasingly resemble those of large global corporations.
How are the Coca-Cola and McDonald's corporations similar to drugs cartels? Of course the products they sell are completely different, but the way the three try to position their products and brands, increase their market share and increase profits to generate more dividends to their shareholders, is almost the same.
The unprecedented increase in violence in Costa Rica, once an oasis of peace in the region, is another sign of the failure of the traditional methods of fighting drugs.
EDITORIAL
More powerful than the Central American states, drug trafficking is on the rise not only in terms of an increased supply of drugs in the countries in the region, but through its permeation of institutions using the power of money and generating a growing culture of violence that is making Central America´s lack of a death penalty seem risible. Yes it does exist, but the worst part about it is that it is not institutionalized justice systems that implement it, but the mob bosses, pointing out -to ever younger executioners- the people who should be executed.
The Canadian government is warning tourists that levels of violence and crime in the country are growing and has recommended exercising a high degree of caution when travelling there.
Unfortunately Costa Rica is no longer the exception in the region in terms of violence and insecurity, which is already directly affecting tourism, one of the most important productive sectors in the economy.
Assurance has been given that companies where Continental Group or its shareholders have a minority participation may continue to operate normally.
As outlined in an article on Televicentro.hn , the general coordinator of Government, Jorge Ramon Hernandez Alcerro, stated that "... 'there are over 40 companies' which have with less than 50 percent in shares of Continental Group, whose president is the banker and politician Jaime Rosenthal."