The bill being discussed in Costa Rica basically seeks to extinguish the assets of organized crime, but there are those who claim that as proposed, it puts at risk the presumption of innocence of individuals.
The extinction of domain is a concept that in practice refers to seizing or confiscating assets linked to criminal activities, and then transferring them in favor of the State.
The housing market, casinos, concert halls, and the livestock sector are all used to launder money in Central American countries.
Excerpted from the report "International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, Volume II, Money Laundering and Financial Crimes" by the US State Department:
Costa Rica Transnational criminal organizations continue to favor Costa Rica as a base to commit financial crimes due to its location and limited enforcement capability. Costa Rica’s government has attempted to strengthen the legal framework for supervision and enforcement; however, challenges remain in mitigating money laundering risks. Costa Rica is a transit point that is also increasingly used as an operations base for narcotics trafficking; and significant laundering of proceeds from illicit activities continues. Costa Rica should continue to close financial crimes legislative gaps and allocate resources for investigation and prosecution.
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.
If emergency measures are not taken, Central America will soon collapse into failed states dominated by criminal organizations who are able to buy political power.
This is the dramatic but realistic conclusion reached by a study on the subject carried out by a coalition of Guatemalan institutions composed of the Coordinating Committee of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial and Financial Associations (CACIF), the National Economic Research Center (CIEN) the Foundation for the Development of Guatemala (FUNDESA) and Fundación G.
The Global Financial Integrity report notes that between 2004 and 2013 the flows of money from Costa Rica from laundering and other illicit sources increased by 10% compared to the period 2003-2012.
EDITORIAL
The report entitled "Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2004-2013" by Global Financial Integrity, shows that during the 10 years in question, the flow of illicit money from Costa Rica exceeded $11 billion.
Central America's fall into the hands of drug traffickers makes the following quote seem true: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
EDITORIAL
Although their rulers deny it, Central American countries are losing the war against drug traffickers. In some it is happening faster than in others, and in all of the nations on the isthmus violence associated with drug trafficking is growing, and it is becoming increasingly apparent that mafia power has infiltrated public institutions and private organizations, through bribery, and also through terror.
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.
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."
The Global Financial Integrity report places Costa Rica and Panama in positions 14 and 18 in the list of countries that moved the largest flows of illegal money in the world between 2003 and 2012.
EDITORIAL
The report entitled "Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2003-2012" by Global Financial Integrity, said that between those years, the flow of illicit money in Costa Rica exceeded $94 billion, about $30 billion more than the amount accumulated between 2001 and 2011, according to reports from the same institution in mid-2013.
The amendments made to the law against money laundering exclude the media from the list of subjects required to report transactions.
With this amendment passed in the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador's, the Law Against Money and Asset Laundering will be only oblige financial institutions to report to the Finance Unit of the Attorney General cash transactions of $10 thousand or more and other formats when they are over $25,000.
Sooner or later, the growing momentum in all of the States of the Union to legalize marijuana will motivate the federal government to remove the ban on its use.
EDITORIAL
As noted by Juan Carlos Hidalgo on his blog on Elfinancierocr.com "... Today, after more than 40 years of continuous failures, we are witnessing the collapse of the international drug war, which has cost the continent hundreds of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives."
Drug trafficking and gangs are the main factors responsible for intentional murders in the most violent countries in the world: Honduras, Belize, El Salvador and Guatemala.
According to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime at the United Nations (UNODC), in 2012 Honduras recorded 90.4 killings per 100,000 inhabitants.
In Belize, the homicide rate is 44.7 per 100 thousand inhabitants, in El Salvador it is 41.2, and in Guatemala is 39.9.
The standard allows the state to seize assets related to illicit operations based on tax fraud, money laundering, drug trafficking or organized crime.
Salvadoran Congress also agreed to add the crimes of fraud along with those of public finances and corruption to the Special Law on Forfeiture and Management of Property of Illicit Origin or Destination.