Because of factors such as business closures and lack of opportunities, it is estimated that criminal activity costs Honduras and El Salvador 16% of GDP, and in the case of Guatemala, its losses could amount to 7% of its production.
In Central America, the human costs of crime remain one of the highest in the world. El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—referred to as the Northern Triangle— account for about four-and-a-half percent of homicides worldwide despite only having about one-half-percent of the world's population.
Businessmen from Central America and the Dominican Republic ask that ILO Convention 190 not be ratified, arguing that countries already have regulations to deal with violence and harassment in the workplace.
The Federation of Private Entities of Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic (Fedepricap), through a statement dated August 9, reported that they agreed to request from the governments "...
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.
A report by InSight Crime highlights the homicide rate registered in Costa Rica in 2017, which was 12.1 per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest number in its history.
The report indicates that Costa Rica is a country that has traditionally been considered "peaceful," and in respect to the escalation of the homicide rate, an increase that local authorities attribute to organized crime, the report indicates that "... lack of retrospective and a vague methodology is weakening the authorities' attempts to attribute blame to organized crime."
Diagram showing the people and companies identified by actions related to money laundering, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury´s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
It has been announced that deposits up to $9,200 (L200,000) per person will be returned, and then payments to employees, depositors and others, noting that "... there are sufficient resources to address them all."
The cause is the inclusion of the institution in the list of the U.S Office of Foreign Assets Control, and the freezing of its assets abroad.
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.
Forecasting more risk of social unrest for Nicaragua than Costa Rica in 2014, indicates ignorance of the political, economic and social realities of Central America.
EDITORIAL
The print edition of "The World in 2014" by The Economist Intelligence Unit reported a measurement of the risk of social unrest in 150 countries, categorizing them into 5 levels.
World Bank statistics show that every day, about $1.3 billion are paid in bribes related to state contracts.
The figures were mentioned by Michael Kramer, a consultant at the entity, who is taking part in the forum "Preventing and combating corruption and collusion in public procurements", taking place in Panama.
"... In addition to cash bribes for the award of contracts in recent years the practice has spread to awarding projects to companies created by officials," reported Prensa.com. Sometimes they are consultancies or suppliers that have no references or physical offices.
An ECLAC study has revealed that companies in Guatemala and El Salvador pay the highest costs because of organized crime in Latin America.
According to data from the Global Competitiveness Index 2012-13, analyzed by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in its report on safety in the logistics sector in the region, Guatemala has a score of 1.86, on a scale of 1 to 7, regarding the influence of crime and violence in operating costs of enterprises, where 1 is "very much" and 7 means "nothing".
The phenomenon affects much of Latin America, whose countries spend on average 8% of their GDP on security costs.
That was the conclusion reached during the forum "Connecting businesses as partners for prosperity with security in the Americas", organized by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the private sector, under the framework of the Guatemala Investment Summit.
The percentage of people who say they have been robbed or assaulted in the past four months: Honduras 33%, Guatemala 29%, El Salvador 28%, Panama, 22%, Costa Rica 21%, Nicaragua 19%.
Public Opinion Survey in Central America and the Dominican Republic by CID-Gallup.
November 2012
HONDURAS HAS THE MOST REPORTS OF ASSAULT AND ROBBERY
The Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, is the most dangerous city in the region
Criminal activities in Central America cause a loss of $900 million for regional trade, said the Federation of the Chambers of Commerce of Central America.
In El Salvador, $600 million was lost due to armed robberies, and in Honduras, the figure is $150 million a year, reported merchants from the isthmus .
Among the criminal activities that affect trade are "the constant assaults suffered by vehicles carrying loads and goods through the region", reported an article in Pueblo en Línea, the Spanish version of The People's Daily, the official Chinese newspaper.
Mexico is currently making headlines worldwide for its drug violence, but the homicide rate in Central America is now higher than that of the Aztec nation.
Like other analysts, Andres Oppenheimer attributes the drama unfolding in Central America to drug trafficking: "Even in Costa Rica, a country that is often called the Switzerland of Latin America because it is an island of peace and prosperity in the region, there is growing anxiety about the rising tide of drug-related violence."
While other Central American countries are preparing taxes to combat insecurity, Nicaragua declares that it is not an appropriate option.
The president of Guatemala, Alvaro Colom, proposed to his peers in the isthmus region the creation of specific tax to combat organized crime and the violence it generates.
Although the proposal didn’t prosper at the meeting of the Council of Finance Ministers and Central Finance, both Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras are working on the implementation of a national tax for their own security plans.