Empresa Tomza Guatemala S.A. reported that in Nicaragua the government of President Daniel Ortega illegally expropriated and confiscated the company's assets, which together amount to $4 million in investments.
The expropriation process took several years. Tomza executives explained that in 2015 they were granted the permits for the construction of a property located in the municipality of Tipitapa, department of Managua.
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.
A raíz del robo de un contenedor que transportaba productos lácteos, la cámara del sector hizo un llamado a todos los gremios vinculados al comercio internacional y local, para que refuercen sus medidas de precaución.
In a statement, the Nicaraguan Chamber of the Dairy Sector (CANISLAC) reported that on Friday, December 13, 2019, the first container of Quesillo was stolen in the history of Nicaragua.
Because the area of stolen land in Guatemala has grown from about 10,000 hectares in the 1990s to 164,000 in 2018, losses in agricultural production caused by this phenomenon reached nearly $650 million last year.
The Chamber of Agriculture (Camagro) estimates that only in 2018, invasions of private property, mainly agricultural production farms, generated a negative impact equivalent to 0.6% of Gross Domestic Product.
Lack of legal certainty, electricity theft and social conflicts are forcing businessmen in Guatemala's energy sector to choose to relocate their investments to El Salvador.
Last year, the companies Applied Energy Services (AES) and Corporación Multi Inversiones (CMI), both US and Guatemalan capital, decided to invest $47 million in solar energy projects, encouraged by the facilities offered to the energy sector in El Salvador.
The country's Assembly has agreed to prepare a reform of the Budget Law to use the resources in the Citizen Security Plan.
The institution reported that the resources to be incorporated come from funds pending from the special contributions of the second quarter and from the funds collected in the last quarter, with total resources to be distributed amounting to $22,822,950.
Entrepreneurs in El Salvador believe that the first measure that should be implemented by the government that will take office in 2019 is to regain control of territories dominated by gangs.
The Second Opinion Survey "S.O.S. El Salvador", prepared by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of El Salvador (Camarasal), includes a series of top prioritymeasures that employers believe should be implemented by the new government that takes office in June 2019, in order to solve problems that are affecting economic growth and job creation.
Citizen insecurity, political uncertainty and low levels of investment are the main factors that are still affecting the quality of life of the population and the business climate in El Salvador.
Analysis undertaken by the Salvadoran Foundation for Development (Fusades) points out the main factors that are preventing the Salvadoran economy from achieving better levels of growth.In its Legal and Institutional Report, it notes recent advances in trade facilitation, but points out that public insecurity continues to be the factor that most negatively affects the quality of life of the population and the investment climate.
In El Salvador every week at least two companies report that they intend to close down due to the impact of extortion, a problem that, far from being resolved, seems to be getting worse every year.
Representatives from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of El Salvador (Camarasal), said that the country's employers do not see any significant improvement in the security climate, following the six month extension last April of the extraordinary measures of the Sánchez Cerén administration to try to control crime and insecurity.
Salvadoran business owners point out that the main causes of the country's poor economic performance is still growing insecurity and a lack of a clear political course.
The Salvadoran business chambers agree that the beginning of the year has not been the best, since the obstacles that for several months have made it difficult to operate and grow private sector activities still remain.
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."
In its new warning system for tourists, the US government included Panama and Costa Rica at the lowest risk level, Nicaragua at level 2 and Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, in the category "Reconsider Travel".
The US Department of State has announced modifications to its system of travel alerts and recommendations to citizens considering traveling to other countries.The new advisory system divides nations into four levels, according to the risks present in each country.
In some areas of El Salvador, the difference between having or not having a security gate can vary the price of a used home that is for sale by up to 30%.
In the metropolitan area, the sale prices of real estate are so variable that, according to real estate agents, it is almost impossible to get data on the average value of a square meter in a given area.
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.
The United States has renewed its travel alert warning that crimes such as extortion, assault and robbery are common in the country.
From a press release issued by the US State Department:
The Department of State warns U.S. citizens to carefully consider the risks of travel to El Salvador due to the high rates of crime and violence. El Salvador has one of the highest homicide levels in the world and crimes such as extortion, assault and robbery are common. This replaces the Travel Warning for El Salvador dated January 15, 2016.