Jails Overpopulated
Despite Government Efforts
By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff
kstanley@ticotimes.net

While efforts to address the overpopulation of Costa Rica's prisons have gone more or less according to plan during the past two years, increasing numbers of new prisoners mean overpopulation remains a problem, Justice Minister Patricia Vega announced yesterday at President Abel Pacheco's weekly Cabinet meeting.

Vega presented results on the progress made in 2003-04 and the ministry's Plan for Jail Infrastructure for 2005-06.

In February 2003, the country's prisons held 6,465 inmates in space meant for 5,864 – an overpopulation of 601, or 10%, according to Vega. Because of these numbers, the Justice Ministry set a goal in March of that year to undertake construction projects to create space for 1,560 additional prisoners.

To date, 1,132 of those spaces have been created in the penitentiaries Gerardo Rodríguez, Puntarenas, San Rafael, Adulto Mayor, Cartago, Liberia, Pérez Zeledón and Limón, Vega said.

In the Caribbean port city of Limón, which had one of the most severe overpopulation problems in 2003, there is now space for every inmate, she added. The 428 remaining spaces called for in the 2003-04 plan should be completed during the first few months of this year.

However, the “explosive increase in admissions to jails” has made it impossible for the ministry to eliminate overpopulation altogether. It remains at 519, or 7%.

Vega said there was a 17% increase in the number of inmates (1,154 people) – 1.5 times the size of an average Costa Rican jail – between February 2003 and November 2004. In 2003, an average of 35-40 people entered the jail system each week, but that number is now up to 100 per week.

Because of this population increase, the ministry's 2005-06 plan calls for the creation of 804 additional spaces, for a total of 2,364 by the end of the Pacheco administration, and a total investment of ¢3.8 billion ($8.3 million).

Vega said the cost of maintaining a prisoner varies from $7.5-$9.5 per day, depending on the jail site. Prisoners with special needs require more funds.

When a poker-faced reporter asked Vega if the ministry had plans to build a special jail for corrupt politicians – referring to the corruption scandals that put two ex-Presidents and other government officials behind bars in 2004 – Vega answered, equally composed, that no such plans were in place.

“We don't think it is necessary... nor would it be very convenient to put them all together,” she said.

President to Attend
Banana Summit in Ecuador
By Rebecca Kimitch
Tico Times Staff
rkimitch@ticotimes.net

President Abel Pacheco will travel to Ecuador Jan. 25 to attend a summit on how Latin American countries will handle pending banana tariff changes in the European Union that could dramatically affect trade.

At the Jan. 26 summit, leaders from Latin American banana-producing nations hope to reach a consensus on how to approach new EU banana tariffs of 230 euros ($300.21) per ton beginning in January 2006.

Pacheco said yesterday at his weekly Cabinet meeting that the summit is “decisive for the future of Costa Rica” and Latin American countries must come to an agreement on the issue without further delay.

The new tariffs will replace the present system, which uses tariffs, quotas and licensing to protect African, Caribbean and Pacific-rim (ACP) countries. The change comes in response to demands from the World Trade Organization that the European Union liberalize its market.

The European Commission proposes allowing ACP countries to continue without tariffs.

Latin American producers such as Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte are presently limited to exporting 2.2 million tons annually with tariffs of 75 euros ($97.5) a ton. The European Union is the second most important market for Latin American producers, after the United States.

While Latin American countries are worried that under the new rules U.S. businesses will abandon the region for Africa to take advantage of zero tariffs, ACP countries fear that the disappearance of the quotas will result in the inundation of the market with Latin American bananas (TT, July 16, 2004).

At the summit, Costa Rica will defend a temporary system of quotas and licensing, with a tariff of 75 euros, until a better option appears, the daily La Nación reported. However, the Ministry of Foreign Commerce said yesterday officials have not yet come to an official opinion.

Ecuador is the number-one banana producer in the world, followed by Costa Rica.

After the summit in the port city of Guayaquil, Pacheco is scheduled for an official visit with Ecuadorian President Lucio Gutiérrez before returning to Costa Rica Jan. 28.

Police Arrest Alleged
Cocaine Smuggler
By María Gabriela Díaz
Tico Times Staff
mgdiaz@ticotimes.net

Drug-control police from Costa Rica's Public Security Ministry confiscated 26 kilograms of cocaine and arrested a suspect Monday at the Peñas Blancas immigration post, on the border with Nicaragua, according to a statement released yesterday by the ministry.

Anti-narcotics police from the anti-drug station at the immigration post arrested a Nicaraguan man they identified by the last name of Sánchez, after an exhaustive search that allegedly revealed the drugs hidden in a secret compartment installed in the gas tank of Sánchez's vehicle.

“The Peñas Blancas anti-drug station was of vital importance to the struggle against drugs in 2004 and this first confiscation (in 2005) shows we have started out on the right foot,” Security Minister Rogelio Ramos said in the statement.

Authorities said Sánchez, whose exact destination in Costa Rica is unknown, did not resist arrest.

Last year, the Security Ministry's anti-drug police confiscated more than 3.5 tons of cocaine, 62 kilos of heroin, 13,339 doses of crack, 444,074 kilos of marihuana and 1,592 doses of ecstasy.

During 259 different operations throughout the country last year, police also arrested 354 alleged drug-dealers, including 90 foreigners.