Judicial Police Director Calls
Hostage Negotiations Successful
By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff
kstanley@ticotimes.net

After a tragic week in the mountain town of Santa Elena de Monteverde, in north-central Costa Rica, Jorge Rojas, general director of the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ), praised police efforts for playing a key role in rescuing hostages from the town's Banco Nacional branch.

Rojas expressed regret that nine people, including a police officer, died during the 28-hour standoff that began when an attempted robbery of the bank, the only one in town, went horribly awry.

At 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, three Nicaraguans – brothers Erly Hurtado and Santos Angenor Hurtado, as well as their half-brother Santos Marjory Cruz – approached the bank, shooting at the door. Bank guard Álvaro Castro, 20, shot back, striking and killing Santos Hurtado and Santos Cruz. Castro was wounded in the arm and abdomen during the exchange, but is recovering well, according to Rojas.

Erly Hurtado entered the bank, killing six victims and taking the rest of the bank employees and clients as hostages.

Rojas said the OIJ began negotiating with Hurtado by telephone at 5:30 p.m. Hurtado called 911, and operators patched him through to two OIJ negotiators who had been dispatched to Monteverde by plane shortly after the standoff began. Additional OIJ personnel came from the coastal city of Puntarenas and Cañas, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste.

The negotiators were in constant contact with Hurtado from that point on, until police decided to enter the bank Wednesday afternoon. Officer Oscar Quesada, 44, was shot and killed while entering the bank.

Rojas repeatedly expressed sadness over Quesada's death, but admitted such consequences are “an inherent risk” in such operations.

Rojas said Hurtado's initial demands included food, alcohol, painkillers (he had been injured as well during his entry) and ¢15 million ($32,258) in dollars.

While the request for alcohol was “impossible to fulfill,” according to Rojas, police eventually delivered canned tuna and other foods it would be difficult to tamper with – per Hurtado's request – as well as the painkillers.

After further negotiations, police delivered $10,000 in exchange for the release of one of the three hostages Hurtado was keeping in close proximity to him. Two were women and one, a bank employee by the name of Bernal, was a man.

Rojas said a fourth suspect left the scene of the crime before entering the bank and remains at large. He said the police are not prepared to release his identity. He added there may be a fifth suspect who drove a getaway car, but police have not confirmed that fact.

The OIJ, Public Security Ministry and Prosecutor's Office, which have been working together throughout the week, believe the perpetrators may also be responsible for as many as 18 assaults on various businesses throughout Costa Rica in recent months. In 13 of the assaults, the suspects approached the businesses while shooting, a characteristic that immediately suggested the Monteverde crime might have been perpetrated by the same group, Rojas said. Three homicides resulted from the previous 18 assaults.