EU maintains security cooperation with Costa Rica as part of the European bloc's strategy for central America.
| Autor | Rodriguez, George |
Costa Rica and the European Union (EU) coincide in focusing bilateral security cooperation on community safety and on training neighbors as a means to strengthen crime prevention.
The support of the 28-nation bloc reaches beyond Costa Rica's borders to cover all of Central America, one of the most violent, crime-ridden regions in the world.
The EU envisages security cooperation as a pragmatic tool in the search for answers to citizens' concerns regarding collective safety. Costa Rica is hosting several of the projects the EU is implementing in the Central American isthmus.
The homicide count in Central America--where countries are badly hit by local gangs, as well as by local and international organized crime networks, mainly drug-trafficking structures--is a cause of concern for the region's security authorities. According to different sources, the worldwide homicide average stands at approximately seven per 100,000 population, and international agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) consider that any number above 10 is equivalent to a pandemic. Estimates for 2015 place El Salvador, the country with the smallest territory and the highest population density in Central America, at the dishonorable top of the region, with 103. El Salvador replaced Honduras, which went down from over 90 to 57, according to official figures, while Guatemala ranks third, with 30.
The three make up the Northern Triangle of Central America, whose citizens--particularly women and children--are massively moving away in desperate search for safety, mainly to the United States, mostly as undocumented migrants (NotiCen, Aug. 14, 2014, July 30, 2015, and Jan. 7, 2016).
Those countries are closely followed by Belize, with 40 homicides per 100,000. Further down in the regional chart appear Costa Rica and Panama, with 11 each. Closing the list is Nicaragua, which ranks as the region's safest place, with eight homicides per 100,000 population. Costa Rica has been fluctuating between its historic high point of 11.4 in 2006 and its lowest index of 6.3 in 2000.
A focus on Education
The fact that Costa Rica abolished its Army almost 70 years ago after a brief civil war, has allowed this Central American nation--which depends only on its police forces for security--to rid itself of military spending and to funnel more funds to social areas of its budget. Education, for example, is one of the main areas on which...
Para continuar leyendo
Solicita tu pruebaCOPYRIGHT GALE, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
