The Costa Rican Vice-President has announced that the government is going to start attacking Costa Rica’s crime problem by fighting the root causes. The Vice-President, Justice Minister Laura Chinchilla, recently launched the plan which includes such measures as coordinating community crime watch groups, offering at-risk youths other options to gang life such as sports and arts, and a crime-prevention publicity campaign.

This is definitely a step in the right direction for Costa Rica, however critics argue that the plan should have been introduced 15months ago when the Arias administration first promised to get tough on crime. They also add that the plan is not properly financed and it doesn’t have enough resources to deal with the immediate problem.

The plan creates initiatives to gather statistics on the crime and violence in Costa Rica, start involving the media by releasing public relations campaigns, the entertainment industry, to also encourage parents and teachers to help combat crime, to introduce training programs for students in schools to act as conflict mediators, create crime-watch groups, offering youths vulnerable to gang life alternatives and launching campaigns to discourage the use of fire arms.

Despite all the talk of crime, Costa Rica still remains one of the safest countries in Central America and this new plan to fight crime even further reinforces this point.

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