The Minister of Public Security, Michael Soto, affirmed during a press conference today that Costa Rica has registered a decrease in the number of homicides, robberies and burglaries over the last four months.

According to Soto, the homicide rates from May to August 2018 in comparison to the same period of 2017 went from 213 cases to 193, showing an evident decrease starting in the month of June when the country had 10 homicides less than in 2017, July had 11 less and August a difference of 14. In San José the number has gone down by 19%, in Guanacaste the decrease has been considerable with 62% less homicides.

From May through August this year, the Ministry of Public Security has carried out 32 “mega-operations” which have left 1,975 people arrested, 401 seized weapons (204 firearms), and a total of 89 vehicles that had been reported as stolen have been recovered. In general including every day operations, the total of firearms confiscated this year is of 647.

“Many of the people detained during the operations are caught in the act (flagrant crime) while others are individuals that had an arrest warrant issued by judiciary authorities”, said Soto.

“We have managed to take out of circulation an important number of motorcycles that we have confiscated, whether for violations to the transit law or because they were stolen or had altered registrations; a majority of the homicides in the country that are related to score-settling involve the use of motorcycles and firearms”, explained the Minister.

Home thefts also register a significant decease with 28.5% less reports than in 2017, while home robberies are 4.6% less than the previous year.

Soto commented that the projection at the beginning of this year was for homicides to exceed the numbers of 2017 which registered a record 603, “we estimated that homicides this year could reach 630, at one point during the year we had 39 homicides more than in the same period of 2017; however, we were able to turn this around, and now for the year we have the same numbers than in 2017, actually with 1 case less, which may sound like nothing, but having been able to equate the rates in four months when we were already surpassing last year’s numbers is an important achievement that obeys to the strategic work we have been doing, running operations in “hot points””.