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Is Costa Rica Dangerous? – An Honest Assessment

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Is Costa Rica Dangerous?

I was having a beer last night with a friend when an older gentleman, who used to be a neighbor of mine when I first moved to Perez Zeledon, happened by. He proceeded to tell a harrowing story about how he had recently been viciously attacked…

He’d been playing (and winning) in the local casino. By the end of his evening of fun he had a wad of cash to show. It just so happened that this tico (whom he knew) was watching his good luck unfold. While inside the casino, the older gentleman had his dog out in the car with the windows partially down. Well, this tico guy goes out there and gets the door opened and hides in the back seat.

On the way home, the older gentlemen was grabbed from behind by the guy hiding in the back seat who held a knife to his throat. “Give me all your money”, the assailant demanded. This older gentleman is a tough old retired police officer from a U.S. big city and he was not about to give up the dough without a fight. Anyway, he ended up pretty beaten up and stabbed in the stomach. The idiot that had hidden in the back seat was ultimately apprehended. He still has not spend a day in jail over it.

Now, all that sounds pretty bad, doesn’t it? Shit, it even scared the hell out of me…

My personal experience with crime in Costa Rica has been relegated to property crimes and only a few incidents over the last 24 years. But you always hear stories like the one above.

So, is Costa Rica dangerous, really?

Well, yes it is.

Is Costa Rica dangerous to a greater degree than, say, any big city in the States?

No, I’d say it isn’t. And probably even less so.

The best way to approach this issue is with your eyes open. Costa Rica is a poor county. A good portion of its citizens live in what even the poorest in the U.S. would consider abject poverty. There is a good deal of crime coming from illegal immigration. Costa Rica is a gateway country for drugs moving from the south to the consumption engine of the U.S. There is organized crime and gang activity related to the drug trade. Innocents do at times get caught up in it. A lot of the property crime, especially in expat enclaves and high tourist areas, stems from poor ticos being envious of “rich” gringos coming into their spaces and driving prices through the roof. And also, of course, from criminals taking advantage of the disoriented.

All these are just facts…

But, the predominant culture of the Costa Ricans, the ticos, is peaceful. In fact, it is a much more peaceful general outlook than the average joe from the U.S. harbors. There is very little political violence here. In fact, it is rare to even see two ticos getting into a political argument at all. Bar fights are relatively uncommon, at least in the bars that I go to (note that these days I have no idea what happens after around 8:30 pm!). Ticos don’t, in general, walk around jacked up, wearing a scowl, and looking to punch the first person that dares to invade their constitutionally-granted liberty. And unlike in certain states of the U.S., the vast majority of them aren’t packing!

I believe there are some simple ways to avoid being a victim of crime in Costa Rica.

Here are a few…

Don’t flash cash, or any symbol of wealth, especially in places like bars, on the street, or (as the older gentleman above) in casinos!

Treat people with dignity and respect. A lot of the crime that goes on at the beach along our gorgeous Costa Ballena, where home break-ins are relatively common, is due to “inside jobs.” Sometimes that stems from when a tico worker (derogatorily called a “peon”) is stiffed, or treated disrespectfully. Remember, as much as you might think yourself superior, you are a guest in their country. So, mind your manners and go double-time with the golden rule.

Related to the above, be a humble expat. We gringos have a problem with humility, generally. I guess for good reason we consider ourselves exceptional and sometimes it comes across. That’s not a good attitude to walk around with in Costa Rica. It tends to get the wrong kind of attention, if you know what I mean.

Enjoy yourself, but don’t be stupid. Going out at night and partying is a lot of fun in Costa Rica, especially if you’re younger and your body can still weather the pain and suffering that tends to come the next morning. However, also keep in mind that a lot of the crime you read about happens late at night, to people who might not have all their senses in order due to whatever substance they’ve been consuming. So, if you’re going to party, keep it under control and keep your wits about you.

It can pay to take prudent precautions, but don’t go overboard. For instance, I’ve always kinda lived by the expression I heard early on in my Costa Rica adventure. And that one goes like this, “never tempt a poor person.” Basically that means if you don’t want to lose your shit, then guard your shit. That can range from simply never losing eye contact with it, to installing elaborate home alarm systems. But don’t go making your home look like a drug dealer compound. That will also only attract the wrong type of attention.

And that brings me to this last one. To the extent possible, don’t attract too much attention. That’s another thing we gringos have a penchant for doing. We tend to be louder than the ticos. We tend to be ruder than the ticos. We tend to be flashier than the ticos. We already look and speak differently. All this will attract attention. That might be the result you’re after, but if you attract it from the wrong person, you could end up another victim of crime in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica is a paradise in many respects. I’ve been here going on two decades and it really hasn’t lost any of its luster for me. And yet, I’ve never been a victim of a crime any harsher than losing a laptop. I would imagine being a victim of a violent crime could be a strong motivation to pack up and get the hell out of here.

Truth is, you can get in trouble down here, if you’re not careful. That doesn’t mean you have to come with the expectation of becoming a victim. That type of attitude will also attract the wrong attention.

I hope by now you’re sort of catching my drift about trying to not attract attention…

When it comes to the often asked question, “is Costa Rica dangerous?”, please do understand the risks and act accordingly to avoid them.

How Safe is Costa Rica – Really?

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How Safe is Costa Rica

How safe is Costa Rica – really? I get asked that question a lot and I mean an awful lot.

So, I thought I’d write a post providing my opinion on this important issue. In the future expect to get a link to this post if you ask me the question…

In Terms of Economic Security…

The general question of safety can be taken a couple different ways. The first one that I will address is economic security, i.e., is Costa Rica a safe place to invest your hard-earned dollars? I’d imagine most folks who ask are more concerned with the second part, which concerns physical and material security. But, nevertheless, I thought it pertinent to address the economic aspect as well.

Historically speaking, Costa Rica has been a relatively safe place to invest. Now, there are a lot of ways to do so poorly and many do make bad, or even stupid, investment decisions and lose their shirts in the process. This blog has many posts written to help you avoid those mistakes. But, generally speaking, Costa Rica has been a safe place for foreign investment over the years.

Could that be changing?

Well, Costa Rica is having a bit of a deficit crisis these days. And unlike the United States, Costa Rica doesn’t likely have the ability to quantitatively ease its way out of the mess. The new presidential administration of Carlos Alvarado is taking steps to correct the problem, but those actions are being met with widespread public resistance. We are now in the umpteenth week of a national strike against these austerity and tax measures aimed at tackling the deficit. It remains to be seen if the government can deal with this in a way that avoids major disruption.

As a result of all that, together with current strength in the U.S. dollar, the Costa Rica colon has reached an all-time high of around 610 colones to 1 greenback. That’s not so good for the average Costa Rican as inflation is ticking up as a result. But it can be good, at least in the short-term, for foreign investors buying Costa Rican colon denominated assets with dollars.

What’s my opinion? Well it’s mixed. Costa Rica needs to correct its fiscal deficit. If it doesn’t, it will put further pressure on the economy and that could ultimately be bad for anyone living here, foreign or local. However, right now Costa Rica remains a good and safe bet and with the record strength of the dollar against the colon, a relatively cheap one too.

OK, that’s enough with the boring economic stuff…what about…

In Terms of Physical and Material Security…

If you’re from the U.S. and have never been to Latin America before, you’ll probably be surprised to see that most homes, especially in urban areas, have walls around the periphery, sometimes adorned with razor wire, and iron bars on all the windows. I often get asked by alarmed gringos if that signifies a lack of safety.

Well, yes and no. Let’s start with the good news. In part it’s cultural and you’ll see that phenomenon not just in Costa Rica, but in just about any Latin American country, or at least all the ones I’ve been to. Nevertheless, it does have a practical aspect. First of all, Costa Rica is a poor country and most of its citizens live in a state of poverty that even the poorest in the U.S. couldn’t imagine, from a material standpoint at least. That level of poverty can lead to desperation, which can lead to property crime. Secondly, many older Latin Americans have experienced, first or second-hand, the specter of social upheaval, or even outright revolution. And if there’s a revolution erupting and an angry proletariat amassing in the public squares, having your home set up like a fortress does make a bit of good common sense.

Bottom line, there’s a little bit of culture and practicality mixed in with the fortress-like architecture.

Costa Rica is a gateway for drugs moving from South America to North America. It probably will be for the foreseeable future, or as long as the “drug war” continues unabated. That means that at any given time there are some very unsavory characters out there who wouldn’t think twice about using extreme physical violence to protect what they deem is their coveted piece of the drug trade pie. Now most Costa Ricans have nothing to do with this…by the way, same goes with most Colombians. But even so, the average peace-loving Costa Rican (or expat living among them) can get caught in the crossfire of rival drug cartels and gangs. That happens more often in the San Jose metropolitan areas and also in port towns, especially Limon. But it can happen anywhere to anyone.

Costa Rica has its own immigration issues. I’ve heard figures as high as 500,000 for the number of illegal immigrants living in Costa Rica, many from Nicaragua, as well as other countries. And as the strife increases in neighboring countries to the north and south, that trend will likely continue and grow. This can lead to problems with crime as some of those moving into Costa Rica are either criminals when they get here, or resort to crime for survival reasons. Oh my god, I sound like Donald Tump! Practically speaking, the uptick in crime in San Jose may indeed have a lot to do with this immigration influx. I don’t know that to be the case, but wouldn’t be surprised if it weren’t. Bottom line is that just like in any large metropolitan area in the U.S., or anywhere else, there are crime issues and you have to be wary of them.

There’s another aspect of physical and material security that most realtors won’t tell you about. And that concerns what I call “culture clash.” There are some areas of Costa Rica where foreign investors have moved in and sort of changed, or attempted to change, the cultural landscape. I am thinking chiefly of places like the Guanacaste “gold coast” and to a lesser extent the central Pacific around Jaco and even my own southern Pacific area known as the Costa Ballena.

For starters the coastal areas of Costa Rica, as beautiful as they are, tend to historically be some of the poorest areas of the country. Job opportunities are few and far between, infrastructure can be very spotty, and most in these coastal areas live off the land and sea. When you couple that with an influx of wealthy North Americans moving in and creating things that these folks can hardly afford, it tends to create resentment and that can lead to outright culture clash. This has lead to problems, mainly with property crime, but sometimes even with physical violence in the form of home invasions and other strong-arm robbery tactics.

The North Americans who invest in these areas learn quickly to take measures to avoid problems with security systems and even armed guards. I am not trying to paint an exaggeratedly negative picture, but I do want to be realistic and tell you the truth. Am I trying to say don’t invest in those areas? No, not at all. Just know the landscape and what you’re getting into and don’t be naive about the risk of encountering problems.

So, what’s my overall opinion on Costa Rica safety. How safe is Costa Rica – really?

It’s safer than virtually any other country in Latin America and I’d say the pros of investing and/or living here far outweigh the cons and that includes the safety (or lack thereof) con.

Furthermore, the way things are going up north lately, I’d say Costa Rica is a degree or two safer than what you’re apt to experience on main street U.S.A.

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