San José plans for Central American Games

The Security Commission for the Central American Games meets this week for a second workshop in preparation for security at next year’s Central American Games.

The event, slotted for March 2013, will be the largest multisport tournament ever held in Costa Rica, and will require significant security coordination within San José. 

“As we get closer to the start of the games, we are focused on providing tight security for one of the most important aspects of the event,” said Jorge Villalobos, secretary general of the event. “Security plays a fundamental role for the athletes and others participating in this sporting celebration.”  

The workshop’s participants include experts in event security and terrorism prevention from the United Nations, Canada and Nicaragua, among others.  Two of the workshop’s guests, Brian Powrie, from the U.N.’s Inter-regional Crime and Justice Research Institute, and Brendan Heffernan, from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, will stick around for the weekend to observe security at Saturday’s Festival de la Luz.

By the end of the workshop, the commission plans to have six possible security plans, one of which will be selected and implemented a month before the start of the games.

“Our goal is to share our concerns with these security experts for massive international events in order to gain insight into the results of their previous experiences,” said Marcelo Solano, with the Security Commission. “By the end of the seminar we will have something from which to base our suggestions to improve the final national security plan for the games, which we plan to have ready in January, prior to the start of the torch relay.”