Costa Rica’s government has sent a first package of six security bills to the Legislative Assembly, opening a push to change self-defense rules for police, toughen criminal penalties, restrict prison benefits and impose new rules on inmates.
President Laura Fernández presented the proposals yesterday during extraordinary sessions, a period in which the Executive Branch controls the legislative agenda in both the plenary session and committees. The bills now enter the legislative process and must be reviewed and approved by lawmakers before becoming law.
The most prominent proposal is the Ley Gerson Rosales Cascante, named after a Fuerza Pública officer killed in Batán, Limón, on May 14 while on duty. The bill would change the Criminal Code to expand the scope of self-defense and create a legal presumption that police acted in legitimate defense when they used force to repel or prevent an attack that threatened their life, physical integrity or the safety of others.
That presumption would also apply to municipal police and private security personnel. The bill does not make the presumption absolute. Prosecutors could still present evidence against it, and courts would still have to review whether the use of force met legal standards.
The same proposal would raise penalties for people who attack, threaten, resist or attempt to disarm police officers. It would also create new restrictions on conditional release and electronic monitoring for people convicted of crimes against police officers or those who resisted arrest.
A second bill would make belonging to a criminal organization a standalone crime, even when no other offense is attributed to the person. The proposal sets prison terms of one to six years for membership in such groups and adds higher penalties for those who organize, direct, recruit or participate in structures tied to organized crime, terrorism, drug trafficking, human trafficking, arms trafficking, extortion kidnapping or similar offenses.
The government also proposed a law aimed at repeat offenders. The reform would create four categories: simple recidivism, aggravated recidivism linked to organized crime, habitual recidivism for people with three convictions within a 15-year period who reoffend, and professional offenders, defined as people with three or more final convictions who commit another crime.
Under the proposal, judges would have to apply harsher sentencing ranges when a person commits a new offense within the set recidivism period. The bill would also place repeat offenders under stricter pretrial detention rules and limit the ability of judges to release them based on work or family ties.
The same reform would create a list of crimes excluded from prison benefits or sentence alternatives. The list includes homicide, femicide, sexual crimes against minors, kidnapping, human trafficking, terrorism, organized crime offenses, large-scale drug trafficking, money laundering and certain corruption offenses involving public funds. For aggravated robbery, the exclusion would apply when the person is a repeat offender.
Another bill, called Cero Ocio en las Cárceles, would require inmates to participate in paid work in order to qualify for sentence enforcement benefits. The government says the measure is designed to make prison labor part of rehabilitation while also contributing to the cost of the prison system and compensation for victims.
Under the proposal, income from prison work would be divided into four parts: 35% for the prison system, 35% for the families of crime victims, 20% for family support for the convicted person and 10% for a savings fund in the inmate’s name. The bill includes exceptions for some inmates, including people in high-containment units, people with disabilities, older adults, pregnant or lactating women and people with terminal illnesses.
A separate bill targets illegal airstrips, an issue tied to drug trafficking in rural areas. The proposal would increase prison sentences from five to ten years for owners, lessees or administrators of land where clandestine airstrips are built. It would also allow the permanent confiscation of machinery, vehicles, aircraft or equipment used in the construction or operation of illegal landing sites.
The bill would also allow authorities to freeze properties linked to illegal airstrips so they cannot be sold, leased or transferred for one year, with the possibility of an extension. Property owners would have to prove in court that they did not participate in the construction or operation of the airstrip.
The final proposal, called the Ley para la Seguridad Nacional, Registral y de Archivos Judiciales, would change how long criminal records remain visible. Convictions for crimes against life would remain on a person’s criminal record for 15 years after the sentence has been served. Those convictions would never be erased from judicial, police and justice-system records.
Fernández defended the change by saying criminal records should remain available to police, prosecutors and courts even after the public-facing record expires. “It will not be erased,” she said.
The package marks the administration’s first major security push in Congress. Fernández said more proposals will follow, but the six bills presented Monday already point to a clear approach: broader protection for police, tougher treatment of repeat offenders, fewer prison benefits for serious crimes and stronger tools against organized crime.
For now, none of the measures are law. They must move through committees, debate and votes in the Legislative Assembly before taking effect.
