Costa Rica’s government removed seven police directors from confidence posts on Monday after they did not pass polygraph tests tied to the administration’s security controls, President Laura Fernández said. The officials were among 33 people evaluated as part of the government’s Fuerza Élite, a high-level security group focused on organized crime.
Fernández said the seven were questioned about organized crime, drug trafficking and whether they had received illicit benefits while serving in public office. The president said she ordered Security Minister Gerald Campos to separate the seven officials from the Fuerza Élite and end their appointments as directors. She also ordered a preliminary investigation from her office against each one.
“Seré implacable combatiendo la corrupción y limpiando a Costa Rica,” Fernández said, saying she would be implacable in fighting corruption and “cleaning” the country. The government did not release the names of the officials, the police units they belonged to, their specific posts, or the exact questions they failed. No criminal charges were announced.
According to the president, the tests were coordinated by the Dirección de Inteligencia y Seguridad Nacional, known as DIS, with support from IPSC, a company she described as internationally certified. Fernández said the ministers and the directors of both DIS and the Unidad Especial de Intervención, or UEI, passed the evaluation.
The decision marks one of the most visible internal security shake-ups of Fernández’s young administration. It also comes as Costa Rica faces mounting concern over organized crime, drug trafficking networks and possible infiltration of public institutions.
Still, the legal meaning of the removals is likely to be closely watched. Costa Rica’s polygraph law allows the tool to be used in police and national security bodies as a support mechanism for evaluating trustworthiness, but it also says the test is voluntary and cannot be the only basis for deciding whether a person remains in a police force.
That distinction matters. Local legal experts said removing an official from a confidence position may be legally possible, because those appointments depend on trust. But they warned that dismissing a career police officer from a permanent post would require a formal administrative process and could not rest solely on a failed polygraph.
For now, the government has framed the action as a removal from director-level confidence posts, not as a finding of guilt. The preliminary investigations announced by Fernández will determine whether there is any basis for further disciplinary or legal action. The case also raises a broader question for Costa Rica’s security policy: how far the government can go in using polygraph tests to screen police leadership while still respecting labor protections, due process and privacy rules.
Fernández has made security one of the central themes of her administration, promising stronger action against organized crime and corruption. Monday’s announcement signals that the government intends to apply that pressure not only against criminal groups, but also inside the institutions tasked with fighting them.
