Costa Rica Roundup: Electronic voting, seized marijuana, COVID-19

Implementation of an electronic voting system

Costa Rica's Supreme Election Court (TSE) has announced a pilot plan for an electronic voting system in 28 cantons for the Latin American nation’s 2024 Municipal Elections.  The technology will be applied to 499 polling stations, less than 10% of the total polling stations across the nation. The pilot plan will be implemented in 9 cantons in the San José province. The total cost of the system is estimated to be $1.9 million, local media Diaro Extra reported. According to the TSE, the system will not record voters’ choices or the time the choices were made.

Tonnes of marijuana seized on the Pacific

Costa Rican Coast Guard officers seized over a ton of marijuana in the Costa Rican Pacific, a joint effort with the US. The drug shipment, believed to be transported by Costa Ricans, was found in a small fishing boat without a license plate, local media Teletica reported. “There are 1.3 tons of marijuana seized in an international operation, where the United States alerts our coast guard. On the high seas, the drugs were being transferred from a fast ship to a panga that was then seized when it touched the coast, in the Boca Chica sector, in Puerto Cortés de Osa,” Costa Rica Minster of Security Mario Zamora is quoted by Teletica. The Coast Guard is still searching for the drug traffickers who fled through the mountains. In 2023, 30 tons of drugs have been seized, including 15 tons of marijuana and 15 tons of cocaine, Teletica reports.

Increase in COVID-19 infections

The Costa Rica Ministry of Health has reported a 14.5% increase in COVID-19 infections in the Latin nation during November 2023. The Health Surveillance Directorate of the Health Ministry reported that about 150 patients were notified between November 27 to December 3. The COVID-19 variant that causes the most infections is the XBB.1.5 of omicron, local media Crhoy reported

Rise in dengue cases

The Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) has reported 13 dengue hospitalisations and 26,487 new diagnoses in the last week. The hospitalised group were people between the ages of 1 to 78 with eight of them being minors, Teletica reported. The CCSS warned all Costa Ricans to protect themselves during the dry season and to employ sanitary measures like regular cleaning of boats, and black plastics and emptying containers used for water storage at homes.

Ransomware attacks

Costa Rica has been ranked as the second nation in Central America with the most cases of ransomware attacks according to a report by cybersecurity company Kaspersky. The Latin American nation recorded 5,100 attempted attacks between June 2022 to July 2023 “The online scams we analyzed in this section of the study demonstrate that victims often look for free alternatives to avoid paying for a service, which can lead to the installation of malware on their devices. Unfortunately, in Latin America, the culture of free often leads to piracy, which puts users at risk. Avoiding this problem requires the adoption of safe practices and the use of official software and programs,” said Fabio Assolini, director of the Kaspersky Global Research and Analysis Team for Latin America in a statement.