The family of Arantxa Gutiérrez López, a Spanish tourist murdered in Tortuguero this year, sent a letter to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in which they questioned that she was not warned about the high murder rate in Costa Rica. Gutiérrez, a 31-year-old physiotherapist, was murdered on August 4th on a hotel path in that Caribbean tourist community. The motive was a sexual assault perpetrated by Alvin Díaz Hawkings, a 33-year-old Nicaraguan who remained in the country under irregular migratory status. The forensic tests and analysis confirmed the presence of DNA from the foreigner in the body of the tourist.
According to the Diario Información , based in the Spanish city of Alicante where Arantxa was born, relatives sent the letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs , Josep Borrell.
Some the complaints of the relatives are the lack of warning about the homicides in Costa Rica, the lack of support after traveling to Costa Rican territory to process the repatriation of the body, and the delayed psychological care in Spain.
Pilar López, mother of the victim, told the newspaper that last6 Thursday she met with Minister Borrell and with Miguel Ángel Escribano, Arantxa’s husband.
She did not deserve what happened. She deserved that our government and Costa Rica’s government would defend her, and they didn’t. If someone had informed us of that danger, does anyone think she would gone for a walk alone? (…) The fact that from January 1st to August 4th there were 370 homicides, is reason enough to have alerted the pupulation and the agencies that make trips to Costa Rica so that preventive measures can be taken,”
said López.
On Monday, the director of the Judicial Investigation Organization (OIJ) Walter Espinoza reported that the number of murders to date was 395 for a rate of 12 per 100 thousand inhabitants.
After the crime of Aranxta, the Spanish government included Costa Rica in the list of destinations with security risks and where they recommend caution to avoid unfortunate events due to crime.