Last Tuesday, October 4, we had the opportunity to participate in the training of prosecutors from the First Judicial Circuit of Alajuela. As we have reported in previous communications, this circuit has become the most important in terms of work volume after the decentralization carried out in January 2020 by the San José economic crimes prosecutor's office, in which all cases returned to the prosecutor’s office in their corresponding territorial jurisdictions.
Alajuela has become an important area to have highly trained prosecutors due to the Juan Santa María international airport in the province, and the significant number of storage warehouses with potentially infringing goods. As we have also detailed in the past, there has been a significant decline in the interest of criminal prosecution of piracy and counterfeiting offenders due to a series of guidelines issued by the previous Attorney General’s Office.
The training we took part in on Tuesday came to be after a meeting we had two months ago with Acting Attorney General Warner Molina. Attorney Molina has a great approach to this subject, but as he does not have a definitive appointment for more than one year, he cannot make major criminal prosecution policy changes. Together with two colleagues representing other brands, we hope this meeting served to build a better relationship with this circuit, and generate a movement to create further protocols and guidelines for the investigation and processing of crimes of this nature. Such protocols and guidelines would hopefully also lead to greater uniformity in the management of such prosecutions.
