Nicaraguan Police Set to Implement Beach Protection Plan

Some five thousand law enforcement officers from Nicaragua´s Police Department will be deployed across the country´s premier beaches in an effort to protect tourists during the Holy Week festivities.

Scores of Nicaraguan citizens flock to beaches during the holidays that this year will end on March 27. Police officers will patrol most foreshores along the Pacific coast as part of the so-called 2005 Beach Plan that will stretch out into the summer.

Police Commissioner Ana Guido explained in a press conference the forces are determined to enforce the law and throw the book on business owners who happen to sell hard drinks to minors and teenagers, in compliance with the Children and Adolescents Code recently enacted.

In the same breath, drunk drivers will be punished with tougher sanctions as highway troopers will be equipped with alcoholmeters and speed radar guns.

According to statistics provided by the Nicaragua Tourism Institute, as many as 1.5 million people go to beaches across the country every Holy Week.