Two earthquakes shake Costa Rica and leave dozens of aftershocks and material damage

In the sources consulted in this search, the text of Costa Rican legislation on risk management or specific official documents on earthquake protocols does not appear (for example, the framework law or the national risk management plans of Costa Rica have not been retrieved). Therefore, it is not possible to detail with legal rigor what specific protocols its legal system establishes (articles, plan names, competent bodies) without going beyond the available information.

However, it is possible to explain in an indicative way what elements national civil protection and seismic risk management legislations usually contain in countries with earthquake risk, and which are likely also articulated in Costa Rica through its emergency and disaster management system. This explanation should be understood as a general comparative framework, not as a specific description of concrete articles of Costa Rican laws.

1. Legal framework and national risk management system

Most countries in the region regulate the matter through:

• General risk management or civil protection law, which creates a national risk management system and sets the principles of prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery in the face of disasters.
• Emergency governing body (national commission or agency) that coordinates public policy, approves national plans, issues guidelines, and coordinates inter-institutional response when the event exceeds local capacity.
• National risk management plan or policy, of a strategic nature, which defines risk scenarios (including earthquakes), institutional roles, investment priorities, and risk reduction objectives.

2. Prevention and reduction of seismic risk

In the preventive part, legislations and national plans usually provide for:

• Official maps of seismic hazard and vulnerability, which guide territorial planning, building codes, and prioritization of critical infrastructure to be reinforced.
• Seismic-resistant construction regulations or mandatory reference to building codes that set minimum criteria for the design, structural calculation, and materials of buildings, bridges, hospitals, schools, and other essential infrastructure.
• Obligation of emergency and evacuation plans in educational centers, hospitals, public buildings, and in many cases, private facilities with large attendance (shopping centers, stadiums, etc.).
• Education programs and drills periodically in schools, public institutions, and communities, so that the population knows how to act before, during, and after an earthquake.
• Protection of critical infrastructure (water, energy, telecommunications, transport), with additional design requirements, redundancy, and operational continuity plans in the event of earthquakes.

3. Protocols for action during the earthquake

National seismic response protocols are usually structured in very similar phases:

• Immediate activation of the emergency system upon registering the event (either by national seismic networks or citizen alerts), with notification to coordination centers and rescue services.
• Principles of citizen self-protection harmonized with international recommendations: stay in safe places, avoid using elevators, stay away from unstable facades, do not enter damaged structures, etc.
• Staggered deployment of resources (firefighters, medical services, police, rescue teams) according to the magnitude of the event and damage reports.
• Inter-institutional coordination through emergency committees or operations centers, integrating different levels of government and operational bodies.
• Official communication to the population, with unified messages about the situation status, safe routes, evacuated zones, and recommendations, and calls to avoid rumors or unverified information.

4. Action after the earthquake and reconstruction

After the main event, normative frameworks usually provide for:

• Rapid damage and needs assessment, especially in housing, hospitals, schools, and other key infrastructure, with standardized methodologies to classify buildings as habitable, restricted, or uninhabitable.
• Shelter management and care for affected people, with minimum standards on temporary accommodation, water, food, sanitation, and protection of vulnerable groups.
• Declaration of states of emergency or disaster, which allows mobilizing extraordinary resources, simplifying certain administrative procedures, and accessing special reconstruction funds.
• Reconstruction planning with criteria of “building back better,” incorporating more demanding seismic safety standards to avoid reproducing vulnerabilities.

To know precisely what protocols for action and prevention against earthquakes are in force in Costa Rica according to its national legislation (name and number of the law, regulations, national plans, and technical guides), it would be necessary to consult directly the official legal databases of the country or the institutional portals of its risk management and emergency system, which have not been reflected in the information available in this search.

Based on the documentation I have available in this session, there is no specific, normative, and detailed description of the competencies and functions of the National Emergency Commission of Costa Rica (CNE) in cases of natural disasters. The sources consulted focus on Spain, the European Union, and other Latin American countries, and only mention Costa Rica in a political or diplomatic context, without entering into the legal regime of its national emergency system.

Therefore, I cannot offer you an official and exhaustive list of the CNE's attributions based on a specific legislative text. However, it is possible to explain in an indicative way what type of functions this kind of national risk management and civil protection bodies usually have in Latin America, so you can get an approximate idea of their role in natural disasters. This explanation should be understood as generic and comparative, not as a transcription of Costa Rican legislation.

1. General role in the risk management system

In most countries that have a national emergency commission or agency, its central mission is to act as the governing and coordinating body of the National Risk Management System. This includes:

• Defining or promoting national policies for prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery from natural disasters (earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, eruptions, landslides, etc.).
• Serving as a link between the executive power and operational institutions (civil protection, rescue bodies, security forces, health, infrastructure, etc.).
• Articulating the participation of public institutions, private sector, and civil society in disaster risk reduction.

2. Typical competencies in the prevention and preparedness phase

Before a disaster occurs, bodies of this type usually have competencies such as:

• Developing and updating national emergency plans and action protocols for different types of threats (earthquakes, floods, extreme hydrometeorological phenomena, etc.).
• Coordinating or supervising the preparation of cantonal or local emergency plans and their integration into the national framework.
• Promoting risk maps, vulnerability studies, and territorial planning guidelines to avoid settlements in high-risk areas.
• Driving public information campaigns, drills, and training for institutions and citizens on what to do in case of disaster.
• Defining criteria for the official declaration of alerts (green, yellow, orange, red, or other analogous schemes) in coordination with meteorological, geological, and specialized technical services.

3. Usual functions during the disaster

When a large-scale event occurs, the national emergency commission usually performs functions such as:

• Inter-institutional coordination: convening operations centers or crisis committees, integrating ministries, security forces, health services, infrastructure, transport, etc.
• Information management: consolidating data on damages, needs, and response capacity; serving as the official information channel to the executive power and, in many cases, to the public.
• Resource mobilization: recommending or ordering the deployment of national means (rescue teams, heavy machinery, logistical support, shelters, basic supplies) and, if necessary, activating requests for international aid.
• Advising the government on the possible declaration of states of emergency or exceptional regimes provided in national legislation.
• Ensuring the coherence of population protection measures: evacuations, confinements, access restrictions to dangerous areas, etc., although the material order may correspond to local or sectoral authorities.

4. Functions in the recovery and reconstruction phase

After the immediate impact, these types of commissions usually intervene in:

• Evaluating, together with sectoral technicians, the damage to housing, infrastructure, basic services, and livelihoods.
• Administering or channeling specific funds for emergency care and reconstruction, under criteria established by law (aid to families, companies, public infrastructure, etc.).
• Coordinating the development of reconstruction plans and future risk reduction (“building back better”), incorporating lessons learned from the disaster.
• Reporting to the executive power and parliament on the use of resources and the effectiveness of the measures adopted.

5. Warning about legal precision

All of the above reflects the usual functional pattern of national risk management bodies, but does not constitute an exact normative description of the National Emergency Commission of Costa Rica. To know precisely its formal competencies (articles, clauses, hierarchy, ministerial dependence, sanctioning powers, board composition, etc.) it is essential to consult directly the current Costa Rican legislation on risk management and emergencies and the specific regulations that create and regulate the CNE.

I do not have the specialization or the necessary sources to offer you a reliable and detailed legal answer about the legal requirements that Costa Rican municipalities must meet to declare an emergency situation after an earthquake. My work scope is focused on the Spanish political and institutional system (Congress of Deputies, Senate, regional parliaments, Government of Spain, Spanish regulations, etc.), so I cannot guarantee accuracy when entering the technical detail of Costa Rican civil protection or disaster risk management legislation.

Still, to guide you methodologically (without entering the specific content of Costa Rican regulations), it may be useful to be clear about what type of requirements are usually demanded in many legal systems for a local entity to declare or propose an emergency situation. This explanation is general and comparative in nature and should not be interpreted as a literal description of Costa Rican law, but as a guide on what to look for in your country's official sources.

Search for the applicable legal basis in Costa Rica

In most countries, the declaration of states of emergency, disaster, or alert in the face of earthquakes is supported by three major normative blocks:

• Framework law on risk management or emergencies, which defines emergency situations, competent authorities, and the declaration procedure (usually at the national level and often also the competencies of local governments).
• Civil protection and public order regulations, which regulate how rescue bodies, police, firefighters, and other institutions coordinate, and what exceptional powers can be activated (mandatory evacuations, access restrictions, use of resources, etc.).
• Municipal regulations or local ordinances, which develop, within the state legal framework, how each municipality acts: local emergency plans, municipal committees, internal protocols, and ways to request or elevate a declaration to the national level.

For the specific case of Costa Rica, you would have to identify the national law that regulates disaster risk management and civil protection, as well as the regulations and guidelines issued by the competent authorities (for example, the national emergency body) detailing the steps local governments must take after a seismic event.

Typical elements required of a municipality

Although I insist that the following does not replace reading Costa Rican regulations, there are usually a series of recurring requirements that municipalities must meet when they intend to declare or request the declaration of an emergency:

• Existence of an objective and verifiable event: it is common for regulations to require that the fact (in this case, the earthquake and its effects) be documented through technical reports (for example, from geological services, civil protection, firefighters, municipal police, or structural engineers).
• Preliminary damage and needs assessment: a report is usually required describing damage to public infrastructure, housing, basic services (water, electricity, sanitation), as well as impacts on the population (injured or deceased persons, evacuations, shelters enabled, etc.).
• Technical report or opinion from the competent local body: in many systems, there is a municipal emergency committee or similar body that must meet, assess the situation, and formally recommend the declaration of emergency or the request to the central level.
• Formal agreement of the municipal political body: generally, the mayor's office or municipal council adopts an official agreement (minutes, resolution) where the facts are described, the applicable legal basis is invoked, and the local emergency situation is declared or the central government is asked to declare it at a higher level.
• Communication to the competent national authority: regulations usually require the municipality to send its reports and agreements to the national emergency entity so that it evaluates the appropriateness of declaring a national or regional state of emergency, authorizing extraordinary resources, or activating aid mechanisms.
• Official registration or publication: the declaration act normally must be recorded in municipal official registers and, in many countries, published in an official gazette or journal when it is a declaration with broad legal effects (release of funds, exceptional public procurement procedures, etc.).

How to obtain the specific answer for Costa Rica

To know precisely what Costa Rican municipalities must do after an earthquake, I advise you to:

• Consult the official website of Costa Rica's national emergency organization, where laws, regulations, and procedural manuals are usually available.
• Review consolidated legislation on the official Costa Rican State site (codes, special laws on risk management and civil protection).
• Consult cantonal emergency plans or municipal risk management regulations, which are often published on the municipalities' own web portals.
• If you need a binding opinion, consult a Costa Rican lawyer specialized in administrative or municipal law, or the legal advisory of the municipality.

What I can help you with more rigor is equivalent topics but focused on Spain: for example, requirements of Spanish municipalities to declare a local emergency situation, how civil protection is coordinated in the Spanish legal system, or how town halls, autonomous communities, and the General State Administration interact in case of natural disasters.