This article analyzes the intelligence service in Costa Rica based on the paradigmatic debates in the strategic intelligence studies; five criteria have been taken into consideration for this purpose: the nature of changes in the intelligence service, doctrine, culture, the intelligence community, and its political and democratic controls. It is concluded that the Intelligence Service of Costa Rica faces the challenge of a political culture that questions the service because of its ideological and militaristic historical heri- tage, and distrust its political and democratic controls. This study evidences the absence of an intelligence doc-trine that define with clarity the threats faced by the State, a weak intelligence culture and, therefore, a limited intelligence community. This environment has aroused domestic debates in terms of its function in a democratic State, where some propose its closure and others its strengthening; specifically, its transformation to a Directorate of National Intelligence adapted to the new paradigm of strategic intelligence.