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A.M. Costa Rica third newspage
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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Feb. 19, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 35

Immigration seeking six foreigners who paid for fake visas

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Immigration officials are looking for six persons whose passports ended up in the hands of a border official when he was detained by Nicaraguan police Friday.

The border official, a 25-year veteran of the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería, was suspended because officials allege that he was faking entry and exit stamps on the passports of foreigners. The reason may have been so they could retain their tourist status.

Also affected are any perpetual tourists who have used such services on a regular basis to validate their stay here as tourists. Under Costa Rican law, tourists may only stay in the country for 90 days. Those who are unable or will not seek a more permanent status in the country frequently make trips outside the country every 90 days.

An undetermined number never leave and rely on corrupt officials to validate their passports anyway.

The man who was detained has the last names of Fuentes Navarro. He has worked for years at the Peñas Blancas border crossing. He was detained by Nicaraguan police at that country's immigration offices at Sapoá where he was seeking someone to place Nicaraguan stamps in the six passports. Costa Rican stamps in the passports purported to show that the bearers had left the country Feb. 13.

Although officials have the immigration officer, they are awaiting the arrival of the six falsified passports. Two belong to two Italians, two U.S. citizens, a Spanish citizen and a person from Argentina, said officials.

Francisco Castaing, chief of the Policía de Migración in Costa Rica, said that the next step was to locate the six individuals and prepare them for deportation.

Fuentes Navarro collected between $500 and $600 for each passport that was doctored, officials said. In addition to Castaing, the officials included Fernando Berrocal, minister of Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública, and Ana Durán Salvatierra, a vice minister in the same ministry. They spoke with reporters Friday.

Fuentes Navarro will be questioned in Liberia.

Castaing said that another reason to falsify entries in passports is to fool officials. Essentially the passport shows that someone was somewhere when they really were not. He said that fugitives sometimes do this to throw investigators off their trail.

An undertermined number of persons here as perpetual tourists cannot seek a more permanent status because they are fugitives from justice in other countries or because they have a record of serious criminal violations that preclude them from seeking residency.

Villalobos defense gets its chance to ask questions of experts

By Dennis Rogers
A.M. Costa Rica special correspondent

Defense cross-examination of the prosecution’s investigators got under way Friday at the Oswaldo Villalobos trial after four days of testimony detailing a two-year study of the Ofinter S.A. exchange house and the adjacent high-interest investment operation.

First prosecution lawyers Walter Espinoza and Eduardo Blanco asked for clarification of a few points. Lead investigator Manuel Roldán elaborated on his opinion that the high spending and poor control over expenses seen in the confiscated documents of the Villalobos operations would make stability difficult for a serious business.

The defense’s lead attorney, Federico Campos, questioned Roldán and his assistant, Elisabeth Flores, about their credentials, and then attacked Roldán’s contention that there is no legitimate business that can be so profitable it could pay the “onerous” 36 percent interest rates the Villalobos operation did. He noted that credit card companies charge as much as 50 percent interest. Roldán replied that those operations have high costs in defaults and administration and don’t have profits that high.

The large number of companies with many bank accounts attracts suspicion. An incorporated entity should have a commercial use, said Roldán. He allowed that the Villalobos did have legitimate businesses, including a supermarket, a helicopter company, and orange groves. He said no indicator of money laundering by itself is conclusive, adding:

“One by itself means nothing, two either, but 14 or 16 within a context becomes suspicious.”

Campos wanted to know if the numerous companies helped avoid “putting all the eggs in one basket.” Actually, the only basket the Villalobos brothers used was the local bursatil, Roldán said.

The more serious charge of laundering drug money relates to the late Canadian Bertrand St. Onge and some associates who later admitted drug related charges in that country.

Campos wanted to know why only $16,500 is on the records from St. Onge when other reports had it as much as $300,000.

Roldán stated he could not connect that $16,500 directly to drug sales or any action by Oswaldo Villalobos. At the very least Ofinter was not fulfilling its obligation to “know your client” according to Central Bank policy, he said.

Presiding Judge Isabel Porras wanted to know if the deposit was in cash or by check. Eventually it was established as cash, with only one interest payment located.

Oswaldo Villalobos looks in better spirits than at the start of the trial, and said he feels well. “Now we can talk back,” he said. Villalobos was detained in late 2002 and spent time in prison and in a hospital under guard.

The attorney for some seeking civil damages in the case, Ewald Acuña, was not present for the second week of the trial. His place has been taken by Blanco. Blanco would not comment on his relationship with Acuña or his clients, referring questions to Acuña himself.

The trial continues today with a change of venue, to Sala 3 of the Tribunales building. That is the westernmost of the three main court buildings of the San Jose complex.

A 19th century characterization becomes a common term

Vieja de patio

“Old lady of the courtyard.” This dicho is about gossip, and it is reminiscent of the time when elderly ladies used to exchange the latest neighborhood tattle while doing laundry or other chores in the courtyard of a large house.

In the early to mid-19th century, shortly after independence was granted from Spain, many countries in Latin America experienced a huge influx of European immigrants. Costa Rica was no exception. Often these newcomers had very little money, and the best lodgings they could afford would be a single room in a large colonial house known as an albergue.

These houses were usually two to three stories high and built around a central courtyard or patio. This patio provided an area in which the diverse residents of the albergue could socialize, chat and, human nature being what it is, indulge in the latest local gossip. This is the origin of today’s dicho. Thus, a gossipy woman to this day is known as a vieja de patio.

It seems that every barrio in Costa Rica has its vieja de patio. She’s the one who knows everything about everyone in the neighborhood and tells it to everybody whether they’re interested or not. In Costa Rica we also use the word vina, which is pure dialect, to identify this kind of busybody. Vina was the pseudonym used by a famous Costa Rican radio personality of years gone by who just happened to have been a cousin of my father. This stage name stuck in the public mind and came to be synonymous with vieja de patio here in Tiquicia.

I have written about Vina before, but for those of you who do not remember her, the show was about a vieja de patio who telephoned everyone she knew just before lunchtime so she would be sure to find them at home to viniar, or share all the latest juicy rumors.

The dialogue (or monologue, as it were) went something like this:

“Oh, hello, Maria? Is that you?” Hi! How are you? This is Vina. I’m just calling because last night I went to the

The
way we say it

By Daniel Soto

ballet at the National Theater and ran into your husband, but you were not with him.

"What was that dear? You didn’t know? Hmm! Well, he was there with his niece, at least I assumed she was his niece.

"What was that? Oh, very young and blond.

"Oh, he doesn’t have a blond niece you say. Well, I wonder.

"What’s that you say? He’s moved out of the house! Oh, my. Well the nerve of him to be seen in public with a little tart half his age! This is just terrible!”

And blah, blah, blah and on and on she’d prattle.

Of course she knew all along that her poor friend had been separated from her faithless husband, and she also knew that her tattle would upset the woman no end. But la vieja de patio seems to relish tormenting other people in this way.

Though my father’s cousin was very successful at making a comic figure out of the vieja de patio, they are usually quite horrible people who often do quite intentional damage to perfectly innocent people. So, by whatever name they may be known a gossip is really not a very nice thing to be.

You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE!

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