Real estate possession law
creates anarchy in courts

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

We are approaching the anniversary of an event that exemplifies the anarchy, caused by an archaic, unfair, Costa Rican law, that primarily benefits thieves, not the poor it was deigned to aid.

Last year a mob of more than 100 weapon-wielding squatters invaded a guarded, gated, five-hectare parcel recently awarded to the rightful owner after a 20-year legal nightmare and forcefully re-occupied his land. In the process, the squatters, hacked at the owner with a machete and almost killed him. The local police eventually intervened and rescued the man, saving his life. To date only one arrest has been made, even with camera surveillance.

The justification used by the invaders was that since they bought the “possession rights” they were legally entitled to it. In Costa Rica, buying, mapping and registering one’s possession rights, is not illegal, nor immoral (See July 3, 2009, A.M. Costa Rica article "Citi says involvement by board member in Herradura land dispute not unethical"), it is “Big Business.” Additionally, one does not even need to “occupy” land to squat. The law recognizes a guard shack with a caretaker (co-conspirator) as a possession.

In the case of Herradura, the local authorities have allowed over 400 structures without permits and constructed in public land (river bank) and graded roads at taxpayer expense on occupied land. The new occupants pose a burden on all local infrastructure without paying property tax or respecting construction rules. The influx of poor who buy “possession rights,“ also causes overcrowding in the public schools.

The five- to seven-year legal process gives the well-organized criminals/original invader, time to re-sell the property with no legal ramifications. In essence, this is government collusion to aid in the theft of land.

The law giving legal rights, most significantly, the right to re-sell, to occupants, invites corruption, violence and  unnecessarily jams the court system with property suits. Over 45 percent of the supreme court of Costa Rica’s cases involved some sort of possession dispute.

This costs the taxpayers millions of dollars, and it slows all legal processes to the point that there is no justice. The winner is not the poor family that bought the possession rights because they needed a place to live or the landowner who spent 10 years in court paying tens of thousands on lawyers, but the thief who stole the land and resold the possession rights before the court could respond.

For the good of the people of Costa Rica , the resale of stolen property should be illegal!
Sailors here will distort
price of good Tico coffee

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

The true talent, creativity and professionalism of those involved with the writing of  "The Truth is in the Eye of the Internet or Politician," is greatly appreciated. However, you failed to mention the deleterious results of those 7,000 proponents of peace buying and consuming the finest coffee in the world right here in Costa Rica. Such a demand will instigate a horrific rise in the price of Costa Rican coffee which will perpetrate additional dollars for those in the coffee profession which will trigger more jobs in Pura Vidaville resulting in additional taxes to facilitate the payment of absurd salaries to this country's lawmakers. Amen and thank you A.M. Costa Rica. You're A+.


Change sought in policy
over war on drugs

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

These are indeed strange days. The old adage "Laugh otherwise you'll cry"seems apropos. Latin America is now in a quandary. The wait-and-see attitude to the different "new" U.S. president is wearing thin.

Obama campaigned on a platform of change. The executive branch may set the agenda, but the special-interest-driven Congress controls the content of the law. The buffoons in Congress, as shills for the special interests who wish to keep the status quo, control the purse strings on programs and directives that have global reach.

As for "wars" it is clear that Obama kowtows to the Pentagon. So, in essence, the change he promised has been window dressing at best.

The "war" most directly affecting us here in Latin America is the 40+ year failed war on drugs. With untold billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars spent on enforcing a prohibition, not unlike the failed prohibition on alcohol that gave rise to organized crime in the 1920s, logic would seem to dictate change, but no change whatsoever seems in the making.

México is on the verge of failed statehood, as the drug cartels have acquired power, wealth, and influence sufficient to at least match anything the federales can muster.

With malaise from the failure to change what is not working, naturally there is going to be anti-U.S. sentiment throughout the region.

With the black market pipeline through the region flush with illicit drugs and money, many politicians have either been financed directly by cartel money, or at the least hold sympathies in that direction, as crime has spiraled through the roof at least in part due to this U.S.-driven failed war on drugs, references to William Walker, and Shirley MacLane, notwithstanding.

Photos by The Plastiki Project