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Child sex law is approved
with an admission by Arias


President Óscar Arias Sánchez said Wednesday that Costa Rica is an international destination of sexual tourism with minors and the country also is a transit point for minors involved in the sex trade.

With his words, the Presidencia has come full circle from Miguel Ángel Rodríguez who in 2001 said there was no problem with sex with minors in the country.

Arias was signing a bill that the Asamblea Legislativa approved in the first two weeks of June that stiffen the penalties for sexual activity with minors.
http://www.amcostarica.com/060607.htm
Still Arias seems to suggest that the problem was one of prostitutes and foreigners who come here seeking, in the words of Arias, "jovencitas." He also said that Costa Ricans should not turn their head away from such activities, noting that mini-skirted young prostitutes with excessive makeup frequently can be seen on a street corner.

In a parallel report, Casa Presidencial said that police and the Patronato Nacional de la Infancia, the child protection agency, conducted 280 raids of nightspots, bars, houses of prostitution and others from 1999 to 2006.  They also fielded 65 complaints about child pornography and 21 complaints about production of child pornography.

But the report said that only 35 persons were convicted during this period. Some 10 cases still are pending, six persons were acquitted, and the suspects in the remainder of the cases were in flight or otherwise awaiting further proceedings.

Arias blamed what he called the complex social problem on poverty, inequalities, lack of opportunities, drug addiction, abandonment of school, citizen insecurity and the disintegration of the family.

Arias did not mention it, but the new law does penalize sexual activity with a minor by a relative or a person in a position of trust, like a guardian. This is the dominant circumstance of child sex abuse in Costa Rica.

The proposed law also says that the statute of limitations for sexual crimes against minors does not begin to run until the youngster turns 18. In addition, the proposed law increases from 12 to age 13 when more serious penalties can be applied for sexual crimes. The penalty is from 10 to 16 years for sexual intercourse involving someone under 13 or an incapacitated person or when violence is used for any age.

The penalty is from two to six years for an adult who has sexual intercourse with someone between 13 and 15 years even if the younger party consents.

The law also increases the minimum term by one year for corruption (four years) and aggravated corruption (five years), which is generally enticing a minor into paid sex.

The penalty for making pornographic material with a minor would be raised from three to eight years to five to 10 years.

A new section provides a prison term of three to five years for distributing pornography to someone 13 or younger. The current penalty is one to four years. For someone over 13 but younger than 18, the penalty would be from two to four years, instead of the current one to four years.

Two teens get prison terms
in murder of pensionado


Two teenagers have been handed 14-year prison sentences in the death of a U.S.  pensionado here in March.

The press office of the Poder Judicial confirmed that the two persons, now 17 and 18, lived in Carmen de Guadalupe where the crime took place.

The 17 year old is in the Centro de Menores Zurquí and the older teen is in the Centro El Buen Pastor women's prison.  Both were tried in the Juzgado Penal Juvenil de San José.

At the time of the crime, the two teens said they killed the man because he tried to rape one. Both teens were minors at the time of the crime.  They were guests of the victim, 66-year-old Wilfredo Quesada Ramos, a Cuban-American.

According to the Judicial Investigating Organization, Quesada invited the two girls to his apartment. The girls testified that the man took a knife and threatened the older one and insisted on sexual relations.

According to the story told by the girls, they both attacked Quesada to stop the rape. He suffered multiple stab wounds. Later the girls showed up at an office of the Judicial Investigating Organization to file a complaint for rape.

When the body was found, Quesada was nude, said police. Quesada imported cars for the United States for sale here.

Term 'counter-revolutionary'
depends on the point of view

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

With regard to M. King's statement that the Contras were not a revolutionary force:

All of us have feelings and opinions with regard to U. S. meddling in foreign affairs throughout history.  My Nicaraguan wife lost a Contra uncle and almost lost a Contra brother during the conflict in Nicaragua.  I have to admit that my feelings and opinions are tainted.

Isn't it nothing more than semantics to call the Contras "counter-revolutionaries"?  The word "revolution" simply means turn or change.  Are timing and "who was first" the only things that determine who was a revolutionary and who was a "counter-revolutionary"? 

If we used M. King's reasoning, couldn't we say that the English were "revolutionaries" when they seized and made colonies of the land populated by Native Americans?  Would that make our founding fathers "counter-revolutionaries."   What does M. King think of those meddling Frenchmen and their "diabolic agent," the Marquis de Lafayette who cleverly aided George Washington to victory at Yorktown?  

Perhaps France should never have sent their navy to aid General Washington and his band of "counter-revolutionaries."  What should we call my great-great grandfather, who was the confederate commander of the 2nd Virginia Cavalry during the American Civil War? A "counter-counter-revolutionary"?

In the United States, we celebrate independence from England, but we are at peace with England and among its closest allies.  We celebrate peace since Appomattox in April of 1865, and have made tremendous strides toward freedom and racial equality for all since that time.

Peace implies forgiveness and acceptance.  The Nicaraguans, both Contra and Sandinista, have put aside their past and held their government and country together since the first free elections in 1991.  This is commendable.  Bickering over who was a revolutionary and who was a "counter-revolutionary" does nothing to help them, and is only more American interventionism.

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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services

By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services

By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services