Lawyer says embassy lapses
are a criminal matter

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:
 
Lets see if I have this straight.

1. Texas father has a full legal custody order obtained after the mother and dad presented full evidence, including home studies and psychological reports to a court with full, proper jurisdiction over the case and persons.
 
2. Father gets a money judgment against the mom for attorney's fees and big money damages for destroying the relationship with the father and child in a long-going legal battle.
 
3.  The mom with at least more than one other child is not happy with how the case works out. So instead of appealing the case to the Texas Supreme Court, she flees the United States to Costa Rica.

4.  The mother, now a fugitive, is indicted by a federal grand jury of the CRIME of parental kidnapping. Oh but this gets better.  This mom is actually placed on the Top 10 most wanted list of all criminals the FBI is looking for in the world, including Osama Bin Laden.
 
5. Your paper runs stories and she is positively identified in country living and working, and some embassy person asks your paper not to run more about this sensitive case.
 
6.  If that last statement is true and correct, then I suggest the the U.S. attorney handling the kidnapping case needs to open an immediate investigation of former embassy workers for obstructing justice.  Did I read somewhere that an embassy spokesman said they had no duty to inform Costa Rican immigration that a known fugitive on the top 10 most wanted list was coming in and out of the country every 90 days or so, staying here illegally on a tourist visa and working?  What an amazing statement.
 
7.  There is a known underground network in the United States very well connected that has helped many moms fabricate false charges against dads and hide children.  The Dr. Elizabeth Morgan Case in Washington was one such well-publicized example.
 
8. As a lawyer practicing in this area of the law for over 25 years and being very involved in several such cases, I suggest that the dad needs to get the full attention of the Texas state judge, who I am sure would love to talk to the fugitive mom under oath, and with the proper federal judge.  If the father is persistent, I suspect some former embassy staff better get good lawyers.  This does not pass the smell test.  I suspect the current consul general may have a cold and can not smell the difference between chicken salad and chicken s.t.  We must, however, keep in mind that none of this happened on his watch.
 
 I was particularly impressed with his consoling words to the dad that since the Costa Rican courts might not honor the final order (which by the way is a violation of our treaty with them for equal access to the courts and respect of final judgments by each country), it really probably did not matter anyway that the mom was found so late.  What the heck, the Costa Rican courts would not have followed the law anyway. 

May I point out that the probability that a foreign court will not follow the law is no consolation to the dad or any excuse for gross incompetence at a minimum and possible criminal misconduct by government workers no matter how long ago.
 
Shame on somebody.  I hope the dad has the time money and persistence to see justice done even though it is late in coming.
 
Time for Santa Cruz to take
action on Tamarindo problem

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

Thank you for helping publicize the pollution problem in the Santa Cruz municipality (and Tamarindo).
http://www.amcostarica.com/102407.htm#31

Despite repeated efforts on the part of residents here, several big businesses continue to allow marginally treated (or untreated) waste water to flow onto the beach and into the water.

I was disappointed that one of the worst abusers of public health was omitted from your report on the 24th.  Other papers (such as La Nación) report that the Diria, a popular, expensive hotel on the beach, is dumping water with coliform counts of 240,000 per 100 milliliter.

I was also a little disappointed that the author mixed some of his data points and misquoted some numbers as well as failing to point out that most of the waters tested are street runoff, or drainage ditches from properties.  Someone unfamiliar with the report could be led to believe that the ocean water was actually showing counts as high as 79,000 when in fact the highest count in the water itself was around 4,500 (which is still quite unsafe).

As a resident of Tamarindo, I'm now looking to the Santa Cruz Municipality (not La Cruz, as per your article) to step up and accept some responsibility for the utter neglect it has shown for Tamarindo's infrastructure over the last decade.  This goose can't keep laying golden eggs if the muni continues to pocket the millions of colons of tax revenue instead of invest them.

If your online newspaper wants to show the true gravity of the situation here in Tamarindo, send a reporter and a photographer, talk to the Asociación Pro Mejoras and/or local business owners.  You'll see repeated, flagrant disregard on the part of a few gross polluters, and an obvious "look the other way" approach on the part of the Ministerio de Salud and the municipality.

Real cost of development

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

So now we begin to see the manifestation of the real costs of unchecked development when insufficient safeguards are in place for the infrastructure.  The Río Turrialba and now the coast of Tamarindo are seriously polluted because of the lack of strict sewage disposal requirements. 

It should be apparent now that there is a big difference between Costa Rica then and now.  No longer can untreated or lightly treated sewage be dumped into the waterways.  It must be understood the typical developer will do no more than is required by the jurisdiction he has to deal with, and it's way past time for intelligent and educated people to be consulted by the powers that be on methods and practices to put in place for controlling waterway pollution by sewage effluents.

In addition, requirements must be put into place which have teeth, both for the developers and for the local officials who don't see the light.

The government is in no position to finance the cost of the cleanup and modifications that will be necessary to correct the problems that we now face.  In my opinion, we are at a critical juncture where safeguards must be established to protect the waterways and the coasts.  Stringent sewage disposal requirements must be implemented immediately and existing violations must be corrected by the ones responsible. 

If this isn't done in an efficacious manner, Costa Rica will be buried in it's own waste sooner than later, and the developers will walk away with their money.  Then the words "Rich Coast" will take on a different meaning.
 
 
He wonders where data was

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

Your news story today concerning the AyA report on Tamarindo mentions several of the locations where tests showed dangerous levels of pollution. The test site that demonstrated the second largest level of pollution was not mentioned.

That site is directly in front of the Tamarindo Diria Hotel, which has become legendary among locals in Tamarindo (and even among us who live farther afield) because of its notorious running of the hotel's sewage directly across the beach and into the ocean. There isn't anyone who lives in Tamarindo who does not know this.

I don't understand why the Diria, the most notable polluter in the area, was left out of the story.


EDITOR'S NOTE: Our information from the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados lab was not complete.