Nicaraguans In Long Lines For Visa To Costa Rica
The return home for many Nicaraguans, as well as friends and relatives who have decided to travel with them, hasn't been easy this year, as many have too line up to 24 hours in a mile long line to obtain a visa from the Costa Rican consulate in Managua.

The smell of roasted meat and urine fills the air. Cardboard boxes have been converted into makeshift beds at night and used for to shade the hot sun in the daytime as it falls on those waiting patiently in line.

A group of enterprising Nicaraguans are now making a living selling food, water, soft drinks and other comforts to their fellow countryment, who hildren and adults alike have had to wait long lines for a visa and pay the us$20 fee that Costa Rica demands of all Nicaraguan citizens to legally enter Costa Rican soil, many returning to work, while others with the hopes of finding gainful employment.

The Costa Rican consulate estimates that the demand for visas has increased 100% at the end of the holidays, now processing some 1.000 visas daily. Many, according to Costa Rican officials have lined up in vain as about 30 passports, considered "invalid", are rejected daily, mainly with problems with "timbres" (stamps) from previous visas. Costa Rican officials say that number is down from an average of 100.

And that rejection has become a source of many complaints to the Costa Rican Embassy and to the Nicaraguan Foriegn Ministry about Costa Rica's consular services.

Victor Láscarez, the Costa Rican consul in Managua, has been seen as yelling to the people outside his consulate "act like decent people", as they demonstrate their discontent at the situation before the cameras of the local press.

The consular office in Managua is completely overworked, sometimes having to work until midnight, said Láscarez, who told a reporter of the Costa Rican daily Spanish newspaper La Nación. Láscarez said that the consulate will also be working on Saturdays and has assigned an additional diplomat to help out with the consular work.

Another concern for those in line is the violence that surrounds the area of the Costa Rican consulate in the area known as Batahola. The Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua (Nicaraguan National Guard) has been providing around the clock security.

The same, however on a small scale, is happening at the consular offices in Rivas on the south side of Managua, closer to the Costa Rican border, and Chinandega, northwest of Managua.