Sunday 07 December
2008, San José, Costa
Rica
4.000 Foreign
Prostitutes Working In Costa Rica
Immigration Police
Uncovers Costa Rica
Bridge To US For African
Migrants
Costa Ricans Soon
To Get New Cedula
Christmas in Costa Rica
Shop, Shop, Shop Until
You Drop!
Summer Is Finally
Here. Maybe.
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Costa Ricans Soon To Get
New Cedula
Costa Ricans will soon
be getting new "cedulas"
or ID cards if the
Ministerio de Hacienda
can find the us$18
million the Tribunal
Supremo de Elecciones
(TSE) needs to update
and make the ID cards
foolproof.
Every citizen of costa
Rica is issued a cedula.
The document is the
legal identification
instrument in the
Country, as it contains
the full legal name of
the person, a unique
number that is used for
lifetime, as well as the
signature, birth place
and date.
The reason for the
update is that,
according to the TSE the
current equipment used
gives the cedulas a very
short life span, six
years, and has been
found that it can be
duplicated by criminal
organizations.
Although the new cards
will not look much
different that the
current ones in use,
they will last longer
and had added security
features. Some of
the new features of the
new cedula is the
addition of the "digital
signature" and
fingerprint that is
contained in a chip
embedded into the card.
The cedula dates back to
1925, when the idea of
an identity card first
took shape and the
establishment of the Ley
de Elecciones, with the
main function to
identify the person to
vote.
In the early years the
cedula was only an
instrument to identify a
voter. In 1949 the TSE
was created and given
the task, due to the
changing economic and
political climate of the
country, to produce an
identity card that could
used as a legal
instrument, which became
obligatory for citizens
to carry and and present
in legal matters such as
birth registrations,
contracting marriage and
penal and administrative
acts.
According to the early
uses of the cedula, a
Costa Rican who did not
have or carry his or her
cedula "was" practically
a "capitis diminutio" or
a dead person as they
could not carry out any
civil or legal act of
any kind, including
getting a passport,
obtaining a government
job, receiving social
benefits and medical
care by the Seguro
Social, or get a drivers
license and of course,
not be able to vote.
The TSE has undergone a
feasibility study for
the modernization of the
cedula and plans to
introduce the new ID
cards in about two years
after it gets financing
approval.
The history of the
cedula in Costa Rica:
Proposed Document
(front)
Proposed Document (back)
Current cedula (front)
Current cedula (back)
Cedula issued in 1997
Cedula issued in 1985
Cedular issued in 1952,
in use until
The firstr Cedula issued
in 1933:
Documents from the TSE
website.
Editor's Note: The
term "capitis diminutio"
is used by the TSE
document on the history
of the cedula. We could
not find an exact
definition of the term,
including on Wikipedia.
The best we could could
up with is, a person of
lesser important, of
minimal importance, a
slave.
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