Bureaucracy and
Corruption
I lived
and worked on the Texas Mexican border for 35 years
before moving to Costa Rica. I had a manufacturing
business in Mexico and I guided hunters into Mexico.
During these years I learned to appreciate the Mexican
forms of corruption. It was normal to pay a Policeman
directly for some real or imagined infraction to avoid a
ticket or trip to jail. This little bit of corruption is
also prevalent in Costa Rica. I have no problem with
this because the Police here are very friendly and
courteous and are very poorly paid. I have been truly
speeding each time they have stopped me.
In
Mexico, it was normal to pay “expedite fees” to
officials to help speed up all forms of paperwork.
For years we just handed an envelope with the
proper amount of dollars to the various Border officials
to allow our hunting groups to cross with guns and
ammunition without inspection of documentation. Once I
learned the system, it was just a cost of business and
really more efficient than trying to deal with
Bureaucrats in the US. Once a new President of Mexico
fired all of the Officials on the Border to “eliminate
all of the corruption”. This really screwed up our
crossings. They would take up to an hour to carefully
check the serial #s on the documents with those on the
shotguns, compare addresses and phone #s between
documents, etc. All of the new Officials were
young, offended by offers of expedite money, college
graduates who behaved like many of the Bureaucrats in
the US. They thought their job was to find any little
error in the paper work to stop the legitimate flow of
people across the border. It only took one year for most
of them to see how much better it was for them and their
country to allow us, we always had the required
documents even though some might have a typo or two,
to cross quickly and receive a pre-agreed upon token of
our appreciation.
The US
and Costa Rican Bureaucracies seem very similar in many
aspects. First of all, I have not seen any instances of
front line inspectors open for “expedite fees”. My
attorneys insist there is no way to skip the requirement
for getting a properly “authenticated” copy of my
wife’s birth certificate from Latvia. We have been
working on becoming legal Residents here for 8 months.
The requirements seem quite simple. You must have a
Birth Certificate, Marriage Certificate, proof of
$600/month income, and a Police letter of clean record.
The “authentication” part of this can be really
difficult. It requires a Costa Rican Consul verify the
authenticity of the signature on each document. This
costs $40 per document and is easy if there is a Costa
Rican Consulate in the city where the document is
created. If the document comes from someplace outside of
the Consulate’s area, an authentication from some
state or federal agency that the Consulate can
authenticate is required.
Now
follow this, my wife was born in Latvia. In case you are
not aware, it became a State of the USSR after the WW2.
It regained it’s independence after the fall of the
USSR. She is a Naturalized Citizen of the USA, married
to a USA Citizen, has a sworn affidavit that she was
born in Latvia, an original document from the USA state
department of her birth which was sufficient to get her
USA citizenship, all of these are “authenticated” by
Colin Powell, and the required document from the USA
Social Security of her income for life over $600/month.
There
is an article on the books of Costa Rica which allows a
sworn affidavit to be used when there is a problem with
the source country being able to produce an original,
authenticated birth certificate. We applied with all of
the above and now, after 8 months, have been informed
that my Residency will be approved, but she must obtain
the following: An original birth certificate from
Latvia, the signature on this must be authenticated by
an official of the Latvian State Department, this
signature must be authenticated by the Latvian Consul in
Washington DC, this signature must be authenticate by
the Costa Rican Consul in Washington DC then all of this
must be authenticate by the Costa Rican State Department
in Costa Rica.
I would happily pay an expedite fee to avoid all of this
time and expense of sending all of this paperwork all
over the world. After all, what is the purpose of this?
So,
Costa Rican bureaucrats are very similar to most in the
USA. Their purpose is NOT to enforce the INTENT OF THE
LAWS, but rather to jack the paperwork around for as
long as possible to grow their jobs and assure job
security. Where is "Corruption" when I need
it?
This is only an inconvenience!!! We are so happy living
here and grateful this is one of the very few negatives
we have encountered.
|
