Costa Rica News – The police in Costa Rica have been asking for an increase in pay for a while, so in order for the Costa Rican government to not increase their overhead and yet still make their inefficient law enforcement officers happy, they have passed a law that will increase their ability to ask for bribes and kickbacks in the Costa Rica sex tourism industry. Welcome to Costa Rica!
In a recent bill that was passed in the past few days, these provisions have been implemented. The law criminalizes the act of transporting someone for purposes of prostitution, be the passenger male or female. But adult prostitution, itself, is not penalized. The bill also targets those who would rent rooms or homes to persons involved in trafficking.
This law is going to be impossible to enforce and police officers will select who and when they want to try to enforce the law. The law in actuality will not be enforced, it will just be a way for the law enforcement official to say that they could enforce the law if they wanted to, but if you give them some cash they will look the other way.
We all know that kickbacks and bribes happen throughout all of Costa Rica including the hotels that are known for working girls, massage parlors (most have happy endings available), bars that allow working girls to be there, escort services, strip clubs (what happens in the champagne room stays in the champagne room), and many other establishments in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is known for sex tourism and is this is a huge form of income. Most of not all already pay the local officers to let them to make sure business runs smoothly and clients are not bothered.
This law will make the local officials dig deeper into businesses owners wallets that are involved in this industry and they will say they have the legal right to fine them for what was normal business practices up until a couple of days ago. Pass laws that are enforceable not ones that cause more corruption.
If the goal of the Costa Rican government is to push away eco-tourists with allowing shark finning and other laws showing they do not care about protecting the environment, increasing frustrations and lessen profits of business owners which could cause them to go else where, not increasing the quality of schools, and increasing corruption in Costa Rica, they are doing exactly what they should be doing.
There is no accountability for the government in Costa Rica. They continue to pass laws that will have long term negative effects on the country. I know it is Costa Rican to not be able to see the long term effects of current actions, but at this point I would settle for any vision at all.
