www.CostaRicaTicas.com

These articles are about prostitution here in CR and how the Govt want to force RESIDENTS along with others to produce further documentation for money transfers. Interesting that they are NOT going to force this on TOURISTS including PERPETUAL TOURISTS.

See Bob, I knew if you kept trying, you would find something positive about perpetual tourism

12 years and counting on perpetual tourism....

Not sure where you came up with that interpretation. They article indicated that TOURISTS would not be required to have the card. The most common use of the Costa Rica bank system by tourists is changing their home country currency into colones. Most do not have bank accounts here.

PERPETUAL TOURISTS tend to conduct the same type financial transactions at the bank as citizens and legal residents and have bank accounts. It would be obvious to the bank teller that you are not a TOURIST in the true sense of that word.

I do not think we can figure out the ramifications of this change until more information is forthcoming. Like most things printed in the press about changes in laws and procedures there is no reason to get unduly concerned. Rarely does the initial proposal ever resemble what is finally enacted years later.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

_________________
* These are the "Good Ole Days". Enjoy Them.

* RENT but, "Don't Buy a Home in Costa Rica" until you have lived here for THREE years.

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Also go to AM costarica 6/10/2010

PAGE 3
A.M. Costa Rica has documented the case of two Dominican prostitutes who said they got visas in their home country through bribery and who said they paid the outstanding half of the bribe to a person who answered a back door at the Costa Rican immigration agency. The U.S. State Department would characterize them as trafficking victims even though they trafficked themselves.

The State Department says that Ch*ld sex tourism is a serious problem, particularly in the provinces of Guanacaste, Limón, Puntarenas and San Jose. That view is opposite to that held by many expats who fear contact with und***ge women. They are continually warned about the possible penalties.

A recent conviction involved an expat who was accused of having sexual contact with an und***ge woman in a center for prostitution a short walk from the judicial buildings in San José. He presumed that only women over 18 were working in the establishment. The case has other complexities and is under appeal.

The State Department placed Costa Rica on what is called Tier Two watch list for human trafficking. And Costa Rica continues to make efforts to appease U.S. evaluators.

Still, a typical human trafficking case involves a couple of bus drivers found to have a load of illegal Nicaragua immigrants on a back road in Guanacaste.

Clearly, the basic question is can participating in a legal activity, prostitution, be promoted to human trafficking? And if prostitution is legal, why does not the U.S. government adjust its perceptions?

According to Mariliana Morales, director of Fundación Rahab: “Prostitution is practiced and is accepted here, especially since it has become part of ordinary culture in Costa Rica.”

The U.S. State Department has yet to accept that point of view