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I wanted to just provide a link to this, but it just wasn't feasible. Here is the article as I found it. Much has been written about this and other laws, but it seems that it will be a while, and only after a lot of pain, before the administration of these laws approaches something close to what they were intended to be.
Women's word rules, and guys go to jail.
Some women swindle their mates with the local domestic violence law.
Women are kicking their mates out of the house in record numbers in
Costa Rica. Some of them are enjoying it and using the law designed to
protect women against domestic violence to swindle foreigners. Many
guys come to Costa Rica in search of a relationship and end up making a
very costly mistake.
Police say women are abusing Law 8589 Article 7. The article states,
"In order to protect the victims, they will be able to request, from
the start of the complaint, the protective measures contemplated in the
law against domestic violence, as well as the necessary precautionary
measures foreseen in the penal code of procedure."
Yes, a foreign male — or any male in Costa Rica for that matter
— can be tossed out of his own home by his wife or girlfriend by
merely having a complaint filed against him by the woman if she says he
was being abusive. Abusive, as it stands today, can mean anything,
including just raising one's voice.
Two weeks ago a woman put her foreign boyfriend in jail all night when
he raised his voice to her adult son — he is over 18 years of age
— for popping bubble pack and painting satanic symbols on the wall.
The son, who has tested positive for drugs in the past, became vocally
abusive, so the foreigner called 911. When the police arrived, the
girlfriend and her son asked the police to take the guy to jail.
Officers did so without question. The woman also said that he struggled
with the son and bumped into her. The man who was jailed is the legal
owner of the home.
The girlfriend took a blanket to the boyfriend in jail that night
because it was very cold. Either she had a guilty conscience or she was
looking for information. While at the jail, she spoke with the police,
and they gave her pointers on what she should file with the judge the
next morning in court.
In the morning, the police escorted the tired man from his jail cell to
the court. He was lucky, he had a cell phone, and the police let him
use it in the patrol car. He called his attorney who met him at court.
The judge told the man that the police would take him to his own house
where he could pack two suitcases of essentials but that he had to
vacate his home immediately.
A police officer escorted the poor guy and his attorney into the house.
While the man gathered his belongings, the police officer told the
attorney that throwing men, mostly foreign men, out of their homes in
Costa Rica was a daily routine. He said they use to chase robbers and
other bad people, but now they were bored because mostly they just deal
with domestic violence cases. The police officer further said:
"Women in Costa Rica are taking advantage of this new law. They
throw out their boyfriend and then steal their things and leave."
Other women do not leave. They start the legal process against the
foreigners for damages or palimony to wear them down to get a payoff.
The lucky ones get off with the women taking a few TV sets and a
computer. At least in these cases the foreigner can move back into his
house.
When the girlfriend does not leave the home, the foreigners have a
serious problem. They have to file their own court cases to get the
unwanted tenant out of their house. These processes can take months to
years. Usually, domestic violence injunctions, called medidas here, are
for six months. Normally, a judge will not rescind a medida, and the
frustrating part is that no one takes an accused man seriously. In most
cases, the medidas expire before a judge ever makes a decision.
In this case, of the foreigner who was put in jail and thrown out of his
house, the man is staying in a hotel. The girlfriend and her son used
the words, "my husband" and "my stepdad" in their court
complaint. But, in fact, they have no legal relationship with the man.
This case looks like it is going to be a long one. The foreigner feels
frustrated and helpless. He may just pack up and leave Costa Rica.
Women taking advantage of the law for their personal gain overshadows
the reason the laws were passed in the first place. Many women and some
men have died because of domestic violence situations. Some 25 to 30
women die a year on average. There are around 30,000 domestic violence
complaints filed a year. A University of Costa Rica study said 58
percent of women interviewed in a survey experienced some kind of
physical or sexual violence in the past 16 years.
However, there are no firm statistics on how often women use the new
laws to end a relationship and take the possessions a man must leave
behind. The law, of course, only protects women. A man cannot use this
law to get an abusive woman from the home.
Good luck to anyone, Gringo or Tico, that get's saddled with dealing with any of this crap.
Mac
_________________
The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
English poet (1809 - 1892)
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