The Latest News from Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama

If you are planning a trip to Costa Rica to see the spectacular eruptions and night time glowing lava flows of the Arenal Volcano, you had better hurry up. The geological event is scheduled to close in October of 2010. I know, that was 16 months ago, but to the average Tico tour operator, that means nothing. They are still selling tours to see the spectacular night time lava flows.The volcano is still there and the gullible Gringo tourists are still coming. It did have a good run though, from July of 1968 it played along nicely for 42 years, after initially killing scores of residents of the area with its unexpected outburst after a 500 year rest period. That exceeds the period of continuous eruption for its distant cousin on the Big Island of Hawaii, Kilauea’s Puu O’o, but the Hawaii volcano has created almost one square mile of new land, while destroying several towns in its path. The area surrounding the national park in Costa Rica, however, is a sight to behold, and since the eruption first normalized, many modern facilities have been created by clever entrepreneurs taking advantage of the tourism opportunities, offering everything from thermal baths to first class gourmet restaurants.A little farther north, Nicaragua’s Environmental Protection Minister is concerned that Ticos are buying Nicaraguan land along the common border to use it for illicit purposes, such as logging, poaching, and other evils. He probably meant drug smuggling, which is probably Costa Rica’s number one source of income along with internet gambling. Fortunately the Minister contained himself, and never brought up the tens of thousands of Nicaraguans living illegally in Costa Rica, willingly doing the crappy chores that are done by similar Central American and Mexican refugees in the USA. Besides doing the dirty work for little compensation and being victimized by human traffickers, they also get blamed for most of the crimes committed in Costa Rica. (To be fair, they do make a healthy contribution to Costa Rica’s crime statistics.)Heading south, Panama has just given exile to some of the journalists and newspaper owners being persecuted in Ecuador for having had the gall to publish articles, derogatory yet true, about President Rafael Correa. His handpicked Supreme Court just upheld the three-year prison terms against the trio as well as a 40 million dollar fine, intended to break the newspaper, whose capitalized value is only 30 million dollars.The original ruling last year sentenced columnist Emilio Palacio and three publishers at El Universo over a column criticizing the way he handled the police revolt in 2010.It was Emilio Palacio’s 2011 opinion columns titled “No to lies”, where he referred to Correa as a dictator, and he rightly claimed that the President had ordered troops to open fire without warning on innocent civilians at a local hospital.The hearing lasted 14 hours and was attended by the President and many of his supporters, who passed the time ripping up copies of El Universo. The mere fact that the President attended the Supreme Court hearing created a more farcical atmosphere to the whole circus imperious.The truly amusing part is the fact that Panama granted exile to the accused immediately. It must be recognized that Panama, like Ecuador, is supremely corrupt, with both Supremos having installed their own judges on the supreme and other courts, having changed the constitutions of their countries to be in power for as long as they want, sort of like being “President for Life!” Panama however does have a reputation of granting exile to almost anyone. Just remember Mohammad Rez? Sh?h Pahlavi, the former Shah of Iran passed some of his last months there in exile before finding his final home in Egypt, after causing a storm over his coming to the US for cancer treatment, a situation which eventually led to the Iran Hostage Crisis.It remains to be seen yet what the toxic politics of both of those long suffering nations will come to mean for all the expats living there.[image: Arenal Volcano National Park, Costa Rica, via Wikipedia]I encourage you to write to me, jamie@expatdailynews.com with any questions or suggestions you may have. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel related business. My advice is based on my own experiences, and is free of charge. (Donations accepted). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.To read more of Jamie’s opinion articles, see Voices From Exile. You can also contact Jamie at jamie.douglas [at] yahoo.com


See more expat articles at Expat Daily News

We would love to have your feedback on this post so leave your comments below.
We are also happy to answer any questions about life in Latin America. Send us an email - julie@expatdailynews.com or jamie@expatdailynews.com

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.