But it is still independent from the USSA, which is worth something.

In this post Sunni refers to an article which talks about a contract received by a law firm to oversee the US government's asset-seizure efforts in Costa Rica. She comments that "It's also a safe bet that the C.R. govthugs are getting a generous slice of the pie too, to ensure continued docility."

Fortunately, that is not the case. I did a little digging. The US gov has contracted BLP-Abogados to represent them in Costa Rican courts for asset-seizure cases. If the US gov prevails, (in other words, convinces a CR court that the property in question should belong to the US gov) then BLP-Abogados will manage the property on behalf of the US gov.

The person I spoke to (a lawyer) says that the only way the US gov can prevail in such cases is if the property in question belongs to a person convicted of something that is also a crime in CR, and a US court has ordered the specific property seized.

It is not good that the USSA is contracting foreign law firms to attempt property seizures in other countries, but thankfully it has nothing to do with the CR government and they have to go through the slow CR legal process to accomplish it.

In other CR news, the Movimiento Libertario is "considering" accepting government funds for its political campaign. I predicted this here. Of course, they are only "considering" it right now. They need to change the party bylaws to be able to do this, but according to the article in La Nación (registration may be required, in Spanish), they plan to hold another assembly in September to do just that.

Finally, last week a friend of mine came from the states, so we went to the beach. For those who are interested, we stayed at Casa Camarona, which I highly recommend. Right on the beach with a truly excellent restaurant along with a competent, friendly and helpful staff. However, my car had a problem, so I had it brought back to San Jose on a flat bed truck (this did not interfere with the vacation). I went with the car. On the way back we ran into one police check point and were stopped by the police twice on the road. The check point is apparently a permanent feature of the main highway. The cops are looking for illegal migrants, drugs, smuggled goods (from Panama), etc. I asked the driver the obvious question, "don't the smugglers just use another route?", he said, "Yes, there are many other routes, but this is easy so the cops hang out here." On being stopped he said it was routine. They stop him, and other independent drivers, to check brake lights, turn signals, hassle drivers about the weight they are carrying, etc. Basically looking for bribes. He just accepted it as normal. No point in getting angry since it wasn't going to change anyway.

Note that the cops have never bothered me, but I do not engage in "public" type activities. If I started a tow-truck business, you can bet that I would suffer the same fate. Costa Rica is good to live quietly, but not a good place if you need to earn a living from the local economy. I know that there are those who have businesses here, and many will disagree with my assessment, but for me, doing business here, at least in any public way, is not worth the hassle. It is a great place to live quietly and inexpensively.