Costa Rica News – Last week the president of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, received the international award “Shark Guardian 2013″, awarded by the German organization “Shark Project”. This of course is laughable since shark finning occurs regularly in the waters of Costa Rica. They even recently pointed out a loophole to the UN that allows the practice to continue. They of course did nothing to close this loophole they just wanted to point it out. Ladies and gentlemen we present “Shark Guardian 2013″….Mrs. Laura Chinchilla.
Since we are giving away awards that are total jokes and not based on anything, perhaps we can give the “2013 Award for Most Functional Website” to Healthcare.gov. I also nominate Costa Rica for the “2013 Jairo Mora Turtle Protection Award”.
I mean why, shouldn’t they get it……
They have shown repeatedly that they do not care to regulate illegal long line fishing which kills 100’s of turtles each year.
They have shown that it is more important to allow drug cartels to set up shop and use turtle eggs as a form of currency rather than protect these nests that brings 100’s of volunteers and tourists to Costa Rica each year.
It is one thing to talk about environmental protection, and to enforce laws that support your claims and quite another to look into a countries actions.
You can see with Costa Rica, that each and every environmental protection law that has been passed, and the governmental groups that have been formed to uphold these laws have been completely worthless. Costa Rica tries to present a positive “green image” with all the laws they pass but none of the laws are actually enforced.
There have been a few ship captains that have received a slap on the wrist for shark finning and some minor fines for long line fishing, but nothing to deter these practices from happening. When you are not scared of being punished for illegal actions and know that with enough bribery money you can get out of anything, why would you stop shark finning or turtle egg poaching?
After Captain Paul Watson hit dry land in the USA, Costa Rica immediately asked for extradition. Captain Watson supposedly rammed a boat that was illegally shark finning and then someone said they were hurt in this act. Most likely some fisherman looking for a payday and his five minutes of fame scraped his knee and cried to high heaven.
The punishment for Captain Watson if found guilty in Costa Rica is up to 15 years in prison. He would not make it past year one without having “an accident.” Which would then be followed by multiple “loans” from China and Japan.
Jairo Mora was killed on May 31st of this year and the media and world demanded justice. Costa Rica had a chance to step into the spotlight and show the world swift justice for the death of one of its own citizens. Instead, the suspects have not been taken to trial and now have been granted another 3 months of preventative detention. I guess they think that in time they will just be able to let these suspects go and the entire situation will just disappear.
It remains obvious that Costa Rica and the Chinchilla administration have no desire to actually put into effect the words that they continue to preach to the rest of the world. The worst part is there is so much money and power behind the scenes pushing shark finning and grabbing natural resources, that small groups cannot rise up and do anything. Look at what happened to Jairo; he spoke out about how drug traffickers were using the turtle eggs as a form of currency and he was killed.
I think the only way to get real change is to have a force like Sir Richard Branson or the stars of Hollywood really stand up against these cruel acts that Costa Rica continues to allow on their soil and in their waters.
This is a desperate cry for help…who will join me and stand up against the corruption that is destroying the innocent and incredible nature in Costa Rica?
