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I liked Scott’s article on the new woman President Laura Chinchilla but do we know how this lady thinks? She’s a lefty? A righty? And do we know what she plans on doing in office? How does she feel about us expats?
Laura Chinchilla studied at Georgetown University in the USA so I’m assuming that A: She speaks fluent English and B: Understands and hopefully respects the American mindset.
Having said that, she obviously must focus the bulk of her time on helping the people of Costa Rica rather than us expats and, since I don’t tend to believe a word that comes out of the mouths of politicians anyway (how many promises do they actually keep?), for me personally it’s a case of ‘wait-and-see.’
We’ll be watching!
PS. Oscar Arias enrolled at the London School of Economics and obtained his degree at the University of Essex in England so I would suggest that both Arias and Chinchilla are probably more “worldly” than most politicians.
From: [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Chinchilla ]
“Chinchilla graduated from the University of Costa Rica and received her master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University.”
From: [ http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0716657220100208 ]
* Chinchilla, 50, is a career politician who was born into a political family and served as public safety minister, congressional deputy and most recently as vice president and justice minister in outgoing President Oscar Arias’s cabinet.
* Chinchilla has promised to continue Arias’s liberalizing economic policies and expand Costa Rica’s web of free trade agreements. She has also backed liberalization of Costa Rica’s state-controlled electricity and telecommunications sectors.
* Married with a teenage son, Chinchilla is a social conservative, opposing gay marriage, abortion and any change to Roman Catholicism’s position as the state religion. Supporters regaled her with rosaries during her campaign, including one she wears constantly for good luck.
* During the campaign Chinchilla said she would boost education spending to 8 percent of gross domestic product as well as increase funding for law enforcement and create an anti-drug czar to oversee the growing struggle against drug smugglers who are using Costa Rica as a transit route.
Scott
The War on drugs has already proven to be massive failure and the sooner Governments accept this and move to legalisation the sooner the profit motive will be removed and the money can instead be spent on educating people about the long term effects of drug use.
P.S. Sell the Dow and buy gold…………you’re welcome.
And According to LA Teja–as of yesterday
She`s directly related to the King of Spain
Propably more companies like RTV (a spanish company) coming to CR methinksWhat should concern us are the new relationships and treaties with countries with the worst of records in human rights. China, Cuba, Arab countries and others. Who knows what kind of deals have been made. I doubt that this forum would be allowed to operate in Havana.
Her degrees are impressive, however, I also have several degrees; one of which is from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. I would be more impressed, if she would eliminate the import duty fees, for expats.
So, soldier, are you suggesting that expats should be exempted from import duties but Costa Rican citizens should be subject to them? Is that what you really mean . . . Costa Ricans should pay 56% to 79% more for their vehicles than we should?
Do you feel the same way about other imported goods such as medications, appliances, food, etc?
Seriously??
David,
My assertion was free import duties for all, which was previously the case, until the early 70s. In particular, retired expats with means; and the attraction of millions of expats to Costa Rica; to help support the country, and their local infrastructures. Mexico, Panama, and other surrounding latin countries have such programs to attract expats. Scott, had a very interesting and informative article relating to this issue, on this site; some time ago.
In the perfect place, the import duty cold be lowered/excluded for all, but I don’t think it will ever revert back to ‘no duty on vehicles’ for ex-pats.
And why should it?
If you take a car from the USA into Canada, duty is due….
Possibly, no import duty on used household goods.
I wish the new president, the best.[quote=”soldier”]David,
Soldier if you were in Costa Rica in the 70s maybe you remember the problems with expats and their duty free cars and household goods. There was much resentment towards the rich foreigners with their Mercedes with PEN plates not to mention the importation and rapid sale of these vehicles. This also was the case with household items. Also, PEN plates were a bullseye for the ladrones and, guess who, transit cops. Maybe the CR government is not very interested in expats who are low income and looking for a cheap place to live. Anyway, why should CR provide an economic refuge for those whose own country has become to expensive to allow a dignified retired living? Would millions of expats be a good thing?
My assertion was free import duties for all, which was previously the case, until the early 70s. In particular, retired expats with means; and the attraction of millions of expats to Costa Rica; to help support the country, and their local infrastructures. Mexico, Panama, and other surrounding latin countries have such programs to attract expats. Scott, had a very interesting and informative article relating to this issue, on this site; some time ago.[/quote]
millions of expats? nah. there aren’t that many, really. there are more nicaraguans here — approx 200,000 — than all the other expats combined. as of 2006, there was a total of 8500 american expats.
obviously, CR doesn’t want low income expats, hence raising the minimum requirement which is just barely enough to get by here. CR has its own problems with the poor; why would they want more of them?
there is a way to have the taxes waived on an car here, however, but you need to prove certain medical conditions. as with all things in Cr, it’s also a bureaucratic labyrinth.
I read somewhere on this site that there are about 50,000 US and Canadian expats in Costa Rica but I can not find it now. Is that about right?
No one really knows. The population includes expats who live here most of the time and are legal residents, legal residents who live elsewhere much of the time, tourists, tourists who’ve overstayed their visas, “perpetual tourists” who come and go every three months, and probably others.
How would you count ’em?
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