by Rod Hughes

Why is it that every time lawmakers attempt to improve something, they seem to make it worse? The latest case is the modification of the Criminal Code that, by error, removes penalties (from a month to five years) for resisting arrest.

That means, according to a story today in the newspaper La Nacion, that anyone can fight, with anything from teeth to a weapon, against authorities. Already the error has had its effect: On March 27, Judge Isabel Porras of a San Jose criminal court was forced to release two alleged gang members who had fought an arrtesting cop when he tried to detain them for disturbing the peace on a public street in the captial’s La Uruca district.

Former Legislative Assembly deputies were questioned by La Nacion about the circumstances of the error. Ex-deputy Luis Gerardo Villanueva said the legislators went over the text “step by step” and attributed the mistake to “a material error.” Such an error raises more questions than it answers and can be anything from articles 305 and 306 being eliminated by a law clerk hitting the wrong key on the computer to a page left out of the reform text. But Villanueva’s explanation was more definitive than former lawmakers Carlos R. Benevides and Ruth Montoya who suddenly had amnesia about the legislation.

The reform was written by Judge Oscar Gonzalez, approved by the three deputies quoted above who former a Legislative Assembly subcommittee named to review such legislation and passed by a floor session of the lawmakers in 2005. At least two experts consulted by La Nacion speculated that the error could have been in the numbering of the paragraphs and the modification could have been meant for, say, Article 207.

Meanwhile, the remarks that the new Minister of Public Security, Janina del Vecchio, made this week that crime was “not as bad as she expected to find it” before she took office continue to encounter contradiction in professional law enforcement circles. On Wednesday, Chief Prosecutor Francisco Dall’Anese testified before the Legislative Assembly, urging that crime be taken seriously as a danger to the nation. The day before, Judicial Investative agency (OIJ) chief Jorge Rojas had also emphasized that crime must be dealt with vigorously.

Commentary: Although the English-language weekly The Tico Times reported recently that President Oscar Arias’s approval figures have risen in recent polls, the Legislative Assembly has fallen even farther in public esteem. Is it any wonder?