Ban on Fake Marriages Blocked
by Rod Hughes
That bill to ban fake marriages in order to obtain Costa Rican residency visas (see newsfeed 1312) is being blocked in the Legislative Assembly by a large, stubborn obstacle—the bruised ego of Oscar Lopez, the sole representative in congress of the miniscule Access without Exclusion Party.
Lopez submitted a similar, but less complete, bill last August. But a later bill was sponsored by National Liberation Party floor leader Francisco Pacheco and independent Evita Arguedas this year, drafted with the help of Immigration Director Mario Zamora. The Pacheco-Arguedas bill would not only revise the Family Code to forbid the marriage of local women to foreigners living outside the country whom they have never met but would revise the Criminal Code to punish lawyers who arrange such spurious marriages.
But Lopez vows to fight the newer bill, taking it as an insult. “I’m fighting for the right that my ideas be respected,” he told the weekly Tico Times, “They could have made suggestions for my bill and not do what they did—Throw mine in the trash.” He says he plans to block passage by the familiar tactic of submitting a myriad amendments to it.
This is the same congressional loose cannon, it will be remembered, who told a provincial radio station’s audience that passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement would pave the way for local private hospitals to trade in transplantable organs. (See newsfeed 1306) He went so far as to name three of the most prestigious hospitals in the country and implied that the poor indigenous people might have their organ “harvested.” (One, Clinica Biblica, has not discounted the idea of a libel suit against Lopez but must wait until the congressman’s term ends, when he will lose congressional immunity.)
The Tico Times, in its usual thorough coverage, spelled out the human cost for women who sign a marriage application form in exchange for as little as $25-50. Many women cannot get married and have trouble getting a divorce because they hardly know the name of their “husband,” let alone any data about him including current address. This lack of data also blocks their access to social services, welfare and low-cost housing. Should they have a child while the marriage is in force, they cannot go after the biological father for child support since it is their phantom “husband” whose name is automatically on the birth certificate.
The Pacheco-Arguedas bill would, unlike Lopez’s, punish lawyers arranging such marriages with 5 to 7 years in prision and specifies sentences for both the foreigner and the local accomplice. For some sleezy lawyers, the ban alone will represent a loss in their shady dealings. They charge foreigners $10,000 to process such a marriage and, except for what they give the women and small legal fees, they get to pocket the rest.
No one would be happier than Immigration chief Zamora to see either bill pass. He has pointed out that such fast-track visas cut short the process that often filters out criminals trying to enter the country. His own efforts to reject or at least slow down these visas have twice earned him sharp censures from the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Chamber since he assumed duties last year. Some 1,700 such marriages are currently pending.
The lawyers who stand to lose this gravy train apparently are not above playing hardball. About 50 women trappd in this fake wedlock planned to attend a recent press conference regarding the bill. Most were detered by death threats and the handful that did turn up refused to talk with the press. Authorities know of 54 lawyers involved in this shady trade, Zamora says.
But women already caught in such marriages would not be helped by either bill because constitutionally it cannot be made retroactive. But the Pacheco-Arguedas draft would at least make it easier to obtain an annulment.