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The tale of a teenage girl who, while on vacation in Costa
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the wonders and beauties of Costa Rica and as she, at the
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had been to the Costa Brava many times previously and stayed in
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The first land sighted was the sandy loam on Cayo Romano, and as the sun set in tropical suddenness, a fire flickered from the summit and was answered by a second flare on the distant heights of Cubitas: a message from the watchful guardia costa to the beleaguered Cuban Government, which has meted isolated justice in spirit rather than in letter, that the day of Cuba's triumph was at hand
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US intelligence discovered a plot to assassinate Secretary of State Kissinger in 1976 in Costa Rica, and the Foreign Minister of Costa Rica as well
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George had done extremely well as a computer programmer, however, the fast paced, highly competitive Silicon Valley life was not suitable to his gentle nature, so several years earlier, he had come to Costa Rica with his wife and the apple of his eye, his beloved daughter, to start over where the peaceful lifestyle was much more to his liking
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To make matters worse, the owner had abandoned some huge debts when he left Costa Rica, and to collect, liens had been registered against the farm
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They were all in Costa Rica hiding, she said, behind its laws that limit extradition to only the most serious of crimes and prohibit it if a death penalty awaits
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Among the Costa Rican regulars was a federal narcotics officer with hanging jowls and baldhead who, according to her, stole kilos of confiscated cocaine and sold them himself
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” Hair, as far as Sylvia was concerned, was a different matter entirely: no half-savage Costa Rican was going to touch hers
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“Puriscal, what a beautiful name! I saw some of Costa Rica’s mountains on the drive up from Limon and the scenery was just marvelous
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“I consider Puriscal to be one of Costa Rica’s most picturesque areas
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She helped to get the horse cooled down, brushed out and settled in its stall, chatting continually of her friendship with Sylvia: “When she started coming to Costa Rica, it was just for brief vacations, but I opened my home to her and showed her the ropes
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“Right – but tell me, you seem to have been down here for a while, why does a geologist stay down here in Costa Rica when the good money is obviously back in The States?” Sylvia was certainly blunt, but she had been so open about herself – it was Beth’s turn
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“So, what brings you to Costa Rica?” he queried, shrugging his shoulders at her refusal, then pinched the joint between fingertips studying, first it, then her, before sucking in another drag
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She did want to see the rest of Costa Rica, but she missed Truman
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“Ya see what I mean?” he questioned when the hooker became unable to continue, “she didn’t do this on her own! When I first got her to tell me this, I figgered that the Tierney broad got Chiquita to help her rob us, and that, of course, meant that the American broad had been sent down here to Costa Rica by someone who knew about the cans – Sal, of course
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Yet, as he came to know Costa Rica, the place grew on him till he came to love it and to consider that blowing away that kid back in Boston had been the best thing he’d ever done for himself
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But probably the best thing about living in Costa Rica was that the fucking wop was completely out of his life – at least that’s what he’d thought until now with this American bitch showing up knowing that the money would be in the tuna cans
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He claimed that he was ‘so happy to have located an old friend in Costa Rica’ because he was retired and living here now
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Costa Rica, a defenseless nation without armed forces, had, at that time, been the apprehensive witness to Nicaragua’s civil war unfolding across its northern border
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Nevertheless, with it supposedly finished, armored personnel carriers, helicopters and airplanes, offensive weapons that gave them the capacity to overrun Costa Rica in a matter of days, continued to arrive
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Costa Rican log barges loaded with cargo harvested on the Pacific Coast routinely passed through the Panama Canal
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Log barges were selected for several reasons: they carried no crew who might otherwise stumble across the drug and, bound for Costa Rica, not the US or Europe, they would not arouse undue suspicion in the tightly monitored canal
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The distribution of payments to various officials within Costa Rica would be entrusted to him
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Truman was directed to rendezvous with a Costa Rican fisherman on the narrow peninsula forming the breakwater for the port of Bluefields
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The other was to be returned to the Costa Rican, a young fisherman by the name of Gordon Edward
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Sal came up with the idea of the Costa Rica trip to see if perhaps they could hook up with Charlie’s connection
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Caroline had often boasted that with the connections she had, the law in Costa Rica was nothing to be feared, so with heart in throat, Sylvia called begging her assistance
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Sylvia might have put up a stink but, as she had so often, Caroline came to the rescue whenever Mike encountered another of Costa Rica’s insurmountable bureaucratic obstacles to just about anything
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“Sal? You’re still trying to accuse Sal? I’ll have you know that he’s holding up his end, just fine! There aren’t any problems in Boston, but we sure do have a big one here in Costa Rica now that you’ve put those two women on the run!”
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Based upon his unblemished military record and experience as an investigator, the Costa Rican National Police (OIJ) offered the job he eventually accepted
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As it turned out, his assignment to the division came at a most opportune time: Costa Rica had recently succumbed to US pressure insisting that it expand its efforts against cocaine
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As Costa Rica gave way to the political arm-twisting, so did other countries lying in cocaine’s northbound path as the field of players on both sides of the law expanded enormously
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Twice, when a Tweety-Bird shipment arrived in Costa Rica, OIJ officers were there, waiting and, with each, Edgar’s stature within the department increased
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It became routine and, in increments too small to be noticed, Sylvia’s time in Costa Rica dwindled to but a day or two
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Her frequent trips to Boston for the purpose of personally carrying cash to Costa Rica where she could deposit it as La Hacienda profit were creating too regular of a pattern that was bound to attract attention eventually
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She left it to Sal to come up with a new and safer method for transporting the cash to Costa Rica, and the other problems, legal and domestic, regarding the mule and his family
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She left directly for Costa Rica and the inevitable showdown with Mike
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She scurried back to Costa Rica, bought the drug and condoms and sent Alfredo off on his first trip as a seahorse
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She stayed in Costa Rica for the entire two weeks they were down, keeping them in line by her presence and seeing to it that they left when they should
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As she learned later, when her attorney was allowed access to the report, the Boston PD’s narcotics division had called Costa Rica, informing the OIJ of the arrest of her man at Logan International
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Only in Costa Rica did they need to arrive without arousing suspicion, and Sal saw to it that they left Boston clean and straight
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She accepted and they married in a civil ceremony in Costa Rica
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It began later that month with the arrival in Costa Rica of two of Mike’s friends
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A sympathetic court granted her title to all his property within Costa Rica
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Mike and each of his two friends promptly received three thousand dollars, and Sylvia’s gratuity was set at five thousand dollars, which Caroline intended to give her personally upon her return to Costa Rica
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He said there isn’t enough fuel to make it to Costa Rica and even if there was, he wouldn’t do it without cash in advance
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This is Doña Sylvia Henderson speaking from Puriscal, Costa Rica
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You have transported horses for me from Costa Rica to Charleston many times, and you have been paid in full and on time for every one of those shipments at a rate that we both know is very good
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But he meant, ‘anything in Costa Rica’, and the horses were in international waters, almost within the borders of the United States
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Whether the practice began in San José or Limon was unclear, but it spread to affect all of Costa Rica, burglaries and muggings, practically unknown before, becoming common and increasingly violent
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When the Mick had departed Boston abruptly to live in Costa Rica, it was Kevin’s reputation for brutal strength that held the gang together and kept intact the chain of authority, with Mike on top but with himself firmly established as number one in Boston
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Those two weeks they were in Costa Rica had been a non-stop party that shifted between La Hacienda and San José’s hottest nightspots
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He applied through the Costa Rican consulate for residency and, as it turned out, the timing was perfect: no sooner had a certified clean bill of health from the Vancouver police been submitted than his ship began to sink
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Fortunately for him and foolishly on their part, they confronted him before lodging a complaint with the police (who in their investigation uncovered the coke sales) and, by the time the charges became official, Brian and his money were safely in Costa Rica – but he would never be able to get around the background investigation required for licensing
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It felt wonderful to be in Costa Rica for more than just another in-and-out buying trip
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Continuing south, she had cause to wonder at the state of relations between Costa Rica and Panama, for the squads of automatic weapon toting men in fatigues gathered along the north-bound side of the highway
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But, they crossed and so, with Costa Rica behind them, Sylvia could now relax: vacation had begun
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He blanched, but that was followed by a wide, welcome smile – which washed away upon Sylvia’s request for a trial purchase with delivery in Costa Rica
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“In Costa Rica the price is different
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“Well, in that case, why don’t we talk about it another day?” She lay awake that night remembering that Caroline said she and Mike passed from Costa Rica to Bocas del Toro and back again in a canoe, unnoticed by officials from either country
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In the trip between Bocas del Toro and Puerto Viejo, Sylvia was searched twice, and both times in Costa Rica
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Both equipments were required for the vessel’s overdue inspection, but, he joked, he simply avoided Costa Rica’s only Caribbean coast guard cutter by monitoring its radio operating frequency
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He was the untalented third son to a powerful family for generations on the inner-circle of Costa Rican power
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From when it was first proposed, Gordon had used all of his influence and politician’s skills to fight against submitting to US political pressure that Costa Rica increase enforcement against drug trafficking
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That was hidden behind a screen of legitimacy to the highest levels in the governments of Costa Rica, Panama and Columbia
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His concern had been that tougher enforcement would create a spiral of violence such as Costa Rica had never seen: it would increase risk for the traffickers, that, in turn, would boost prices, which would attract even greater numbers of them, although those who came would come armed to defend themselves from the aggressive efforts of law enforcement
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In his fifteen years of living in the country, he had heard countless similar stories, which combined to convince him that fifty percent of the foreigners who came to Costa Rica with money to invest lost it all
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Improper registration (what apparently had happened to George) was the most common method employed, although abuse of Costa Rica’s misguided squatter’s rights laws was another popular ploy
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For reasons of his own, the bank president didn’t want a police investigation in the Caymans, particularly in view of the fact that their police were sure to request the cooperation of the OIJ in Costa Rica
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It was a very good life he was enjoying in Costa Rica
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If his Costa Rican residency was revoked because of this, the party would be over
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The manager wasn’t new to the business or the workings of San José; he was well aware that Leon was connected with a source of power in Costa Rica, a source that had on numerous occasions performed the impossible for this valuable client who asked only to be forgotten
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He let Edward explain his problem, then threw a price out that would be considered high in New York: for Costa Rica, it was a number of astronomical proportions
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And secondly, I don’t think you realize just how long it takes to get things such as that done here in Costa Rica
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This man, also with white hair (Dutch he believed, and whose name was Andre something-or-other), sold machines that had been smuggled into the country to avoid Costa Rica’s exorbitantly high taxes, and business with him was strictly cash
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Frazer departed Costa Rica surreptitiously on official assignment before the date of the murder, and the OIJ’s cooperation in not drawing attention to his movements would be appreciated
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As Brian whiled away his time in San Sebastian prison, feeling more frustrated by the day with Costa Rica’s judicial system, he was, nonetheless, well cared for by Caroline
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Under Costa Rican law, if a man has a child in Costa Rica, he cannot leave the country without providing support payments for a minimum of three years
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In his case, if Canada became successful in its attempt to extradite him, he would have no income for the next twenty-five years, and Costa Rica required that any child of his be provided Ottawa’s support until its eighteenth birthday
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Also unnoticed was that Gene Frazer was tapping every source available in the US Embassy and the Costa Rican government, attempting to identify the origin of the information that led to his friend Brian’s arrest
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“All I know, Señorita Tierney,” his voice implying accusation, “is that your federal government is continuing to investigate the incident and coincidentally, you have chosen the time of that inquiry for your travel to Costa Rica
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In Costa Rica, it is a serious crime to make false statements in an official investigation
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In the course of just one year, the career she’d studied and worked so hard for was destroyed, she’d been accused of embezzling the US government and then, when she’d thought she had left all of that behind and made a new beginning for herself in Costa Rica, it started all over
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What bothers me more is this shit the US is trying to get Costa Rica to accept, this time about sending US military troops here
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Imagine, Truman? The US army right here with authority to arrest – it’s a goddamn invasion! How would they like to have Costa Rican soldiers walking US streets, arresting their citizens inside their own borders? I’ve already prepared information sheets about the proposals, and sent one to every elected official
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Three million of their citizens are locked behind bars – that’s practically the entire population of Costa Rica
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Has there ever been a period in Nicaraguan history when las Imperialistas haven’t been happily raping your country? I know the answer: no, there hasn’t, and what about Panama, Cuba, Chile, Venezuela, or Costa Rica for that matter
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He wasn’t a professional, just an underpaid driver manipulated into smuggling cocaine across the Costa Rica - Panama border
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So, it must be! A face such as the guards had seen could only be his! Raul’s cousin must indeed be alive and, for unknown reasons, here in Costa Rica, visiting two men in San Sebastian prison
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Shortly after Raul departed Nicaragua, Edgar too emigrated, but to Costa Rica, and was accepted into the national police department
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It was years later that a message arrived from Raul stating that his emigration to Costa Rica would be approved if a sponsor and employment could be found
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Yet even when reunited in Costa Rica, years after the tragedy of his wife and children’s loss, Edgar religiously avoided mention of wartime events
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Raul’s post with the Nicaraguan embassy was to locate war refugees living in Costa Rica, and offer them the opportunity to return home with full amnesty and the right to claim a plot in Nicaragua’s ongoing land redistribution program
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Edgar had told him Truman was possibly involved with criminal activities again, here in Costa Rica
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Another time, while we were dating, he bragged that his friends bring his money back to Costa Rica packed in tuna cans
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He kept on with his story, saying that he had information which could prove that a high ranking member of Costa Rica’s political establishment operated a large-scale cocaine smuggling ring