Laura Chinchilla on Sexism

Former Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla has a great op-ed in the Spanish edition of The New York Times about sexism and female presidents. Even using some data, she shows how women are valued less, their governments are written about less, and their personal characteristics get more attention (she notes how often she was asked if she cried after some dramatic event). She lauds the quota laws that are common in Latin America, which bring more women into politics.

She ends on an optimistic note, talking how some trends toward equality are now irreversible. Perhaps most importantly, people know women can be president, which of course is something we haven't yet tackled in the United States.

I will end on a less optimistic note. I could not find an English version of this article.

In other words, an article about sexism falls to sexism. Since we in the United States have a difficult time accepting the notion of a woman as president, and since we refuse quotas despite having legislators who are overwhelmingly male, we're the ones that need to see it.

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Framing Immigration in Costa Rica

Caitlin E. Fouratt, "'Those Who Come to Do Us Harm': The Framing of Immigration Problems in Costa Rican Immigration Law." International Migration Review 48, 1 (Spring 2014): 144-180. Gated link

Abstract:

This article examines the political rationales at work behind the particularly repressive 2006 Costa Rican immigration law and subsequent immigration reform process and resulting 2010 law through an analysis of two rival framings of immigration in Costa Rica. First, I examine how the rushed nature of the 2006 law constructed a crisis in which migrants, particularly Nicaraguans, represented urgent threats to national security. Next, I examine the 2010 law that emerged from the reform process and the alternative framings of immigration as an issue of human rights and integration that migration advocates contributed to the new law. I argue that the juxtaposition of integration and security frameworks in the new law reinforces the law's most repressive measures, contributing to an overall project of securitization and marginalization of immigrants.

This should sound familiar! She starts with a quote from a member of Congress, and this could've come out of the mouths of any number of counterparts in the United States:

…Costa Rica continues being Costa Rica, although we have been bombarded by brothers from third countries and our borders have remained open, unfortunately, for many who do not come to Costa Rica to do good, but rather to do bad, many of them come to kill our women; many of them come to rob our banks; to rob our sons and daughters in the streets […] the moment has arrived for making decisions to not continue with the windows and doors of our house open so that anyone can enter, and although we give them our heart, although we care for them, they come in to our house to rob us, to rape us. […] Mr. President, fellow Congressmen and women, […] why continue opening [the country, the border] to those who come to do harm, to collapse our education system, to abuse our medical services?”

The nasty immigrants are coming for our women!

When I was in Costa Rica a few years ago, I heard disparaging comments about Nicaraguan migrants more than once in only a short visit. It's like Leo Chávez's argument about a "Latino threat narrative" in the United States. As Fouratt notes, the security narrative that existed in the U.S. and then accelerated after 9/11 is being incorporated elsewhere. It's remarkable how similar the entire process is to the United States, including increased reliance on ad hoc administrative solutions to problems that legislation creates and does not deal with adequately.

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Exceptions to exceptionalism

We just started talking about Central America in my Latin American Politics course.  I begin by discussing some of the issues that all the countries face, then explain the ways in which Costa Rica is exceptional.  The idea that Costa Rica is different is pretty deeply ingrained, so in recent years it has been disconcerting to see more exceptions to that exceptionalism.  From InSight:

More money is laundered through Costa Rica than any other Central American country, according to a study presented by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE).

Of the estimated $14 billion laundered in Central American countries between 2000 and 2009, more than $4 billion passed through Costa Rica’s financial sector,

Just another example of how overwhelming the drug trade can be.  A troubling addition is that DTOs have latched on to remittance financial institutions as a way to launder money.  Governments have been working for years to make it easier to send remittances, which then opens up the door to illegal money.

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Costa Rica election

It looks like Laura Chinchilla of the PLN will win the Costa Rican presidential election.  Chrissie Long and Sara Miller Llana have a good article in the Christian Science Monitor about the almost total absence of the left in the election.  I also like it because it makes no mention of Hugo Chávez, as I expect to see media attention on Chile and Costa Rica as some sort of rightward trend even though the political contexts of the countries are very different.

Regardless, it is nice to see the election of female presidents as something rather commonplace in Latin America.

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Biden's trip to Costa RIca

Can you hear that? It is the sound of calm, spiced a bit with common sense. It may not last--indeed historically it never has--but let's enjoy it while we can. We start with Costa Rica re-establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba, followed by President-elect Funes in El Salvador saying he will do the same once he takes office.

Taken alone, that is not very exciting. The U.S. chastises them for doing so, reiterates its commitment to cutting Cuba off as much as possible, and makes references to bad leftists. Right? Well, actually Joe Biden is traveling to Costa Rica on March 30, where he will meet all the Central American presidents, even Daniel Ortega (and Funes will accompany current President Saca). And, gasp, not even any "preconditions."

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Another record drug seizure

Last month I wrote about the use of “record” with regard to fighting drug trafficking. Everything is a “record” to show how well the drug war is progressing. Now the news is that with the help of the U.S. Coast Guard, Costa Rica reports a biggest pot bust in the country's history. For reasons not clear to me, they explain it was enough “to roll 17,600 joints.” Since when did we start measuring marijuana busts in terms of potential rolled joints?

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Costa Rica and free trade

I was asked by Carlos Sandoval García, the director of the Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales at the Universidad de Costa Rica to help publicize their new blog, which they hope can be a forum for debating whether or not to ratify the free trade agreement (i.e. CAFTA-DR). There is a referendum on October 7. The blog also has links to a number of different videos, academic works, official declarations, press accounts, etc.

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Costa Rica and dollars

One thing that really struck me in Costa Rica is the degree of dollarization: the dollar is ubiquitous. Especially because of the tourist industry, on several occasions in stores I would get out colones and the cashier would have to get out a calculator to change the price from dollar to colón. If you never ventured past tourist spots, there would be no reason to change any money.

At the same time, however, other places listed everything in colones, though I have a hunch they’d accept dollars without batting an eyelash. Other places would accept a combination of the two.

Thus, Costa Rica retains the ability to adjust its exchange rate while facilitating investment, trade and tourism by allowing foreigners to keep many transactions in dollars. That potential adjustment, though, is limited, as the country has a “crawling band” (until 2006 it had a crawling peg, which was even more restrictive) whereby its relationship to the dollar can not move upward or downward more than 3%, an amount that will increase slightly over time.

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Costa Rica

I am off to San José for a conference. I don't know what my internet access will be, but even if it is readily available, I don't envision sitting in front of a computer much, so for the next few days blogging will either be light or non-existent.

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