Costa Rica: Elimination of Passport Requirement Mulled

Panama and Costa Rica have a long history of cordial relations and both Panama's President Ricardo Martinelli and Costa Rica's Lara Chinchilla would dearly love to eliminate the passport requirement between their nations.

But, desirable as that would be for tourism and trade, it raises one sticky question: How are you going to control easy access by evil-doers?

When they met at Sixaola on the southern border to this country last Friday, both Martinelli and Chinchilla announced a cooperative effort to obtain credit for construction of a permanent bridge between the two countries.

The chief executives would like to have a system where residents of both countries would merely flash their cedulas -- identification cards used universally in each country -- to border authorities.

Both chief executives envision a duplicate of the happy situation enjoyed by the United States and Canada, even though that free-flowing border is of some concern both to the U.S. Homeland Security and the Canada Royal Mounted Police.

But, even with the current formal relations between the two Central American neighbors, both are plagued with narcotics traffic between countries and the clandestine passage of international fugitives.

Costa Rican Security Minister Mario Zamora backed away from the plan immediately. "It isn't very secure," he said nervously, "and, at any rate, could not be applied right away."

"The trick is to make passage between border posts (Sixaola and Paso Canoas) more flexible," he said, "without sacrificing security." He admitted that the idea of eliminating the passport requirement has been analyzed for some months.

But he also pointed out that, at best, there is only one functioning border post on the porous border and that illegal passage is frequent now. Police complain that South American drug traffickers, like Colombians, pass through now.

Only the Sixaola River divides the territories. "And forging a cedula would be even easier than getting a false passport," said Zamora.

Certainly, the passport situation is a headache to residents close to each border. Trade is brisk on either side.

By Rod Hughes, Fijatevos.com