About a year ago, I was riding my bicycle in the foothills above where I live when I arrived at a small town with a banner strung across the road that read:
COMUNIDAD UNIDO CONTRALAHAMPA RATAATRAPADA-RATALINCHADA.
Translated: Community united against the criminal world. Bad guy (Rat) caught- Bad guy lynched. It is important to clarify that the Spanish word for lynched does not carry the same deadly connotations as in English.
In Spanish, it indicates a sort of violent but not necessarily lethal justice, and as in English, it is applied not by law enforcement but by the community. To amplify the point, the banner included a drawing of a bad guy, balaclava and all, getting pummeled by various fists and feet.
Living in the more remote and rural areas of Costa Rica is a bit like the wild west. Law enforcement cannot be counted on to help in a dire situation. The nearest police may be an hour or more away. You learn to defend your own turf. Small communities band together in defense of their properties and possessions. On occasion, local groups will take the law into their own hands, all too familiar with the impotent justice system here that puts repeat theft offenders back on the street to rob over and over again.
Sadly, theft, in all of its forms, starts at the top here, with officials in positions of trust routinely finding ways to divert funds, or use inside information and their own well-cultivated connections to fatten their own personal bank accounts. From there it trickles down, to the common thief on the street who roams in the nocturnal hours, grabbing anything of value that is not locked up or nailed down, safe in the knowledge that even if caught, the punishment, such as it is, will be lenient, allowing him to be back on the night streets promptly.
I once witnessed a lynching of sorts, in broad daylight, right outside the office of a tour company I managed. A local petty thief had been caught red-handed, stealing from a parked car. Several locals, all of whom likely knew him–and had possibly been previous victims–, had him down on the ground and were administering a light punishment, mainly because he was trying to get up and get away. While they were restraining him, a passerby stopped his car, got out, and berated the group.
Words were exchanged, and I heard the passerby tell them that they were not the law. The response from the group was essentially–‘Do you want to join him on the ground?’ Eventually, the police arrived, and he was taken away for what was likely a slap on the wrist, as the amount stolen was classified as a misdemeanor.
In small towns and rural areas, it is often the same thieves, sometimes from the same extended families, who are the main perpetrators. This leads to a “usual suspects” scenario where when items go missing, these same people are the first to be pursued and accused. And in some cases, locals go the vigilante route, and frontier justice is meted out.
As for that banner I saw last year–when I rode up earlier this week, it was no longer there. I asked around, at the local pulperia and a bar that was opening for the day. All remembered the banner, but no one seemed to know what had happened to it. I hope it wasn’t stolen.
