Police and other legal issues

[ANGELA SWOPE]

Living in the Dominican Republic, first of all, when you get police involved, first you pay them to work. Then you basically pay them to continue to work. What are the standards in Ecuador?

If a robbery is committed here and you know the robbers, you will need to hire a lawyer and then your lawyer needs to hire a lawyer for the robber(s). If the robber has no money. Basically, we have no public defenders!

So what happens in Ecuador?

[SUZAN HASKINS]

I don’t know much about this, either — but I have never heard of hiring an attorney for robbers in Ecuador. I think your interaction (or hopefully lack thereof) with police in Ecuador will depend where you live. Do you have a destination in mind?

And have you had to “hire” police often in the DR? I can’t recall anyone in Ecuador ever talking much about any interaction with police.

[ANGELA SWOPE]

That is exactly what we want to hear. Oh yes, we have had more than our fair share of interactions with the police and commendante, very pleasant man and we haven’t had to pay him. If you need someone arrested, again, you pay the police to arrest that person. See the government here is very very corruptand it starts at the President and just trickles down and doesn’t stop at government level it goes to the people. When an extranjero comes into the country they are seen as prey and fair game for all! Our landlord for example, thinks extranjeros come to this country to pay him, not because he has a rental house.

You’ve heard the saying “To rob Peter to pay Paul”? Well here, they’ll rob Peter, Paul and all their friends and not pay anyone! Haha! Crime is extremely high, it is robbery and drugs.

We lived here a little over two months and we had lots of jewelry stolen, not because the house got broken into, because the the house cleaner and friend went through my house while we and our friend were at the capital getting our residency resolved. These people knew how long we would be gone and took their time. The house cleaner is our friends (the friend that went to the capital) girlfriend and the other guy we have known for years, actually everyone we had known for years, so it’s not like it was just someone off the street. People that know you will rob you! Nothing ever happened to anyone!

It will be actually comforting to live somewhere where it is not so corrupt!

Sorry, longer answer than I intended but the last 18 mons here have been interesting and frustrating at the same time.

[ANGELA SWOPE]

Got so involved in the story and forgot to answer your question. We are looking in the Quenca area or surrounding valleys like Yunguilla.

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