The thoughts and writings below are those of Don Freeman at the International Whale Protection Organization, and we thank him for his time and contributions here on The Costa Rica Star. You can click here to read a previous article contribution of his or click here to read previous articles published about Paul Watson.
The President of Costa Rica has openly declared that activist Paul Watson will receive a fair trial for charges stemming from a decade-past ship collision with a fishing boat that was engaged in criminal activities in Guatemalan waters. President Chinchilla’s assessment of this situation seems somewhat dubious in light of both past and recent events. Suspicions of undue international or criminal interference in Costa Rica’s judicial process are not without merit.
What Happened?
In 2002 Sea Shepherd carried out a campaign against shark-finning – the practice of catching sharks, removing the fins, and then dumping the rest of the animal back into the sea (often still alive). Tens of millions of sharks are killed annually to supply fins for the production of shark fin soup which is a delicacy in several Asian countries. Sharks are also marketed as holistic medicine in places where people mistakenly believe that consuming sharks cures disease (it does not). In fact, up to 95% of the world’s dried shark fins are consumed in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The decimation of shark populations world-wide has led to bans of the practice in many countries including 63 members of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (Costa Rica among them).
When Paul Watson and his crew aboard the Ocean Warrior encountered the Costa Rican flagged Varadero they filmed the crew catching sharks in Guatemalan waters and cutting off fins. The following clip from the documentary film “Sharkwater” serves as evidence:
3:30-3:34 Varadero fisherman cuts off a shark fin and tosses it into a basket.
4:23 Varadero pulls a shark on board
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4:48 Varadero rams Sea Shepherd.
4:54 Varadero pulls another shark on board.
5:15 Varadero with shark on deck – fins already removed.
5:21 Varadero with another shark on deck – fins intact.
According to Watson, the activists intercepted Varadero with the permission of the Guatemalan government. When the Costa Rican shark-finning boat refused to return to port Sea Shepherd turned water cannons on the fishermen and the two vessels collided. After the confrontation the Varadero agreed to return to port with Ocean Warrior. However, the activists later received word that a Guatemalan gunboat was going to arrest them rather than the shark-finning boat. Watson released the Varadero and sailed to Costa Rica.
When they arrived in Puntarenas officials boarded Watson’s ship to investigate claims made by the crew of the Varadero. Watson was charged but the charge was dismissed. He was charged a second time within a matter of days and again the charges were dropped. However, in Costa Rica an accused man can be jailed for one year while authorities perform an investigation and after two sets of dropped charges the odds of a fair day in court appeared increasingly unlikely. Even after receiving permission to leave the activists were chased. They fled Costa Rica tossing a copy of the documents authorizing their ship’s release in a bottle, to a patrol boat, on the way out. These events are also documented in another film about Paul Watson titled “The Whale Warrior: Pirate for the Sea”
Why not charge the shark poachers?
The documentary film “Sharkwater” also went on to expose the size of illegal shark-finning operations in Costa Rica finding thousands of fins drying on rooftops behind high walls at private docks.
On camera, Paul Watson complained, “How come everybody’s ignoring that the Varadero I violated Guatemalan law, Costa Rican law, and international law, and we have the evidence on that. They cannot take sharks for fins alone. They cannot fish in Guatemalan waters. They cannot fish outside of Costa Rica without a permit. That’s illegal! Everybody’s ignoring that.”
Ten years have passed and now Paul Watson finds himself charged once again by Costa Rican officials and facing extradition from Germany over the same 2002 collision with Varadero. However, there seems to be no report of charges against the Varadero crew despite any video evidence presented to authorities.
Perhaps the environmental group PRETOMA can illustrate why. On January 8, 2011, biologist Jorge Ballestro attempted to expose continued shark finning in Puntarenas. He attempted to video tape a large quantity of shark fins being dried on racks and the ground at a dock on the east side of the Puntarenas Municipal Market. According to PETROMA’s report, Ballestro was physically confronted and threatened by a group of five men who tried to take his camera and forced him to flee into the market. When a police patrol got involved the officers sided with the criminals. However, another environmentalist was able to record the evidence.
In a similar confrontation, without the presence of police, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay was also threatened by a gang of shark finning criminals who doused him with gasoline and held him at gun point. Ramsay was simply told by Costa Rican authorities to flee the country for his own safety. Environmentalists are not the only people at risk. A recent survey revealed that about half of all Costa Ricans live in fear of being a victim of crime while only 15% would actually report criminal activity to authorities.
Why Watson and why now?
International influence in the affairs of the Costa Rican government may also play a role in the ongoing attempt to extradite Paul Watson from Germany. It was reported in May that Costa Rican authorities did not have the resources to extradite an American to face charges after an auto accident that left a pedestrian with a broken leg – the driver fled the country after posting bail. It seems that Costa Rica must have devoted all of its “resources” to apprehending Paul Watson over this decade-old incident with Varadero.
In 2006, a judge in the Tribunal de Juicio declared that Watson was a fugitive for failing to appear at a trial in San José and issued an order for his arrest. Watson claimed he had not been informed of the trial and had no lawyer in Costa Rica at the time.
Of course, Paul Watson has tested the limits of several national governments over many years of activism. The television series “Whale Wars” documents anti-whaling actions taken against Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary surrounding Antarctica. The 2011 campaign was extremely successful in limiting the number of whales killed and embarrassing the government of Japan in the process. However, in October of 2011, Japan announced the annual subsidized whale hunt would continue from January through March, 2012. Costa Rica coincidentally also called for Watson’s extradition in October.
Over the months leading up to the next Sea Shepherd Antarctic campaign, interaction between the governments of Costa Rica and Japan notably increased. In December, 2011 President Chinchilla and Foreign Minister Castillo made an official diplomatic visit to Japan and announced increased economic cooperation between the two nations along with Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. As Japan’s lawyers engaged Sea Shepherd in a Seattle court seeking an injunction to prevent continued interference with Antarctic whaling, Costa Rica sought Watson’s arrest and secured a bonus from Japan.
Prime Minister Noda extended an invitation to Costa Rican officials to participate in the Asia Latin-America High Level Meeting on Environment Business. President Chinchilla also expressed her nation’s desire to join APEC and promote new Free Trade Agreements with Asian countries.
In February, 2012 Judge Richard A. Jones denied an injunction in Japan’s lawsuit against Sea Shepherd.
In March, 2012, INTERPOL “issued a written statement to all 190 member countries making it clear that it would not publish a Red Notice seeking the arrest of Paul Franklin Watson because its Office of Legal Affairs was not satisfied that the request was in compliance with INTERPOL’s Constitution and Rules.”
Finally, on May 13, 2012 Paul Watson was detained at the Frankfurt airport in Germany as a result of Costa Rica’s extradition requests. The government that ignored the criminal acts of the Varadero – twice charged and released Watson in 2002 – charged him for a third time in 2006 – issued an extradition request for Watson in 2011 – announced increased economic cooperation with Japan in 2011 to coincide with Japan’s legal action against Sea Shepherd – now dubiously claims the legal high ground.
President Chinchilla contends that Watson will get a fair trial in a country where brazen criminals involved in an internationally prohibited shark fin industry can openly threaten the lives of environmentalists without fear of law enforcement – in the shadow of Japan’s economic influence and investment in an internationally prohibited whaling industry. Meanwhile Costa Ricans live in fear of domestic criminal gangs, sharks continue to die by tens of millions each year for their fins, and Chinchilla’s cabinet members continue to resign (including the minister of justice).