New Costa Rican Deportation Statute Being Tested

In mid-August 1986, Costa Rica enacted a new deportation statute which is already finding spectacular application in the case of Maneul Elizalde, the former head of the Philippine minorities agency.  Elizalde is reportedly the inventor of the Tasaday prehistoric tribe the "discovery" of which was considered an ethnological sensation.  Elizalde has been living in Costa Rica as an investor benefiting from favorable tax treatment, for the past two years.