When we went to get our despacho to leave Luperon I went to the Comandante.

He told me the despacho was $20US.

I said that the law was $10US for the despacho.

He said, "Yes, 10 dollars for the despacho --AND 10 dollars for ME."

I told him the law said it was _only_ $10US.  It didn't say anything about a  'requisit propina' for the Comandante.

He said that was a lie.  It was the same in any other port, and then rattled off a few names.

I told him, that my spanish wasn't so good, could he call this telephone number and explain it to my friend, and then she could explain it to me in english....and then I gave him the phone number of Sobeida.

He began to scream, "This is not Tourism!  This is not Immigration!  This is the Marine de Guerra!"  He even walked out and pointed to the lettering above the  door as he repeated himself.  ....and then he stormed off around the corner leaving me with sheepish underlings who couldn't/wouldn't answer any of my questions.

We had already cleared Customs and the Portuaria and have been pushing to leave for the last week,  I paid him $20US so we could leave and asked for a receipt.  He wrote a receit on the despacho and wished me a nice trip and got in his car and left.

So for my 'extra' 10 dollars...if anyone has the email address of anyone who might be in a position to hear my complaint....I'm all ears.

Oh, and the Comandante's name....

Thanks.

The price has been $20 for the 5 years I have been here. There have been numerous complaints, all to no avail. In my opinion, the real problem is that they do not give a formal, numbered receipt on official paper.  The Customs have always done so. This would remove the suspicion of graft.   

We actually gave a ride to one of Customs, etc people one day . He was heading to the bank in PP with the weeks cash. 

Actually the price has NOT been $20 for the 5 years that you've been here...unless you left the DR before the law was changed in April 2009.

Take a look:

http://docs.google.com/a/wadda.org/leaf?id=0BwUEKyFMqqIsNzkwMzdkY2YtMGEwNC00N2ExLWJkNWQtOGRlYzYzYWQzOGVj&sort=name&layout=list&num=50

The problem isn't receipts.  The problem is corrupt officials who expect compliance with the law that they themselves do not....

I had two other encounters with comadantes in other Dominican ports.  the comandante in Punta Rusia was friendly and benign.  The comandante at Manzanillo Bay (Sr. Montero) was friendly, professional...had a copy of maritime laws on his desk, and never once asked for money....because he was following the law.

A friend of ours just arrived into Luperon, he stopped in Samana on his way and he said that the officials there were very professional, that he wasn't asked for any bribe, that they came out to his boat, asked permission to come aboard and removed their shoes. They have a decent dinghy dock with security, lots of local shops, all in all a clean town. He believes that Samana has changed for the better as a result of the cruise ships that dock there. If Samana can do it, I am sure we can improve things here even if we don't have the cruise ships.

A friend of ours just arrived into Luperon, he stopped in Samana on his way and he said that the officials there were very professional, that he wasn't asked for any bribe, that they came out to his boat, asked permission to come aboard and removed their shoes. They have a decent dinghy dock with security, lots of local shops, all in all a clean town. He believes that Samana has changed for the better as a result of the cruise ships that dock there. If Samana can do it, I am sure we can improve things here even if we don't have the cruise ships.

For sure there are certain things that can upset one in pretty well all countries. Each country has it's ways of doing things and we, as guests of any country, must sometimes learn to "bite our tongues" and accept things as they are. Latino countries in particular have extremely strong feelings about "lack of respect" and to publicly deride a Public Official is generally construed as such. They generally take this very personally. One needs to be quite careful how one speaks publicly in Latin America.

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