The Sober Vote

Last Friday night we prepared for "a night out" in a small town. In San Carlos there is one, and only one, lively town square, lined with cafes, bars, fried food shops, supermarkets and a giant church. There is one large billiard hall where the dress attire demands a cowboy hat, shirt is optional, and I'm not sure it is ever closed, and I'm not sure it is ever empty.

On the weekends the plaza gets fancy. There are half a dozen food carts selling fancy hot dogs and stuffed arepas and meat sticks. There is a light-up train with five-six cars that toots around carrying children away from their parents for a few moments, and trampolines where your kids can pay-to-play for as long as you need them entertained. Music comes from all sides and sometimes from the center. It is surprisingly busy for a pueblo of 14,000.

Except this past Friday. We arrived ready to rock, or to say, clean and with a small amount of money to spend. We ordered stuffed arepas and sat at a table behind the food cart, opened some bottles of beer we had bought the day before and sipped together. And then the whole plaza took notice as the police drove into the plaza in the back of a police truck. And then the food cart owner came over with a worried look on his face.

There's a law, he said. You aren't allowed to drink here tonight. It's because of the vote.

And without question, we shoved the bottles in a bag and quickly finished our small plastic cups. But then looking around, it all started to make sense.

The men playing billiards across the way were all drinking coffee, and with less enthusiasm than usual. There were no young people around. At the bars, the only bottles on tables were of soda. All the "nightclubs" (all two? three?) were shuttered. There was to be no "rumba" this Friday. On the weekend of a nationwide vote, it is against the law to sell alcohol, or drink.

Of course for us the law is subjective. We aren't voting, we are supporting the local economy. And we weren't looking for trouble, just some gosh-darn regaeeton* and icy beverages. But alas, the legitimacy of Latin America elections demands, in many countries in fact, that for the public to make an educated decision, they need to be completely sober and perhaps a bit jaded that their free-choice of how to spend their weekend.

What an absolute shame that despite everyone giving up their free-will weekend, there still weren't enough people who voted to approve an Anti-Corruption Law.

San Pedro, from a nearby hillside, in its hot-ass glory.