Caldera - the worst in Chili/le pire du Chili
Caldera should have been for us just a village to pass by: check mail, buy bread and go on.......
But when I came back from checking the mails, a men, dressed as a marine officer, was turning around the truck. And when I asked what was going on he said « this truck bump on my car » showing a bulb on his hands.
Almost at the same time I said « I call my husband he’s inside ‘ a police car showed up. 3 or 4 police officers - carabineris - came out and we tried to understand what was going on. Once Eric parked while I was allready out of the truck I was not able to say if it was our fault or not, but I could not see any broken glass on the floor and I said so. The wife of the car owner replied that we had collected it and put it on the rubbish!
I was beginning to feel like in a mousetrap.
Eric said to the police officer that if it was his fault he was ready to pay the damage but he would like to be sure of it because the truck seemed to be higher than the bump in the car when they measured it. Straight away the woman said that there was a witness, and a man, half smiling, said he had seen it - and he went his way...
The police officer said that, with a witness we had to pay and that the owner of the car wanted to be damaged and we should do it straight away. He was asking for 100.000 pesos - something like 150 euros. We were a bit shocked by the amount that was almost a month of salary in Chili and we insisted to have a estimate and to have a document saying that we had pay this amount. The carabinieri keep saying that we should pay straight away that it was not a joke. Once more Eric insist to have a paper saying that we paid that amount, that we’ll need it for the insurance but he kept saying he had to paid it “al tiro” - it means “right now - hand to hand”. Facing our insistence, and with another carabinerie explaining that foreigner often have a travel insurance, the police officer said we should go to the police station. So, off we went.
I have to said that during all this time, the owner of the car, that was not a marine officer, but a army captain, didn't said a word to Eric. He spoke with the different officers present but didn’t say a word to any of us. The officer said even the amount asked.
Arriving to the police station we went on insisting to wait until tomorrow to have an estimate. It didn’t went very well: they didn’t wanted to wait to have a estimate and the officer in charge said, if we don’t paid we could not leave town, that we had to go to court and that it could take a couple of weeks. Of course, we were not very pleased. We tried to negotiate the amount but they said “ what’s that for you? “.
At a certain moment I decide to call the embassy to have some help but it was too late already.
And once,as Eric insisted again to wait for a estimate, the owner of the car said to the police officer that if we didn’t wanted to pay, we should go to court, and he left.
We got surprised, because, even if we speak the language, they were talking quite fast between them and we could not get what was going on.
When the guy left, Eric asks to the police officer if it was not normal to ask for an estimate.
And them things went really bad. The carabinerie beat strongly on his desk and screamed “ CALA-TE. NO ESTAS EN TU PAIS. AQUI ES CHILI. ES ASSIM QUE SE RESOLVEN PROBLEMAS EN CHILI” - that means literally “shut up, you are not in your country. Here is Chilli and that's how we work out problems in Chilli”.
I was shocked.
And in nothing of time ,I was thinking that it was not worse so much trouble for 150 euros. I just wanted to go out of there.
Eric said, “ you don’t need to scream. I’m not deaf” and he said, ”ok, where is the paper? I'll pay for it.”
I went to the truck to pick up the money, thinking that we were being robbed with the agreement of the carabinerie. What a fucking feeling.
We paid the amount, the papers were signed. The “carabinerie” asked Eric if it was like that the police worked in France and we could not help to say “ no, they work better” and I left.
The Captain wanted to shake Eric's hand,he refused and told him to have good holidays with the money he just stole us and that they should have a very bad day.
After we bought some bread and we went to the seaside, nearby to spend the evening.
I could not avoid crying. Not because of the money we had just give to those people but for the felling of injustice. The “carabineri” was not interested to know if he had bumped the car or not. We’re foreigner and we had to pay. He not even took note of the name and address of the supposed witness. If he had gone to court were was he? Witch kind of justice was that? If the guy had asked for 2 or 3 times more what could we do?
The “carabineri” in Chile have a word that resume they activity. “ Por la rason o por la força” - “By the reason or by the force”.
I guess it resumes the situation .