What good is a luxury facade if the base is garbage? The earthquake is not fooled by the "makeup" of expensive tiles or finishes; seismic waves expose the truth of the foundations. When a stingy buyer who builds without plans to save colones joins forces with a careless builder or a dishonest condo salesman working illegally for quick cash, the result is a mass grave. What a terrifying burden they will carry on their conscience! Both are complicit in negligence, and the blood of the victims will weigh heavily upon their heads. I would never want to be in the shoes of those people, for their responsibility before God is immense. You do not play with human life, and no one escapes divine justice. Neither will ever have peace.
Author: Cira Arroyo Fuentes, © 2026, Costa Rica Day, Date and Time
Collaboration: SINPE: 6083-1579 | PayPal.me/CiraArroyoFuentes
Mensaje:
Watching the painful images of recent earthquakes in sister nations like Venezuela and Colombia, and seeing structures collapse, has made me think deeply. Many of those buildings crumbled simply because they were poorly constructed, in a mediocre and unscrupulous manner. Witnessing this convinces me more and more that building a house, a building, or a business must be done with love, with a genuine concern to do the best within our means, and investing everything we can. Erecting a safe roof is the best deal we can make in life.
Unfortunately, many people prefer to travel, buy nonsense, or indulge in unnecessary luxuries, and end up building their homes haphazardly, skimping on materials. Likewise, there are mediocre builders who execute projects just to get by. There is an abundance of those who know nothing about construction yet venture into building houses, demonstrating enormous irresponsibility. This lack of conscience comes both from the person who hires someone knowing they are unqualified—solely to cut costs—and from the person who builds without municipal permits, gambling with luck and working without any knowledge whatsoever.
These earthquakes that have occurred must serve a purpose. For those who survived, they must be the starting point to plan a fresh start in life. For those of us who have not experienced it firsthand but have witnessed it through television and videos, these tragedies must wake us up. They must compel us to renew our minds and our way of thinking, reminding us that what matters is not the size of the construction, but its quality.
If you plan to build, reflect: do not throw money away on foolish things or nonsense if you do not yet own a roof over your head. Save your money little by little; when you receive your salary, act as if you received nothing and save it strictly until you have enough to raise a well-made structure. If you want something large, you will have to save for a longer time; but never try to "stretch" money by lowering the quality of materials or workmanship. In matters of corruption and safety, neither materials nor budgets can be stretched. You must pay what needs to be paid for good material to ensure a proper building is constructed.
If you plan to build a large edifice, make sure you have all the money and resources required to execute it as it should be. If you lack the budget to do it under all regulations, have the maturity not to improvise; make something smaller, but stronger, safer, and well-founded. Many people do not want to pay the price of saving to make a good home; they want to settle for something mediocre, and from that mediocrity, the worst results are born.
The Root of the Problem: Corruption and a Sick Mind
You cannot raise a house expecting a corrupt municipal inspector to come by so you can hand him money under the table and say: "Don't say anything, let me build, take this much." Where is the heart and ethics of that worker? An inspector who sees a poor structure, executed without permits, and accepts a bribe, has no qualms about letting people remain in danger. When an earthquake strikes and disasters unfold, those corrupt officials care about nothing; they only cared about pocketing easy money and fleeing.
But the most important thing is that it must matter to you, the one paying for the work. In that project, you will place your family to live: your children, your grandparents, and your parents. There, you will invite your friends over. Imagine the burden on your conscience knowing your house collapsed and hurt someone because you knowingly built it poorly. One knows perfectly well in their conscience whether they hired a good worker or brought in just anyone who crossed their path to save a few colones. Many of those illegal workers build poorly, collect payment, care little for safety, and then disappear. A bad construction puts your life, the lives of your loved ones, and the lives of your neighbors in danger at the moment of a strong earthquake.
All of this goes hand in hand with the state of our own spirit. If a person does not have a good spiritual foundation in their body, all they will produce is filth. Nothing good can come from a sick and destructive mind. If someone is not even capable of managing themselves because they are caught up in vices, drugs, or indulging the body in fleeting adventures and corrupt acts, how will they be capable of building a good house or hiring the right company? If they do not value themselves or their own bodies, they will never value the safety of a building. This is the origin of those who divert housing loans to satisfy whims or trips, sacrificing the structural integrity of their home.
The Danger of Pre-Built Homes and the Real Estate "Makeup" Trap
I have also observed that many people get trapped into buying a pre-built house just because it looks luxurious, with extravagant facades, striking ornaments, or beautiful tiles. Do not focus on appearances! Buying a pre-built house or moving into a condominium nowadays has become a lottery; you truly do not know what kind of materials were hidden behind the walls.
There are deceitful people who build structures using the worst materials on the market. They make a piece of garbage out of the foundations and footings, which is precisely where the best budget and greatest effort should be invested. However, to sell them at a very high price, they resort to the deception of "making up" the project: they put extravagant facades, luxury finishes, fine tiles, and beautiful paint over it. But earthquakes are not fooled. In videos of seismic events, it is clear how the force of nature immediately strips away all that superficial makeup. In the end, the only thing left standing is a firm construction, if they built it right. If the foundations were deficient, the makeup strips away, and the entire building collapses completely, burying everything.
Today, we see a shameful form of profit in the condominium business. Many real estate developers think only of money: they want to squeeze the maximum out of a tiny lot by raising immense towers or packing apartments together that end up looking like modern tenement housing because they are so cramped and poorly built. They only care about designing a narrow little box to cram a family in that will pay them millions, without truly caring about the lives of those human beings.
How are you going to move with your family into a place like that? One must ponder. If you love your family, do not play the lottery with their lives. The best option will always be to buy your own lot and take charge of building it yourself, because that way you will know with total certainty how the work is being done, what materials were used, and how each rebar was tied from the ground up. But if you decide to buy something already built, it is an inescapable obligation to independently hire a qualified civil engineer to thoroughly examine the construction, chop the walls if necessary, evaluate the hidden foundations, and assure you that you are buying something structurally sound and not a death trap disguised as luxury. Do not leave everything in the hands of a salesman who tells you "they already know what they are doing." In the end, buying without a professional inspection is a lottery where life is the wager.
Blood Guilt Before God and the End of Peace
What must a cheap owner or an irresponsible builder feel in their conscience when they risk raising an illegal structure without permits, only to see it collapse and cause a multitude of deaths? Whoever deliberately builds a deficient structure, out of pure stinginess or to save money for superficial things, is completely guilty before heaven. The mutual negligence of the one who pays for an illegal project and the mediocre workers who execute it becomes a crime. The blood of the innocents who are injured or die beneath the rubble will weigh upon the heads of those who signed off and financed that garbage.
I, sincerely, do not want to be in the shoes of that person, the irresponsible consultant, or the dishonest condominium salesman who makes those atrocities just to earn money. I would never want to be in their shoes, because it is an immense and terrifying responsibility they must answer for before the Creator. Human life has no price, and judgment before God for caring for one's neighbor cannot be bartered with the profits of a bad business.
In conclusion, both the engineer or builder who executes the work poorly, and the one who pays for it being completely stingy or a "hachero"—as we say in Costa Rica (someone who works carelessly)—are negligent people who do things haphazardly and do not care at all about what happens afterward. One must always do things with excellence, to the best of one's ability. If one does not act with rectitud, the price paid by both parties, the one who builds and the one who buys, ends up being extremely high. Ultimately, no one escapes, because God has His eyes on both. God Himself makes sure that each one receives their exact wage: the careless worker for what he built deceitfully, and the stingy owner for accepting mediocrity due to greed. In time, both will receive their punishment. A builder who knows he delivered a piece of garbage where many people died will end up with a completely stained conscience. Neither of them will ever have peace.
The True Foundation
The foundation of a successful construction is hiring a registered engineer to create the proper design and blueprints, and then looking for a responsible builder who follows the plans and does not steal materials. You must remain vigilant on-site so that workers do not cart away what you purchased. But above all, we must understand that the primary protection comes from God, who grants us the wisdom to build prudently. We must construct our physical house with responsibility and, at the same time, build our lives upon the firm Rock, which is Christ.
Biblical Reflection
"Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock."
— Matthew 7:24-25 (King James Version)
— Matthew 7:24-25 (King James Version)
Practical Guide and Resources in Costa Rica for Safe Construction (Bibliography)
To avoid structural "makeup" deceptions, or to check a property before buying it in the country, it is essential to consult the official channels of Costa Rica:
1. Federated College of Engineers and Architects of Costa Rica (CFIA)
Any professional signing blueprints, managing a project, or performing a technical purchase inspection must be registered and active [CFIA].
- Professional Verification: You can access the CFIA Member Directory to check the legal status of an engineer by name or license number [CFIA].
- Company Verification: If buying a condo or hiring a construction firm, verify their legitimacy in the CFIA Company Directory [CFIA].
- Official Guides: The CFIA website details mandatory minimum fee regulations to prevent scams and excessive billing [CFIA].
2. College of Civil Engineers (CIC)
If purchasing a pre-built house, the proper professionals to conduct a structural assessment, evaluate the actual foundations, and expose real estate "makeup" are listed with the College of Civil Engineers of Costa Rica [CIC].
3. Seismic Code of Costa Rica and Construction Law
- Seismic Code of Costa Rica: Mandatory technical law defining rebar thickness, concrete quality, and structural design to withstand earthquakes without collapsing. Fancy finishes do not save lives; strict compliance with this code does.
- Construction Law (Law No. 833): Regulates mandatory municipal permits, building inspector duties, and legal and criminal penalties for clandestine or unsafe works.
Final Caption:
What good is a luxury facade if the base is garbage? The earthquake is not fooled by the "makeup" of expensive tiles or finishes; seismic waves expose the truth of the foundations. When a stingy buyer who builds without plans to save colones joins forces with a careless builder or a dishonest condo salesman working illegally for quick cash, the result is a mass grave. What a terrifying burden they will carry on their conscience! Both are complicit in negligence, and the blood of the victims will weigh heavily upon their heads. I would never want to be in the shoes of those people, for their responsibility before God is immense. You do not play with human life, and no one escapes divine justice. Neither will ever have peace.
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