Regulatory Discrimination to Travelers by their Mode of Transportation

Abstract

With the purpose to describe the existence of discrimination or preference in the regulations which are applied to the traveler’s personal luggage that arrives by air or land, from the principles of legitimacy and legality, an exploratory-descriptive study was carried out in Esmeraldas, Ecuador, applying the techniques of observation, survey, interview, and documentary revision. The results revealed that there is no proper publicity of the specific regulations by the authority, since they are not disclosed in the official registry, therefore, their application is not legal or legitimate, with the aggravating circumstance that even the officials in charge of applying them are not clear about the difference and the legitimacy of their application, and in the case of the maritime-fluvial border in San Lorenzo-Esmeraldas, the tax exemption is not applied neither with restriction nor with benefits, but they directly employ the classification established in the Comprehensive Organic Penal Code. It is concluded that the discrimination based on regulations is evident at applying some benefits in quantity and value to the international traveler who arrives by air and is restrictive because it affects the one who comes by land, being the benefit extensive, without any specific regulation, to those who come by sea through international ports, as well as restrictions are, with no measure, for those entering by river or sea through cabotage ports across the border.