The Tica ex-wife of Ralph Stumbo broke her silence Thursday about the circumstances under which she brought the couple’s 3  1/2-year-old son to Costa Rica.

She said that she was advised to do just that by a worker in the legal aid office in Naples, Fla., where she had been living. She also said that she never had been notified of subsequent divorce hearings that resulted in a Florida judge giving full custody of the boy, Marco, to her ex-husband.

She also said she left Florida because her mother-in-law ordered her out of the apartment in which she, her husband and son had been living after the husband was jailed on her domestic violence abuse complaint. She left Florida because she had nowhere else to go except a women’s shelter, she said.

The case has gotten publicity in both countries because the situation appears to be a case of parental child abduction, which is a crime in the United States. The ex-wife, Flor María Gaitán Tejada, spoke in flawless English with a reporter at a Central Valley location on the condition that he not disclose where she was working. 
 

Other stories on this case: Jan. 7: Personal woes lead to his effort to help other men Jan. 17: U.S. citizen seeking his son files court papers here Jan. 23: Organization for men getting a lot of interest, founder says Feb. 1: Child abduction case is putting embassy on the spot Feb. 6: More child abductions still open in Costa Rica

She also revealed that she had met with Stumbo Sunday and allowed him to chat with his son for about a half hour in a McDonald’s Restaurant at a metropolitan area mall. The child has been living with her and her family.

Stumbo went public with the case Jan. 6, three days after he was granted an uncontested divorce by a judge in Naples, Fla. He said he wanted to get back his child but also wanted to start an organization that would help men fight what he characterized as the orientation of Costa Rican family law that favors women.

A key issue is under what circumstances the wife left Florida with the boy. Stumbo has a copy of an order that says the child may not be removed from the jurisdiction of the court. However, Ms. Gaitán said she never was served with that order.

Because she would not speak to reporters here or in the United States, her version of the situation has 

The hearing was conducted in part by telephone from the U.S. Embassy as Stumbo cannot leave Costa Rica because he owes his wife support money under an earlier Costa Rican judicial order. Ms. Gaitán was not represented in the hearing.

Ms. Gaitán denies that she ever received official notice of the Florida divorce hearing and said that she was seeking a lawyer in Florida to help her reopen the divorce case.

The legal situation is complex. Stumbo has lived here for 10 years off an on. But the boy was born in Texas when the couple lived there. Later they returned to Costa Rica where Ms. Gaitán obtained a legal separation in an Heredia court. The couple was attempting a reconciliation when Stumbo, his wife and son moved to Florida.

On July 27 Ms. Gaitán called deputies in Florida to complain that Stumbo hit her, and deputies put Stumbo in jail. Stumbo denies hitting his wife. She said Thursday that he did. Stumbo left jail Sunday, July 28, but was under a judicial order not to see his wife.

Ms. Gaitán said she went to court that Monday, July 30, and met with a number of officials and workers. One she identified as Penny Packerd in the county legal aid office told her that because she had an open case in the Heredia court she would be better off returning to Costa Rica, Ms. Gaitán said Thursday.

On July 30 she said she had to move to a women’s shelter with the boy because Stumbo’s mother who also lives in the Naples area asked her to leave the apartment. The mother has a lease or ownership interest in the apartment. From the shelter she made the airplane reservations that took her and the boy back to Costa Rica the next day, she said.

Subsequent telephone calls from Costa Rica to the legal aid workers have not helped Ms. Gaitán. She said she is ineligible for a free lawyer there because she no longer lives in the shelter.

The situation of Stumbo and his wife normally would be not a major newspaper story, except that the case is emerging as a test of Costa Rica’s relationship with the rest of the world. U.S. Embassy workers have said there is an undisclosed number of similar cases where U.S. citizens are fighting for custody of their Costa Rican-American children.

For Ms. Gaitán, the situation is strictly personal. She needs a lawyer but "I don’t have that kind of money to get a lawyer in the States," she said. She will continue her efforts in a court in Heredia where Stumbo was to file a certified copy of the Florida decree with the expectation that the Costa Rican court will hand over his son to him.

Meanwhile, the domestic abuse case in Florida was dropped for lack of evidence when Ms. Gaitán did not appear to testify.
 
 

Insect infestation of coffee plantations has been held to just 2 percent of the country’s production, and agricultural officials are working to find biological controls, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Thursday.

The ministry said that scientists from Taiwan have visited the country to give advice and technical assistance about biological methods.

Costa Rica has about 115,000 hectares (284,000 acres) in coffee, and although the average world prices are lower than Costa Rica can grow the product, this nation’s crop usually gets premium prices. Of that land, some 2 percent is infected with the coffee bean borer, which lays eggs in the coffee fruit. The eggs develop into larvae that eat parts of the bean, generally diminish the quality and sometimes make the bean fall to the ground.

The ministry said that the number of locations with 

In coordination with the producers the work is principally with cultural practices, the ministry said. "We recommend pruning and in some cases the elimination of the coffee plants. Almost 150 hectares (370 acres) of abandoned coffee land have been eliminated."

The best control is not letting a single coffee bean remain on the bushes or on the ground to eliminate development places for the beetle, said the ministry in advice to producers.

The country just got 134 million colons ($390,000) from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization to help with control programs. The money is to keep the area south from the Central Valley to Panamá free of the disease, which is believed to have come originally from Nicaragua.

CARACAS, Venezuela — A crowd of Venezuelans has prevented authorities from detaining Air Force Col. Pedro Luis Soto, who hours earlier had called for the resignation of President Hugo Chavez. 

The group thwarted the attempt after officials stopped Col. Soto's vehicle along a Caracas highway late Thursday. News reports say opposition supporters banged pots and pans, chanted and honked car horns as officials attempted to detain Soto. 

The incident came just hours after he called on President Chavez to step down, saying the leader threatened the nation's democracy. 

Soto made the surprise announcement at a forum on freedom of the press. The air force official accused Chavez of ruling like a tyrant. Soto, who was dressed in uniform, said he spoke on behalf of the majority of the members of the Venezuelan armed forces. 

 However, the armed forces chief, Gen. Lucas Rincon, dismissed the claim. The development came one day after the head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, George Tenet, expressed concern over the political conditions in Venezuela. 

Tenet told a U.S. Senate committee that growing discontent over President Chavez's governing style has created what he called a "crisis atmosphere" in Venezuela. 

 President Chavez's popularity has plummeted and his approval rating, once more than 80 percent, is now around 30 percent. 

 U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has criticized Chavez's visits to Iraq and Libya, two countries the U.S. considers sponsors of terrorism. The Venezuelan leader is also a close ally of longtime Cuban leader Fidel Castro. 

Chavez has said, however, he is committed to human rights, democracy and a strong relationship with the United States. The left-populist president took office in 1999, promising to root out corruption and alleviate widespread poverty. He has faced significant opposition for his plans to increase government control over the economy.

U.S. population now has
greatest immigrant pool

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Census Bureau reported Thrusday that the number of foreign-born and first generation residents of the United States has reached 56 million, the highest overall number in history, and one likely to grow as new immigrants form families and bear children.

The findings are compiled in the report "Profile of the Foreign-Born Population in the United States: 2000." At 56 million, immigrants and their children comprise 20 percent of the U.S. population. The foreign-born or first generation make up 21 percent of the nation's under-25 age group.

Latin America and Asia are the homelands of 90 percent of these new U.S. residents. More than one quarter of that number are Mexican, the report said.

Flu recommendation
made for next year

The World Health Organization made its annual recommendation Wednesday on the types of influenza vaccine that pharmaceutical companies should develop for the upcoming year to best limit the millions of flu cases that affect people in the Northern Hemisphere each winter season.

The organization strongly recommends vaccination against the flu, which infects as many as 100 million people during each season. While most healthy people are able to recover from the flu with only a few days discomfort and rest, the international health agency warns of the disease's potentially fatal consequences for the elderly or individuals with weak immune systems.

A strain of influenza called the Spanish flu caused the most deadly outbreak of an infectious disease in the last century when about 40 million people died in 1918-19. Further information about influenza and vaccination programs is available at http://www.who.int/emc/diseases/flu/index.html

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation Thursday that would provide $878 million over five years to fund research among colleges, universities and research organizations to develop ways to protect the nation's computer networks from attack by terrorists and hackers.

"A cyber attack could knock out electricity, drinking water and sewage systems, financial institutions, assembly lines and communications," House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, a New York Republican, said.

The House voted 400-12 for the "Cyber Security Research and Development Act," which now goes to the U.S. Senate for consideration. The legislation creates research grants at the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to enhance computer security.

Colombian journalists
face open season

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ongoing terrorist attacks against journalists in Colombia "disregard and threaten" the right to free expression in the Americas, says Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States.

Gaviria said the recent assassinations of journalists Orlando Sierra and Marco Antonio Ayala, and the bombing of the Caracol news network, "demonstrate the kind of barbarism" that violent groups "have unleashed on Colombia's media." Gaviria said "these intimidatory tactics violate the human rights of the victims and citizens alike," and also "threaten freedom of the press and freedom of expression."

In the latest attack on a journalist in Colombia, deputy editor Orlando Sierra of the newspaper La Patria, based in the city of Manizales, died Feb. 1 after gunmen shot him twice in the head and once in the abdomen. 

Sierra was known for writing columns about abuses committed by leftist guerrilla groups and right-wing paramilitaries. News reports said Sierra's two suspected killers had been captured.

At least 10 reporters were killed in Colombia in 2001, in attacks mainly blamed on the paramilitaries or leftist guerrillas. Dozens of Colombian journalists have fled their country in the last few years, after receiving death threats from groups engaged in terror attacks.

Horseshoe pitch
to be ready soon

Construction began on the first two horseshoe courts at the Bougainvillea Hotel in Santo Domingo de Heredia Monday. 

The courts are being constructed professionally
by the staff of the Bougainvillea Hotel. Play might start by Feb. 15.

A hotel representative is in the United States now and will bring back several pair of regulation shoes by early next week, said a release. Attention is being paid to all details so that one day soon, the hotel can host an international tournament. The courts will be lighted. They are near the barbeque house, so there are bathrooms and comfortable seating for all.

Tom Jafek, one of the organizers, said he is anxious to hear from his first opponent. "Let’s set a date for our first competition. We will be planning some events as soon as the courts are ready," he said

Jafek can be reached at 395 7753 cell and 244 3408.

Bandits hold up school
and take enrollment cash

Three bandits held up a school about 12:45 p.m. Thursday and made off with about 500,000 colons (about $1,450). The three robbers were dressed in black, wore masks and  carried handguns, according to investigators.

The money was from the fees students had paid at the Liceo Roberto Gamboa in San Rafael Abajo de Desamparados, said the Judicial Investigating Organization.