Heredia train line remains
an uncertain project


The time has not yet arrived to buy tickets for the Heredia train. In fact, no one knows what the price will be.

Karla González, the transport minister, said Thursday that rail cars purchased in Spain might be in the country by May.

Officials have been giving conflicting information on the Heredia train line. Passenger service was to be instituted at least by this month, and rail cars were being purchased from the Spanish national railway agency. The line is open and traveled daily by work crews.

But it turns out that the rail car deal is not yet firm because Costa Rica is seeking a bargain price. And the agency of the transport ministry that handles the trains, the Instituto Costarricense de Ferrocarrilles, may not have yet sought rate approval from the price setting agency, the Authoridad Reguladora de Servicios Públicos. Ms. González said Thursday she did not know.

The train runs from a new station just north of the northeast corner of Parque Central through Tibás into the east side of the Provincia de Heredia. Traffic between Heredia centro and La Uruca is a continual jam, so the rail line would be popular for those who wish to avoid tieups.

From Parque Nacional train customers can walk to the downtown or catch the east-west metropolitan train to arrive in either Pavas on the west or the Universidad Latina on the east.

Rig yields 304 kilos of coke
at Peñas Blancas crossing


Anti-drug police found 304 kilos of cocaine hidden among products including diapers in the trailer of an 18-wheeler Thursday at the Peñas Blancas border crossing. They arrested two men from Guatemala. That's about 668 pounds.

Investigators said they think that the cocaine originated from a storage location in the Central Valley. Costa Rica has an international reputation as a transit point for drugs. Cocaine frequently is brought to the country by boat and then prepared for shipment over land.

The tractor-trailer involved in the confiscation Thursday was headed north as was a companion vehicle that also was seized.

Agents of the Policía de Control de Drogas said they became suspicious because the vehicle had different license plates than it did when the rig entered the country Feb. 5.

When the 53-year-old driver, identified by the last names of   Orozco Hernández learned that the vehicle was being selected for a rigorous inspection, he tried to flee across the line to Nicaragua, officials said. He was captured and returned a short distance to Costa Rica, they said.

Information in the cab of the rig showed that another tractor-trailer was traveling with Orozco. That driver, identified by the last names of Cid Cáceres, was located and detained, too, police said. He is 54.

Investigators said they thought the amount of the drug and the way it was being transported suggested the cargo belonged to a Mexican cartel.

Effective policing credited
for keeping El Paso calm


Mexico's ongoing war with drug smuggling cartels claimed more than 5,300 lives last year and one of the most violent places in the Latin American nation is Ciudad Juárez, right across the border from El Paso, Texas in the United States.

Drug cartel killers have decapitated policemen, shot up restaurants and left bodies on streets all over the city of more than one million 300,000 people. El Paso remains relatively calm, but, the climate of fear affects both cities.

El Paso and Juarez represent a tale of two cities, linked economically and through social and family ties, but as different as night and day when it comes to crime.

Mexican President Felipe Calderón sent federal police and army units to Juarez to fight the powerful drug gangs more than a year ago, but the violence continues as rival gangs compete for the lucrative drug trade.

Howard Campbell, a professor at University of Texas at El Paso, said more effective law enforcement on the U.S. side of the border has kept most of the violence out of El Paso for now.

"Juarez last year had approximately 1,600 drug-related murders and El Paso, in the whole city, I think, had something like 16," he said.

Many wealthy citizens of Juarez have purchased property across the border in El Paso to protect their families, helping El Paso avoid the real estate slump affecting most of the United States.

"We have heard stories recently that some of the most prominent families of Juarez, essentially, are now living in El Paso and trying to manage their business interests from El Paso and very seldom even going to Juarez," said Campbell.

But thousands cross the bridges over the border each day and the commerce that links the two cities continues.

U.S. and Mexican authorities recently established a caravan to escort assembly plant managers and business owners from the U.S. side of the border to their facilities in Juarez and back across the border each day.

The U.S. government remains committed to helping México and is providing training and some material assistance to Mexican authorities.

U.S. Embassy closed Monday


Monday is Presidents Day in the United States, and the U.S. Embassy said it would be closed that day.

The day replaced two holidays when it was decreed in 1971: Feb. 12, the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, and Feb. 22, the birthday of George Washington.

The day is not unlucky here


Today is Friday the 13th, but for those lucky enough to be in Costa Rica, the date does not matter.  Friday the 13th has a reputation as an unlucky day in the English-speaking world. But in Latin countries the day to stay in bed is Tuesday the 13th.