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| A.M. Costa Rica Second newspage |
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| Costa Rica Expertise Ltd http://crexpertise.com E-mail info@crexpertise.com Tel:506-256-8585 Fax:506-256-7575 |
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Smile, crook, your
face
is headed for the Web By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Expats in Playas del Coco are going one step further than having a community anti-crime committee. They are posting the faces of the local criminals on the Web. Playas del Coco residents, as well as expats in Tamarindo say that burglars almost never are sent to jail and return to their normal lives a day after being arrested. One woman in Playa del Coco posted a photo of the local thief getting arrested. "He is selling drugs and stealing all around in Coco since many years," the Web site blog said. The photo included the items that the man was suspected of stealing. When the man returned to town to live with an uncle, the Web site was updated. A Tamarindo reader, who did not want to have his name used, said that the "problem is not the crime rate per se, but the lack of Costa Rican laws against home invasions and robbery or theft." He said that a man tried to break into his home earlier this month and ended up attacking his wife. The intruder fled, and the man managed to alert police who arrived as he was chasing the get-away car. Nevertheless, police arrested just one of the three occupants in the car. The expat suggested that the police might be afraid of the criminals. The Tamarindo residents contrasted the new stiff penalties for traffic violations against the lack of punishment for criminals. Almost always the burglars and thieves are drug addicts. There is plenty of crack cocaine in the country now because traffickers use drugs as payment for services rendered. Lower limit for alcohol appears to be established By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Legislative deputies of the Partido Acción Ciudadana appears to have convinced other lawmakers to lower the threshold at which a driver is drunk. This is part of the continual back and forth over proposed changes in the new traffic law. Lawmakers already agreed that the threshold would be .75 grams of alcohol per liter of blood. This usually is measured by a breath device. But Acción Ciudadana has continually pushed for .5 grams per liter of blood to be the threshold. The political party cites this number as that recommended by the World Health Oganization. For an adult male that is about three beers. Lawmakers will be back April 5 to continue their discussions of a bill that will make changes in the law that just went into effect March 1. Telecom giant told to pay for cell telephone outage By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Nearly 20,000 cell telephone customers are entitled to compensation because their service failed, according to the Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones. That is the agency that regulates telecom services, and the target of the criticism for the massive outage is the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad. The Superintendencia cited a section of the new telecom law that gives users the right to compensation when there are outages. The former monopoly known as ICE said it was making a list of the services that were affected in the second week of march to see how much the compensation should be. Cultural tax deadline will be this Wednesday By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Expats who own corporations here have just three days to pay their cultural tax without penalty. The last day for payment is Wednesday. An A.M. Costa Rica news story called the levy a pesky tax because the amount is small. Depending on the net capital of the company, the tax can be from 750 to 9,000 colons, That's $2.44 to $17.30.
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| A.M. Costa Rica third newspage |
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| San
José,
Costa Rica, Monday, March 29, 2010, Vol. 10, No. 61 |
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| Colorful Semana Santa includes a procession tonight |
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By the A. M. Costa Rica staff
Semana Santa or the week preceding Easter is one of processions. Tonight at 7 o'clock Archbishop Hugo Barrantes Ureña will lead the faithful on a Way of the Cross from the La Merced church to the Catedral Metropolitana along the Avenida 4 pedestrian mall. Wednesday the Banda Nacional de San José is at the cathedral for a 6 p.m. performance. Thursday begins with an 8:15 a.m. prayer service followed by a 9 a.m. Mass where priests will renew their vows. At 6 p.m. is the traditional washing of feet in the fashion that the Bible says Christ had his feet washed. Across the street will be a live reenactment of the judgment of Jesus in Parque Central opposite the cathedral. From there the procession of Jesús Atado a la Columna or Jesus tied to the column, leaves Parque Central for the El Carmen church on Calle 0. That is at 8 p.m. A veneration of the Eucharist starts at 10 p.m. at the cathedral and lasts most of the night. At 9:15 a.m. the next day, Good Friday, a Mass at the El Carmen church is followed by a procession featuring Jesus Christ carrying the cross to his execution on Calvary. The |
procession goes down Avenida 3 to
Calle 2 and then to the building of
the Correos de Costa Rica where the procession is met by Mary Magdalen
and then to the Banco Central where an encounter with Veronica
and her
veil is enacted. The procession goes all the way to the Mercado Central then to Avenida 2. Accompaniment is by the Banda de San José. The high point of the procession is the simulation of the crucifixion of Jesus in Parque Central shortly after 11 a.m. The funeral procession of Christ leaves the cathedral at 5 p.m. for Calle Central to Avenida 1 and then west to Calle 4 to the Banco de Costa Rica where the procession will go west to Avenida 2 and then back to the cathedral The Resurrection of Christ is celebrated with another procession from the La Merced church at 10 a.m. Easter to the cathedral where a Mass is scheduled at 10:30 a.m. The procession will travel along the Avenida 4 pedestrian mall. The Semana Santa events are open to the public, and even tourists who are not Catholic find that the events are highly photogenic. Elsewhere in the country there are other processions. Nearly every Catholic church has at least one. Friday afternoon is usually the biggest reenacting the crucifixion or burial of Christ. |
 A.M. Costa Rica/Dennis Rogers
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High density public housing
development in
Guararí de Heredia. Note green and white banners on post
in support of the Partido Liberación Nacional. |
| Arias administration cites its success on housing front |
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By Dennis Rogers
Special to A.M. Costa Rica As the Oscar Arias Sánchez administration draws to a close, the housing ministry has declared success in meeting the president's campaign promises, delivering a total of 47,000 grants to needy households. These range from money to repair an existing home or for construction, up to handing over the keys to a finished dwelling. About 7,000 of the families were only reached by a “community grant” where the agency, officially the Ministerio de Vivenda y Asentamientos Humanos. repaired and put in infrastructure such as paved streets and storm water drainage. Many of these areas are old squatter settlements where the houses are steadily upgraded but common infrastructure is not. The total amount expended for the 41,000 housing bonds was about 183 billion colons or about $352 million. Some of the bonds went to families who lost their homes in the Cinchona earthquake of Jan. 8, 2009. Urban renewal was not particularly successful due to the high cost of land and community resistance in some places. One large project in Hatillo was finished with a smaller one replacing a squatter slum right behind the upscale Mall de la Flores south of Heredia. Projects are contracted to a developer who finds the land and builds the whole development. Political considerations are not unknown, as when the mayor of Paraíso refused to grant water to an already finished project. Those assigned the houses resorted to street protests before getting access. |
 Ministerio de Vivenda y
Asentamientos Humanos photo
Homes like these built for native families are unique because
they do not have inside toilets in deference to cultural norms.The rural houses are a standard pre-fab design. They are 42 square meters (452 square feet) in size with two bedrooms, costing about 12 million colons each depending on land costs. That's about $23,000. This is considerably more than at the start of the administration. Depending on local demand the projects range from 25 to 100 houses. Families awarded the houses normally have incomes in the 200,000 colon or less per month range, and were living in shacks somewhere. That's about $384. Although a new Cinchona is planned not far from the town destroyed by the earthquake, the ministry reported only providing homes for 70 earthquake affected families in its 2009 report. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica fourth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, March 29, 2010, Vol. 10, No. 61 | |||||||||
| Growing frustrations appear to fuel
protests in Cuba |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Tens of thousands of people have marched in Miami to protest a recent crackdown in Cuba against dissident groups on the island. Cuban-Americans say there is a rising tide of resentment against the Cuban regime and the failure of promised reforms. People dressed all in white filled the streets of the Miami neighborhood known as Little Havana for the march late Thursday. Many carried Cuban flags and chanted messages calling for freedom in Cuba. Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan helped organize the event and led marchers in the singing of the national anthems of Cuba and the United States. Near the close of the march, Ms. Estefan said they had received word that a dissident group was also marching in Havana. "At this moment they are receiving violence again. They are joined with us here," she said. News reports from Havana said Thursday that Cuban police dragged away several protesters from the opposition group known as ladies in white (Las Damas de Blanco). The group includes many spouses and other relatives of dissidents jailed in Cuba. They have held several marches this week to demand the release of loved ones and mark the seventh anniversary of a major crackdown called "black spring." Supporters of pro-democracy groups say other recent protests have taken place in Havana and in the countryside, suggesting that frustration at the government is on the rise. University of Miami professor Andy Gomez says it is partly due to President Raúl Castro's failure to deliver on his promises to improve the quality of life for many Cubans. "The level of frustration has continued to increase and yet at the same time, they are going through the worst economic crisis since the special period when they lost their subsidies from the Soviet Union," he said. |
Pro-democracy
groups also have received a new boost from Afro-Cuban
leaders, who traditionally were seen as a strong supporter of Communist
policies. That image was shaken last month when black dissident Orlando
Zapata Tamayo died, after an 85-day hunger strike in prison. "Here we have a working class black man from eastern Cuba who was peacefully advocating change," said Orlando Gutiérrez, who leads the Miami-based Cuban Democratic Directorate. "They imprison him and then, when he goes on a hunger strike, they deny him water for 18 days. They kill him, and people know that." U.S. President Barack Obama said Zapata Tamayo's death and the harassment of protesters was deeply disturbing, and he called for the release of political prisoners. In Cuba, President Castro expressed regret for the death, but the incident sparked another wave of marches to protest the conditions of jailed dissidents. Gutiérrez says if marches continue in Cuba, the movement is likely to generate even more supporters. "Cuba's pro-democacy movement, the ladies in white, they're going into the streets, they are talking to people, they are carrying out protests throughout Cuba. People are seeing these guys are the option, they are the alternative," he said. University of Miami's Andy Gómez says that frustration is also on the rise among Cuba's large youth population, especially university students concerned about their future in Cuba. But he says Cuba's government has a history of quelling dissent before too long. "The question I ask myself is up to what point is the government going to allow this to continue, because it can get out of hand very quickly," he said. Pro-democracy advocates say the United States could consider new measures as well, in an effort to push the Communist nation toward greater respect for human rights. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, March 29, 2010, Vol. 10, No. 61 | |||||||||
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| Guatemalan rights activist honored for his struggle By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A Guatemalan human rights activist has been recognized by the advocacy organization Human Rights First, which cited his lifelong struggle for human rights for native people in his country. The man, Jesus Tecu, has been awarded the Roger Baldwin Medal of Liberty for his efforts to promote human rights for Guatemala's Maya community and bring an end to impunity for perpetrators of genocide during the country's gruesome decades-long civil war. Tecu was chosen from among dozens of nominees for the results of his work, and his determination in the face of overwhelming obstacles, says Andrew Hudson, a senior associate at New York-based Human Rights First. "They consider a criteria like the effectiveness of the activist in terms of advancing human rights, the distinctiveness of their work, security risks they have faced, and the degree to which the award would help them," he said. Hudson says a recent increase in threats and violence against Guatemalan activists contributed to the decision to honor Tecu. He said Tecu was also chosen for his perseverance in pursuing justice, after having witnessed the slaughter of much of his family by agents of the Guatemalan military during the civil war in the early 1980s. "His story is incredibly compelling, the fact that as a child he witnessed the murder of his family in one of the worst massacres of the Guatemalan genocide, the Rio Negro massacre," he said. "The fact that he was then enslaved for a couple years by the very perpetrators that carried out the massacre. And the fact that after all of this he wasn't driven to revenge but the cruelty that he witnessed motivated him into seeking justice for the genocide that was committed." Hudson says Tecu has played a key role as a witness against human rights violators both in Guatemala and in international courts. Tecu says that as a result of his work with native communities in the central Guatemalan province of Alta Verepaz, he continues to receive death threats against him and his family, which he believes come from the perpetrators of civil war era massacres. He says ultimately all human rights activists in Guatemala are fighting for justice and wish to see to those who committed crimes during the country's civil war punished and imprisoned. Tecu adds that the award will strengthen his activities in the Mayan community of Rabinal. Tecu heads several organizations which work in the fields of education and empowerment for indigenous peoples in the region. Alta Verapaz, home to a large concentration of Mayan people, and the scene of numerous massacres during the civil war, is among the poorest and least developed departments of Guatemala.
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Latin American news Please reload page if feed does not appear promptly |
Sala
IV reinstitutes rule on age of fuel tankers By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Fuel tankers should be no older than 10 years, the Sala IV ruled Friday. The high court overruled the environmental ministry which had suspended the age rule in favor of pressure and other tests on tankers. The Sala IV ordered the Ministerio de Ambiente, Energía y Telecomunicaciones to take whatever steps are necessary to comply with two executive directives that had been ignored. The court said that there were tankers on the road that were more than 50 years of age. The court said that the ministry had six months to act. The rule applies only to those tankers that carry petroleum products. A man identified as a citizen brought the matter to the Sala IV. Native groups meeting on climate change here By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Native representatives from Central and South America are meeting this week in the Hotel Balmoral in San José to discuss climate change. Involved are representatives of organizations in the Amazonas, the Andes, Mesoamerica and native women's groups, said the host, the Consejo Indígena de Centroamérica. Breach in border wall attracting illegal users By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Immigration workers are handling a flood of persons leaving Costa Rica for Nicaragua, but there are many trying to get into the country illegally. The Fuerza Pública said it had located a hole in a wall near the Peñas Blancas border station. Those who use the hole appear to wait until the view of immigration agents is blocked by trailers and other heavy vehicles, said police. In some cases, persons hide in the searing heat of the day to make a try to reach Costa Rica through the damaged wall. Some of these are persons who are parents of children born in Costa Rica but who lack a passport for themselves, police said. Some carry cédulas of residency, but a passport is a firm requirement, police noted. |
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