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A.M.
Costa Rica
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Published Wednesday, March 29, 2017,
in Vol. 17,
No. 63
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San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March
29, 2017, Vol.
17, No. 63
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By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
Agents of the Judicial Investigating Organization arrested five men and one woman suspected of embezzling and trafficking money. Preliminary reports by investigators said that the suspects apparently created an organization or group that was successful in planting people in strategic positions of a public institution. The institution is the Instituto Nacional de Fomento Cooperativo, and agents said that it was in charge of promoting and developing cooperatives at the national level. One person arrested was the executive secretary of the Consejo Nacional de Cooperativas. Another was the board president for the institute and as leader of the nation's coffee cooperative. Investigators said they believe that money for grants was given away to contacts close to the suspected leader of this group. Around 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning, over 160 agents of the Judicial Investigating Organization conducted raids at various houses in Sarapiquí, Grecia, Desamparados, Cartago, Tibás and Moravia. They also raided offices in Quepos , San José, Turrialba and Sarapiquí, according to the judiciary. Among items seized by agents during the raids where electronic devices and documentation related to the investigation that could allow more determination as to the allegations of grants being used for corrupt purposes. The central government had taken over control of the institute this month when complaints about corruption emerged. National orchestra goes to Escazú Friday By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
The Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional will present a special concert Friday in Escazú. Costa Rica does not have distinctive seasons of the year, just rain and no rain, but composers worldwide have used the season concept to frame their works. The orchestra will present “The Four Seasons” by the Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi. The work is a set of four violin concertos. Also on the program is “Las cuatro estaciones porteñas” by the Argentinian Ástor Piazzolla. The title translates to English as “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.” Piazzolla is rivaled only by Carlos Gardel as a composer of tango, and he has a distinctive style. The four tango works also reflect the seasons. The concert will be at the San Miguel Arcángel complex in Escazú Centro at 7 p.m. The invited director is the German Andreas Neufeld. This is not part of the regular season for the orchestra. The musicians already are in practice for the second concert of the year April 7 and 9, said the Centro Nacional de la Música. Agents arrest two traffic cops on breach By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
Agents of the Judicial Investigating Organization arrested two traffic police officers Monday on suspicions of breach of duty. According to a preliminary report, the incident happened on Jan. 29, 2016, when both officers arrived to the scene of a traffic accident in Tibás. It occurred that one of the cars involved did not have an insurance policy and thus required the issuance of a ticket, according to investigators. The report alleges that the suspects allowed the owner to purchase a policy in order to cover the cost of the accident. Judicial agents received a confidential tip of this incident and arrested the two officers involved near Plaza Vízquez in San José. Costa Rica-Honduras match ends in tie By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
Traffic was significantly lighter Tuesday afternoon, and there were not a lot of taxis available. That was because the Costa Rican national team was playing Honduras in a late afternoon match. The game ended in a 1-1 tie late enough for another round of drinks at the local bar. Plenty of fans played hooky or watched the event on a smuggled television at the job site. Soccer approaches being the national religion of Costa Rica, and both major networks had handfuls of employees at the stadium in Honduras. The 2018 World Cup will be in Russia in June of that year. Costa Rica is in second place in the standings for North and Central America and the Caribbean. The team has a 2-1-1 record. México, which defeated Costa Rica last week. 2-0, is in first place with a 3-1 record. This region with six teams will send at least three teams to Russia. A fourth spot is based on the results of a playoff with a team elsewhere. Arrests at Panamá border checkpoint By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
Border police near Paso Canoas arrested three foreign nationals for attempting to smuggle money into the country by hiding it among the seats of the vehicle. At the checkpoint for the Panamá-Costa Rica border, colloquially known as kilometer 35, the Policía de Fronteras seized about 6,580,000 colons, or around $12,000, close to dawn on Monday. The driver and passengers, two of whom are Colombian nationals, claimed that the money is going towards a business in Tárcoles, Puntarenas, according to police. Nevertheless, the Policía de Control Fiscal confiscated both money and other items found for undeclared money, according to a preliminary report. The maximum amount of money that a person can bring in to Costa Rica without declaration is $10,000. Preliminary reports do not explain why the multiple sports drinks pictured as police evidence were also confiscated as well. In a separate incident, a pickup truck was apparently specially designed to smuggle liquor. The truck, however, was confiscated Monday night by border police in Guaycará de Golfito, in the southern area of the country. The car was redesigned in its engine and its chassis. It also had a secret compartment, according to a report. The secret compartment was full of liquor, and the engine was also covered with cartons and bottles. The total amount of bottles was 251 and it is valued at $4,000, according to police.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March
29, 2017, Vol.
17, No. 63
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| Vehicle watchmen, although informal, will
not be disappearing soon |
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By Rommel
Téllez
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff Wearing phosphorescent green or orange vests and sometimes wielding wooden sticks for self-protection, an army of cuidacarros have taken streets and sidewalks all over San José and claimed possession over it. They are also called Guachimanes, a very informal translation of the English word watchmen, and have attributed themselves the duty of car surveillance in exchange for spare coins or sometimes a flat fare. Basically, at one point or another, every single person in Costa Rica has dealt with them whether it was giving them money, ignoring them or in the worst case scenario, suffering damage to their vehicles for not paying their fees. So, is there a way to reclaim the city and its parking places and give them back to the people? Unlikely. According to Ministerio de Trabajo, guachimanes are informal workers and as such, they are out of its jurisdiction. If there is no employer, it seems to not be the ministry’s business. “We have set a special committee to study these cases, but as of now, we are not legally obligated to intervene in the cuidadacarros business.” said Geovany Diaz, spokesperson for Ministerio de Trabajo y Seguridad Social. The same question was asked to Francisco Cordero, regional sub-director of the Fuerza Pública who said it is not a felony to take care of cars and demand money in the public spaces. “People pay because they want, but they are not forced to.”said Cordero. He believes that there should be more private parking as a way to deal with the issue. He also considers that organizers of mass events should provide enough parking spaces to their audiences to avoid the arrival of guachimanes. “Unless there is a threat, there is nothing Fuerza Pública can do about it.” he said. The sub-director did mention that some cuidacarros have a vigilante privado work permit that allows these workers to do their business legally. However, Marcelo Solano, the director of the Policía Municipal de San José, said those permits only apply to people who watch out for cars inside a private property. He explains that sometimes people get confused when they see guachimanes wearing a badge, but that doesn't mean they can take ownership of public spaces. “If you ask me if we can do something about it well, no, we can't stop this. But what we do is to take preventive measures to avoid some cuidacarros from carrying batons, knives and any object which they claim is used to safe-keep the cars but in reality are used to intimidate clients that do not pay,” he adds. According to Solano, during regular patrolling, the Policía Municipal officers check guachimanes to make sure they don't have weapons, drugs or are under the influence of alcohol, which may constitute a felony. He also encourages people to call 911 immediately if they get into an argument with cuidacarros, since some of them have problems of substance abuse and therefore, may become aggressive. Solano provided some statistics and he says there are at least 120 people in San José doing this job. An average of 3 per block. “It's also our fault. We got so used to pay some stranger to take care of our car that it has become a cultural problem. Look, sometimes a very well-known fast food restaurant and other private companies allow cuidacarros to work in their own parking lots. I would assume that's easier than having a formal security guard watching out for the vehicles.” Solano said. |
 A.M. Costa Rica
photo/Rommel Téllez
Oscar Wilson watches over vehicles
and enjoys a chat.When asked about if
the guachimanes are here to stay, he said
it is a social issue rather than a police one.
“These people are usually unemployed and uneducated, the market wouldn't take them in. So the solution doesn't come from the police, we can't afford to have one officer per guachiman,” he said. “Five or six years ago the municipality of Cartago tried to create a cooperative enterprise and provide cuidacarros with a more formal status. However the idea didn't work because there were arguments among them. Again, what we should do is stop giving them money and provide them with jobs,” he added. Solano's perspective may be right, according to the story of Oscar Wilson, who's been a cuidacarros for 24 years next to Casa Amarilla doing his work behind the looming Institución Nacional de Seguros building. With nothing else than a minimum pension of $260 a month, the Puntarenas-born man sits 12 hours Monday through Friday at his wooden table and spends his days watching out for cars and motorcycles. He makes a living by charging car drivers 1,000 colons for the whole day and 500 colons to motorcycles and scooters. He knows most of his customers because all of them work at Instituto Nacional de Seguros. He says they are also his friends and that's why he offers his clients the possibility to pay on a weekly or daily basis. “I would call the police or go to that cafeteria over there or I would ask for help from the security guards of Casa Amarilla. No, I would not engage in a fight if someone tries to break into a car. I'm 72-years old. They would kill me,” he said. Wilson also says that he is able to make up to 25,000 colons per day because that is a good area. “Just one time two guys tried to steal my place and my job, but the guards at Casa Amarilla came to my help and made it clear that this is my zone. They also said that Casa Amarilla put me here, so the intruders left,” he said while greeting at least three people passing by. “Well, this is my little job and if people don't like it and don't want to pay I don't care. Some other one will come along and pay. That's how I see it,” he explains as he keeps an eye on his turf where he already knows 21 cars and 19 motorcycles can fit in perfectly. |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page |
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San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March
29, 2017, Vol.
17, No. 63
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| Delayed school start times unlikely to
reduce sleep loss, study says |
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By the
University of Surrey press staff
Just delaying school start times is unlikely to reduce sleep deprivation in teenagers, research from the University of Surrey and Harvard Medical School has found. The research, conducted in collaboration between mathematicians and sleep scientists, predicts that turning down the lights in the evening would be much more effective at tackling sleep deprivation. Teenagers like to sleep late and struggle to get up in time to go to school. The commonly accepted explanation for this is that adolescents’ biological brain clocks are delayed. It has been suggested that to remedy this, school start times should be delayed for older teenagers so that they are again in tune with their biological clock. The study, which was published last Friday in “Scientific Reports,” used a mathematical model that takes into account whether people are naturally more of a morning or evening person, the impact of natural and artificial light on the body clock and the typical time of an alarm clock, to predict the effects of delaying school start times. The mathematical model showed that delaying school start times in the United Kingdom would not help reduce sleep deprivation. Just as when clocks go back in the autumn, most teenagers’ body clocks would drift even later in response to the later start time, and in a matter of weeks they would find it just as hard to get out of bed. The results did, however, lend some support to delaying school start in the United States, where many schools start as early as 7 a.m. The mathematical explanation has its roots in the work of the 17th century Dutch mathematician Huygens. He saw that clocks can synchronize, but it depends on both the clocks and how they influence each other. From research over the last few decades we know that body clocks typically run a little slow, so they need to be regularly ‘corrected’ if they are to remain in sync with the 24-hour day. Historically, this correcting signal came from our interaction with the environmental light/dark ‘clock’. The mathematical model shows that the problem for adolescents is that their light consumption behavior interferes with the natural interaction with the environmental clock; getting up late in the morning results in adolescents keeping the lights on until later at night. |
Having
the lights on late delays the biological
clock, making it even harder to get up in the
morning. The mathematics also suggests that
the biological clocks of adolescents are
particularly sensitive to the effects of light
consumption. The model suggests that an alternative remedy to moving school start times in the United Kingdom is exposure to bright light during the day, turning the lights down in the evening and off at night. For very early start times, as in some U.S. regions, any benefit gained from delaying school start times could be lost unless it is coupled with strict limits on the amount of evening artificial light consumption. Lead author Anne Skeldon said: “It highlights that adolescents are not ‘programmed’ to wake up late and that by increasing exposure to bright light during the day, turning lights down in the evening and off at night should enable most to get up in time for work or school without too much effort and without changing school timetables.” Co-author Andrew Phillips said: “For evening types, it is critical to keep evening light levels low to derive any of the potential benefits of a delay in morning alarm times, otherwise their bed time is very prone to shifting later. Understanding these individual differences, and how they are influenced by light consumption, is necessary to maximize the effects of any policy change.” Co-author Derk-Jan Dijk said: “It shows that modern lifestyles make it hard for body clocks to stay on 24 hours, which shifts our rhythm of sleepiness and alertness to later times – meaning we are sleepy until late in the morning and remain alert until later in the evening.” The mathematical understanding of biological clocks suggests that adolescents are particularly sensitive to the effects of light consumption. However, the model can be applied to other age-groups as well. It can be used to design new interventions not only for sleepy teenagers but also for adults who suffer from delayed sleep phase disorders or people who are not synchronized to the 24-hour day at all. The research draws attention to light, light consumption and darkness as important environmental and behavioral factors influencing health. This has implications for how we design the light environment at work and at home in our modern light-polluted societies. |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March
29, 2017, Vol.
17, No. 63
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U.S.
wants cooperation
from Venezuela within OAS By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire services
As the Organization of American States weighs how to address a political and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, the United States on Tuesday said it was seeking the South American country's cooperation rather than its immediate suspension from the hemispheric group. Representatives of the organization’s Permanent Council gathered at its Washington headquarters, near the White House, to consider how to deal with Venezuela. Its socialist president, Nicolas Maduro, has jailed political opponents, ignored the results of regional elections and commandeered the judiciary branch as the country has spiraled into poverty and chaos. Secretary General Luis Almagro released a report this month detailing the violations and urging Venezuela's suspension from the group unless its government acted quickly to improve conditions there. The Permanent Council's most extreme corrective measure would be to suspend Venezuela's membership, requiring a two-thirds vote, meaning support of 22 of the body's 34 member states. The measure would trigger monitoring by observers from around the region. Anticipating a possible vote, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio on Monday said Haiti, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador should be prepared to cast ballots for suspension to protect Venezuela's democracy and their own U.S. aid. The senator told the newspaper he had been surprised that the three countries, dependent on U.S. foreign aid but also benefiting from discounted oil from Venezuela, were undecided about how they might vote. In the interview, Rubio said he thought the U.S. government would support Almagro's proposal. Last week, 14 member states, including the United States and Brazil, signed a declaration demanding that Venezuela promptly schedule elections, release political prisoners and recognize its constitution's separation of powers, among other measures. The United States already has imposed sanctions against Venezuela. In 2015, the Obama administration ordered sanctions against seven officials on the ground that they threatened U.S. national security. Last month, the Trump administration imposed sanctions against Venezuela's new vice president, Tareck El Aissami, accusing him of involvement in sending large drug shipments to the United States while serving as Venezuela's interior minister. Almagro proposed possible suspension for Venezuela in mid-March, accusing its government of violating the standards of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, to which it is a signatory. Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research, sees the organization’s leader's mediating strategy as purely political. "Both the USA and Almagro are playing a very destructive role, because they seek the overthrow of the government rather than dialogue and negotiation, which is really the only way out of this crisis," Weisbrot said. He was speaking early in the day, before the State Department's recommendation for Venezuela to engage in talks to improve conditions there. In December, the South American regional economic bloc Mercosur suspended Venezuela for failing to address human rights and trade standards. Largest radio telescope stops Wifi and internet for town By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire services
Broadband access in the United States is not universal, with a longtime digital divide between urban and rural areas. But in one small town just four hours from Washington, D.C., there's no internet service at all. The town of Green Bank, West Virginia, is the site of the largest fully steerable radio telescope in the world, so internet connections and anything else that can create electromagnetic waves, such as microwave ovens, are banned. It becomes apparent in Green Bank that visitors have to navigate the old-fashioned way: by reading road signs. That's because GPS comes to a screeching halt as you approach this West Virginia town, which has two churches, an elementary school, a library and the world's largest radio telescope. Ms. Sherry, who manages the largest store in Green Bank, was born here so the lack of internet access is normal for her. "Yes, we are different. Many would say that we live the old-fashioned way, in the past. But for us, it's just the way of life that we have always lived," Ms. Sherry said. On her store wall, an artifact from the past, which is a phone attached to a wall jack, is the only way to call someone in Green Bank. No modern wireless conveniences, such as smartphones, are usable here. Green Bank is frozen in time, somewhere in the 1950s, because there's a 33,000-square-kilometer zone of silence due to the telescope. Cellphone towers are forbidden. But that's OK for residents because there are several pay phones. The closer you get to the telescope, the greater the restrictions. There's a 16-kilometer radius around the Green Bank Observatory where radio-controlled items, even toys, cannot be used. Compliance with these conditions is strictly enforced. Radio frequency technician Jonah Bauserman acts as the observatory's technical policeman. If he suspects there's an unauthorized signal, he drives to the house and inspects it for prohibited devices. "This equipment allows me to catch even the weakest signals that could affect the telescope," Bauserman said. The job of these scientists is to minimize the impact of outside interference on the radio telescope. Only once a week, when there's regularly scheduled maintenance, some prohibited devices are allowed near the telescope, Holstein said. The size of a football field, the telescope is so sensitive it could pick up signals sent from an alien world. And scientists can't wait for that to happen. "All the signals that we now receive with the help of telescopes are signals that come from cosmic objects -- stars, galaxies. We have not yet received anything from intelligent civilizations," scientist Richard Lynch said. Trump rolls back completely Obama's environment orders By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire services
President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order Tuesday that would effectively dismantle Obama-era environmental regulations, rekindling the highly charged partisan debate about how human activity affects the earth's climate, and deepening concern that decades of work on global climate treaties may be unraveling. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Trump believes he can balance twin goals of protecting the environment while promoting energy production in the U.S. Trump's order will seek to suspend, rescind or identify for review more than a half-dozen rules, in an attempt to increase domestic energy production in the form of fossil fuels. It directs federal agencies to identify rules the administration says impede domestic energy production, as a first step in a 6-month process to create a blueprint for the administration's future energy policy. Included in the review will be the Clean Power Plan, which restricts greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants. The rollback also scraps many of former President Barack Obama's environmental initiatives and removes the requirement that federal officials weigh the impact of climate change when making decisions. The executive orders he signed Tuesday direct the Environmental Protection Agency to thoroughly revise regulations outlined in the Clean Power Plan. Trump's 2018 budget proposal slashes EPA funding by 31 percent, including an almost total cut of climate research funds. Less clear is the president's commitment to international agreements such as the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, signed by Obama. Trump has an aversion to treaties that cede U.S. authority to global bodies, and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, speaking Sunday on ABC's “This Week,” called the Paris treaty a bad deal. Leaked details of the executive orders ignited a firestorm among climate scientists. Tim Barnett, emeritus research geophysicist at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in California, says even he, a Trump supporter, would find it unconscionable to roll back regulations contained in the Clean Power Plan. In Washington, views on climate change generally split along party lines. With Republicans controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress, the views of climate skeptics, largely marginalized during the Obama years, are finding fresh voice. The House Science Committee has scheduled hearings this week to look into the methods of climate scientists, as Chairman Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, pushes forward a bill to require the EPA to make public the data it uses to justify environmental regulations. The hearing will feature three prominent academics who question the scientific consensus, alongside Michael E. Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University and author of the hockey stick graph that suggests a steep rise in the earth's temperature since fossil fuels came into wide use. Mann said the rising profile of climate change doubters in Washington is part of a well-funded campaign by big energy industry interests, mainly Charles and David Koch, who are major contributors to conservative political and policy groups. Climate skeptics agree money has corrupted the scientific debate, but they differ on its effect. The dissenters argue that fierce competition for the billions of dollars in government research grants has forced academics to exaggerate the danger of climate chance. Richard Lindzen, professor emeritus of meteorology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, represents the small minority of scientists who find fault with the overwhelming consensus on climate change. He argues universities have given in to the temptation to exaggerate climate change as they have become increasingly dependent on billions of dollars in government research funding, effectively making bureaucrats the real judges of science. New blood test developed to identify TB, research says By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire services
Researchers have developed a blood test that can rapidly tell whether someone is suffering from tuberculosis. Investigators hope the test can lead to quicker treatment, making a dent in the worldwide tuberculosis epidemic. One-third of the world's population is infected with a silent form of tuberculosis, according to the World Health Organization. A person can live for years infected with latent tuberculosis and show no symptoms. But each year, 10 million people develop active tuberculosis, which causes severe symptoms such as coughing, weight loss, fever and night sweats and kills about 2 million of those people. Prompt diagnosis and treatment is critical for containing the highly contagious disease and saving lives. The new blood test promises to provide that speedy diagnosis. Investigators say it can tell within hours whether someone is infected with mycobacterium, the pathogen that causes tuberculosis. Currently, tuberculosis diagnosis is done with a sputum test. The objective is to grow the bacterium in culture from expelled mucus. Arizona State University bioengineering professor Tony Hu, who helped develop the new test, said the sputum test takes too long. "That technology needs four to eight weeks to get the final result," he said. But for the blood test, it's only 2 and a half hours. Called Nanodisk-MS, the rapid test takes advantage of nanotechnology to detect minute levels of peptides in the blood. Peptides are amino acid fragments of proteins that the disease’s bacteria release only during active infections. The highly sensitive blood test, described in the journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,” can also measure the severity of the infection. Hu said the test needed further validation in clinical trials, but that he hoped it would become part of the arsenal in the global war on tuberculosis. Scottish Parliament approves new independence vote By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire services
Scotland's Parliament voted Tuesday to seek a new referendum on independence from Britain, clearing the way for the country's first minister, its top lawmaker, to ask the British government to approve such a vote. The legislature in Edinburgh voted 69 to 59 to seek Britain's parliamentary endorsement, which is required, for a referendum that First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wants to hold within two years, before Britain has completed its departure from the 28-nation European Union. British voters narrowly approved a departure from the EU last year, and London will begin the formal process leading to Britain's exit from the union on Wednesday. Despite the overall vote last year in favor of leaving the EU, based on ballots cast in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, nearly two-thirds of Scottish voters elected to remain in the bloc. Since then, Ms. Sturgeon has insisted that independence is the only way for Scotland to maintain its formal EU relationship. Scottish voters chose not to declare independence from London in a referendum three years ago, but that was months before discussions began about Britain's possible departure from the Brussels-based EU. Ms. Sturgeon has argued that last year's Brexit vote necessitates a new independence referendum. On Tuesday, she said it would be democratically indefensible and utterly unsustainable for London to block a new Scottish vote. For her part, British Prime Minister Theresa May has said she will not support a new Scottish vote until Britain has formally departed the EU, a process of negotiations that experts say could take take several years.
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2017 and may not be reproduced anywhere without
permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
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| A.M. Costa Rica sixth news page |
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San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March
29, 2017, Vol.
17, No. 63
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Somewhere inside the sprawling U.S. embassy complex in Pavas, there are one or two persons struggling to provide the data for this year’s human trafficking report. Usually the report is boiler plated with ample sections simply copied from the previous year’s report. The report comes out each June and is based on information for the year ending this month. This year is different. Basing the analysis on the strictest definition of the term, some could believe that the government of Costa Rica and some Central American countries have been the biggest human traffickers. Costa Rica helped about 8,000 Cubans early last year and countless Haitians and Africans later to migrate toward the United States. Technically, this was not a legal action because Costa Rica’s trafficking laws make no provision to legalize government actions. No one complained, but the embassy workers will have to figure out a way to justify these actions. There also was widespread informal trafficking for a fee. Many migrants had to pay to enter the country, to travel through it and to leave it. There were no official government actions, but there were plenty of unofficial ones by officials. The U.S. State Department that issues the report declines to recognize that adult prostitution is not criminalized here. That goes along with the department’s rule that forbids grants to organizations that encourage the legalization of prostitution. Consequently, each year the report contains a glaring omission for Costa Rica as well as a handful of other countries. U.S. Embassy staffers decline to acknowledge the error that distorts understanding of the report. But they do obtain a lot of information from organizations that benefit from grants to rehabilitate failed prostitutes. The report correctly notes that of nearly 1,000 prostitutes, agents of the embassy have failed to find one that has been trafficked, but the report blames the methodology and the interview process. The numbers of willing prostitutes would seem to make forced prostitution unnecessary here. The Asociación La Sala eventually seeks to have prostitution recognized as a legitimate service enterprise where employees receive all the benefits given other members of the workforce. But this organization certainly will not receive U.S. funding. What embassy staffers fail to report are the thousands of cases of incest, exploitation of the young or child marriages. Health officials report thousands of births to underage mothers each year. Costa Rica just past what appears to be an unenforceable law that forbids marriage of those younger than 18. And there are criminal penalties based on the age differences of romantically involved couples. The Spanish-language media seems to be reporting more on some of these situations, including the murder near Guápiles of a 16-year-old female companion by a man in his 40s over the weekend. The police report said that the girl had been living with the man for three years. There also are several unresolved cases of long-term incest that rate news coverage in the newspapers and on television. The trafficking report mostly is based on statements from government officials, news reports, and the input from those who benefit from the U.S. government’s grants. A clearer picture of the situation could be obtained by first-person research, but embassy staffers do not like to visit downtown San José. Sex trafficking is the topic that draws the most interest in the State Department report. And in some countries there is forced prostitution or worse. But generally overlooked is the labor exploitation of domestic workers and others who are trafficking victims. |
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| From Page 7: 30K minors currently employed in Costa Rica By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
The central government estimates that there are 30,000 youngsters between 5 and 17 years that are working after the Costa Rican national household survey for 2016 showed 12,000 minors were not officially working. The number represents only around a single percentage decrease. According to the Módulo de Trabajo Infantil, the employment rate dropped with these new numbers from 4.3 percent to around 3.1 percent of the total workforce, according to the government’s data. The government believes that this represents a success for the administration of Luis Guillermo Solís whose strategic plan to reduce and eventually eliminate child labor is making some progress. On the flip side, the Encuesta Nacional de Hogares which is the name of the government census showed enrollment in schools increased to around 86 percent as well. That is a 4.3 percent increase from five years ago, according to the data provided. The Región Central of the country constitutes the location where more than half of all working minors in the country are. Around 60 percent of those minors work in agriculture and livestock. Among other programs the government gives money to poor families whose children had been working if the youngsters go to school instead. The central government and the International Labour Organization, a U.N. agency, frown on children working before they turn 18. However, some sources suggest that reasonable work provides financial and social benefits for children. Many of the jobs here are not reasonable. Some parents put very young children out in the street to beg for money. In addition, more than 50 percent of rural children have a job before they become adults. |
