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A.M.
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Published Friday, April 7, 2017, in
Vol. 17, No.
70
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San José, Costa Rica, Friday, April 7,
2017, Vol. 17,
No. 70
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Upcoming Semana
Santa scheduling aid
By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
A few days before the beginning of Semana Santa, many public organizations will take the entire week off, while some others will be partially working. The institutions not working at all are: Defensoría de los Habitantes, The Instituto Nacional de Seguros, Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones, Instituto Meteorológico Nacional, Instituto Mixto de Ayuda Social, Asamblea Legislativa and also Casa Presidencial. In the case of the Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social, the administrative headquarters in San José will be open only on Monday. Its branches all across the country will work normally on Monday and Wednesday. All hospitals will work normally. The ministries that will be closed are: foreign relations, education, justice, housing, finance, culture, and environment among others. The Policía de Tránsito will be working, as usual, through the whole week, while Fuerza Pública offices will be open from 8 to 4 p.m., Monday thru Friday. The Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería will be closed the whole week and resume on Monday April 17. For those who need to leave the country, the Peñas Blancas immigration staff will work their regular schedule from 6 a.m. to midnight. It will be a similar case in Paso Canoas, where officers will just end their shifts a couple of hours before, closing at 10 p.m. For those in need to run property related errands, Registro Nacional offices in San José, Liberia and Pérez Zeledón offices will be open from Monday through Wednesday on a 9 a.m to 4 p.m schedule. For money related issues, the Banco Nacional de Costa Rica, the Banco de Costa Rica and the Banco Popular will work Monday through Wednesday, each in their regular schedule. While the Comisión Nacional de Emergencias will work from Monday to Wednesday from 8 a.m to 4:30 p.m, the Cruz Roja Costarricense will work all week long from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Costa Rica's electricity institute cries foul By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad called some statements that apparently came from the Cámara Nacional de Industrias on March 5, 2017, total lies. The event, before the VIII Congreso Nacional de Energía, took place at the Hotel Wyndham Herradura. It is organized by the Cámara whose president Enrique Egloff accused the institute of overpricing electricity. He also said that its business model doesn't work anymore and the high cost of electricity has caused many enterprises to shut down their operation. “They create new projects so that their workforce in payroll has something to do,” he said, “They have also electrified the country based on hydropower only, and the costs keep increasing.” According to a statement sent by the institute, any comment that implies the institution is getting behind its competitive index in regards to price, coverage, sustainability and innovation is all false. “Since June 2014, the electricity prices have been kept steady and even decreasing. That's a commitment we have with the Costa Rican people until 2018. We have the cheapest electricity fares in whole Central America, despite the fact we are the only company not receiving state subsidies.” the document reads. “The statement issued by the Cámara is irresponsible.” the document says. In the past, electricity prices have sparked some serious debate in the country. On one side, some in the industrial sector claimed that electricity costs are too high and that hurts foreign investment and the economy. They have repeatedly called for more private energy as a way to solve the situation. According to the Costa Rican law, private generators may only sell their electricity to the institute, which may buy up to 30 percent of the national electric production in a one-year period. Companies should have at least 35 percent of their stocks in the hands of Costa Rican citizens. Back in 2000, mass protests sprouted across the country because of the Combo ICE, a series of bills seeking to privatize the electricity and telecommunications markets, which were a monopoly at the time. Nica Act brought back to U.S. Congress By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
Over 24 United States congressmen reintroduced the latest installment of the Nicaraguan Investment Conditionality Act, or Nica Act, this past Wednesday. The bill, classified H.R. 1918, was previously introduced to the House of Representatives back in September 2016. The proposal would direct the U.S. government to oppose loans to the nation of Nicaragua from international financial institutions until the secretary of State certifies and reports to Congress that the requirements of the bill are met. Namely, these requirements include: free, fair and transparent elections to be held in the country currently under the strong-man rule of long-time President Daniel Ortega. The exceptions towards these loan denials would be ones defined as meant to address basic human needs or promoting democracy, according to the legislation. “This important legislation makes it clear that the U.S. will not stand by and watch Ortega target human rights defenders and stifle democracy while lining his pockets with cash at the expense of the Nicaraguan people,” said Albio Sires, a democrat from New Jersey and one of the principal sponsors for the proposal. The bill has bipartisan support from 14 Republicans and 10 Democrats. The previous one, which had very similar language to this newly introduced bill, passed in the House of Representatives back in September 2016. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, introduced that bill in the Senate before it was, effectively buried in committee and killed with the end of the congressional year. The Organization of American States quickly condemned the reactivation of the Nica Act saying that the legislation is not productive towards strengthening the democratic and electoral institutions in the country. “The Nica Act aims to put conditions on Nicaragua similar to what Congress has already enacted into law regarding Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. On December 18, 2015, Congress enacted the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, providing funds to implement the Central America strategy,” a release by Rep. Sires said. In order for the bill to become law, the legislative details must be agreed upon and passed by both houses of Congress before being sent to the president to either sign or veto the bill.
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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San José, Costa Rica, Friday, April 7,
2017, Vol. 17,
No. 70
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| Bandas de conciertos provide the music for
Semana Santa parades |
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By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
Thursday marked the opening salvo for all the Bandas de Conciertos in all the provinces to begin playing their music during some of the most important festivities for the Catholic community and for many Costa Ricans as well. According to the Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud, music is an ideal complement to the religious celebrations that are creating an environment of introspection and reflection. The Banda de Conciertos in San José will perform a special concert beginning this Saturday at 7 in the evening that will include pieces such as El General Fernández and Mosaico Bizantino. That performance will be held at the Parroquia Nuestra Señora de Ujarrás. The other performances will be held in the Centro, Barrio Córdoba, and Tibás, organizers said. On Palm Sunday at 8:30 a.m., for the Procesión de Ramos, the Banda for Alajuela will be participating and leave the old hospital of Alajuela to go towards the Catedral de Alajuela. On the same day at 9 a.m., the Banda for Puntarenas will participate in their procession as well. “It is tradition for the Banda de Heredia, that during the Good Friday processions we are going to include Heredian composers,” Mario Gamboa, deputy director of the band, said. The bands for Cartago, Guanacaste and Puntarenas are also holding special concerts to perform sacred music. |
 Ministerio de
Cultura y Juventud photo
Heredia's Banda
de Conciertos will be in the processions.
Meanwhile, many of the bands, like
in Guanacaste and Heredia, are accompanying
the Palm Sunday marches.
The band in
Cartago will host a concert tonight at 6 p.m. in
the Iglesia de los Padres Capuchinos entitled
the Pasión de Cristo. On the same night at 5,
the band for Limón will be participating in the
Procesión del Santo Entierro which begins at the
Catedral de Limón.
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| Passover celebration
needs to be taken on faith and not archaeology |
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By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
The celebration of Passover is a low-keyed holiday week in Costa Rica because there are so few observant Jews, but many Christians do not know how closely the holiday is linked to Easter. In fact, the Hebrew word for Passover, Pesach, is where Spanish speakers get the word for Easter, Pascua. Italians call it Pasqua. Most Christians and students of the Bible know that Jesus either was crucified on the day before Passover, as the Gospel of John says, or on the Jewish Passover, as the three other main gospels say. The Last Supper either was the Passover meal or a meal in anticipation of Passover. The annual date of western Easter varies based on the full moon, and the date is in sync with Passover. Passover is much more than a significant religious day. This year it is April 10 to 18. Easter is April 18. The tradition is that Jews enslaved by Egypt found a savior in Moses, who brought plagues on non-Jewish Egyptians. The last was a visit by the Angel of Death who killed the first born male child in every home. To avoid that, Jews were instructed to mark the doorways of their homes with lamb’s blood. Seeing this, the angel passed over the home and spared the child inside. What happened next has been recounted best by filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille in his 1956 movie “The Ten Commandments,” starring Charlton Heston as Moses. |
The pharaoh relents and
lets the Jews leave. They begin a march east to the Mediterranean coast and cross the Red Sea as God, acting through Moses, parts the waters. The pharaoh changes his mind and pursues with his army, which is then destroyed by the Red Sea coming together. All this is supposed to have happened around 1450 B.C. And present day Israelis use the tradition to claim ownership of the disputed lands. "God gave this land to me,” is a line from the “The Exodus Song,” written by Pat Boone in 1959. Many Jews see this tradition as an unbreakable deed to the Holy Land. And that is the root of the current Palestinian resistance. The only trouble is that archaeologists have been looking in vane for signs for a century of the supposed 600,000 refugees who wandered around in the desert, as the Bible says. The current thinking by many archaeologists is that a small group fled Egypt and brought the message of one God to those who were living in what is now Israel and Palestine. There does not seem to be any Egyptian accounts either. The Passover story itself seems to have been written by Jewish scribes around 600 B.C. They were trying to stamp out competing religions, which is why the First of the 10 Commandments says “. . . have no other gods before me.” |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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Río Colorado S.A. 2017 and may not be reproduced
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page |
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San José, Costa Rica, Friday, April 7,
2017, Vol. 17,
No. 70
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| Tropical glassfrogs discovered to be
dedicated mothers and fathers |
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By the
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
press staff Glassfrogs may be somewhat see-through, but they have still managed to hide an important secret. They are dedicated mothers and fathers that invest time in brooding their eggs. Smithsonian scientists documented previously unknown parental-care behavior using detailed observations of 40 species of glassfrogs in Central and South America. The frog family is diverse stretching up through all of Costa Rica towards México. Their discovery rewrites assumptions about how care-giving evolved in this family of translucent, tree-dwelling frogs. “These are relatively well-studied, charismatic frogs, yet we were fundamentally wrong about their reproductive behavior,” said Karen Warkentin, associate scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and professor at Boston University. That is because the frogs mate during the night, laying their eggs from leaves that dangle over running water. Ms. Warkentin’s doctoral student, Jesse Delia, and research partner Laura Bravo-Valencia of the University of Los Andes, Colombia, had to adopt nighttime schedules to observe what the frogs were doing. Crucially, Delia and Ms. Bravo-Valencia observed that female frogs will sit upon their eggs for up to five hours after laying them. The frogs’ translucent bellies absorb water from dew-covered leaves, which they then use to hydrate the jelly-coated eggs. Swelling up to four times its thickness, the jelly protects the developing embryos from egg predators and fungal infections. Previously, only males of some species of glassfrogs had been observed brooding eggs, leading researchers to assume that parental care was rare in the glassfrog family. But in a new study published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, Delia and his collaborators found that every species they observed cared for its eggs. In most species, mothers tended to their eggs in the immediate hours after laying them. In fewer species, fathers cared for eggs. For 13 of the species, they monitored parental behavior from egg laying to tadpole hatching every night for weeks, observing how fathers cared for much longer periods than did mothers, continuing to brood their clutches even after the tadpoles started hatching. Delia and Ms. Bravo-Valencia spent six rainy seasons at 22 streamside sites in México, Panamá, Colombia, Ecuador and Perú to learn how the frogs looked after their young. They trekked up and down streams in warm lowland forests as well as steep mountain streams in the Andes where, Delia notes, “In many sites there are cascades of freezing cold water.” Their hard work paid off, because their field data helped make sense of the evolution of parental behavior in glassfrogs. |
 Smithsonian
Tropical Research Institute photo
Cochranella
granulosa female protecting her eggs.
Reasoning that
first-night brooding by mothers was likely an
ancestral trait common to glassfrogs, the
researchers demonstrated that it was much more
likely that male brooding evolved out of this
behavior, rather than from an ancestor with no
parental care.
“It seems that fathers not only took over the job when mothers were already doing it, but they also greatly elaborated the amount of care,” Ms. Warkentin said. Apart from their field observations, experimental work in Panamá on two species of glassfrogs revealed that brooding greatly increases the embryos’ chances of survival. Eggs whose mothers were removed before first-night brooding did not have swollen jelly coats, making them much easier for predators like katydids. And mothers were dedicated to their task. They would resist pokes and pinches and even being pushed off their egg clutches by the researchers, climbing back onto the eggs to continue their work. “Glassfrogs are but one small branch on the tree of life,” said Delia of their new observations. “But the way we had underestimated the diversity of parental behavior stresses the importance of getting out to the field and watching animals behave.” Lead funding for this study came from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the Fulbright Scholar Program and the National Science Foundation. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, headquartered in Panamá City, Panamá, is a part of the Smithsonian Institution. The Institute furthers the understanding of tropical nature and its importance to human welfare, trains students to conduct research in the tropics and promotes conservation by increasing public awareness of the beauty and importance of tropical ecosystems. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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San José, Costa Rica, Friday, April 7,
2017, Vol. 17,
No. 70
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 U.S. Navy photo
USS Ross fires
a Tomahawk land attack missile.
U.S. launches missile strike
against Syria's Assad regime By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire services
U.S. Defense Department officials confirmed that the U.S. has fired dozens of precision-guided missiles at Shayrat Airfield in Syria in response for a gruesome chemical weapons attack blamed on President Bashar al-Assad's forces that killed about 100 civilians. It is the first direct U.S. assault on Syrian government forces. The ships launching the 59 Tomahawks were the U.S.S. Porter and U.S.S. Ross, both destroyers deployed in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. A Navy official said the Syrian Airfield was targeted because it was most likely used to launch Tuesday's chemical strikes, which U.S. officials believe was a nerve gas, possibly sarin. The official said forward-deployed ships in the Mediterranean allow for quick-strike capability. President Donald Trump told reporters at his presidential retreat in southern Florida that he ordered the strike, saying it was in the vital national security interest of the United States. He also called on all civilized nations to join the U.S. in seeking an end to the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria. It came as Trump entertained Chinese President Xi Xinping at the presidential retreat in southern Florida. Trump did not announce the attacks in advance, although he and other national security officials ratcheted up their warnings to the Syrian government throughout the day Thursday. The surprise strike marked a striking reversal for Trump, who warned as a candidate against the U.S. getting pulled into the Syrian civil war, now in its seventh year. But the president appeared moved by the video and photos of children killed in that chemical attack, calling it a disgrace to humanity that crossed a lot of lines. Trump added that he might at some point talk about Syria with its biggest military ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Last week, the White House backed away from the former Obama administration's stance that Assad must be removed. While Trump did not say whether he now thought, in the wake of the gas attack, Assad should be driven from power, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday that Assad had to go. Tillerson told reporters there was no role for him to govern the Syrian people in the future. "The process by which Assad would leave is something that requires an international community effort, both to first defeat ISIS [Islamic State extremists] within Syria, to stabilize the Syrian country to avoid further civil war, and then to work collectively with our partners around the world through a political process that would lead to Assad leaving," he said. U.S. officials said this week that there was no doubt the Syrian military was behind the apparent sarin gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, which also sickened 350. Television pictures showed horrifying scenes of men, women and children foaming at the mouth, convulsing uncontrollably and struggling to breathe. Some families, including babies, died in their beds. Doctors showed that the pupils of the victims' eyes were tiny pinpoints that did not react to light, a clear sign of sarin gas poisoning. U.S. officials rejected Russian and Syrian claims that the gas had come from a missile strike on a rebel-controlled warehouse where chemical weapons had been stockpiled. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said his country did not use chemical weapons during airstrikes on Khan Sheikhoun. He insisted they would never be used, even against terrorists. The Kremlin said Putin, in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, underlined that it's unacceptable to make unfounded accusations against anyone until a thorough and unbiased international investigation has been conducted. But a Putin spokesman also said that Russia's support for Assad was not unconditional. Jordanian King Abdullah, meeting with Trump at the White House on Wednesday, said, "This is another testament to the failure of international diplomacy to find solutions to this crisis." Britain, France and the United States strongly condemned Russia on Wednesday during an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council. The fate of a draft U.N. resolution condemning the attack written by the three Western powers remained in limbo, as Russia's envoy said at the emergency session he did not think the time was right for such action. U.S. Senate alters rules ending traditional filibuster By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Senate is poised to confirm President Donald Trump's Supreme Court pick after Republicans forced a historic change in the rules governing the chamber, ending the minority party's ability to block high court nominees. A united Republican caucus, joined by three Democrats, voted Thursday to advance federal appellate judge Neil Gorsuch's nomination to a final vote, expected Friday. Moments earlier, days of finger-pointing and furious rhetoric came to a momentous climax. Republicans used their majority to exercise the nuclear option, altering Senate rules to defeat a Democratic procedural blockade of the nominee, known as a filibuster. While lamenting the need for a rules change, Republicans said they had no choice but to act. "We need to restore the norms and traditions of the Senate and get past this unprecedented partisan filibuster," said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican. "We have actually restored the status quo," said Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas, noting that filibusters of Supreme Court nominees were almost unheard of prior to Trump's selection. Democrats had a different take on the day's events. "When history weighs what happened, the responsibility for changing the rules will fall on the Republicans' and Leader McConnell's shoulders," said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat. "No one forced them to act. They acted with free will." Republicans said Democrats had no one to blame but themselves, launching a filibuster they knew Republicans were determined to overcome. Democrats countered that the filibuster of Gorsuch, after a thorough confirmation hearing, paled in comparison to Republicans refusing to even consider former President Barack Obama's final Supreme Court nominee, Judge Merrick Garland. The rules change all but assures Gorsuch's confirmation to the Supreme Court, filling the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia last year. Senators of both parties wondered out loud about the long-term impact of eroding minority party rights in a chamber that historically has protected them. Democrats themselves changed the rules to eliminate the filibuster for all non-Supreme Court nominees when they controlled the chamber in 2013. The procedural tactic still exists for most legislation; but, with the Senate already acting twice in a four-year span to weaken the filibuster, political analysts expect pressure will mount to curb it even further in years to come. House Intel Chair Nunes steps down from panel By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire services
The Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes says he is temporarily stepping down from the panel's investigation into alleged Russian hacking during the 2016 election campaign, after ethical complaints were lodged against him. The House Ethics Committee is investigating whether Nunes may have made an unauthorized disclosure of classified information last month during a hastily arranged news conference. Nunes said he had come into the possession of classified material that indicated members of Trump’s campaign had conversations incidentally collected by U.S. intelligence agencies while surveiling foreign targets. Nunes said several leftwing activist groups filed accusations of impropriety against him with the Office of Congressional Ethics, and he would temporarily step back from the investigation until the charges are cleared up. Two government watchdog groups, Democracy 21 and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed the complaint, which alleges Nunes’s characterization of what was in the classified documents violated House ethics rules, even though he didn’t disclose the specific information found in the documents. Nunes called the accusations baseless and politically motivated, though he said he would step down from the investigation of the charges because it is in the best interests of the House Intelligence Committee and the Congress. He said he would continue to fulfill his other duties as committee chairman, but said Rep. Mike Conaway will take charge of the investigation, with assistance from Representatives Trey Gowdy and Tom Rooney. The House Ethics Committee released a statement acknowledging the investigation, though it cautioned it does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee. Anyone can file a complaint with the office. It is up to that group to determine the validity of the complaint and forward it to House Ethics Committee when appropriate. Nunes did not brief the top-ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, on the documents before sharing them with President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan, a move that led Schiff and other Democrats to question Nunes’s ability to run an independent investigation. Schiff said Thursday he was appreciative of Nunes’s decision to step down and said it would give the investigation a fresh start moving forward. Ryan also applauded Nunes’s decision to step down, saying it would be a distraction if he stayed on the investigation while dealing with the ethics complaint. ISIS foreign fighters face uncertain future after fall By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire services
The looming collapse of the Islamic State terror group's self-declared caliphate is a welcome development for many Western officials. But even when it happens, many warn of a secondary problem: what to do about the thousands of Islamic State foreign fighters who may survive. "The most vivid challenge we now face is ensuring that the information and intelligence about the travel, the plans, the intentions and identities of foreign terrorist fighters are as broadly known as possible everywhere in the world, because their travel can be so unpredictable," said Lt. Gen. Michael Nagata, director of strategic operational planning at the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center. Here is the latest U.S. data on foreign fighters, as given by a senior U.S. counterterrorism official: More than 40,100 foreign fighters have traveled to Syria and Iraq since the conflict began; foreign fighters come from at least 120 countries; approximately 280 U.S. residents have traveled or attempted to travel to Syria and Iraq; approximately 36 Americans have died after traveling to Syria to partake in the conflict. The coalition to defeat Islamic State is also getting help from its newest member, International Criminal Police Organization, according to a senior White House official: the group now has information about 14,000 foreign fighters from 60 countries; in the past four years, there has been "a thousandfold increase" in the amount of information shared on foreign fighters European countries have also taken steps to cut down on foreign fighter travel, the White House said, by adopting passenger name recognition protocols, 31 non-EU countries are implementing enhanced traveler screening measures. U.S. officials have also described accelerated efforts to make travel for foreign fighters more difficult. Cancer-causing strain found in some HPV infections By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire services
A cancer causing strain of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, has infected 25 percent of men and 20 percent of women in the United States, new statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics. Furthermore, some 45 percent of men have a genital form of the virus. "Human papillomavirus is the most common sexually-transmitted infection in the United States," the team at the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote. "Some HPV types can cause genital warts and are considered low risk, with a small chance for causing cancer. Other types are considered high risk, causing cancer in different areas of the body including the cervix and vagina in women, penis in men, and anus and oropharynx in both men and women." The virus has been linked to head and neck cancer as well as cervical cancer. According to NBC News, doctors think about 70 percent of head and neck cancers are caused by HPV spread through oral sex. They add that by 2020, head and neck cancers will be more common than the cervical cancer caused by the virus. Roughly four percent of adults are infected with an oral, cancer causing strain of HPV. Men had a higher rate than women. For people under 25, there is a vaccine that can defend against the cancer causing strains of HPV. Among older adults, the virus continues to be passed around. According to NBC, the FDA-approved vaccines are Cervarix and Gardasil. There are 109 known strains of HPV. $800 million paid out to U.S. victims of terror By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday that it has paid out more than $800 million from a Congressionally-created fund to compensate thousands of American victims of international terrorist acts dating back decades. Among the 2,332 claimants were Americans held hostage by Iran from 1979 to 1981, as well as victims of the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the Justice Department said in a statement. The U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund was set up by Congress in 2015 and is administered by the Justice Department's Criminal Division. Congress authorized the department to deposit into the fund certain forfeiture proceeds, penalties and fines that come from civil and criminal matters involving prohibited transactions with state sponsors of terrorism. Congress originally appropriated $1.025 billion for payments to victims, and recent Justice Department prosecutions and U.S. government enforcement actions have increased the total available for initial payments to more than $1.1 billion, the statement said.
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The
contents
of
this
Web site are 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, Friday, April 7,
2017, Vol. 17,
No. 70
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 Ministerio
de Seguridad Pública photo
Police stand
outside the Venue club following massive
overdoses.
Massive K2 overdose
at San Pedro club
By the A.M. Costa
Rica staff
A massive overdose occurred Thursday morning in front of Venue bar, in San Pedro de Montes de Oca, when 15 people apparently consumed a drug called K2 and required medical assistance and the intervention of Fuerza Pública officers. According to official reports, the whole group behaved in a bizarre way. Some of them took off some of their clothes while others acted aggressively. According to the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, K2 is the nickname for synthetic cannabis. These are described by the institute as man made, mind-altering chemicals that can be consumed in a variety of ways. The drugs are often falsely labeled as safe, when its effects could, not only be much more powerful than natural marijuana, but also unpredictable and life-threatening as well. Cops received an anonymous alert on the situation and, after arrival, they evaluated the situation as critical and called 911 to send several ambulances. Two people were then hospitalized. Officers from the Programa Regional Antidrogas and the canine unit of the Fuerza Pública also arrived to the scene to search for traces of drugs inside the bar. They found some. According to police records, Venue bar already had three infractions. The first one from November when the bar was open past the authorized schedule. Next police report from December accounts for gunshots and several people injured by firearms. The latest report filed said the security guards didn't have any permit to work as such. Two other bars in the same complex have also a history of trouble. One of them called Spot was visited by Fuerza Pública for a brawl in mid-February. The other one, whose name happens to be Dope, has accrued 11 infractions since January, mostly for allowing minors in the premises. “I know the owners of such places will claim that the people intoxicated were outdoors and they have nothing to do with that, but come on, our dogs have found traces of drugs inside the bar and they cannot come to me and say that nobody saw these people snorting cocaine or getting high on other drugs,” said Gustavo Mata, the public security head. The bar was shut down for 24 hours. The mayor of Montes de Oca, Marcel Soler, said officials are waiting for the final police report of the incident to take the proper measures. One of them could be revoking the business license. The three bars are located towards the east side of Mall San Pedro, next to what's locally known as La línea, meaning the train rails. |
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| From Page 7: Bancrédito trying to improve its fiscal health By the A.M. Costa
Rica staff
Bancrédito will sell a property valued at $635,000 in Alajuela and make a deposit worth $3.5 million in San José, according to a release issued by the Costa Rican government. The troubled bank is attempting to improve its financial status after a liquidity crisis that brought together other public banks and the government to help. The state commercial bank was stuck with bad loans last year when a major retailer sought bankruptcy. The bank was known as the Banco Crédito Agrícola de Cartago before being nationalized in 1948. The country’s Superintendencia General de Entidades Financieras cited what were called irregularities in the bank’s finances. The bank has lost money for a number of months. Bancrédito will also encourage employees to adhere to a severance package which will decrease its payroll by $6 million. The bank will also receive a $4 million loan from Banco Nacional. That money comes from the exit tax the government charges to every person who leaves the country. The Costa Rican government also announced its plans to transform Báncredito into a bank oriented towards the financial need of small enterprises. At the same time, the Superintendencia General de Entidades Financieras, has presented a short-term rescue plan for the bank, which must be approved by legislators. |
