WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Abel Pacheco had three minutes with U.S. President George Bush in which he pitched his view that Central America countries need aid, time and technology to surmount their differences from the United States.

For the first time in many years there is peace in all of Central America and for the first time in history the five presidents are on friendly terms with the goal of reconstructing the area to eliminate poverty, Pacheco told Bush, according to a release by Casa Presidential.

Pacheco came away saying that he was sure that Bush recognized the differences between the United States and Central America and their asymmetrical status in negotiating a free trade treaty. "We are five very small countries negotiating with the most powerful nation," said Pacheco.

Telecommunications is a state monopoly in Costa Rica, but it is an area that the United states would like to open up to competition from private firms in that country.

"I see that the United States is disposed to respect this peculiarity," said Pacheco after the afternoon meeting.

Pacheco and the four presidents of other Central America states have a number of meetings with other U.S. trade and development officials.

Pacheco also revealed that he would meet with Ernie Allen of the national Center for Lost and Exploited Children because that organization would like to expand its work to Costa Rica.

A family home in Pérez Zeledón built in the mid-1930s won the award Thursday set up to support and preserve the country’s architectural heritage.
 

The dwelling is being described as the first home in the Valley de El General. The home is of the family Barrantes Elizondo and was declared a national landmark in 1997. The structure was one of 10 projects submitted to the Centro de Investigación y Conservación del Patrimonio

Cultural. Others were in San José, Heredia, Alajuela and Guanacaste. 

By being selected, the project gets 25 million colons (about $64,000) from the government to help with the restoration.

The restoration projects were evaluated by a jury which considered the cultural value, the state of conservation and the viability of the project, according to a handout by the center, which is part of the Ministerio de Cultural, Deporte y Juventud.

Mother's murder cost 20 years

A man who cut up and set fire to his mother got 20 years in prison in a Puntarenas courtroom Thursday.  He has the last names of Mesén Chaves.

His mother’s remains were found near her home in February 2002. She was Olga Chaves Lobo. The remains were so badly damaged that investigators were unable to determine the cause of death.

Despite rumors to the contrary, Costa Rica will enforce a ban on alcohol Holy Thursday and Good Friday. These are key days in the Catholic religion, and the Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública said that the ban was to allow the faithful to participate in religious celebrations without fear of problems generated by the sale and consumption of alcohol.

As is traditional, officers of the Fuerza Pública will seal off bars and the alcohol section of stores by midnight Wednesday.

And as is traditional, Costa Ricans will continue getting around the ban.

Bars will be physically closed with tape and Fuerza Pública stamps placed on the doors.  Such establishments may not open until midnight Friday,

Violation of the law carries a prison term of from three months to two years. But informal bars in homes and stores are traditional during such periods of prohibition.

Places where tourists congregate frequently flout the law by calling any gathering of tourists a private party where the law allows alcohol.

Gigantic drug haul
grabbed in Golfito

Police stopped a pickup near Golfito, brought in a trained drug-sniffing dog and uncovered the largest stash of drugs in the country’s history, according to the Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública.

Police said they stopped the pickup because the two occupants, a man and a woman, had been under investigation for possible links to drug trafficking. Police said they found a false floor in the pickup and encountered 40 kilos of heroin and 101 kilos of cocaine. 

The man taken into custody has the last names of Alvarado Gómez and is 40 years old. The woman has the last names of Herrera Castro and is 43, police said.

Rape suspect caught

Investigators took into custody Wednesday a Panamanian man wanted for the rape of minors in his home country. He is Rodolfo Betancourt Escudero. The arrest was made in the Ciudad de Tejar del Guarco in Cartago, said a report from the International Police Agency (INTERPOL). Agents of the Judicial Investigating Organization also participated. The man will be brought to court for extradition proceedings in Cartago.

Police foil attempt
to kill president

QUITO, Ecuador — Police say they have foiled a plot to assassinate President Lucio Gutierrez.  Police Gen. Edgar Vaca told Congress Thursday here that two Ecuadoreans met with Colombian hit men recently in Cali, Colombia to discuss the plot. 

Gen. Vaca says the would-be assassins were paid an advance sum of $37,000 to buy guns, scopes and silencers and that the money was part of a $1.5 million contract on the president's life. 

The police official did not say how the plan was foiled or if anyone had been detained, but he did point out that Ecuadorean authorities were working with Colombia and the International Police Agency on the case. 

President Gutierrez took office Jan. 15 after winning a runoff election in November.  As an army colonel in January 2000, Gutierrez led thousands of indigenous Ecuadoreans and fellow officers in a coup that toppled President Jamil Mahuad, whose policies were blamed for a severe economic crisis. 

Loyal officers arrested Gutierrez and installed Vice President Gustavo Noboa as Ecuador's new leader. Gutierrez was subsequently jailed for four months for leading the rebellion. 
 

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The Iraq war may have cut North American tourism in half, and the deficit will be hard to offset.

The buildup to war has had an effect on tourism since January, but industry executives also blame the slow North American economy and the default by high-interest investment firms for the current woes.

In addition to hotel room statistics and airline head counts, reports from taxi drivers, rental car agencies and tour operators supports the view that tourism may have been cut in half for at least the last two weeks. 

Several hotels that have reported full occupancy during February and March in past years say they are at half or 60 percent capacity.

A few tourist operations with excellent marketing efforts say they are bucking the trend, and one even reported that business was up 10 percent this year. But these are the exceptions.

Even as the war seems to be winding down, tourism executives expect that any return to normality will not take place for a month to six weeks because there is a lead time for tourist visits.

March usually is a big month. Some 57,000 North American tourists visited the country that month in 2002. The numbers dip to about 40,000 in April and May, but in June and July North American summer vacationers drive the figure to about 45,000. September and October are the true off-season with numbers about half that of March.

So the war hit Costa Rica in what normally is a great tourism month. And any recovery will arrive along with the rainy season.

The tourism industries that cater to male vacationers seem to be bearing the brunt of the default by the high-interest investment firms, principally Savings Unlimited and the operation run by Luis Enrique Villalobos Camacho.

The bar business and charter fishing would seem to be among those hard hit. Many North American men used to visit here and finance their annual or semi-annual vacations with interest payments from the investment firms. One was overhead speaking by telephone in a restaurant last week complaining that the Villalobos firm had closed its doors. He apparently had been unaware of that fact until he arrived here this week. 

The firm shut down Oct. 14.

This newspaper seeks the prompt return of two men who ran high-interest investment operations that have gone out of business.

Luis Enrique Villalobos Camacho, 62, was associated with Ofinter S.A., a money exchange house, and with his own private investment business that had about $1 billion in other people’s money on the books.

Villalobos closed his business Oct. 14 and vanished.

Louis Milanes operated Savings Unlimited and several casinos in San José. He left the country with other members of his firm the weekend of Nov. 23. He may have as much as $260 million in his possession. Both operations catered to North Americans.

Villalobos and Milanes are the subjects of international arrest warrants.  Associates of both men have been jailed.

A.M. Costa Rica has posted a $500 reward for information leading to the detention of either man with the hopes that others will make similar pledges. The newspaper believes that investors only will see some of their money when the two men are in custody.

Milanes has few supporters in San José. On the other hand, as the letters frequently on this page show, Villalobos still has supporters who believe that he will reappear and settle his debts. They believe he is in hiding because of a predatory Costa Rican government.