Most Costa Ricans are headed back to work this morning after a vacation of from three days to 10 days, depending on the place of employment.

Officials have listed 32 violent deaths over the Holy Week and Easter holiday, and motor vehicle deaths were nearly half at 15. Preliminary reports suggested that no tourists or members of the English-speaking community were among the dead.

The Policía de Tránsito were unable to maintain the low level of highway deaths, Only six died last year, and officials mounted a campaign to keep down the death toll. 

The violent deaths came from multiple causes, but there was just one murder, officials said. A more complete report is expected today.

Immigration officials reported that they had apprehended 2,443 persons who tried to enter the country illegally over the holidays. Most were Nicaraguans who were returned to their own country. More than 2,000 of these were caught near the Peñas Blancas border crossing in northwest Costa Rica.

Officials at the border crossing reported a slow day early Sunday. They said the flow of Nicaraguans returning legally from their own country to Costa Rica was lower than in previous years. The flow was expected to increase.

23 tons of shark fins
found in Barranca

Officials confiscated an estimated 23 tons of shark fins Saturday when they investigated a truck parked in front of a seafood distributor in Barranca, Puntarenas.

Officials said the haul was worth many millions of colons. Two guards and the driver of the truck were held for questioning.

The shark fins are held in high regard, particularly in the Orient, but environmentalists deplore the practice of killing sharks simply for their fins.

Her family grows
by four more kids

A woman in Puntarenas has given birth to quadruplets, something that only happens once every few years in Costa Rica.

The woman was identified as Damaris Castro, 28, who already had four children at home.

One child was delivered by natural birth Saturday at Hospital Monseñor Sanabria and the other three by caesarian section, attendants said.

The children are in good condition despite being premature, but they were taken to San José and the Hospital de Niños, which is the best facility in the country for caring for newborns.

Two more letters
about U.S. Embassy

The following are more letters submitted by readers after our criticism of the U.S. Embassy here March 16 and a subsequent rebuttal by embassy officials.

Informative and courteous

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

I have had nothing but cooperation and consideration from the U.S. Embassy in San José. From running my passport through the washing machine to getting a hurry-up visa for my wife and a U.S. passport for my daughter to accommodate travel arrangements.  Each staff member was informative and courteous. 

On the other hand, I witnessed strident and overbearing U.S. citizens each time I went to the embassy. I wonder how many of us could take what I saw dished out — on a daily basis. There's always two sides to every story. 

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

The only experience I had with the U.S. Embassy here in Costa Rica is that they were closed during what I would think of as normal daily work hours. I still received what I asked for, however. Someone opened the door a few inches and handed me the forms I needed. I didn’t see a person, but I did see a hand. 

A Fuerza Pública officer took a bullet in the foot Wednesday when he chased a man who was about to hold up a hardware store in San Francisco de Dos Ríos.

The officer returned fire and wounded a suspect three times in the legs.

The Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública was happy to announce that officers had frustrated the robbery Wednesday. However, police officials expressed displeasure that one of the two men detained, the one with the wounds in the leg, had gotten out of jail on a similar charge just five days earlier.

They identified him by the last names of Artavia Olivas. They said he was 27 and with a record of robbery arrests. He left preventative detention April 12, said officials.

The second suspect was identified by the last names of Mairena Dubón. Police said he was a Nicaraguan, 24 years old, who entered the country March 4. He surrendered at the scene near the ISA company, which is east of San José.

Officers said that employees of the hardware and materials facility saw two men acting suspiciously and called police around noon. When police pulled up, the robbers began shooting and one fled.

Officers said they confiscated a .38-caliber revolver with all cartridges fired. They also confiscated a pistol where Mairena was arrested, they said.

Both men were ordered held for three months preventative detention by a judge after a court session Saturday.

Officer dies in fight

A police officer died as the result of a fistfight in Villa Nueva de Aserrí Friday. The man was identified as Juan Cruz Méndez, 58, a 23-year member of the force.

Arrested was a man with the last name of Jiménez, 20-years-old, who, officials said, was involved in a brawl with the officer.

Cruz died from a severe blow to the head, perhaps a result of his head hitting the ground, investigators said. No cause was specified for the fight.

LIMA, Perú _ Mudslides around Peru's Machu Picchu ruins have killed at least six people and some 1,500 tourists trapped as road and rail transit was cut off at the site. The government is mounting an air bridge to fly the trapped visitors out of the site. 

Unexpectedly heavy rains caused mudslides to dump into the river running beside the only rail and road transport to the ruins. The resulting flood blocked the road and destroyed six houses at Aguas Calientes, near the entrance to the ruins.  Officials said at least five people are still missing. 

President Alejandro Toledo happened to be at the

The first of two avalanche's hit the town itself. A second mudslide later cut off rail transport from the historic Inca capital of Cuzco to the Machu Picchu site, some 500 kms (300 miles) southeast of here. The government must remove huge boulders from the tracks according to reports from the area. 

The Machu Picchu citadel which was built deep in the Amazon jungle by the Inca rulers before 1552 has drawn some 300,000 visitors every year.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell says Haiti does not need an army and should focus on rebuilding its police force.

Secretary Powell made the remarks to independent Haitian station Radio Metropole in a recent interview. In a transcript of his comments, Powell said that while it is up to the Haitian people to decide what kind of institutions they need, he hopes the rebuilding of the police force will be their first priority. 

Powell told the station that the Haitian people need what he called a professional, confident, equipped police force. He went on to say any discussion of an army should come much later, after an elected Haitian government is put in place. 

Haiti's army was disbanded in 1995 by then President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who resigned 

Powell was in Haiti Monday in a show of support for the interim government of Prime Minister Gerard Latortue. 

Meanwhile, Brazil's defense minister says his country will send almost 1,500 troops on a peacekeeping mission to Haiti, beginning in July. 

Defense Minister Jose Viegas also said in comments published Friday, that Brazil is favored to take command of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the country at that time.  He added that some other Latin American countries, including Argentina, Chile and Peru, are offering to send peacekeepers. 

The U.N. Security Council has authorized for three months the current U.S.-led force in Haiti, which includes troops from Canada, Chile and Brazil as well.  Those troops began arriving the first of March after a three-week rebel uprising.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that Mexico is reopening its markets to more U.S. beef products after banning the meat imports following a mad cow disease scare late last year.

In a release Friday, the Agriculture Department says Mexico has agreed to once again allow the importation of variety meats, veal and tallow. 

Combined with a decision last month to allow U.S. 

In announcing the decision, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said reopening Mexico to more beef products is a very positive signal.

Mexico's beef ban resulted from a single incident of mad cow disease discovered in the U.S. Pacific Northwest last December.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — The body of a 19-year-old Salvadoran soldier killed in Iraq has been flown to his home country. 

Salvadoran officials say the body of Natividad Mendez Ramos arrived Friday at the Comalapa military base just outside of this capital. Defense Minister Juan Martinez was on hand to receive the casket. 

Burial was to be Saturday, in the soldier's hometown of Guaymango, 90 kms. (about 54 miles) southeast of here.

Mendez Ramos was killed April 4 during an attack on coalition forces near Najaf, Iraq. Twelve Salvadoran soldiers were wounded in the attack. 

The U.S. Embassy in San Salvador said in a recent statement that it is saddened by Mendez Ramos' death and that officials wish for a speedy recovery for the wounded soldiers. 

President Flores has said Salvadoran troops will remain in Iraq, but the government faces pressure from the opposition to withdraw them. 380 Salvadoran troops are serving in Iraq.

A Honduran soldier has become another casualty of the same attack. 

Honduran officials said Friday that mortar fragments hit Ramon Antonio Reyes in the shoulder and foot during the same attack in Najaf earlier this week. He is the first member of the 370-person Honduran contingent to be wounded by hostile fire in Iraq.  At least four others have been hurt in accidents in Iraq. 

Honduran soldiers now in Iraq are scheduled to finish a six-month tour of duty there at the end of July.