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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, April 12, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 72 | |||||||||
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Our readers' opinions
Caja can save moneyin several easy ways Dear A.M. Costa Rica: There are a couple of things the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social could do right now that would save time and money. How about filling recurring prescriptions for three months at a time instead of monthly? This could be done immediately, at no cost to the system. It might actually save money for the Caja, and it would certainly be more convenient for the patient who is on blood pressure or cholesterol medication for the rest of their life. The prescribing doctor gives out prescriptions for the next 6 to 12 months of medication, so why have to show up once each month to get them filled? How about allowing one to make an appointment by phone? Or reschedule or even cancel an appointment. Setting up a phone system and staffing it would cost money, but it should be cost effective in the long term. Maybe set up a Web page for appointments. How about setting up actual appointment times instead of telling 50 people their appointment is at 7 in the morning, and then have it be nothing more than first come first served (sometimes). It'll be interesting to see if CCSS will come up with and execute a plan within the one-year time frame. Please keep us informed. Anthony
Waddell
Curridabat A time-and-motion study might be helpful for Caja Dear A.M. Costa Rica: Fortunately, we have always had rapid and excellent service when a medical situation has arisen. Of course, we always have reading material on hand in the event of a prolonged wait. We have often remarked that, even though the person with whom we need to check in with and to make a follow-up appointment seems to have the "stamping and stapling" procedure down to a science, it seems excessive. A time-and-motion study might prove interesting to enable the "S and S" to be cut down or even eliminated. Ann
Boyd
La Garita She found back relief at a specialized clinic Dear A.M. Costa Rica: I think my medical experience is newsworthy. I only wish I had read about the described process so much earlier! I discovered I had a sciatica nerve condition that caused me great pain for months. I went to an orthopedic doctor/surgeon who recommended a pain management doctor. I had a spinal injection (recommended by this doctor), as an outpatient, full anesthetic given, and expensive. No results. I found through my sister who used to be a nurse, a Web site describing a clinic that treated spinal/back conditions. I went to a doctor at Hospital CIMA who reviewed my MRI and x-rays and said I was a good candidate for this special therapy using a machine that stretches the spin (only DRX9000 machine in Costa Rica is at this clinic, and the machine is made in the U.S.). The doctor recommended the full 22 sessions. After 12 sessions my excruciating pain stopped. I continued with the sessions to be safe. I can remember being in such pain and crying and hating to take pain pills. I want to share my story because there are so many people with similar conditions, also. Herniated disks, that can find pain relief. It is sad that more doctors don’t recommend this method and no need to say why or ponder that thought! Here is the Web site of the spine clinic; http://costaricaspinalcare.com/?lang=en Linda
Gray
Playas del Coco Administrative turnovers continue to plague RACSA By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Radiográfica Costarricense S.A., the national Internet service known as RACSA, is without a general manager and with three vacancies on its five-place board of directors. The administrative turmoil is a problem for the parent firm, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad. Although the customers may not see it, there is a continuing battle in the administration of the financially troubled company on its course. Orlando Cascante left as general manager March 31 when his term expired, said the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad in a summary of the troubles this week. Two members of the board of directors left also, and the firm seeks to expand the number to comply with a recent recommendation by the Procuraduría General de la República, the firm said. For expats, the stability of RACSA is important if they seek to obtain a high speed connection that RACSA has promised. There already are signups being accepted. The firm hopes to provide at least a 10-mbps connection at a price that has not yet been made public. Ad rates to be increased By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A.M. Costa Rica will be instituting a small display advertising rate increase Monday. Classified advertising rates will remain unchanged. The increases are made necessary by increases in costs that the newspaper must pay. This includes higher utility costs, mandatory increases in employee salaries, higher rents and higher costs for editorial and professional services. Existing advertising agreements will not be affected, and the advertising staff will continue to accept business at the old rate until Monday.
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, April 12, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 72 | |
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 A.M. Costa Rica/Kayla Pearson
Fuerza Pública officers
try to keep the crowd from invading the central park |
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| President
had a rough time at the Juan Santamaría celebration |
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By
Kayla Pearson
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff Juan Santamaría day celebrations of the 157 anniversary of the Battle of Rivas were interrupted soon after the start by protesters unhappy with the San José to San Ramón road concession. Police set up steel barricades early Thursday at Alajuela's central park and only granted access to the event to uniformed parade participants and guests who were on a list. As a result, many family members were denied entry leaving them angry with the police. Despite this, children in costumes and band uniforms gathered with smiles in the area in front of the Juan Santamaría statue and waited in the blazing morning heat for the arrival of President Laura Chinchilla Miranda. After Ms. Chinchilla’s arrival and formalities that included shaking hands with the young citizens, the program began with the national anthem. Then the shouting started. Angry protesters commandeered the park and climbed in trees and on top of the playground equipment with banners and Costa Rican flags. Others screamed derogatory comments about the presidents and chants about corruption and the filibuster from the barricades Once Ms. Chinchilla took the stage, the protesters turned violent, pulled on the gates and demanded to enter the event. “Doña Laura Chinchilla is afraid to talk to us,” said one protester. “We are the people.” Police readied themselves forming a double line of support if the protesters were to get through. The protesters were contained until Ms. Chinchilla left the ceremony. Afterward, the parade continued as scheduled allowing 37 bands of elementary and high school students from communities such as Guanacaste, San Carlos, Limón, Heredia, San Ramón, Cartago, Heredia and Alajuela to drum and dance through the streets. Individuals unhappy with the proposed 2,000-colon toll on the San Ramón highway promised a protest, so police were forewarned. The opponents came for the communities along the path of the highway. Of course, the unhappiness was amplified when parents realized they could not see their children participating in the Juan Santamaría day event. Police had closed off several blocks around the park Some reporters scuffled with police as Ms. Chinchilla was leaving because they wanted to ask her questions. They never got the chance. Some official cars were jostled as their occupants left the scene. Elsewhere spectators scuffled with police. One man was believed to have been detained but details are unavailable. Casa Presidencial quickly issued a bulletin criticizing what it said was extremism. "Extremism never has been the basis of a solution to any problem," said the bulletin. It also said that Ms. Chinchilla had told her highway officials to put off until Monday a meeting with officials in communities along the route. many feel that the toll is excessive. The session had been planned for today. A filibuster is someone who engages in war in other countries |
 A.M. Costa Rica/Kayla Pearson
Youngster on a parade float
impersonates Juan Santamaría and carries a mock torch the
national hero used to ignite a filibuster stronghold. A.M. Costa Rica/Kayla Pearson
President
Chinchilla creates a photo opportunity
usually
for personal gain. That is the term given to William Walker, the U.S.
citizen who
became president of Nicaragua in 1856. It was Walker's force that
Santamaría faced at the Battle of Rivas. Thursday the word was
thrown out as a convenient criticism of government officials and the
private firm that is building the road and holds the concession.
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| A country that champions peace will welcome U.S. president |
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| As
Shakespeare said so well, “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” It is a shame that with power comes fear. Often it is fear on the part of the populace because the power is in the hands of a dictator. It also comes from the power center. And the more powerful that center, the more fear, evidently. According to reports, the U.S. government has sent its Secret Service to Costa Rica to check out the various possible threats to President Obama when he visits in May. There are all of these “leftist” groups and people who are from the Peace University, or were anti-free trade and people who are sympathetic to the Palestinian plight. Among them probably, are also environmentalists and animal lovers. Frankly I find it a little difficult to imagine someone from the University for Peace to be of lethal danger to the U.S. president or to use violence of any sort to express their disagreement. Nor is there much of a history of modern Costa Ricans solving their political problems by doing harm to their leaders. I was here when President Clinton visited Costa Rica. He was very popular, as was President Kennedy. There were no incidents or threats. As far as I know, no recent Republican president has visited this little country. However, since President Clinton’s visit times have changed. President Obama inherited four wars, one against terrorism, one in Iraq, and one in Afghanistan, all declared by President Bush, and the “war on drugs,” declared by President Nixon, The war on drugs has permeated this country. And there has been a new group of expats coming to Costa Rica. Many may be former military who are in possession of guns, but as we have been told many times, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” And some of these very people with guns, who probably could be called “rightists” to balance the teeter totter of political equilibrium, are also what are called “preppers” or survivalists, who have built bunkers and collected provisions and artillery in the peaceful hills and |
mountains of Costa Rica, preparing themselves for Armageddon, of which, I am told, there are several versions. Some also hate President Obama. That is why they may be more of a threat to him than the leftists who just want him to be better. Some of the extreme rightists in the latter group just don’t want him to be. I, for one, hope President Obama’s visit will be without incident, and that he will indeed, be able to do better at what he has been trying to do, and certainly, remains hale and healthy enough to do it. I cannot help but recall the day in 1998 when I sat in the Plaza de la Democracía under a canopy with others in the audience listening to the then president of Costa Rica, along with some former presidents, celebrate Costa Rica’s 50 years of peace and being without a military. I saw no somber looking men in sunglasses nearby. Then, instead of a military display or fighter planes overhead, the president and a group of school children, also on the podium, opened boxes and released hundreds of butterflies. The presidents of Costa Rica have not been “deciders” (to borrow a word from President George Bush), on the world stage, except perhaps in the call for peace (thank you, President Oscar Arias, et al), so the only influence they have is as representatives of a country that has championed peace, and non-violence against others and the environment. As for being the paragon of corruption-free politics, I can think of no country that can raise high its banner. Unfortunately, that’s the way it is. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, April 12, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 72 | |||||
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| Massive collider in Geneva being refitted for more forays into unknown | |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
As two yellow-helmeted electricians rise slowly on a hoist from the cavern floor to check cabling on a huge red magnet, CERN scientist Marc Goulette makes clear he sees cosmic significance in their task. "When this refit is completed," he says, gesturing across the gigantic Large Hadron Collider, "we shall be ready to explore an entirely new realm of physics." The collider is only five years old but, after swiftly finding a crucial missing link to support mankind's main concept of the universe, is now entering a two-year revamp to double its power in the hope of breathtaking new discoveries. Some scientists predict it will help identify the nature of strange dark matter that lurks around planets, stars and galaxies; others that it might find a zoo of new particles or even catch hints that space has more than three dimensions. Buoyed by the early success, experimental physicists and theorists at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research housed on a sprawling campus near Geneva, hope more stunning findings may follow as soon as this decade. To make this possible hundreds of engineers and technicians are preparing CERN's collider, a 27-km (17-mile) subterranean complex of machinery and cables. By 2015, it has to be made ready to double its power and its reach into the microscopic world of elementary particles that emerged from the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. "It is a giant task," says senior CERN engineer Simon Baird, showing a reporter around the tunnel 100 meters (330 feet) below the Franco-Swiss border at the foot of the Jura mountains. "Every connection must be checked and reinforced during this shutdown." Just 10 days after the collider was first fired up in 2008, a helium leak and resulting explosion in the tunnel caused major damage, and repairs took two years. |
"We have to be
more certain than certain that can't happen again," adds Baird.
Despite the setback, in just over two years of operations involving
10,000 specialists around the world analyzing the data its particle
collisions produced the collider came up last summer with the
long-sought elementary particle, the Higgs boson. That, explained Canadian physicist Pauline Gagnon, "was the final brick in the edifice of our concept of the universe" - the three-decade old Standard Model that fits everything known about how particles, at the base of all matter, behave. "With the LHC power doubled, we will start looking for what we think is out there beyond that model. And we always hope that something will turn up that no one had ever thought of. The most likely is something totally unexpected." But among the known unknowns to be sought, Gagnon plumps for dark matter, the invisible stuff that makes up some 27 percent of the universe, six times more than the normal material that reflects light and can be seen from Earth or space. James Wells, a U.S. professor and theoretician at CERN for two years, looks to more exotic versions of the Higgs - the particle whose associated energy field turned matter to mass after the Big Bang, shaping galaxies - and life on earth. Those, he said, "could lead us to supersymmetry," a theory, so far unsupported by LHC data, that every elementary particle has an invisible and heavier partner, "and to up to eight more spatial dimensions". Oliver Buchmueller, an experimental physicist, also hopes to see proof of supersymmetry, popularly known among proponents as SUSY, and of the extra dimensions foreseen in string theory, the idea that particles are no more than vibrating strings. Could that take science beyond, into the extension of string theory that predicts the existence of parallel universes or a perpetually growing galaxy of universes, impenetrable one from the other, that cosmologists call the Multiverse? "Not in our time," says Wells. "But we humans are amazingly creative. One day, if it exists, we will find a way to prove it." |
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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 12, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 72 | |||||||||
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| Hawkins says that humans must colonize beyond Earth By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking warns that humans will need to go beyond the planet Earth if they are to survive as a species. “We must continue to go into space for humanity,” Hawking told a gathering this week in Los Angeles, California. “We won’t survive another 1,000 years without escaping our fragile planet.” Hawking, 71, has long been a proponent of space exploration. Speaking at a 2008 ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the U.S. space agency, NASA, Hawking called for a new era in human space exploration, comparable, he said, to the European voyages to the New World more than 500 years ago. “Spreading out into space will have an even greater effect," Hawking said. "It will completely change the future of the human race and maybe determine whether we have any future at all.” Hawking was in Los Angeles this week for an appearance at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to see its research on slowing the progression of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Hawking has suffered from the incurable, neurodegenerative condition for 50 years. Since 1970, Hawking has been almost completely paralyzed by ALS. Confined to a wheelchair, he uses an advanced computer synthesizer to speak. The renowned scientist has pioneered efforts to unlock secrets of the cosmos, revolutionizing astrophysics and capturing the imagination of millions in the process. He is perhaps most well-known for his book, "A Brief History of Time," which has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. Despite his disabilities, he continues to work, write and travel. At the age of 65, he was invited aboard a special zero-gravity jet to fulfill his dream of experiencing the weightlessness of a space-faring astronaut. “It was amazing," Hawking said at the time. "The Zero-G part was wonderful, and the High-G part was no problem. I could have gone on and on. Space, here I come!” Born in Oxford, England, in 1942, Hawking studied at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities. He became a math professor at Cambridge and held that post for more than 30 years. In 2009, he left to head the Cambridge University Center for Theoretical Physics. Flooding of Pacific islands might come sooner, study says By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Talk of climate change always includes a warning about melting icecaps, which will raise sea levels and threaten island nations and coastal communities. But a new analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey says those warnings are not dire enough. The computer projections typically used to predict sea-level rise are based on map data and simple rising-water models, which suggest that most of the low-lying Pacific atolls will remain above sea level for the next 50-150 years. The new forecast takes storm-driven wind and wave actions into account, leading to a scenario that has many of the atolls inundated and uninhabitable much sooner. Oceanographer Curt Storlazzi studied Midway and Laysan atolls, which have coastal features common to many Pacific islands. His team determined that 91 percent of Midway's Eastern Island would be under water with a sea level rise of 2 meters, compared to the earlier forecast of 19 percent. Storlazzi said the findings have importance for the tens of thousands of people who live on other low-lying islands, and offer tools for forecasting where agricultural land may be damaged by repeated overwash from the ocean, and where inland groundwater may be contaminated by saltwater. Americans seem less anxious to engage in foreign wars By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
After more than a decade of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, opinion polls suggest the American public is increasingly reluctant to support military intervention overseas. That reluctance is inhibiting activists who would like to see the United States take a more robust role in conflicts like the ongoing civil war in Syria. Dan Layman is with the Syrian Support Group, which raises funds and sends non-lethal aid to moderate factions of the Free Syrian Army. The group was founded by Syrian-Americans opposed to the Assad regime in Syria and is trying to generate support among the American public. But Layman said getting Americans interested in the conflict has been a challenge. "In terms of getting involved in a conflict, the American public feels a little bit burned from the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan and the resources and lives that were spent in Iraq and so it is a little bit hard to get that large scale galvanization of support,” he said. That reluctance of Americans to get involved in overseas conflicts was evident in a series of random interviews conducted with tourists visiting Washington from around the U.S. "We have to be very cautious about that and very careful about how we go about getting into other countries affairs,” Stephen Fields from Tennessee said. Merrel Gelburo from Virginia said, “They are tired of war. I think Americans never did like going to war although we have been involved in a lot recently. Hopefully President Obama will keep us out of any future wars.” "I definitely think we should pull back quite a bit, actually, from what we have done in the past 10 years, especially for the state of the economy right now,” Jason Kapit from Massachussetts agreed. Most analysts will not go so far as to call this sentiment a new form of isolationism. But this hesitation to get involved overseas has been showing up in public opinion polls. “There is a weariness after two major wars and an apprehension both about what is going on the Middle East generally and what is going on in China," remarked Carroll Doherty with the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press in Washington. "They are not turning away, but there is certainly no desire on the public’s part to get involved in hot spots around the world.” Dan Layman said he understands the public’s wariness of foreign military involvements. But he said it is frustrating trying to rally Americans to what he believes is a worthwhile cause. “I think it is reasonable to say that maybe the American people feel like we need to go into a little more of an international foreign policy seclusion," he said. "This is pretty regrettable given the conflicts that are going on in the world right now that really do need our support.” Layman added that he remains committed no matter what the public opinion polls say. “Even given the unfortunate and sometimes kind of dim policy initiatives that we see, we are for this cause until the end and we are going to see it through,” he said. A recent Washington Post / ABC News poll found only 17 percent of those asked believe the United States should get involved in the Syrian conflict, while 73 percent opposed the idea. Overhaul of U.S. tax codes gets bipartisan approval By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Republican lawmakers concurred on Thursday that overhauls of the corporate and individual tax codes should be tackled together, but their agreement ended there. Diverging sharply on whether new federal revenues should be raised from the affluent, Lew and the Republicans left prospects for comprehensive tax reform cloudy amid persistent partisan conflict on Capitol Hill over tax-and-spending policy. A day after the White House released a 2014 budget plan it hoped could spark a deal with Congress on cutting deficits and changing the tax code, Lew testified before the House of Representatives' tax-law writing Ways and Means Committee. Democratic President Barack Obama last year proposed a revamp of the business tax code alone, but Republicans said corporate and individual taxes must be reformed in unison. Lew assured Republicans that Obama agreed with that strategy. "Just intellectually, one has to look at it as a whole," he said. Obama called for $580 billion in new revenue from the wealthy in his 2014 budget on Wednesday, including a new minimum tax and curbs to deductions. Most Republicans criticized the budget as too reliant on raising taxes and inadequate in cutting spending. Rep. Dave Camp, a Republican and the chairman of the committee, said the tax code should lower rates for all Americans instead of bringing more money into Washington. "This budget is a first step, but America can do better than what the president is proposing here," he said. Lew said any agreement must include new revenue. In his confirmation hearing in February, Lew called tax reform a top priority. Formerly a two-time budget director and Obama's chief of staff, Lew helped pass the nation's last major tax overhaul in 1986 as a congressional staff member. At a breakfast earlier on Thursday, Camp praised Obama, saying he has evolved by explicitly pledging not to raise total corporate taxes as part of a tax overhaul. Prior budgets had been unclear on that point, and the business community was worried that corporate tax breaks would be trimmed to help curb deficits. Rep. Jim McDermott. a Democrat, complained that Obama kept offering Republicans compromises, such as the White House proposal to change the inflation adjustment for Social Security, but Republicans gave nothing in return. "The president continues to reach out and Republicans say, 'Yeah we'll take that, but we don't want to take any of the balance that has to go along with it,' " McDermott said, referring to revenue. Lew also said the administration is willing to talk to Republicans about moving to a territorial tax system, which would largely exempt big companies' foreign income from taxation. But Lew said protections would be vital to prevent companies from moving domestic profits offshore. Both parties are also largely opposed to a tax on financial transactions, a popular idea in Europe to make banks pay for the help they got during the financial crisis. Lew on Thursday repeated the Obama administration's opposition to that tax. Lew also repeated the White House was opposed to using the nation's debt limit as a bargaining chip for fiscal policy. Republicans have previously balked at raising the debt ceiling without an agreement on further government spending cuts, and are likely to revive the issue this summer after the current suspension of the debt limit expires May 19. Once the United States breaches its debt limit, the government would no longer be able to borrow money and make certain payments although the Treasury can use emergency cash measures to push off the day of reckoning into July. Some Republicans have proposed legislation to prioritize U.S. payments on government bonds if the United States hits its debt limit in order to avoid a credit default. The moves show their willingness for further brinkmanship. "There's no way you can choose about paying your bills without being in default on one or another obligation," Lew said. Ban and businessman put on Iranian black list By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Treasury Department said on Thursday it has imposed sanctions on an Iranian businessman, a Malaysian bank and a network of companies it accused of attempting to evade international sanctions on Iran through money laundering. The department blacklisted Babak Zanjani, the businessman, and First Islamic Investment Bank for providing financial and other support to the National Iranian Oil Company. It said Zanjani and a network of companies had moved billions of dollars on behalf of the Iranian government, including tens of millions of dollars to an engineering unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that it uses to earn income. "As international sanctions have become increasingly stifling, Iran has resorted to criminal money laundering techniques, moving its oil and money under false names and pretenses,'' said David S. Cohen, under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at Treasury. "Whether through Babak Zanjani or tomorrow's chosen accomplice, we will be relentless in exposing and thwarting Iran's attempts to evade international sanctions and abuse the global financial system,'' he said. By taking the action against Zanjani, the bank and the network of companies, the department prohibited transactions between them and any U.S. citizen and freezes any assets they have under U.S. jurisdiction, it said. As talks between Iran and major powers have failed to end the deadlock over its nuclear program, lawmakers in the U.S. Senate are preparing legislation that would place further sanctions on Iran. Lead in imported rice raises health concerns By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
A new study by a team of scientists in the United States shows rice imported from certain countries contains high levels of lead that could pose health risks for infants and children, Scientists analyzed rice imported into the U.S. from Asia, Europe and South America. They say rice samples from Taiwan and China had the highest lead levels. Overall, the team found lead levels ranging from six to 12 milligrams per kilogram, with some of the highest amounts in baby food. The lead researcher, Tsanangurayi Tongesayi, says daily exposure by infants and children to the rice products would be 30 to 60 times higher than levels considered tolerable by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He says Asian infants and children are at twice as much risk, because of their higher rice consumption. The imported rice accounts for only 7 percent of all rice consumed in the U.S. However, the study says that due to increasing imports, the rice still found its way into U.S. supermarket chains and restaurants, as well as ethnic specialty markets. Researchers also found significantly high lead levels in rice samples from the Czech Republic, Bhutan, Italy, India and Thailand. Analysis of rice from Pakistan, Brazil and other countries is still under way. The study was presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans. Caroline Smith DeWaal is with the non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington. She says rice poses a unique problem as a staple food worldwide. "Rice is like a sponge for environmental contaminants, like lead or arsenic," said DeWaal. "If it's present in the soil, if it's present in the water where the rice is being grown, those contaminants are easily absorbed into the rice. " |
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| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A. 2013 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
| A.M. Costa
Rica's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Friday, April 12, 2013, Vol. 13, No. 72 | |||||||||
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 Sistema de la Integración
Centroamericana photo
Officials unveil a plaque noting
Costa Rica's donation.Costa Rica
donates a sphere
to show its solidarity By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Costa Rica had donated a replica one of its pre-Columbian stone spheres to the Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana, based in El Salvador. The gift was presented by Enrique Castillo, Costa Rica's foreign minister, to Juan Daniel Alemán Gurdián, the secretary general of the multi-national organization. The purpose is to show Costa Rica's solidarity with the organization, said the foreign ministry here. The original spheres come from the Diquís area of south central Costa Rica and were made sometime between 300 and 800 A.D. The Sistema de la Integración is the organization that is hosting a gathering of heads of state in Costa Rica in May. U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to attend. U.S. and Guatemala agree on CAFTA labor standards By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The United States said on Thursday it reached a deal with Guatemala to resolve a dispute over labor conditions and workers rights in the Central American country, which has been a U.S. free trade partner since 2006. The new 18-point labor enforcement plan "reflects Guatemala's commitment to constructive engagement to meet its labor obligations under our trade agreement," acting U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis said in a statement. The United States expects implementation of the plan "over the coming months will yield demonstrable improvements in Guatemalan labor law enforcement that will be a real victory for workers," acting Labor Secretary Seth Harris said. The United States filed the case in 2010 under the U.S.-Central American-Dominican Republic free trade agreement, otherwise known as CAFTA-DR. It was the first labor case Washington has brought to dispute settlement under a trade agreement. It stemmed from a complaint filed five years ago this month by the AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. labor group, alleging that Guatemala had violated its labor obligations under CAFTA-DR by failing to effectively enforce its labor laws. Under the new enforcement plan, Guatemala has committed to strengthen labor inspections, expedite and streamline the process of sanctioning employers and ordering remediation of labor violations and increase labor law compliance by exporting companies, the U.S. trade office said. Guatemala will also improve the monitoring and enforcement of labor court orders, publish labor law enforcement information and establish mechanisms to ensure that workers are paid what they are owed when factories close, the office said. |
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