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A.M. Costa Rica third newspage
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San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, April 24, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 80

A.M. Costa Rica/Jose Pablo Ramírez Vindas

Poor, dead lizard

Lizards, be they geckos, chameleons, anoles or something else, are a fact of life in Costa Rica. This one scurried into the newspaper office and promptly played dead when picked up.

The creature, name uncertain, can also change skin colors from yellow to black and to red. When freed, the lizard (he or she?) miraculously revived from the dead and fled.

Costa Rica has about 500 lizard types.

Blackouts are a factor is rejection of ICE rate hike request

By José Pablo Ramírez Vindas
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Monday was not exactly the best day for the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad to seek a 23 percent hike in rates.

The company, which is the country's major electrical generating source, was turned down flat by Fernando Herrero, the regulador general. And the rate-fixing executive wanted to know what happened Wednesday, Thursday and Friday when blackouts culminated in the entire nation going dark.

Herrero said he would not think of any kind of rate increase until the company known as ICE comes up with an explanation about the blackouts. He gave the firm 30 days.

Herrero also noted that ICE had a net income of about $44 million in 2006, another fact that weighed against a rate hike. In addition, a recent change in the laws for the company allow it to go further into debt to make investments in infrastructure.

ICE last received a rate hike in March 2006. This request was filed in December, long before the blackouts took place.

Legislature approves request by executive branch for referendum on trade treaty

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The Asamblea Legislativa, as expected, approved a resolution sought by the executive branch to hold a referendum on the free trade treaty with the United States.

The necessary 29 votes came Monday from members of the Partido Liberación Nacional, the Partido Unidad Social Cristiana and the Movimiento Libertario.

One Libertarian and treaty opponents José Merino of Frente Amplio and Óscar López of the Partido Accesibilidad Sin Exclusión voted no. Members of the Partido Acción Ciudadana did not attend.

Now the decision rests with the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones, which has 15 days to establish the ground rules for a referendum. A complicating factor is that the tribunal already has given permission for treaty opponents to collect signatures to hold a referendum. In fact, this decision was the reason the executive branch sought a public vote.

Treaty opponents are arguing strongly that they should be allowed to proceed and collect some 130,000 signatures.

The Arias administration believes the motive is to stall and cause the treaty to become void by passing a February deadline. The collection of signatures could be as long as nine months, according to the relevant laws.

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San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, April 24, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 80

Researchers obtain ocean data from travels of leatherbacks

Special to A.M. Costa Rica

Researchers connected to what is being called the Great turtle Race say they are obtaining valid scientific results from the project.

The race involving leatherback turtles has been criticized as a publicity stunt involving endangered animals by some Costa Rican environmentalists.

The organizers said Monday that two of the 11 leatherback turtles had passed the 350-mile mark of their 500-mile Pacific Ocean journey. The female turtles left Playa Grande in Costa Rica after laying eggs. They are returning to their range in the vicinity of the Galapagos Islands

Each turtle has been fitted with a device that radios information to a satellite to alert the researchers. In addition to location data, the tags record water temperature and water depth, allowing scientists to observe the turtles' dive patterns and decipher oceanography in this region, organizers said.

The Great Turtle Race has been organized by The Leatherback Trust, Tagging of Pacific Predators and Conservation International as a consumer call-to-action to raise awareness and funds for the plight of the leatherback and its fellow endangered sea creatures, the organizations said. The event began April 16 and concludes Sunday, although fans will be able to follow their turtles online for the next 18 to 24 months. Nearly 40,000 people from around the world have signed up online to cheer on the turtles at www.GreatTurtleRace.com, receiving daily updates about the turtles' progress, the organizers said.

This season is the beginning of a La Niña weather pattern, which brings greater upwelling of colder water to the surface, resulting in colder temperature at shallower depths

than in El Niño years, the race organizers reported Monday. This upwelling is generally good for food availability, which may explain why these 11 tagged leatherbacks tend to stay in the top 30 meters of the water, dipping only occasionally, the organizers said.

"The goal is that the oceanography revealed by these turtles and their satellite tags will help us better understand how and where to develop management plans in the eastern tropical Pacific to better protect leatherbacks and countless other species of ocean wildlife," said Jim Spotila, founder of The Leatherback Trust.

As leatherbacks swim into deeper waters, they make deeper dives, possibly to cool themselves or to forage for jellyfish, their primary food source. On Saturday one turtle dove to 406 feet and held her breath for 36.5 minutes, according to the race organizers.

Scientists say they are also carefully observing the route each turtle is taking toward the Galapagos, This year is the first time leatherbacks have been tagged at Playa Grande during a La Niña episode, they said. The environmental conditions are different from previous years. Among other factors, equatorial zonal currents change as weather patterns change, and these currents strongly influence each turtle's trajectory and her ultimate destination.

George Shillinger of Tagging of Pacific Predators spent three weeks at Playa Grande, Costa Rica, earlier this year to tag the 11 leatherbacks for the time-delayed Great Turtle Race and is now closely monitoring their every move. "The ocean is like a pinball machine," he said. "The turtles shoot out of the starting gate at the nesting beach and appear to be moving in a directed fashion, but they are subject to ocean currents and other environmental factors which can sling them in different directions."

Law officers stage major raid after one of their own is assasulted, shot, stabbed

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Police went into the Las Tablas section of San Rafael Arriba de Desamparados Friday to find suspects in the case of a judicial investigator who was shot and stabbed multiple times by a mob.

Two men were detains and identified as Luis Obando Molina and Kenneth Chávez Barrantes, according to investigators.

The agent for the Judicial Investigating Organization when into the low-income area April 16 seeking individuals who had stolen his son's bike, agents said. The victim was Julio Layton of the Sección de Fraudes of the agency. He suffered five bullet wonds and 12 knife wounds.

In searches of dwellings, investigators said they found a 9-mm.pistol, a quadracycle with alterated numbers, 283 crack rocks, 800,000 in colons (about $1,540), a fireman's jacket, a half pound of marijuana and a home theater.

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San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, April 24, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 80

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A.M. Costa Rica Second newspage
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San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, April 24, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 80