Officials say containers of pulp
hid shipments of cocaine


A transport business designed to be carrying containers of pineapple pulp is now accused of hauling 1,117 kilograms of cocaine since last July. Wednesday, more than a dozen raids from anti-drug police led to the arrest of eight suspects, involved in the smuggling operation that took loads of drugs all over Central America.

Through the business called Teja Transportes Internacionales de Costa Rica S.A., three Mexican men are thought to have been exporting drugs from the country since their arrival in July, according to Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública officials. The three men were supposedly brought in to make the company seem like a legitimate and inconspicuous brand by covering it up with direct participation from additional companies they had created.

The most recent bust came on March 4 when border police found more than 550 kilograms of cocaine when making a routine inspection at the Peñas Blancas border post heading into Nicaragua.

The raids occurred throughout the Central Valley and Central Pacific regions. Of the notable detainees were men with the last names of Barrantes Corrales, Barrantes Valdez, Zamora Corrales, and Barrantes Carlos. 


Casa Presidencial denies
packing job slots for buddies


Casa Presidencial came out with a snippy press release Wednesday night in which it denied that the current government was filling positions with supporters in the face of a change in administrations.

The release, which was unsigned, said the government is leaving 700 positions to be filled by the new administration.

The newspaper,  Semanario Universidad, reported that the current government was filling jobs to tie them up in the face of the change in governments.

The Casa Presidential release branded this report as false and unfounded, and noted that the report had been picked up by other news outlets. Then it launched into a lecture on the responsibilities of journalists to avoid these types of manipulations that affect the rights of persons and institutions. It said that the failure to find the truth was labor harassment and in the worse cases political persecution.

The newspaper based at the Universidad de Costa Rica has generally sided with critics of the Laura Chinchilla administration. However, an official press release with such rancor is unusual.

The newspaper reported that the Chinchilla administration has filed key jobs at the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, the Autoridad Reguladora de Servicios Públicos, the Consejo Nacional de Vialidad and the Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones.

Also reported and perhaps the reason for the tone of the press release was that the wife of the current minister of the Presidencia, Carlos Ricardo Benavides, has been named to a position in the Instituto Nacional de Mujeres.

The newspaper provided names, dates and positions, including a recent appointment to head the Caja for seven years.

The report seems to have been inspired by the transition team of president-elect Luis Guillermo Solís of the Partido Acción Ciudadana.


New push underway to fight
continued malaria threat


Malaria is a disease that kills more than 600,000 people every year.  It debilitates even more.  Each year on World Malaria Day, officials take stock of the disease, what’s been done to contain it, and what still needs to be done. 

Children are the most likely victims of malaria.  They live in Latin America and Asia, but mostly in sub-Saharan Africa where the most deadly strain of the disease is found.

Anthony Fauci heads the infectious diseases division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

"About every 60 seconds a baby dies from malaria; usually a baby living in sub-Saharan Africa," said Fauci.

Survivors may suffer permanent brain damage, epilepsy, blindness or hearing loss.

Mosquitoes don't cause malaria. But a certain type, the anopheles mosquito, can transmit a parasite that does.  And someone with malaria then can pass the parasite on to uninfected mosquitoes and the cycle continues.

Peter Agre at The Johns Hopkins University says malaria is a disease of the poor.

"They're sick because they're poor, and they're poor because they're sick," said Agre.

Agre heads The Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute.  He says developed countries rid themselves of malaria by draining swamps, using screens on porches, and constructing buildings in higher elevations where mosquitoes that carry the parasite don't live.  People in poor countries can't do that.

A new push to contain malaria is under way. Funds for bed nets, insecticide spray, testing and medicine to treat malaria have cut the death rate from malaria by as much as 50 percent.  Agre says much more needs to be done.

“At The Johns Hopkins Malaria Institute, scientists work on many aspects of the malaria problem. The mosquitoes are one part of that, and one of our most successful areas of research," he said.

Researchers are trying to change the mosquito so it can't transmit malaria.  Fauci says other research involves developing new medicines and a vaccine.

"We have been frustrated over many years of not having a highly effective vaccine against malaria," he said.

Along the Thai-Cambodian border, drugs used to treat malaria take longer to work.  That's generally the first sign the parasite has developed drug resistance.  If it spreads, researchers predict millions of people will die.

"The real critical thing that we’re hoping for is with a combination of treatment, combination of prevention like bed nets and others, and a combination of a good vaccine, that some day, we can’t predict when, we may be able to eliminate malaria and essentially eradicate it," said Fauci.


2,000 School kids to perform
Saturday in national stadium


More than 2,000 public school artists will perform Saturday at the Estadio Nacional from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.  This is the annual exposition where students show the skills in the arts they have acquired during the year.

There will be dance, theater, circus acts, drum corps, choruses as well as literary and visual arts.

In addition to the student performers, some 14,000 public school students are expected to attend.

The performers will be from elementary through high school.