Your daily English-language news source
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Your daily English-language news source |
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Paid investigators recovered an Idaho child earlier this month when they tracked down the girl’s father and half-brother in rural Costa Rica, according to a newspaper in that state. The child, Lily June Snyder, 5, vanished nearly two years ago, the newspaper said. This is another case of parental kidnapping where the parent who did not have custody fled here. The child’s father, Stephen Snyder, 52, and a half brother, Eli Snyder, 29, have been extradited to the United States to stand trial in Idaho, said the newspaper, the Idaho Mountain Express and Guide in Sun Valley. The case received no publicity here. The
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located, but the two men were taken
into custody April 11 and returned to the United States five days later
after waiving extradition proceedings.
The newspaper said the child was reunited with her mother in San José and later taken from Costa Rica to Panamá for a flight to the United States. The newspaper said it did not know why the child went to Panamá, but in a previous case Costa Rican authorities refused to let a child leave the country without permission of both parents, so investigators smuggled the child and mother into Panamá where the child passed through immigration there using a letter of transport issued by the U.S. Embassy here. A second half-brother, involved in the case, recently obtained probation in the United States after agreeing to help authorities, the newspaper said. |
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threatens force over oil isle Nicaragua claims |
BOGOTA, Colombia — President Alvaro Uribe says he will not allow Nicaragua to explore for oil in disputed territory off the Central American country's Caribbean coast. President Uribe told a Colombian radio station Thursday that he was prepared to send military forces to defend the San Andres Archipelago and surrounding waters. Uribe, however, says he hopes to avoid the use of force. Last year, Nicaragua announced it was seeking companies interested in drilling for oil in the region. Reports say four U.S. companies expressed an interest but that Colombia told them not to drill in the area. The San Andres islands are internationally recognized as Colombian territory, but Nicaragua claims ownership of them. |
| Fishermen OK accord
and talks on Coco By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Protesting fishermen in Puntarenas agreed to call off their blockage of the harbor and also of the nearby Inter-American Highway Thursday afternoon. They signed an accord with representatives of the government in which officials promise to introduce legislation favorable to the fishermen who were protesting higher fuel prices. Officials also said they were open to discussing relaxing restrictions on fishing near Isla del Coco, a key tourist area that was put off limits last year. Some 45 persons underwent arrest in disturbances over two days at the Pacific port. One man, Victor Espinoza, remains in critical condition in Hospital México after he collapsed while participating in a melee. Family members claim he was bludgeoned by police. Physicians say they can find no sign of this. Satellite system
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff How come high officials of the telephone company use expensive satellite telephone systems while the rest of the country has to use the monopoly cellular system here? That’s the question Movimiento Libertario is asking the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, also the telephone company, in a filing with the Sala IV constitutional court. High officials of the institute have been seen using the Iridium communication system that hooks directly to a satellite and allows speakers to communicate with any other part of the world, the political party said. Installation costs about $80,000 and the basic monthly fee is at least 100,000 colons, the LIbertario deputies said in a release. That’s about $256. The purpose of the court filing is to get Pablo Cob, executive director of the institution, to respond to the question. The court gave him three days to respond in February, but he did not. Forest fires ravage
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services Hundreds of forest fires are devastating large parts of Mexico's southern forest lands and environmentalists are concerned about both short-term and long-term effects on local populations as well as animals and plants in the fire zones. However, government authorities are stepping up efforts to contain the fires while waiting for seasonal rains to start. Dry, windy conditions in much of southern and central Mexico are to blame for this year's devastating fires and the rainy season, which might offer some relief, is still almost two months away. There have been more than 2,600 fires reported so far this year, with more than 300 raging at the moment. The fires have burned 110,000 hectares of land so far, much of it in sensitive rain forest regions in the southern states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Yucatan. OPEC agrees to cut
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services VIENNA, Austria — OPEC has agreed to cut its current oil output by two-million barrels a day in an effort to stabilize weakening oil prices following the war in Iraq. OPEC also decided Thursday to temporarily raise its oil production quota to 25.4 million barrels a day, up from its existing ceiling of 24.5 million. OPEC states produced an estimated 27.4 million barrels in February and March, nearly three million barrels over its quota, in an effort to prevent an oil price shock as war in Iraq loomed. Thursday's announcement came after OPEC representatives held emergency talks here to discuss oil prices and output levels now that the war in Iraq is over. Oil prices, which jumped to almost $40 a barrel before the war in Iraq, now hover in the 20s. Oil prices fell after the OPEC announcement. For more than a decade, the cartel has excluded Iraq, an OPEC founding member, from its quota export system because of U.N. sanctions. Iraq did not participate in Thursday's meeting. Chavez and Uribe
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services PUERTO ORDAZ, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe have agreed to strengthen security to stop cross-border raids by Colombian leftist rebels and rightist paramilitaries. The two presidents made the pledge Wednesday as they met here to smooth over relations strained by a dispute concerning border security. The talks followed weeks of tension fueled by accusations that Venezuela harbors Colombian leftist rebels. Earlier this week, Colombian Attorney General Luis Camilo Osorio said in published remarks that Venezuela has become a refuge for what he called "Colombian criminals" trying to topple Uribe's government. President Chavez denies his government has ever aided Colombian guerrillas or knowingly allowed them to slip into Venezuelan territory. |
Bush meets Batlle for
talks
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services President George Bush met at the White House Wednesday with his counterpart from Uruguay, President Jorge Batlle, for talks on Iraq, the war on terrorism and economic issues. During their meeting, the White House says Bush reaffirmed his support for President Batlle's efforts, in cooperation with the International Monetary fund, to promote sustainable economic growth in Uruguay. Bush said the United States is committed to strengthening trade and
investment ties with Uruguay.
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Two groups that seek to represent Villalobos investors are taking shots at each other. The first volley came from José Miguel Villalobos Umaña, the lawyer/presidential candidate hired by the United Concerned Citizens & Residents of Costa Rica. This is the group that wants the government to drop its investigation of Luis Enrique Villalobos Camacho, the fugitive financier. Villalobos the lawyer criticized the approach of another group on a statement published on the UCCR Web site Thursday. The lawyer said that international arbitration could not take place over the Villalobos issue while investors still had legal options available to them in Costa Rica. ". . . one must first resort to an administrative claim followed by a legal suit against the government.. . .," he wrote. The other group, the Class Action Center, quickly replied in its own e-mail and Web posting. ". . . we are forced to show the world that Jose Miguel Villalobos knows little about international arbitration and that the UCCR strategy and intentions should be suspect," said organizer Jack Caine. Caine also took a swipe at John Manners, UCCR president, and accused him of accepting commissions to sign up investors with Savings Unlimited in the past. That operation also has gone bust. Caine said that the Quebec law firm his group employs knows far more about international arbitration than does Villalobos the lawyer. Caine’s group plans to file a request for arbitration |
under international treaties
on the grounds that Costa Rica did not do enough to protect investors in
the defunct Villalobos high-interest operation. The arbitration is not
keyed to whether Villalobos is a scamster, as some have claimed, or a victim
of the Costa Rica government and local banks, as others have said, according
to Caine.
In other words, Caine’s group wants Costa Rica to reimburse the investors who lost money. Manners, in a parallel e-mail, noted that a key court date is coming May 26 when judges will be asked to renew preventitive detention for Oswaldo Villalobos, the brother of Enrique. Villalobos the lawyer has not done anything visible even though the UCCR has accepted his fee of $300,000 which will be paid in three installments of $100,000. But Manners said that the lawyer is waiting until nearer the key court date before unleashing his public relations talents. Manners also said that those in his group will hold a public meeting May 11 to discuss the lawyer’s strategy. Manners said the lawyer would seek to enter the existing court case as a participant. Manners also disclosed that his group has about 400 investors as members. Villalobos the fiancier had about 6,500 primarily North American clients. He is believed to have had about $1 billion on his books when he closed his office Oct. 14 and vanished. Said Manners of his group’s strategy (using initials as has become the custom on the Internet) : "We firmly believe that sooner or later we will reach our goal, and get EV to come back and do his best to repay the money we entrusted to him. We also believe that JMV can be instrumental in achieving this." |
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