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Second news page |
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| Costa Rica Expertise Ltd http://crexpertise.com E-mail info@crexpertise.com Tel:506-256-8585 Fax:506-256-7575 |
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 A.M. Costa Rica/Saray
Ramírez Vindas
Rogelio Ramos listens to Fernando Berrocal, the new security
minister, outline his goals.New tourism police could
be ready in six months By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A new tourist police force might be a reality in just six months, the incoming security chief said Thursday. This is a special police unit that will contain multilingual officers stationed at key tourism locations. The incoming security minister, Fernando Berrocal Soto, said Thursday that he has had discussions on the topic with key tourism groups and that he would be holding a meeting with the new tourism minister after both are officially in their new jobs Monday. The makeup of the tourism police still is in the air. And no officer has been named to head it. Members of this
Vice Minister Durán has worked in the legal department of the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería, which is now part of her responsibility. She has extensive experience in immigrants human rights, illegal trafficking of immigrants and illegal employment. Lázcares has more than 31 years experience in the Judicial Investigating Organization and has served as subdirector there. He also has headed key sections, such as homicide and drugs. Gutiérrez has 40 years in public and private security and was a vice minister in the administration of José María Figueres Olsen. He also served as director general of the Fuerza Pública. The new director of the Fuerza Pública is a man who never served in that organization. He is Oswaldo Alpizar Nuñez, 47, who has 27 years in the security field including time as operator of his own private security firm. He said he has severed his relations with the firm to take the ministry job. He has worked in the Judicial Investigating Organization, in public security and the Policía de Tránsito, according to material provided by the ministry. Berrocal also said he was setting up two separate units, one to guard the southern border and one to guard the northern border. He said that some entrances to Costa Rica, like the area around Sixaola in the south, are almost unguarded. He has said that protecting the border will be one of his priorities. Berrocal said that public perception of crime was much higher than the incidence of crime, but he said that criminality was on the upswing. He briefly mentioned the concept of zero tolerance, which was instituted successfully in New York by then-Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. Berrocal has spoken at great length elsewhere about zero tolerance in which police crack down on small crimes to create a tradition of obeying the law which then carries over to major crimes. He also said that he would set up an inspector general position in the Fuerza Pública to field complaints about corruption. Road detours planned for Sunday and Monday By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Look for some traffic detours Sunday and Monday because of ceremonies linked to the inauguration of Óscar Arias Sánchez as president. Sunday outgoing President Abel Pacheco is hosting a dinner for heads of State at the Teatro Nacional. Policía de Tránsito will close off Avenida 2 from the Catedral Metropolitana to the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social, that is from Calle Central to Calle 7. The street will be closed from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday morning, the detours shift to La Sabana. It is in the Estadio Nacional in Parque la Sabana where Arias will assume his duties at 11 a.m. Police will close off the two of the four lanes of the road that runs along the north side of the park from 6 a.m. to about 1 p.m., they said Thursday. The lanes to be closed run west to east. These are the lanes closest to the park. The east to west lanes will remain open from the Agencia Datsun to Banco Interfin. The closed off lanes will serve as entrance and exit from the stadium by those attending the inauguration. This means that traffic will build up on the old road to Escazú on the south side of the park. Some lanes will be blocked just west of the park, too, because Arias plans to walk from his Rohrmoser home to the inauguration ceremony. In addition, traffic will be restricted from noon until about 5 p.m. downtown because Arias will be hosting guests at a luncheon at the Centro Nacional de la Cultura. Calle 21 to Calle 15 will be closed as will Avenida 3 from the Estación al Atlántico to the Tribunal Supreme de Elecciones. |
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on our real estate page HERE! |
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Third news page |
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| San José,
Costa Rica, Friday, May 5, 2006, Vol. 6, No. 89 |
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| Illegal Ticos in U.S. are few, Pew Center expert says |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica
staff
Costa Ricans make up a small number of residents in the United States and an even smaller number of illegal immigrants, according the Pew Hispanic Center. The Washington, D.C., think tank estimates that there are 11.5 million to 12 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States. The center estimated the size of the illegal population using the March 2005 Current Population Survey. The monthly survey includes about 50,000 households and is conducted jointly by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau. Immigration is a major topic in the United States and many cities saw marches by migrants and their supporters Monday. But most of them were certainly not Costa Ricans. Jeffrey S. Passel is a veteran demographer and senior research associate at the Pew Center who was involved heavily in the survey. In an e-mail interview he said he estimates that the numbers from Costa Rica are not very large. There |
are probably about
50,000 to 80,000 immigrants from Costa Rica in the
United States, he said, adding that of these about 10,000 to 25,000 are
undocumented according to his estimates. Even if the higher 25,000 number is correct, illegal Costa Rican immigrants make up about two-tenths of a percent of the total number of undocumented residents in the United States. The report estimates the number of persons living in families in which the head of the household or the spouse is an unauthorized migrant, some 13.9 million as of March 2004, including 4.7 million children. Of those individuals, some 3.2 million are U.S. citizens by birth but are living in mixed status families in which some members are illegal, usually a parent, while others, usually children, are Americans by birth, the report said. Although the Pew Center did not study turnover, many illegal immigrants from Costa Rica are seasonal. They work from six months to a year in the United States and then return home for a time. Many of the young adults are male, according to informal law enforcement estimates. |
| The morning ritual includes a special cup of coffee |
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| Every morning I wake up
looking forward to my cup(s) of coffee. This is usually between
5:30 and 6 a.m. (Because the sun rises just before 6 and sets at night
around 6, year round, even a former night person like myself soon
becomes a morning person.) First I spend 10 minutes doing
breathing exercises because I have taken to heart what Dr. Andrew Weil
has said – that learning to breathe is his single most important health
advice. Then maybe some yoga, all the while thinking of my first
cup of coffee – or more accurately, cappuccino. I probably have more coffee makers than one would believe possible. My first, and hardly ever used, is the typical electric drip thing. Then I have two top-of-the-stove espresso makers, one a four-cup and the other a six-cup. . I have a Costa Rican sock coffee maker (they make better coffee than you would imagine). I have one of those French plunger coffee makers that Ruth gave me after mine broke in the last earthquake several years ago, and finally, my latest prize, an electric Capresso espresso/cappuccino machine that my friend Doug brought back from the States. I am just learning to master this one. Making coffee in the morning is a ritual. When the coffee is just about ready, I heat some milk in the microwave then foam it with this little foamer I have (don’t want to use the steam stem one on the machine because I have been told that becomes a nuisance). I pour my hot coffee onto the foamed milk, add some sugar and cinnamon and take my coffee into the living room to read La Nación, or if it hasn’t arrived, watch the morning news. I have never chosen to drink decaffeinated coffee and am happy to learn that doctors have now decided that regular coffee is good for you. Decaffeinated is not. Over the years the availability and quality of the coffee one buys in Costa Rica has changed considerably. When I first came here, I was never asked at the end of a meal in a restaurant if I would |
Coffee is not the only thing to change here. I used to
call for a taxi
at one of the taxi companies (usually Cooptico), get an answer,
“Momentito” then wait on the phone while I listened to them dispatch
taxis and talk to other customers, and eventually get back to me. Then
I would laboriously explain my address using the Tico method of “from
the ICE building one hundred meters west, etc. etc.” The other day I
called and a voice in Spanish said to please wait, they would be with
me shortly, then canned music followed. When the live person came
on,
she asked for my telephone number — which I had given before — and half
way through she finished the number for me, then told me my
address.
Then the happy words, “Ya llega.” (“It’s on its way.” What
a nice
change. |
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Fourth news page |
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| San José,
Costa Rica, Friday, May 5, 2006, Vol. 6, No. 89 |
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| Culture train has a lot of
visitors, even if they are just painted figures |
 A.M. Costa Rica/José
Palbo Ramírez Vindas
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| This culture library comes on wheels and a track |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
One local museum is taking advantage of its location and expanding into a rail car. The place is the Museo de Formas, Espacios y Sonidos, which just happens to be housed in the Estación al Atlántico where there is no shortage of mothballed rail cars. This particular car is called the Vagón del Conocimiento or Knowledge Car because it contains a lot of reference works on the arts. Included in this library are books, catalogues and information about individual artists, according to Ana Victoria Carboni, the museum coordinator. The project is a joint one with the museum, the Fundación Ronald McDonald de Costa Rica and the Embassy of Japan. |
The
embassy and the foundation provided special equipment for the rail car
to help persons with disabilities. There are image magnifiers, a
Braille printer and other devices. Some of the reference material is in large-type format as well as Braille. Among the biographies are reference materials about great Costa Rican artists, such as Francisco Amighetti, Otto Apuy, Luisa González de Sáenz and Isaac Felipe Azofeifa. The museum, which is contained in the former rail station, is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The entrance fee is 300 colons, about 60 U.S. cents. The heavily decorated Vagón del Conocimiento can be reached a short distance away in the rail yard. |
| Bush stresses justice and prosperity for Latin lands |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
President George Bush says the United States remains committed to promoting justice and prosperity in Latin America, and is backing its words with actions and aid. Bush met with Uruguay's president at the White House at a time when the voices of populism and economic nationalism appear to be growing stronger in parts of the hemisphere. Bush said he discussed a wide range of subjects with his Uruguayan counterpart, Tabare Vazquez, from expanding student exchanges to promoting renewable sources of energy. "We talked about extending our commercial relations," said Bush. "I shared some thoughts with the president about my deep desire to help countries become free so that this world is more peaceful." The two leaders sat side-by-side in the Oval office at the conclusion of an hour-long meeting. President Vazquez echoed Bush's call for stronger bilateral trade relations. But he made no mention of stalled negotiations for the U.S.-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas, which Uruguay and other South American nations have criticized as likely to provide unfair advantages to heavily subsidized U.S. agricultural producers. Instead, Vazquez delivered a message to his people. "To the Uruguayans who are watching, I want to say that we can work together so that all Uruguayans can live better. We can expand education, improve health care, and generate jobs with adequate salaries," he said. The tone employed by the moderate, center-left Mr. Vazquez contrasts sharply with that of Venezuelan socialist firebrand Hugo Chavez, who has accused Bush of exporting imperialism and planning to invade his country, and Bolivian populist Evo Morales, who recently nationalized his country's vast natural gas operations. While relations have cooled considerably between the United States and Venezuela, President Vasquez, like President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, are regarded as pragmatic left-of-center leaders with whom the United States has been able to forge a productive relationship. Nevertheless, White House spokesman Scott McClellan was asked if Venezuela and Bolivia constitute a "growing cancer" that is tilting Latin America toward an anti-U.S. stance. "There are many countries in this hemisphere that are committed to moving forward on democracy, good governance and rule of law," said Scott McClellan. "Those are values and principles that most of this hemisphere shares, and our relations |
will continue to
strengthen with
those who are committed to the principles that we hold dear." McClellan added that presidents Bush and Vazquez affirmed their shared commitment to freedom and democracy during their discussions. Later, Bush participated in a White House event commemorating Mexico's Cinco de Mayo festivities. The day commemorates the victory by a smaller Mexican force over an invanding French army at Puebla, Mexico, in 1862. Bush noted the fierce debate gripping the United States over illegal immigration. The president said the United States and Mexico are bound by ties of history, family, commerce, culture and values. He said Mexican-Americans have made valuable contributions to the United States, and that, when it comes to immigration, the United States does not have to choose between being a compassionate society and a lawful society.  |
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