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A.M. Costa Rica
Your daily English-language news source Monday through Friday |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page | |||||||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, May 10, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 93 | |||||||||
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Our
reader's opinion
Isla
Caño is now off limitsas a result of bureaucracy Dear A.M. Costa Rica: Isla Caño is a small island off the northern Osa Peninsula that has delighted tourists for decades as a well-preserved biological preserve open to picnicking, exploring, swimming, and snorkeling. Almost half a year ago, the government built a couple of new toilets to accommodate the increasing influx of tourists to the southern area. But then another government agency having to do with health, said the new toilets could not be used until they had improved sewage technology. So the tourism agency, ignoring that the old toilets still worked, shut the entire island to visitors without advance notice, claiming that the health department had ordered it. The health department said that was not true that they only said the new toilets could not be used. So since last January, tourists coming to the Osa Peninsula expecting to visit the beautiful beach on Isla Caño have been herded instead by tour operators to another beautiful beach on the mainland of Osa, Playa San Josecito. But there is a minor problem — San Josecito has no toilets or shower facilities at all! It is just a secluded beach, now inundated with tourists, and with no facilities. The parks agency response, from the southern regional director, is to announce that they will permanently close Isla Caño to tourists, forego the thousands of dollars of park fees they have been collecting for years, ignore that the Island has a ranger facility, toilets, showers, and a beautiful beach. Why? Because they don't want to install relatively cheap disposal technology to a couple of toilets that have already been built. You gotta love government that allows arbitrary and capricious authority to every little bureaucrat in every ministry, the courts, law enforcement, taxation, you name it. The lady in charge of the local parks region seems to have more authority than the president or legislature. The only government official that seems to have no such authority is poor Laura Chinchilla, who is hamstrung at every attempt to run this archaic government. John
French
Heredia
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado 2012 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
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| A.M. Costa Rica Third
News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, May 10, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 93 | |
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Jo Stuart |
 These
are some of the women being sought by investigators to serve out a
sentence.
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| Judiciary sets up a Web page in an
attempt to find fugitives |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Poder Judicial appears to have misplaced about 70 convicted felons. But never fear, the agency is setting up a searchable Web page to enlist aid from the public to find the individuals. There are six women, mostly convicted of drug charges, and at least 59 men. The numbers do not add up, but the system just went online this week. In addition to mug shots, a click will give a viewer the name of the fugitive and a second click with give a brief description of the charge. There did not appear to be any U.S. or Canadian citizens in flight. Part of that reason is that Costa Rican judges usually put North Americans in jail for fear that they will flee. They are a little more lenient with Costa Ricans. The Web site also points out a problem with the judicial system. |
Even though someone is convicted of
a serious crime, they might not be
jailed until the Sala III high criminal court validates the sentence.
This could take months. Although a judge can jail someone for
preventative detention after a conviction, many times this is not
ordered. The Poder Judicial said that the information on each fugitive also contains input from the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones and the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería. The election tribunal also supervises the Registro Civil where Costa Ricans obtain their cédulas. Some of the individuals on the site are fleeing murder convictions. The site will be updated daily, said the Poder Judicial. The site also contains contact information for turning in a fugitive. This includes the telephone number of the Judicial Investigating Organization, 800-8000-645, the agency's Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/OIJ.DENUNCIAS and its email address: cicooij@poder-judicial.go.cr. |
| President outlines her hopes for the
current legislative session |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
President Laura Chinchilla Miranda has made her wish list known to the new president of the Asamblea Legislativa. She met with Víctor Emilio Granados Wednesday at Casa Presidencial. High on the president's list was a bill that would delay the eviction of residents and demolition of structures that are now in the country's maritime zone. The most endangered properties are in Puerto Viejo and Cauhita. She also pushed for passage of a bill to create a new ministry of sports. In all, Ms. Chinchilla has about two dozen bills that she said were a priority, according to a summary from Casa Presidencial. Among these are updating the law covering firearms and explosives, passage of a revised traffic law, a bill to regulate |
casinos, another
to create crimes for the use of online information, a bill
addressing
trafficking in persons and protection of minors while they are on the
Internet. Also high on the list are a series of bills that the
president put
forward when her massive new tax bill was set back by the Sala IV
constitutional court. These include a bill for tighter management of
public funds, a bill to make public financial transactions more open to
the public, one to strengthen tax collecting and one to enhance the way
Costa Rica borrows on the international markets. Ms. Chinchilla also spoke in favor of bills for electrical generating and a geothermic generating law, said Casa Presidencial. Although the current session is not one of those special times when the executive branch controls the legislative agenda, Ms. Chinchilla has more pull with lawmakers now because her Partido Liberación Nacional is in control. |
| Changes coming in government's rules for
inspecting vehicles |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The agency in charge of vehicle safety is updating the manual that Riteve SyC S.A. uses to do inspections. The changes are expected to be published in the La Gaceta official newspaper soon, and the Consejo de Seguridad Vial said that it will begin an information campaign to alert vehicle owners to the changes. Some of the current serious violations will be downgraded and new violations will be created, said the agency. |
The Consejo plans to institute some
of the changes in June and others
in 2013, officials said Wednesday. The changes are the responsibility
of the Consejo's Departamento de Fiscalización
Técnica Vehicular in
the Dirección de Logística. Private automobiles have to undergo the inspection once a year. Taxis are checked twice a year. Riteve has been criticized as a monopoly, and there is a bill in the legislature to expand the possibilities for inspections. Despite what may happen to that bill, the government still sets the rules and the vehicle inspectors follow them. |
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| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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Jo
Stuart |
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado 2012 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, May 10, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 93 | |||||
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| Fuerza Pública reports 255 average
daily arrests over one year |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Fuerza Pública during the last year has been arresting on average 255 persons a day, said officials Wednesday. They released a summary that showed that from May 2011 to April 2012, the police force detained 93,151 persons. Of these, some 1,105 were caught in the act of some crime and were eligible for presentation to a flagrancy court that administers swift justice, said the Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública. No where near these numbers have been processed by the judicial system, so there is no clear answer to what happened to all those who were arrested. |
Mario Zamora, the minister, Celso
Gamboa, the vice minister and Juan
José Andrade, director general of the Fuerza Pública,
gave the summary. Offices confiscated 749 kilos of cocaine, 88,190 doses of crack and 145 kilos of marijuana, said the officials. Not included in these totals are the confiscations by anti-drug agents who are in the same ministry but not Fuerza Pública. The police agency responded to 492,950 calls via the 911 system to provide the initial contact on 121,610 crimes, said the report. During the year period, police participated in 817 planned operations, such as raids, officials said. |
| Traditional pre-Columbian ball game's
range expanded |
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By
the George Washington University news staff
Jeffrey P. Blomster’s latest research explores the importance of the ball game to ancient Mesoamerican societies. Blomster’s findings show how the discovery of a ballplayer figurine in the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca demonstrates the early participation of the region in the iconography and ideology of the game, a point that had not been previously documented by other researchers. Blomster’s paper, “Early evidence of the ballgame in Oaxaca, Mexico,” is featured in the latest issue of Proceedings in the National Academies of Science. Blomster, a George Washington University associate professor of anthropology, has spent 20 years researching the origin of complex societies in Mesoamerica. The participation of early Mixtec societies in ball game imagery is a new aspect of his research. For the journal publication, Blomster worked with undergraduate students to create artistic renditions of the figurine artifacts found in Mexico. While early games used a hard rubber ball, the ball games Blomster researches bear little resemblance to today’s Major League Baseball. The games and the costumes or uniforms participants wore were tied to themes of life and death, mortals and underworld deities or symbolizing the sun and the moon. In some instances, the ball court itself represented a portal to the underworld. According to Blomster, “Because the ball game is associated with the rise of complex societies, understanding its origins also illuminates the evolution of socio-politically complex societies.” During the Early Horizon period, or roughly between 1400 B.C. and 1700 B.C., there was little evidence of ball game activity in the way of artifacts in the Oaxaca region of Mexico. Blomster’s findings of a clay figurine garbed in distinctive ball game costume, similar to both Olmec figurines and monumental sculptures from the Gulf Coast, indicate such engagement did take place in the area. |
 This is one of four drawings from a Maya vase now in the Dallas Museum of Art that was found in the central lowlands of México. The ball and the player's gear is greatly exaggerated. The figure is believed to be a local ruler. “Exploring the origins and spread of the ball game is central to understanding the development of the Mesoamerican civilization,” he said. “We know there were earlier versions of a ball game prior to the Early Horizon with both a ball court and rubber balls found in coastal Chiapas and the Gulf Coast, but the institutionalized version of the ball game, a hallmark of Mesoamerican civilizations, developed during the Early Horizon. While there has been some limited evidence about the participation of the nearby Valley of Oaxaca in the ball game, the Mixteca has largely been written off in terms of involvement in the origins of complex society in ancient Mexico. This discovery reemphasizes how the ancient Mixtecs were active participants in larger Mesoamerican phenomenon.” |
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Food |
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Jo
Stuart |
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado 2012 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
| A.M.
Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, May 10, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 93 | |||||||||
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Jo
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| Obama
administration seeks OK for Law of Sea Treaty By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The Obama administration is beginning a new push to get the U.S. Senate to approve the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea treaty. Administration officials said the pact is necessary to protect the U.S. Navy’s right to carry out exercises off the coast of China. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told U.S. lawmakers and others meeting on the treaty Wednesday in Washington that it is time for the United States to ratify the 30-year-old pact, which sets rules on navigation and exclusive economic zones. Panetta said the treaty will ensure that U.S. warships, commercial vessels and aircraft have access to go where needed. “The time has come for the United States to have a seat at the table. The time has come for the United States to fully assert its role as a global leader and accede to this important treaty," Panetta said. "It is the bedrock legal instrument underpinning public order across the maritime domain. We are the only permanent member of the U.N. Security Council that is not a party to it.” The Obama administration says that ratifying the pact will protect the U.S. Navy’s right to conduct exercises in waters near China, where Chinese ships in the past have harassed U.S. vessels. China, which is a party to the treaty, claims control over its exclusive economic zone that extends about 370 kilometers (230 miles) from its coast and can therefore ban foreign navies from conducting exercises in the area. The United States says no such control exists beyond about 22 kilometers (14 miles) from the coast. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, said Washington believes that being part of the Law of the Sea treaty will help bridge international differences. “The convention gives us another tool to effectively resolve conflicts at every level. It provides a common language, and therefore a better opportunity, to settle disputes with cooperation instead of cannons,” he said. U.S. ratification of the convention has been held up over concerns among some congressional leaders who warn that the treaty threatens U.S. sovereignty and gives the United Nations too much control over oil and other mineral rights. Treaty opponents say ratifying the pact will not cause China to change its maritime claims. The U.S. push to approve the treaty comes as the Pentagon focuses new attention on China’s military buildup and its expanding influence in the Asia-Pacific region. Washington has also been paying close attention to a dispute that has been escalating between Beijing and the Philippines over an island in the South China Sea. Responses to president on gay marriage predictable By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Reaction to President Obama’s statement supporting same-sex marriage was swift in the nation’s capital. On the streets of Washington, passersby voiced strong opinions about America’s first-ever presidential endorsement of marriage rights for gays and lesbians. “I support marriage equality, so I was very happy. It should be a universal right that you can love whoever you want to love and get the same benefits as somebody else, regardless of your genitalia,” said web designer Kate Brown: By contrast, Washington resident Rupert Moreno says he has many gay friends, but does not support their right to marry. “I think that is an aberration. If you go that route, then the next step will be people doing polygamy. How about that? Why not also allow marriage between one man and a few women? Three? How do you like that? Or four or five?," he said. Advocacy groups weighed in quickly. The socially-conservative Family Research Council called President Obama’s announcement “disappointing but not surprising,” and predicted that same-sex marriage will be a major issue in this year's presidential election. “It is a tremendous day. The president coming out and pledging his full support for marriage equality really shows a great amount of leadership,” said Michael Cole-Schwartz of the Human Rights Campaign He says he was elated when he heard the news. “I think there is something tremendously powerful when the leader of, not just our country, but the leader of the free world goes on television and says, ‘I value all families’. I think gay and lesbian families need the same protections. And I think about the gay kid growing up somewhere in this country who has heard his president say he can have that dream that everyone else shares of one day growing up and getting married. I think it sends a tremendously positive signal,” Cole-Schwartz said. Press group seeks action on Honduran abduction Special
to A.M. Costa Rica
The Inter American Press Association condemned the abduction Wednesday morning of Honduras journalist Alfredo Villatoro, asking the country’s president, Porfirio Lobo, to take immediate action in the case. It also urged the government to organize means of ensuring the safety of members of the press and put an end to the impunity that surrounds other cases of violence against news media and individual journalists. Villatoro, with the Tegucigalpa radio station HRN, was driving at 4:45 a.m. on his way to the station, where he is in charge of the newscast, when he was intercepted and kidnapped by at least six assailants who were riding in two pickup trucks, a police spokesman reported. Villatoro, known in various local media as one of the Central American country’s most influential radio reporters, had reported receiving death threats. Villatoro’s abduction occurred two days after the discovery of the body of journalist, gay community activist and National Popular Resistance Front member Erick Martínez Ávila. The reasons for his having been killed are so far unknown. |
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Jo
Stuart |
| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado 2012 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, Thursday, May 10, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 93 |
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Latin America news |
Caja union workers
threaten
strike over cut in benefit By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The union that represents workers in the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social is threatening a strike if the government goes ahead with plans to cut costs. The union is the Unión Nacional de Empleados de la Caja y la Seguridad Social. A general strike would paralyze the nation's public health care, although in the past, the union maintains essential services. No firm date has been set, but union members will meet Friday at the time government officials are meeting with union officials Friday. The government wants to reduce in stages the final payoff awarded employees, usually upon their retirement. Currently employees with long service can get up to 20 months pay when they leave. The government eventually wants to cut this to eight months pay. Union officials say that most of the members are honest, hard-working individuals who are not responsible for the grim situation in which the Caja now finds itself. The union blames bad administration and political corruption. U.S. Embassy warning of unauthorized phone calls By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A U.S. embassy spokesperson said Wednesday that someone is making telephone calls and seeking identifying information on U.S. citizens here. The caller falsely claims to be working at the embassy, the spokesperson said. “These calls are NOT legitimate and very well could be the efforts of a scammer looking to steal personally identifiable information,” said the spokesperson, adding: “Callers to the American Citizen Services section state that the person making the calls often identifies himself as Jack Austin, and leaves the real U.S. Embassy switchboard number as a contact. No one by that name works at the Embassy. Americans residing in Costa Rica, as well as Americans here as tourists, have reported receiving these phone calls.” The calls appear to seek Social Security numbers and says the purpose of the call is to register the citizen with the embassy. The spokesperson said that citizens only can register themselves with the Smart Traveler Alert Program on the U.S. Department of State Web site. Government will kick off Interamericana Norte work By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The government will kick off officially the reconstruction and widening of the Interamericana Norte Monday with a ceremony in Cañas which is at the midpoint of the project. The project ranges from Baranca near Puntarenas Centro to Peñas Blancas at the Nicaraguan border, some 50 kilometers, some 31 miles. As part of the project, the current two-lane highway will be widened to four lanes. |
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| The contents of this page and this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado 2012 and may not be reproduced anywhere without permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details | ||||||
