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 Ministerio de Gobrenación,
Policía
Suspected marijuana is in this suitcasey Seguridad Pública photo Bus passenger with marijuana
targeted by informant By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
It pays to know your friends well, particularly if you are transporting marijuana. The Fuerza Pública attributed the arrest of a woman bus passenger Wednesday to a tip from someone who knew her in Limón. The woman, identified by the last names of Briones Ibarra, was met by police when she got off a bus in San José. Carlos León, the San José Fuerza Pública commander, said the confidential tip gave a description of the woman, so police spread out to check incoming bus passengers. Typically, buses are not searched between Limón and San José, although police are vigorous in checking public transport south of Limón. The Fuerza Pública said the woman had nearly 7.2 kilos, about 16 pounds, of suspected marijuana in three packages surrounded y her clothes. Confirmed cases of swine flu now put at 20 in Costa Rica By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
and wire service reports The Ministerio de Salud says that there are now 20 confirmed cases of swine flu in Costa Rica and that two more cases are probable. Some 124 cases are pending study. Some 11 cases have just been confirmed by the Laboratorio Nacional de Influenza, and the health officials said they were pleased that they did not have to send samples out of the country now. The 11 cases had been classified as probable. For this reason, the ministry said that all suspected cases are being treated as if they are confirmed cases. Some of the sufferers appear to have contracted the flu within the borders of Costa Rica, the ministry said. In the past, those who came down with the disease had had some contact with other countries where the disease was found, such as México. The health minister, María Luisa Ávila, said Wednesday that the Panamerican Health Organization had donated $200,000 for diagnostic lab equipment to handle the flu samples. The World Health Organization now says the number of global swine flu cases has surged beyond 10,200 and the death toll has climbed to 80. The World Health Organization reported the vast majority of deaths, 72 of them, are in Mexico. But the greatest number of infections, nearly 5,500, are reported in the United States. Wednesday, U.S. health officials in the Midwestern state of Missouri reported a seventh death in the United States. Authorities say the 44-year-old patient was diagnosed with the swine flu after a trip to Mexico. Taiwan reported its first swine flu case Wednesday. Health authorities say the 52-year-old Australian man arrived in Taipei Monday, after working as a doctor on a cruise ship in the northeastern U.S. state of New York. The World Health Organization says the virus has spread to 40 countries, not including Taiwan. The confirmed cases span the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania. Five safe-cracking suspects captured in multiple raids By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Judicial police and other law officers made multiple raids early Wednesday to arrest five persons they believe are suspects in the string of safe crackings on the Nicoya Peninsula. The five, four men and a woman, were tracked because witnesses got their license plate number in Santa Cruz and were able to make personal identifications. They are formally accused with breaking through the wall of a supermarket in Santa Cruz and burning open the safe with a torch. A similar crime happened this week at a Mega Super in Cóbano. All the crimes happened after store hours. Investigators said they believe that the five are members of an expanded criminal organization of as many as 80 persons based in Pecora. One raid was made there. Others were in Villa Esperanza de Pavas and in Parismina. In one raid agents found a pickup containing tanks for a acetylene torch, they said.
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A.M. Costa Rica is read in more than 90 countries every day |
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Top officials will meet on
drug flow and witness protection
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Costa Rica's top officials will meet in a week to consider what Rodrigo Arias says is the alarming proportions of drugs coming into the country. They also will try to figure out how to put into effect the witness and victims law passed by the legislature. Arias, minister of the Presidencia, said that he called the meeting in response to a letter from Luis Paulino Mora Mora, the president of the Corte Supreme de Justicia. Mora Mora said in the letter released Friday that the central government should reinstitute a top-level citizen security committee. The witness and victim protection law requires the Ministerio Público to provide the security. That is an agency of lawyers, so the job is falling to the Judicial Investigating Organization. But Jorge Rojas, director of the judicial police, said that his employees are investigators, not bodyguards. He is asking for more money to find and train guards and those skilled in witness protection. |
The key point is that the country
has not budgeted money for this, so
the meeting May 28 will address that specific point, said Casa
Presidencial. Traditionally witness and victim protection has been handled by the Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública and its Fuerza Pública. But Janina del Veccio, the minister, also said that her agency does not have the trained individuals or the money. When lawmakers passed the bill they considered the financial needs of protecting witnesses and victims, but they did not follow through. The flow of drugs through the country has been made clear by several major confiscations and the robbery of 320 kilos from the prosecutor's office in Golfito. There also was the crash of a helicopter May 1 where 395 kilos were found in the wreckage. Nearly every day border or airport police find packages of cocaine being smuggled north. |
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Alternate version of
helicopter photo story supports agents
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The case of the confiscated photos at the remote May 1 helicopter site gets stranger and stranger. This is the case where a Diario Extra correspondent said investigators confiscated his photos at the scene of a drug helicopter crash May 1. Jorge Rojas, the director of the Judicial Investigating Organization, said Wednesday in a report that the correspondent, Elías Alvarado Jiménez, agreed willingly to surrender his photos to agents after they found that some problem prevented the transfer of the photos to a law enforcement laptop. Rojas also said that agents did not have any receipts but instead used a form that the Fuerza Pública uses when items are confiscated. Rojas also said that the day before the correspondent had turned the photos over to a Cruz Roja volunteer who then |
sold them to a national
newspaper. Rojas also said that investigators did not know that Alvarado was a correspondent because he carried no credentials. The correspondent was among the first to arrive at the crash site near Cerro de la Muerte. Some 395 kilos of cocaine were strewn on the ground at the site. Alvaro works for the newspaper but is based in Pérez Zeledón. Rojas added that the Cruz Roja has severed its relationship with the volunteer. Investigators, when they got to the site some 72 hours after the crash found that the locational device that would have shown where the helicopter pilot picked up the cocaine was missing. They also believe some of the cocaine vanished. The flight was headed to Turrialba from some point on the Osa Peninsula. The suggestion is that the memory device holding correspondent's photos was damaged on purpose. Rojas said that technicians were trying to reclaim the images. |
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Limón dock workers
union rejects big termination payoff
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The central government has sweetened the payoff for Limón dock workers if they agree to modernization of the port. Rodrigo Arias Sánchez, minister of the Presidencia, said that each worker would get 2.7 million colons instead of the original 1.7 million colons for every year of the first 20 they worked on the docks. That's about $4,735 per year. A 20-year employee would get nearly $95,000. The deal includes a payoff of 1 million colons for every year after 20. That's about $1,750. However, the employee union, the Sindicato de Trabajadores de Japdeva, is balking. These are the payoffs required under Costa Rica labor law if an employer discharges a worker or changes the rules. |
Similar payments were made in
Caldera when a concessionaire took over the docks there. The central government wants to restructure the Junta de Administración Portuaria y Desarrollo Económico de la Vertiente Atlántica, the agency that now runs the docks. It is not certain that the workers would be fired. They may be picked up by whoever obtains the concession the government seeks to award. But the workers would be private employees. Arias said after the meeting that he was sorry the union leaders rejected the plan. He is pushing for a secret vote of union members. The restructuring is part of the project to rebuild the area around Limón Centro and put in modern cargo handling facilities. The dock workers frequently go on strike, endangering the shipment of perishable agricultural products like bananas and pineapples. |
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U.S. agents arrest eight in
Texas in gun smuggling case
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Federal agents have broken up a gun-smuggling ring in the Houston, Texas, area that was allegedly sending weapons to criminal gangs in Mexico. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has 100 additional agents in the border region for a 120-day special deployment under what is called "Project Gunrunner." The agents involved in "Project Gunrunner" are trying to locate and seize weapons before they can be taken over the border into México and investigate past trafficking of guns as well. This week federal agents arrested eight of 10 people indicted for smuggling guns that were later seized by Mexican authorities and provided to U.S. investigtors for tracing. Dewey Webb, special agent in charge of the ATF Houston region, said such smuggling operations are directly linked to murders south of the border. "We know that this particular group bought over, I think, 338 guns over a 15-month period and spent over $368,000 doing that, and out of those 338 guns, 72 of them have been recovered in México and Guatemala, so far," he said. "Out of the 72 guns, 36 of the guns have been connected to shooting deaths in México. Out of the 36 deaths, 17 of them have been police officers and civilians." Although guns used by drug gangs in Mexico come from a variety of international sources, many of the guns Mexican authorities have provided through the U.S. Embassy did trace back to gun store purchases in the United States. Webb says a large percentage of those guns originated in the Houston area. "Because we have long been a hub for the narcotics trafficking, moving into the United States and going north, we have also been a hub for the money going south, therefore we also, because of the infrastructure being there, we are also a hub for the firearms going into Mexico," said Webb. |
Webb says some hand guns, easily
obtained in gun shops here, are
popular with drug gangs in México, where private ownership of
firearms
is severely limited by law. He says military-style semi-automatic
rifles, which can be purchased legally in the United States, can be
made fully automatic on the other side of the border. "The cartels have people on their payrolls who know how to work these guns. They know how to convert these weapons, and we know that is happening quite a bit down there," said Webb, adding: "As soon as they get a semiautomatic version of a weapon, the first thing they do, if they have the capability, is convert it to full automatic." Webb says smugglers often use what are known as straw purchases of weapons from dealers in the United States. They pretend to be purchasing a weapon for private use and then sell it to smugglers. Someone convicted of this crime could spend up to ten years in prison. Webb says gun dealers are rarely involved in illegal schemes and most are, in fact, very cooperative with federal authorities. "Some dealers, along the border, have refused to sell certain types of weapons because they know they are big items for the drug trafficking organizations, which, to me, is another example of their doing the best they can do to work with us on this stuff. Most of the time, if a dealer doesn't smell something right, we are the first ones they call. They are some of the best sources we have," he said. Webb says "Project Gunrunner" may be extended, if necessary, and that agents are also keeping close watch to make sure smugglers do not move their operations to sections of the border where inspections are not as intense. He says U.S. officials are also in touch with Mexican counterparts to foster cooperation in the effort to stop gun smuggling. |
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China and Brazil agree
to $10 billion oil deal By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
China has agreed to lend $10 billion to Brazil's Petrobras, in return for guaranteed oil supply over the next decade. The deal was among a host of agreements signed during Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's state visit to China. The highlight was a $10 billion loan from China Development Bank to Brazil's state-owned Petrobras oil company. In return, Petrobras is to supply China's state-owned Sinopec with up to 200,000 barrels of oil a day for the next 10 years. China's official Xinhua News Agency gave no details about the other agreements, except to say they covered equipment, financing, science, space, law, ports and agricultural products. China last month overtook the United States to become Brazil's No. 1 trading partner, with two-way trade in April reaching $3.2 billion. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told reporters in Beijing the Brazilian leader's visit will further strengthen what he described as "the already existing sound cooperation between the two countries." Ma says the visit also will promote what he described as a strategic partnership between China and Brazil. The two countries have agreed to hold a second strategic dialogue later this year. China and Brazil are part of a loose grouping of four emerging economies, known as BRIC, which also includes Russia and India. Foreign ministers from the four BRIC nations are scheduled to meet in Russia in June. The Chinese spokesman said his government is "positive" about its participation in the meeting. Ma says dialogue and cooperation among the four countries are "transparent and open," and "not directed against any other country." Meanwhile, in an essay printed in the China Daily, the country's main English language newspaper, President Lula da Silva said his visit comes as Brazil and China mark 35 years of diplomatic relations. He says the two nations now need to focus on the challenges of taking the partnership to, in his words, "a higher level." |
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$300 million bond issue will construct new schools By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Ministerio de Educación Pública will build 32 high schools and 19 elementary schools and a host of other education-related projects with a $300 million bond issue approved Wednesday with the central government and the Banco Nacional de Costa Rica. In addition to benefiting education, the projects, some of which will be started in November, will generate construction jobs. This is part of the Óscar Arias Sánchez shield plan for the national economy. The bond issue, which will be payable over 20 years, will finance the purchase of land and finance the construction. In addition to the schools, the money will create 53 telesecondary and rural schools, 81 gymnasiums and 100 regional educational offices. Also to be constructed is a training facility for teachers. The bonds will be sold to investors. The construction projects will be all over the country. The bond issue still has to be approved by the Contraloría de la República. Bacteria infections plague Hospital San Juan de Dios By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Medical officials at Hospital San Juan de Dios say they have been fighting an outbreak of a common bacteria that has infected more than 200 patients and may have had a role in the death of about seven. The bacteria is Clostridium difficile which is common in the intestinal track of children and some adults. It can cause colitis and diarrhea, particularly when the internal flora of the body is changed by the use of antibiotics, according to experts at Medical College of Wisconsin. In hospitals, the bacteria usually is spread on the hands of workers. The bacteria propagates through spores, which can last 70 days outside a body, according to U.S. health experts. |
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