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A.M. Costa Rica
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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 31, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 108 | |||||||||
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 Consumer confidence from 2002 to
present
Consumer confidence takes
a dip, university study says By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Consumer confidence has taken a dip, according to a study released Wednesday by the Escuela de Estadística of the Universidad de Costa Rica. On a 100-point scale, confidence dipped 4.5 points when compared to three months earlier, said the report. The school said that optimistic consumers were just 14 percent of the respondents and that pessimistic persons were more than double, 28.9 percent. The school has been doing such surveys since September 2002. In the current study 71 percent of the respondents thought that interest rates would be going up. Only 19.5 percent thought this was a good time to buy a home. Respondents in the survey were asked five questions about the economy and then their responses were summed to 100 points. Persons in 707 homes gave responses from May 2 to May 15, said the school. Although the school said that the dip was significant, consumer confidence still is at an index point of 39.8, which is higher than during the dark days of 2009 when the level was below 30.
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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 31, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 108 | |
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| Celebrated northern route quickly
becoming a political albatross |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
While President Laura Chinchilla visits Europe, the scandal over the new road along the Río San Juan becomes more complex. The Nicaraguan government has expressed its concern because road construction has caused silting of the river nearby. The road was started in a rush to counter Nicaraguan incursions into the Isla Calero because there was no land route through the forested area. Most of the travel in the northern area was on the river, but that river belongs to Nicaragua. The foreign ministry has countered Nicaraguan claims by saying that Costa Rica was defending its national territory in the face of the military invasion by Nicaragua. Without the highway and with uncertainty over river travel, Costa Rica had no access to the land in the extreme northeast that is the core of the border dispute, the ministry said. And, the ministry said, the country was only carrying out instructions from the International Court of Justice by taking steps to mitigate environmental damage in the area of the invasion. Costa Rica challenged Nicaragua by calling the new road Ruta 1856, the Juanito Mora Porras highway. Mora was the president who successfully battled U.S. filibusters and their Nicaraguan allies in 1856. Meanwhile, Nicaragua filed a case of its own at the world court over environmental damage to the river due to road construction. Some of the claims appear valid based on photos from the area of the highway. The situation continues to deteriorate and is becoming a |
domestic political crisis. The
left-leaning Asociación Nacional de
Empleados Públicos y Privados is calling the highway the
biggest
scandal of recent governments. The Spanish-language daily La Nación has taken the lead in exposing problems with the road. The revelations cost the public works minster his job. The public employees union summarizes the situation this way: Great quantities of payoffs. No environmental impact study. Phantom construction companies in one case and in others companies behind in payments to the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social and some failing to be registered with the Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y Arquitectos. Some of the machinery has not had required safety inspections. Contracts were let by a mysterious high-level commission. And there were unneeded cutting of trees and construction without systems for carrying away water. The biggest problem that Ms. Chinchilla will face is the allegation that 20 billion colons or about $40 million vanished without a trace in the construction project. The public employee union claims are based on verified news reports. The scandal comes at the end of a series of unrelated disclosures involving taxes, missing museum paintings and other woes that has sapped public confidence. In fact, the new finance minister said Tuesday that part of his job was to restore public optimism. That probably will not happen soon because investigations are underway involving all of the scandals, including that of the new road. So they will be in the news for years. And the case will be in the world court for years, too. |
| Envirnmental groups hopeful in effort to
end shrimp trawling |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A coalition of environmental groups is hopeful that its case against shrimp trawling will advance because the Sala IV constitutional court has taken an interest. One of the members of the Coalition, the Programa Restauración de Tortugas Marinas, said that the constitutional court has given the nation's fisheries institute and the nation's environmental agency three days to respond to allegations. The Instituto Costarricense de Pesca y Acuicultura regulates the fishing industry. The other agency, the Secretaría Técnica Nacional Ambiental, is part of the Ministerio de Ambiente, Energía y Telecomunicaciones. The coalition argues that shrimp trawling lacks environmental assessments. The coalition has as its goal to end the practice. Trawling can damage coral, trap many fish unintentionally and also trap air-breathing turtles. The United States periodically |
prohibits the importation of Costa
Rican shrimp because of the turtle toll. The coalition calls itself Our Oceans Front. It is made up of Fundación Keto, Fundación MarViva, Fundación Promar, International Student Volunteers, Inc., Sea Save Foundation, The Leatherback Trust, the Unidad Especial de Rescate y Protección Animal and the Widecast scientific network, as well as the Programa Restauración de Tortugas Marinas. The coalition said that although an impact statement is not mandatory for trawling, the destructive results of the practice ought to be studied. The coalition says it is a group of non-profit organizations active in Costa Rica that work towards the improvement of the administration of marine resources through a series of legal, scientific, political and civil approaches. It promotes the reform of the fishing institute in order for it to appropriately respond to the objectives for which it was created: the public interest and the sustainable use of fishery resources, it added. |
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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's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, May 31, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 108 | |||||
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Drug drama on
the high seas
captured on infrared video By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Anti-drug forces are combing the Caribbean and the Pacific with some success. The most recent was an incident in which a drug-carrying fastboat was frustrated in its passage north in the eastern Pacific. The U.S. southern Command reported that the boat crew faced two helicopters, infrared video cameras, a U.S. guided missile frigate, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection P-3 Orion aircraft, another U.S. ship and eventually a Colombian navy boat that captured the crew. This was an event in what is being called Operation Martillo or “hammer” where U.S., European, and Western Hemisphere nations are trying to block drug smugglers' water routes. The incident that was described this week happened May 6 at night. The Southern Command said that the Orion aircraft spotted the fastboat that carried an estimated 2,200 kilos of cocaine A helicopter from the Guided missile frigate “USS Nicholas” picked up the tracking and caused the crew to dump about half their load. Then the “USS McClusky” launched another helicopter that drove the fastboat to the waiting Colombian navy's “20 de Julio.” Much of the action was taped with the infrared cameras and later released by the military. |
 U.S. Aouthern Command photos
Smugglers appear to be dumping
some of the cargo Crew
of a Colombian naval vessel makes the arrests
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| World shattering super eruptions might
develop more quickly |
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By
the Vanderbilt University news service
Enormous volcanic eruptions with potential to end civilizations may have surprisingly short fuses, researchers have discovered. These eruptions are known as super eruptions because they are more than 100 times the size of ordinary volcanic eruptions like Mount St. Helens. They spew out tremendous flows of super-heated gas, ash and rock capable of blanketing entire continents and inject enough particulate into the stratosphere to throw the global climate into decade-long volcanic winters. In fact, there is evidence that one super-eruption, which took place in Indonesia 74,000 years ago, may have come remarkably close to wiping out the entire human species. Geologists generally believe that a super eruption is produced by a giant pool of magma that forms a couple of miles below the surface and then simmers for 100,000 to 200,000 years before erupting. But a new study suggests that once they form, these giant magma bodies may only exist for a few thousand years, perhaps only a few hundred years, before erupting. The study suggests that when these exceptionally large magma pools form they are ephemeral and cannot exist very long without erupting, said Guilherme Gualda, the assistant professor at Vanderbilt University. He directed the study, which appears in the journal Public Library of Science ONE. The study was performed on the remnants of the Bishop Tuff, the Long Valley super-eruption that occurred in east-central California 760,000 years ago. Using the latest methods for dating the process of magma formation, Gualda and his colleagues found several independent lines of evidence that indicate the magma pool formed within a few thousand years, perhaps within a few hundred years, before it erupted, covering half of the North American continent with smoldering ash. |
 NASA/JPL photo
View of Long Valley,
California, created by imaging radaron the space shuttle Endeavor These giant magma pools tend to be shaped like pancakes and are 10 to 25 miles in diameter and one half to three miles deep. In the beginning, the molten rock in these pools is largely free from crystals and bubbles. As far as geologists can tell, no such giant magma body currently exists that is capable of producing a super-eruption. The research team believes this may be because these magma bodies exist for a relatively short time rather than persisting for hundreds of thousands of years as previously thought. The fact that the process of magma body formation occurs in historical time, instead of geological time, completely changes the nature of the problem, said Gualda. Instead of concluding that there is virtually no risk of another super eruption for the foreseeable future because there are no suitable magma bodies, geologists need to regularly monitor areas where super eruptions are likely, such as Yellowstone, to provide advanced warning if such a magma body begins to form, he said. Even science fiction cannot produce a credible mechanism for averting a super eruption even if one is found. |
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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 31, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 108 | |||||||||
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| Gang
treaty in El Salvador appears to reduce murders By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A gang truce mediated by the Catholic Church in El Salvador has dramatically reduced gang-related killings in the Central American country since it was implemented in March. Those who work with gang members in the United States support the fragile agreement and hope to reduce the lure of gangs in both countries. El Salvador and neighboring Honduras, which are plagued with gangs, have homicide rates 10 times the global average. The gang truce in El Salvador has reduced the murder rate, and brought concessions from authorities for better treatment of gang leaders in prison. Police suppression and deportations in the 1990s also brought down the murder rate as many immigrant gang members were returned to their home countries. Executive director of the group Homies Unidos, Alex Sanchez, works to get young people out of gangs. The one-time gang member was deported in 1994 and saw the gangs take hold in his native El Salvador. “The common people were really afraid of us. But then you had kids that were troubled attracted to us. So all these kids that were troubled in El Salvador were attracted by this gang thing,” Sanchez said. In El Salvador, the Los Angeles-based gang known as Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, and the 18th Street gang provided refuge for rootless and homeless youngsters, and as their numbers grew, they became more violent. Gang ties are hard to break, says a 46-year-old father of two, Freddie Taren, who is removing his gang tattoos and coping with drug addiction from his days with the Mexican-American Lomas gang of San Gabriel, California. “I have been shot when I was 14 years old in the chest. I have been shot, stabbed, I have been through it all. And I am very fortunate to still be alive, to still be here today,” Taren said. Los Angeles, California, still has tens of thousands of gang members and hundreds of gang killings each year. El Salvador had up to 14 killings a day until a recent 60 percent reduction. An activist and former California legislator, Tom Hayden, has studied the problem and says now is the time to take action. “It is an opportunity for the authorities to come up with solutions to the problem, instead of thinking they can suppress it, crush it, imprison it, kill it. All of those things have cost millions of dollars and thousands of lives,” Hayden said. One solution is providing jobs and training in the inner city. At Homeboy Industries, a Los Angeles charity founded by Catholic priest Greg Boyle, former gang members produce T-shirts and others serve food in the Homegirl Cafe. University of California, Los Angeles Social Welfare Professor Jorja Leap says the program addresses a key problem. “A lack of hope, a lack of a sense of possibilities, the idea that there is no alternative to gang life. And that is very potent, along with all these other forces that are at play,” Leap said. Authorities in both countries remain suspicious of current and former gang members who say they can be part of the solution. Gang intervention worker Sanchez faces charges of racketeering and conspiracy stemming from a 2006 gang killing. He says he is innocent and that his work with gang members brought him under suspicion. Those who work with gangs point to the treaty that brought peace to El Salvador in 1992 after years of civil war, and say that gang members who are tired of the violence have a role to play in bringing peace to El Salvador and Los Angeles. Rebels in Colombia release captured French journalist By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A humanitarian delegation has secured the release of a kidnapped French journalist in Colombia. The French journalist, Romeo Langlois, was captured by Colombian rebels on April 28 during an attack on troops. He was accompanying them to film a drug eradication operation. The International Committee of the Red Cross said that a convoy made up of Red Cross staff, a member of the French government and three representatives of a local human rights group, left the Caqueta state capital of Florencia Wednesday morning. Monday, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia rebels released a video showing Langlois in a jungle setting in good health. The Colombian army agreed to suspend all military operations in the area for at least 36 hours while the handover was carried out. Langlois, 35, appeared surrounded by armed guerrillas in camouflage. He said he was treated well. The release was brokered in part by the Latin American television chain TeleSur. The former hostage said he never had been tied up and was treated as a guest. He was reported missing while doing a documentary for French channel 24. |
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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 31, 2012, Vol. 12, No. 108 |
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Latin America news |
 American Legion Post 10 photo
Service was conducted adjacent
to tombsMemorial Day
services
draws 50 to San Antonio By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
About 50 former members of the U.S. military, relatives and friends showed up for Memorial Day services at Cementerio Campo de Esperanza, San Antonio de Escazú. They included members of American Legion Post 10, the Marine Corps League and members of the VFW Post 11207. Also there were representatives of the U.S. Embassy. The 11 a.m. service is an annual affair. The Legion owns plots in the cemetery for its members. The purpose of the service was to honor all veterans who lived in Costa Rica and members of Costa Rica American Legion posts who passed away since Memorial Day 2011, the Legion said. Newspaper attacks decried By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Interamerican Press Association has expressed concern at attacks against news outlets in Brazil and Venezuela. The Miami-based press advocacy organization urged officials in both countries to investigate. In Venezuela, someone threw explosives against the daily ¿Que Pasa? in Maracaibo Monday. The newspaper is critical of the government. In Brazil, striking construction workers threw stones and threatened to invade the offices of the daily Diário do Nordeste in Fortaleza, said the press organization. Vandals destroyed the principal entrance to the offices Tuesday. |
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