Recycling bins attractive
to thieves in Tamarindo


The thieves in Tamarindo believe in recycling. At least that is where they get their loot.

Tamarindo Recycles, the program in that community, lamented this development in an e-mail Tuesday. Unauthorized persons are cleaning out the recycling bins at night and taking away the contents.

"We assume that the people who do this do it in order to pick out the valuable materials (cans) and sell them," said the organization.  "As those materials eventually end up recycled, this is NOT a problem for us.  Our concern, together with the Municipalidad de Santa Cruz, IS that the persons may not be properly disposing of (recycling!) the less valuable materials (glass, paper, etc), not to mention garbage that, unfortunately, is often left in the barrels.  We fear that this is ending up in fields or in rivers."

The organization asked residents of Tamarindo and Langosta to bring recyclable materials to the bins only on Tuesday mornings so that there isn't materials in the bins at other times. The bin thieves work at night, the organization said.

Brazil still faces plague
of extra-judicial killings


Many Brazilians, especially inhabitants of shanty towns, continue to be subject to murder and other forms of brutal violence by various gangs, militias, death squads and the police, despite efforts by the government to end the crimes, a United Nations independent human rights expert said Tuesday.

“When I visited the country two and a half years ago, I found that the police executed suspected criminals and innocent citizens during poorly planned and counter-productive war-style operations into favelas said Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions. “Off-duty police, operating in death squads and militias, also killed civilians, either as vigilantes or for profit.

“Today, the situation on the ground has not changed dramatically. The police continue to commit extrajudicial executions at alarming rates. And they generally get away with them,” Alston said in a follow-up report on the progress Brazil has made in reducing police killings since his previous visit in 2007.

Reviewing federal and state government actions over the past two years, Alston’s report notes that Brazil’s efforts to tackle the problem of extrajudicial killings had resulted in significant improvements in some areas.

“Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Pernambuco have investigated militias and death squads and the fact that some police have been arrested is very positive,” he said. “In addition, new efforts at community policing in a handful of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas are very welcome, as is the federal Government’s promise to increase salaries to improve security in anticipation of the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016.

“But these efforts will require a much greater push if they are to bring the security hoped for within the next four years,” the independent expert added. Favelas are the notorious shanty towns.

Alston, however, pointed out lack of progress in other areas, saying resistance killings – police killings which are reported as having occurred in self-defense – continue to be perpetrated.

“There were at least 11,000 so-called resistance killings in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro between 2003 and 2009.  The evidence clearly shows that many of these killings were actually executions,” Alston said, adding that such killings are almost never seriously investigated.

He welcomed Rio de Janeiro’s experimental approach, which replaces violent short-term police interventions in slums with a long-term police presence and the provision of social services.

Retired teacher murdered


A person suspected of being a robber bound and gagged a retired teacher in La Aurora de Heredia and then killed her with a knife or other sharp instrument.

Police got the call Tuesday afternoon. Dead is a woman with the last names of Ramírez Arroyo. She is believed to be in her 60s.

A lottery vendor discovered the body after investigating why the security gate to the home was open.


Stranded over requirement
for yellow fever shot

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

As a warning to your readers, recently I attempted to board a flight from Medellin, Colombia, to San Jose, Costa Rica.  Costa Rica requires a person entering from Colombia to have had a yellow fever vaccination not less than 10 days prior to arriving.  Because I was unaware of this requirement, I was not allowed on the plane, and lost my ticket.  The effect of this will be to cause me to spend my money in Colombia for approximately two extra weeks, money I would have spent in Costa Rica.  Pura vida.  Incidentally, I still show no signs of yellow fever.