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| A.M. Costa Rica Second newspage |
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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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in places around valley By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The annual Fiesta de la Música will be held in places all over the Central Valley Saturday, including Parque Francia in Barrio Escalante. The musicians will play from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m and sometimes even later, according to event planners. This is the annual festival sponsored by the French Embassy, Alianza Francesa, Hotel 1492 and the Banco de Costa Rica among others, according to an embassy release. The festival will feature a wide array of music, including pop, Latin rock, live bands and experimental performers according to Sabrina Vargas, a Barrio Escalante hotel manager who is participating in the event. The embassy, in conjunction with the Ministra de Cultura y Juventud, has celebrated a music festival each year beginning in 2003 on June 21 according to the Alianza Francesa Web site. At the Museos del Banco Central under the Plaza de la Cultura, jazz groups, tango musicians and others will entertain from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., the museums said. Other groups will be performing at the Plaza del Sol in Curridabat, at several plazas in the downtown and along Avenida Central. Parque Central and the park in Moravia also will be sites for musicians. In addition to the Barrio Escalante park, the Liceo Franco Costarricense in Tres Rios also will be a center for music from early afternoon to evening. Other sites will be San Jerónimo de Moravia and Ribera de Belén The government of France has been sponsoring this activity all over the world since 1982. March against trafficking will be today in Jacó By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A march today in Jacó against human trafficking is getting official support. Fuerza Pública officers and municipal employees from Esparza will be in the ranks, according to the Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública. The march is being sponsored by the Fundación Rahab which has just finished a $100,000 project involving trafficked women in Jacó. The project was sponsored by the U.S. Embassy. The march begins in the morning at the Best Western Hotel. Unhappy residents blocking highway to Limón over water By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Informal reports say that residents of communities in the Guácimo area are blockading route 32, the highway from San José to Limón. The persons involved are from La Perla, El Cairo, Luisiana, Milano and El Silencio. They are concerned about contamination of the local water supply by Bromasil, a chemical used on the pineapple fields in the area. The blockade is at El Cairo de Guácimo, said the report. The residents are demanding that the government find a solution to what they say is a big increase in the presence of the chemical in the water. German diplomat leaving to retire By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Volker Fink is finishing up his four-year stay in Costa Rica as ambassador from Germany. Diplomats held a going away party for him at the foreign ministry Wednesday night. Not only is Fink ending his work here as ambassador, he also is retiring from his country's foreign service after 40 years of service, said the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto here. Four face pimping allegations By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Four women have been arrested on an allegation of pimping after investigators raided massage parlors in La Uruca and in Ciudad Colón, according to the Poder Judicial. The raids were Wednesday afternoon.
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| A.M. Costa Rica third newspage |
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| Despite
murders, little effort seen in blocking stolen phones |
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By Elise Sonray
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff Robbers craving cell phones have killed at least a dozen people this year, but the telephone company is doing nothing to stem this crime wave even though the company could stop it, said those involved in the investigations. Violent crimes today seem to be over smaller and more petty things, according to a judicial official: A few dollars, a necklace, a camera. And cell phones are no exception for these armed criminals. A women waiting for the bus, a man pulling into his garage, and a 17-year-old boy walking down the sidewalk are just some of the fatal victims of cell phone robberies this year, according to news reports. Armed men have killed many, and threatened many more with violence, said a judicial section chief in an interview this month. “If it doesn't involve violence, people don't even think it's important anymore,” said the director. Most people who have their phones stolen no longer report the crime unless it involves violence.“If you didn't suffer any damage, you don't report it,” he said. This makes it difficult for judicial investigators when they raid pawn shops or second hand electronic stores, because with no complaint, agents cannot confiscate the phones which are most likely stolen, said the official. Most stolen phones, he said are stolen due to the carelessness of users: people leaving them on the table in a restaurant or in a visible place as they walk down the street. But these thefts are going down, he said, the violent robberies are what is growing. The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, the phone company despite the name, said that from the beginning of the year through May, 75,000 customers reported their phones being either stolen or robbed. That's about 5 percent of the total cell phone lines, and the year is not even half over. What happens to stolen cell phones? Can the phone company totally block stolen phones? How much money do robbers get for cell phones? What are officials doing to stop cell phone robberies? Those are just a few of the questions asked of the judicial officials, the Costa Rican phone company, and representatives in countries like England who also are fighting cell phone crime. A director of the robbery and theft section at the Judicial Investigation Organization said if the phone company would start using new technologies, cell phone theft could be a thing of the past. “If the cell phones no longer worked after being stolen, no one would want to steal them,” said the director, “it would be like someone stealing soap, when the entire country was out of water. No one would want to buy it” Currently if a cell phone is stolen a user must call the phone company at 193 to deactivate it. But this doesn't deactivate the actual phone, it just cancels the line, or the SIM card. That means thieves can still get a profit off the cells. An average thief will make anywhere from 6,000 to 60,000 colons ($12 to $120) from a stolen cell phone, depending on the type, said the judicial director. After the thief or robber nabs the phone, they pass it on to a “collector” who erases all the data. These collectors then sell the phone to a second hand store, abundant throughout the city, especially in the infamous “zona roja” or red zone. These middle men have no other job but to erase data from stolen items, said the director. “and there are tons of them,” he added. “They don't just work with cell phones, but with laptops, cameras, any sort of electronic equipment,” he said. The collectors then get a profit from the second hand electronic stores, who can plead innocent, because they bought it from a “collector” not a thief, and they, of course, have no idea where the phone came from. Then customers buy the stolen phone, get a receipt and go off to the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad where with a receipt from a certified store, the phone is connected. A spokesperson said that the phone company accepts receipts from certified second hand cell phone stores. “All the phones in those places are stolen,” said the judicial section chief. He also added that the stores can give fake receipts to people with stolen phones or people who have lost their cell receipts. |
 A.M.Costa
Rica/Elise SonrayBut the main problem is not Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad connecting stolen phones, it is simply that anyone can slip a new SIM card into the phone and once again it works, said the detective. Most phones now are GSM, and contain a SIM card, so no one really has to go to the phone company anymore. As long as they have a functioning SIM card, they can connect whatever phone they want. The SIM card is a tiny electronic board the fits into a slot in the cell telephone. In the United Kingdom, the government works with phone companies to stop cell phone robberies and thefts. About five years ago every cell phone company there agreed not to activate cell phones with stolen serial numbers, said a spokesman for the Home Office. Although officials have not recorded specific statistics concerning cell phone theft, said the Home Office spokesman, crime in general is down, and so far, good results have been reported. Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad said it also has a program to deter cell phone theft. Not true, said the judicial theft and robbery section chief. He said the phone company could be doing a lot more. He also added that he learned that a lawyer from SONY Ericsson was negotiating with Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad to initiate a new system in which a cell phone could be permanently deactivated if stolen. The phone company spokesperson said the firm was doing nothing of the sort, nor were they working with any other cell phone companies or manufacturers to deter crime. But, added Dalia Vega, the spokeswoman, the institute will not directly connect a phone with a stolen serial number. All of the serial numbers are recorded by the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad when a phone number is given. This International Mobile Equipment Identity number or IMEI number can be found on most cells by punching in *#06# or by looking inside the phone itself. The phone company, does not however, report serial numbers of stolen phones to the Judicial Investigating Organization, she said. And without a formal complaint to the Judicial Investigating Organization, agents cannot confiscate a stolen phone, said the judicial section chief. He did not want to be named for this news story. But no one seems to have an actual program to remotely deactivate a cell phone permanently. Although many phone manufacturers boast that they can remotely erase personal e-mails and other data from cell phones, there does not seem to be a program that can turn off a cell forever. A spokesman from SONY Ericsson said he would look into the issue, but after two weeks, there was no response. |
| A look back shows that prices have been climbing upwards |
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| Costa Rica has become a
popular wedding and honeymoon destination, I am learning. This
has been edging into my consciousness over the past couple of years. A
letter from a bride-to-be asking about a reasonably priced restaurant
near La Paz Waterfalls brought the thought front and center. I Googled La Paz and was stunned by the prices. Where have I been over the years as prices were creeping up? Happily ensconced in my apartment paying a monthly rent of just a bit more than the price of a night’s stay in one of the luxury villas on the grounds. Of course, I don’t have fireplaces (I don’t need them) or a jacuzzi (I don’t want one), and I had to furnish my own apartment. Having got a peek at the present and the future, I decided to visit the past to see how different things were then. When I came to Costa Rica in the early 90s (before the turn of the century!). I was not looking for a honeymoon-friendly destination; I was looking for an older woman-friendly destination. I’ve been reading old letters and journals from that time. In October of 1992, Two months after arriving in Costa Rica, I wrote a letter to a friend in Chapala, Mexico, where I had spent a month before coming to Costa Rica. Here are some excerpts: "After spending the first month studying Spanish and living with a Costa Rican family, I moved into a small townhouse-style apartment in Sabanilla, a 20-minute bus ride from the center of town. I’m paying $360 a month, which is a lot for the space, but it is a closed compound and the bus stop is just across the road. It is a 20-minute ride to the center of town. (And unlike most of the apartments and houses here, it doesn’t have bars on the windows.) I decided I wanted to live in the Central Valley, near San José rather than by the beach. Aside from swimming, horseback riding and sunning, there’s not much to do, and it’s usually a long trip to the market. I prefer being near good markets and entertainment. “I have everything here,” I wrote. “I can check out books and read American newspapers in The Mark Twain Library in the Costa Rican/North American Cultural Center. There are several movie theaters within a short bus ride. They show movies in their original languages with Spanish subtitles. There is also an art movie house. I went to see a French movie one afternoon and found it a bit embarrassing because the line waiting to get in was made up mostly of single men (as in alone), all unsavory |
"On weekends there are ferias (farmers’ markets) in and around
town.
Last Saturday I bought 10 oranges, a cauliflower, 5 tomatoes, onions,
potatoes, chayotes and carrots, and it came to under $2.50. (To be continued – but it is still
a great place for this older single woman.) |
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| A.M. Costa Rica fourth news page |
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Development agency cited as
major obstacle to development
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Contraloría General de la República said Thursday that one of the main obstacles to development in the country's southern zone was the development agency itself. The División de Fiscalización Operativa y Evaluativa of the watchdog agency said that the Junta Desarrollo Regional de la Zona Sur in the Provincia de Puntarenas was incapable of fulfilling its responsibilities. It urged the executive and legislative branches of the government to find an effective solution to the dysfunctional agency. A population that is one of the poorest in the country does not need an institution that accumulated resources, increases its administrative expenses and presents serious difficulties |
in management, said a
summary of the report. The agency also cited what it called persistent weaknesses in finances, budgets, management and controls. The development agency has not taken advantage of the available resources to improve the wellbeing of the citizens, the Contraloría agency said. It said the development agency lacked strategic focus. The criticism is important to those living in the southern zone because the development agency is involved in the creation of a new international airport there. The study said that the development agency has nearly 67 percent of its funds in bank accounts and in short-term investments. The money did not seem to be committed to development projects. |
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Robbers invade a home in an
upscale Escazú neighborhood
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Two heavily armed men forced their way in and robbed residents of a house in the Trejos Montealegre section of San Rafael in Escazú around 6:30 p.m. Thursday, according to the Fuerzas Pública in that community. The criminals wore ski masks and stole a laptop, jewelry and several other items, according to police. |
A victim was injured when one of
the robbers struck him in the head
with the butt of a firearm, said the policeman. A man, identified
by
the last name of Trejos and his daughter were in the house at the time
of the robbery, an officer said. The upper-class area of San Rafael de Escazú is home to many U.S. diplomats, and the American Embassy contracts a guard force to patrol the neighborhood. |
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Swiss will return to
México millions linked to Salinas By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Switzerland says it will turn over $74 million to the Mexican government from bank accounts linked to the brother of former Mexican president Carlos Salinas. In a statement Wednesday, the Swiss justice ministry said Swiss and Mexican authorities proved Raul Salinas had misappropriated the funds. The statement said the remainder of the assets will be returned to the Salinas family since the investigation did not reveal any criminal origin. The handover concludes Swiss proceedings in the case. Swiss authorities froze about $110 million worth of funds in 1995 when they launched a criminal investigation into Raul Salinas for alleged money laundering. Raul Salinas said the money in his Swiss bank accounts was legitimately given to him by business associates as part of an investment fund. In 1999, Raul Salinas was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the murder of his former brother-in-law, José Francisco Ruiz Massieu. He was released in 2005, after his conviction was overturned. Switzerland gave Mexican authorities the documents from its money-laundering investigation in 2002. Switzerland has taken a harder stance against money laundering in recent years in an effort to fight its reputation as a safe haven for the illegal funds of corrupt heads of state. Reforms have made it harder to hide money in the country's banks. France revives its link to Colombian rebels By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
An aide to French President Nicolas Sarkozy says France has re-established communication with Colombian rebels who have been holding French - Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and other hostages in secret jungle camps. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the comment Thursday in the case of the French-Colombian Ms. Betancourt, who has been in captivity for more than six years. The comment comes two months after the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia refused to allow a French-led humanitarian mission access to her. Ms. Betancourt was kidnapped in February 2002 while campaigning for the Colombian presidency. The government of France has made her release a priority and expressed concern that she may be gravely ill. Concerns about her health grew following the release last year of a video in which she appeared gaunt. Betancourt is among a group of high-profile hostages who the rebels want to exchange for hundreds of imprisoned rebels. She is one of at least 700 hostages in rebel custody. Three Americans are among the hostages. |
| A.M. Costa Rica Sports news local and from the wires |
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