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Costa Rican, Nicaraguan
foreign ministers to meet By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Foreign ministers of Costa Rica and Nicaragua will meet next week in an effort to iron out issues that have eroded relations. Bruno Stagno, Costa Rica's foreign minister, said that a major goal will be the reestablishment of a binational commission that last met in 1997. The commission would be a place to air differences. Two of those differences have ballooned into embarrassing international issues. Costa Rica had hailed Nicaragua into the International Court at the Hague over the right of its citizens to transit freely the Río San Juan, which is in Nicaragua. Nicaragua has brought Costa Rica into a hemispheric commission on human rights over alleged abuses to Nicaraguan citizens living here. Stagno, in a release from his Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto, said that the agenda for the visit here of Norman Caldera of Nicaragua was open. Caldera is coming ostensibly to officiate at the opening of two more consulates of his country here. Stagno also had a grocery list of other issues as he discussed the visit with reporters after the weekly Consejo de Gobierno at Casa Presidencial Wednesday. Christian Fellowship get Stacey Steck as pastor Special to A.M. Costa Rica
The Escazú Christian Fellowship, an English language, international, multidenominational congregation, has called the Rev. Stacey Steck to be its next pastor. Steck is an ordained Presbyterian minister and succeeds the Rev. Ken MacHarg, who served for nearly two years. Steck was most recently pastor of First Presbyterian Church of St. Cloud, Minnesota, where he served for five years. “I am very pleased to be able to serve ECF. I’m very ecumenical at heart, so I think this will be a really good fit,” said Steck, referring to the wide variety of Protestant denominations represented in the church. In recommending him for approval by the congregation, church Council President Judith Hamje noted that Steck’s “presence has been a gift that God has placed in our congregation at this time and we feel that Stacey is who we need to lead us as our next pastor.” Serving the English-speaking community in Costa Rica since 1985, Escazú Christian Fellowship offers worship services, small group Bible study, and children’s ministry among its many activities. The group has members from North America, Central and South America, Europe, and Asia. Former Pastor MacHarg is retiring to the United States but will continue in ministry as a missionary journalist, chronicling the work of Christian missions and ministries throughout the world. Escazú Christian Fellowship meets each Sunday evening at 5 p.m. in the facilities of the International Baptist Church in Guachipelin. For more information: Pastor Steck at 395-9653 or info@ecfcr.net or www.ecfcr.net. Minister called on carpet over security guard plan By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The idea seemed like a good one when the security minister outlined it last week. The minister, Fernando Berrocal, was going to create strong links between the police and the 18,000 security guards who work in the country. But the idea did not sit well with legislative deputies. They called Berrocal in to explain Wednesday. Lawmakers wanted to know if he was giving away any rights that belonged to the state. The minister is about to sign an agreement on the topic with major security firms. Berrocal said that at any time there are only about 2,500 officers of his 11,284 Fuerza Pública available to fight crime. Many police stations are in poor condition and many police vehicles are out of service awaiting repair, he said. The agreement with the security firms would make guards auxiliaries to the police but without the power to arrest, pursue or do other activities reserved for police. But they will be expected to pass on information, he said. Berrocal also said last week that some effort would be made to coordinate the radio frequencies of security guards so police could communicate with them. Another suspect held in murder of officer By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Agents late Tuesday raided a home in Hatillo 8 south of San José and apprehended a fifth suspect in the murder of a Fuerza Pública officer July 9. The man, who has the last name of Mata, was moved to Limón early Wednesday where he faces court action. The man is being presented as the ringleader of the band that committed robberies and other crimes along the Caribbean coast. Four men already are in pretrial detention and two women are facing allegations that they aided the suspects after the fact. Men in two vehicles gunned down the victim, Mario González González, early Sunday at a police checkpoint in Tuba Creek, just north of Cahuita. The men were believed to be fleeing an armed robbery and both vehicles were stolen. Other policemen were at the checkpoint when the crime happened, but they were not hurt. |
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Third news page |
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| San José,
Costa Rica, Thursday, July 20, 2006, Vol. 6, No. 143 |
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| New taxes and levies topic at governmental council |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Taxes on financial transactions and on corporations will be part of the government's fiscal plan that it soon will present to the legislature. These will join changes in the income tax and a value added tax. This was the summary provided by Guillermo Zúñiga, the minister of Hacienda, after a meeting of the presidential Consejo de Gobierno Wednesday. Crucial details are still unknown. One emphasis will be the use of new income to eliminate slums, he said, as well as changes in the law to provide greater flexibility for budgeting. The tax on financial trasactions has been discussed before but there still are no specifics. Some administration officials have suggested a levy of five colons for each 1,000 colons. That would be a half-percent tax. The tax would be $500 on a $100,000 transaction. Presumably this would be collected by financial institutions. The value-added tax was part of the massive tax plan that was not approved by the previous Asamblea Legislativa. The tax, believed to be equal to the 13 percent sales tax, would be levied on the value added at each stage of production. |
Corporations already
are taxed each year, but the amounts are small, perhaps 10,000 colons
or $20. Zúñiga also said that the central government would have to absorb the losses run up over the years by the Banco Central de Costa Rica in defending the colon. That amount is $2.8 billion. This will reduce inflation and interest rates, he said. The Banco Central can only cover its losses by printing more money, thus contributing to inflation. The central government can issue internal and external bonds to cover the debt. Zúñiga said that half of the budget already goes for interest and mandatory principal payments and much of the other half include inflexible payments like salaries and pensions. So officials are looking for new money. The new money will provide infrastructure, science and technology to push competitiveness and investments in the social welfare, he said. There still has been no authoritative word whether the government will seek to tax the global income of citizens and residents. This has been a concern of expats who have the bulk of their investments in other countries. |
| Researchers play tag with hammerheads at Coco |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
An underwater expedition near the Isla del Coco has tagged 15 hammerhead sharks, according to the Programa Restauración de Tortugas Marinas. Some 16 divers from the United States and the United Kindom worked from July 3 to July 15 putting transmitters on the underwater predators. Five fish were given tranmitters that can be tracked via satellite, said the organization. Some 10 more were fitted with acoustical trasnmitters that could be tracked in the area around the island. This was the fourth of seven planned expeditions. The sharks fitted with satellite transmitters will be tracked to learn about migration routes, the group said. Some of the transmitters will operate for four months. Others will work for less time. All the sharks fitted with transmitters were adult females encountered some 70 feet or so below the surface, the organization said. The project was done in conjunction with the U.S. Shark Research Institute and the local diving firm Undersea Hunter. The Isla del Coco is a national park with extensive amounts of sea creatures about 330 miiles west of the mainland. |
 Programa
Restauración de
Tortugas Marinas/Andy Reid Two divers dance with a shark near Isla
del Coco
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Fourth news page |
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| San José,
Costa Rica, Thursday, July 20, 2006, Vol. 6, No. 143 |
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| Canadian border is the new challenge for U.S. security |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Border security in the United States has traditionally focused on the United States' southern neighbor, Mexico. But the emphasis at the borders has shifted radically since Sept. 11, 2001, with a new priority on terrorism and more attention than before being given to the northern border with Canada. In March, the Government Accountability Office — an investigative arm of the U.S. Congress — made a startling announcement. In a test of border security procedures, G.A.O. investigators, using forged documentation, managed to transport radioactive material past U.S. border agents at two entry points on the Canadian border. Gregory Kutz, chief of special investigations at the G.A.O., told Congress that the radioactive material was discovered by detection equipment. But, he said, the phony documentation was never challenged by the Customs and Border Patrol agents. "Although both of our vehicles were inspected in accordance with C.B.P. policy, we were able to enter the United States with enough radioactive sources to make two dirty bombs. The C.B.P. inspectors never validated the existence of our fictitious company, or the authenticity of the counterfeit bill of lading and N.R.C. documents," says Kutz, referring to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission The test not only shows the vulnerability of U.S. borders, but also illuminates the difficulty of trying to strike a balance between free flow of trade and tight security in the terrorist age. U.S. border security has traditionally focused on Mexico. In the age before Sept. 11, 2001, the bulk of border agents' time and energy was on stopping illegal immigration and drug smuggling across the Mexican border. But the focus has shifted radically since that September day, and the top priority now, say officials, is stopping terrorists and weapons of mass destruction from entering the United States. However, that represents a huge challenge. The U.S.-Canadian border stretches from the Atlantic to Pacific Oceans for some 6,500 kilometers (4,039 miles) — more than twice as long as the 3,200-kilometer (1988-mile) U.S.-Mexican border. Nearly another 3,000 kilometers lines the boundary between western Canada and Alaska. It is the longest non-militarized border in the world, and much of it is across remote terrain. At a recent congressional hearing, U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California noted the small number of federal agents physically monitoring the border. "At any given time you've got between 200 and 300 people on that whole border. And we've had reports that people drive, walk, sail, ski, sled, crawl, and probably a few other things across the border with impunity," says Ms. Lofgren. |
Luis Barker, deputy
chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, says security
efforts along the Canadian border have increased, and there are more
joint efforts between U.S. and Canadian security officials than ever
before. "We have almost tripled the size of the force on the Canadian border. And certainly we're smarter now than we were before using, again, intelligence working with our Canadian counterparts to identify those people. And certainly the arrests that occurred recently are an indication of that," said Barker. The arrests occurred in May when Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested 17 men in Toronto. Officials allege that they were part of an Islamist cell intent on carrying out al-Qaida-inspired terrorist attacks on targets in southern Ontario. The border is quite open. Travelers have traditionally been able to cross freely without a passport, using only a driver's license for identification. That has helped to facilitate trade. According to Canadian government statistics, two-way trade has tripled since the implementation of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement in 1989. But under a new system enacted by Congress, the United States will begin requiring passports from all travelers crossing into the United States from Canada and Mexico in 2008. In a recent speech in Washington, Canadian Ambassador Michael Wilson said Canada wants to strengthen cooperation with anti-terrorist efforts. But he said many Canadian livelihoods depend on open borders, and asked for an extension of the 2008 deadline. "We neither want to be harmed nor do we want to be the source of any harm to our southern friends. We understand that the highest priority in the United States is security and we're on the same page with you in that regard," said Wilson. "But with approximately one-third of our G.D.P. dependent on trade with the United States, like any prudent businessman, Canadians also want to protect their livelihoods and our fruitful trading relationships with your country." Asked if any border can be made totally secure, Deputy Chief Barker of the Customs and Border Patrol said he believes so. "It's not in the number of people that we arrest. It's certainly in being able to detect people using technology in its smartest way, having the right mix of infrastructure, technology, and personnel to be able to do that. So, yes, we can [make it secure]," said Barker. The only truly sealed borders in the world have been militarized ones like North Korea's and those of the now-defunct East Germany. As in many other aspects of this struggle against terrorists, democracies will continue to strive to find the right balance between openness and security along the borders that divide them. |
| Press mission expresses its concern after chilly Venezuelan
visit |
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Special to A.M. Costa Rica
MIAMI, Florida — An international delegation of the Inter American Press Association said Wednesday that the climate of press freedom and free speech in Venezuela has deteriorated sharply and is marked by restrictive legislation, prosecution of journalists in the courts and harassment of news media. The organizaton's mission, headed by the organization’s president, Diana Daniels, during its three-day visit to the South American country met in Caracas and Puerto Ordaz with representatives of the Venezuelan press, news associations, non-governmental organizations, civil society and academics who revealed details of the plight the press is facing there. Ms. Daniels, vice president of the Washington Post Co., Washington, DC, said she regretted that Venezuelan national and provincial government officials refused to meet with the delegation, whose objective was to exchange views and clearly state the organization's |
position on repeated
complaints the organization has received and
which are featured in its biannual reports on the state of press
freedom. “This attitude shows the lack of interest on the part of the government to seek solutions through dialogue, reflects intolerance of the independent press and its essential role in any democracy, and reveals the serious problems that lack of access to official information represents,” Ms. Daniels said, adding: “We are concerned that far from improving conditions for the press in this country, freedom may become even more restricted during and after the electoral process” — a reference to the run-up to presidential elections in December. The mission confirmed the existence of what it described as a dangerous and restrictive legal structure enacted in recent years, that provides for stiffer penalties for those found guilty of crimes committed through the press, and passage of an insult law and a contents law used to hound journalists and media in the courts. |
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