A.M.
Costa Rica
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Published
Wednesday Edition
August 2, 2017, Vol. 17, No. 152 |
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A.M. Costa Rica Second News Page |
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Published ||
Wednesday
Edition,
August 2, 2017
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No. 152
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Bill
seeks to implement digital platform
to be used across all public institutions By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
A new bill seeks to force the creation of some manner of digital headquarters in every public institution where Costa Ricans provide all sorts of paperwork. The bill also seeks to generate a positive impact in the economy and save time for users and for public administration workers. It is currently being discussed in the Comité Especial de Ciencia, Tecnología y Educación, at the Legislative Assembly. Ottón Solís, legislator and supporter of the initiative from Partido Acción Ciudadana, requested an opinion from the comptroller general. "The use of technology is a tool to protect the citizen from the excess of administrative requirements and procedures, through the creation of digital headquarters and thus improve efficiency,” according to the comptroller's office. In the past, the Sala Constitucional has recognized as a fundamental right of individuals to be able to interact with institutions by electronic means. However, the comptroller's office said that the obligation for public institutions should consider the budgetary impact, something that is not easy taking into consideration the fiscal situation of the country. Comisión
Nacional de Emergencias
photo
Property
destroyed in landslide this past weekend.
122 incidents reported due to storms By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
The Comisión Nacional de Prevención de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias has provided support in 122 incidents since the weekend, due to a tropical depression and increased rain in Costa Rica. According to the Comisión, floods, landslides, strong winds, road problems and other emergencies have affected the population during this past weekend and the days following. The heavy rains are also responsible for the damage in the bridges at San Rafael Arriba de Desamparados, in Los Angeles de La Fortuna de San Carlos and Guayabo de Turrialba. The most affected areas have been in the Central Valley, Alajuela and the Zona Sur. However, there were incidents also reported at Cartago, Zona Norte, Huétar Caribe and Chorotega. According to the assessments made by the local emergency committees, supplies were sent to those affected by a landslide in Junquillo Arriba de Puriscal. Shelters were installed in Desamparados due to the floods. A landslide also that took place at Finca San Juan in Rincón Grande de Pavas, where five families lost their house. Currently, they've been taken care of by the Comité and the Insituto Mixto de Ayuda Social. Casa
Presidencial
photo
Nathalia Roja,
pictured, will be leading the new Defensoría.
New
ombudsman for broadcast media
By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
The Sistema Nacional de Radio y Television has officially launched an audience ombudsman, an agency that will work as a mediator between its media outlets, the contents it produces and the impact on different audiences. The Defensoría de las Audiencias is would allow people, institutions and organizations to report and file complains should they consider the broadcasts violate human rights. To lead the agency, the system has appointed Nathalia Rojas, a journalist and audiovisual production graduate from the Universidad de Costa Rica. "The agency has been created with the objective to self-regulate the work of the Sistema and improve its contents," said Ms. Rojas. "This is an agency to guarantee and strengthen the right to communication, promoting freedom of expression, the right to information and the right to participation. The population may report to the ombudsman's office any content that it considers sexist, sexist, misogynist, if it discriminates against people because of their ethnic origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, nationality, among others. "My work will be focused on developing a synergy between communication and human rights, in order to present alternatives within the programming adhering to the principles of equality and dignity, as well as ethical rigor and inclusion, to generate real transformations in society," said the ombudsman. A.M. Costa Rica book recommended By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
Costa Rica’s leading English language newspaper is celebrating its 16th anniversary with the publication of an illustrated ebook that contains selected classic stories. The book goes on sale today just two weeks before the newspaper’s birthday, Aug. 15. “These stories illustrate various aspects of life in Costa Rica, and they are much too interesting to languish in our archives,” said Jay Brodell, editor emeritus and the person who put the book together. Brodell said he tried to reflect the wide variety of news stories that have been published from food and travel to more serious aspects of life here. A.M. Costa Rica is known for not pulling any punches in covering the news. The title is “Costa Rica: Remarkable Tales from this Super Vacation Spot.” The book contains contributions by staffers and interns who have worked at the newspaper. The company has tried to provide internship opportunities as part of its personnel plan. Gabriela Vega Barrantes, the newspaper general manager, said that she would consider issuing a similar book every year as a supplement to the daily newspaper. The book is $3.99 now online at Smashwords in all the standard ebook formats, including those for the Amazon Kindle and also for iBook. A sample is available at the site here.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
Published || Wednesday Edition, August 2,
2017 || Vol. 17, No. 152
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High
prices at Jacó restaurant upset some, defended by
management |
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By the A.M. Costa
Rica staff
Thousands of critics took over some Tico Facebook pages and discussion groups, after an image went viral showing alleged excessive prices of a business located in Jacó and left some outraged persons questioning what a fair price really means. The image shows the supposed menu of the Jacó Blu Beach Club, located close to the Parque de Jacó. The business offers pools and chairs inside their facilities. Apparently, the cost of food and beverages for tourists is way higher than that for citizens. According to the image, a bottle of Cacique sells up to $140, same price as Aguardiente. Bailey's Irish Cream and Jaggermeister bottles sell at almost $200 each, the sparkling wine costs about $115 and a 12 year-old Flor de Caña has a price of $220. Meanwhile, a bottle of Blue Label Johnny Walker costs above $400. According to Andrey Montenegro, manager of the club, the picture does not say that along with the purchase of one bottle, up to five people can make use of the facilities during the whole day. “We have pools, jacuzzi, restaurant and bar for customers to enjoy,” he added. The Costa Rican law establishes no price caps to products, however people over the web considered the prices will only scare away tourists and feed the idea that Costa Rica is a expensive country. The image was first published at the El Infierno in Costa Rica Facebook site. |
Facebook photo
An example of the
menu posted on Facebook.
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Going
beyond books marks the upcoming international book fair |
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By the A.M. Costa
Rica staff
The country’s literary and publishing community will be joining together as part of the upcoming celebrations for the international book fair. The 2017 Feria Internacional del Libro will be housed inside San José’s Antigua Aduana building and the Casa del Cuño, according to a statement from the Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud. The ministry added that more than 80 exhibitors will participate among the publishing houses, groups, libraries and independent writers sharing their works. 10 international guess will pay homage to nine organizations. Some of those international guests include Rita Dove from the United States, while the others include primarily writers from other parts of Latin America such as Mayra Santos-Febres and Carlos Fonseca, both of Puerto Rico. The book exhibition will be unveiled on this Friday, at 6 p.m., in the Calderón Guardia museum. Next up on the schedule will be a workshop for managers and editors, on August 21 and 22, and a children's illustration workshop, on the 23 and 24 at the museum, organizers said. The festival itself will be opening on August 25 and run until September 3. The cultural ministry said it would release a more informed schedule of the fair later in the coming weeks. “This year, the FILCR 2017 turns 20 years old and we are pleased to see how it has been consolidated over time as a magnificent setting to stimulate consumption and a taste for books to encourage a cultural exchange and to promote business opportunities,” said Sylvie Durán, the minister of culture. |
Ministerio de
Cultura y Juventud photo/Daniel
Mordzinski
Writer Martin
Vargas Llosa poses. Photos such as these will also
be on display at the museum.
The activity has also expanded beyond books to include a sample of 35 artistic and cultural activities ranging from plays, stage poetry to puppets for the little kids. According to the head of the Costa Rican Cámara del Libro, Luis Bernal Montes de Oca, this is all the product of several Costa Rican educators who created the first book fair in 1954. “This relationship makes it possible that, in a dynamic action, the fair can be visited by all free of charge, as a cultural event that serves to gather readers with the creators and managers for the benefit of all,” Bernal said in a statement. |
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What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
The contents of this Web site
are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2017 and may not be reproduced anywhere without
permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page |
Published || Wednesday Edition, August 2,
2017 || Vol. 17, No. 152
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Poder Judicial strike over but doubt remains
over pension plans |
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By the A.M. Costa
Rica staff
On Monday, the strike at Poder Judicial was called off by several union leaders after reaching an agreement with magistrates to ask the withdrawal of the reforms bill that will be applied to the pensions regime. The strike started on July 19 to demand legislators take into consideration the worker's proposal to reform the current pensions scheme that could face financial problems in the coming years, according to research made by the Universidad de Costa Rica. At the time and during the 11 days the strike lasted, the legislators in charge of approving the reforms on first vote refused to include the draft sent by unions as a base document. Now, unions and judges, except for those of the Sala Constitucional, will ask Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís to withdraw the bill from legislative discussion and try to replace it with a common draft representing the whole Poder Judicial position. In fact, the president of the Corte Suprema will meet the president next week to further explain the agreements of their new proposal. Each year during August, the extraordinary legislative sessions begin and it is up to the executive branch to determine what bills will be discussed. The new single project of the judiciary, which admits the need for reforms, will take into consideration the technical recommendation provided by the Universidad de Costa Rica. Regarding the age of retirement, instead of the 65-years old requirement legislators tried to approve, the judiciary will request that the limit stays at 62 for men and 60 for women. The other agreement has to do with the amount of years worked in order to be eligible for retirement. |
A.M. Costa Rica photo/Rommel
Téllez
July
26 photo showing one of the first days of the
strike.The Poder Judicial
proposal leaves it at 35. In regards the caps in the
pensions, it will remain at a maximum of $6,992 per
month.
The judicial proposal for the president will also include the creation of an administrative pensions board who will remain within the scope of Poder Judicial. Legislators have been seeking to have that board work independently from the judiciary. The board will now have three directors appointed by the Corte Plena and three by the unions. Every member should have some measure of economics, stock market and investments knowledge, according to the proposal. The joint project was handed over to Frente Amplio's legislator Jorge Arguedas, who introduced it in the Special Pensions Committee at the Legislative Assembly as a minority report. |
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HERE! Page 2
is HERE!
Page 3 is HERE! Page 5 is HERE! Page 6 is HERE! The sports page is HERE! Opinion is HERE! Classifieds are HERE! Plus useful links |
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What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
The contents of this Web site
are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2016 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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Published || Wednesday
Edition, August 2, 2017 || Vol.
17, No. 152
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Two
opposition leaders
seized from their homes By the A.M. Costa
Rica wire services
Two Venezuelan opposition leaders who were on house arrest have been seized from their homes by state security forces, two days after a controversial vote creating a national assembly to rewrite the constitution. The families of Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma say agents with the Venezuelan intelligence service Sebin took the men during the early morning hours Tuesday. Both families posted videos on Twitter of the men as they were taken, with Ledezma still wearing pajamas. Venezuela's Supreme Court said the two leaders were sent back to jail because official intelligence sources discovered they were planning to flee. The court also said Lopez and Ledezma violated the terms of their house arrest by political campaigning and making statements to the media. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is concerned rising political tensions will distance the country from a path conducive to finding a peaceful solution to the country's challenges, according to U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.. Dujarric said Guterres reiterated the need for the government and opposition to begin negotiations, adding, the only way forward is a political solution. The two opposition leaders had each posted videos urging their followers to boycott last Sunday's vote to establish the assembly, which opposition forces said was an effort by President Nicolas Maduro to transform Venezuela into an authoritarian state. Lopez and Ledezma, both of them former mayors, had been under house arrest for various charges. Lopez entered house arrest just weeks ago after spending three-and-a-half years in jail on charges of instigating violence during anti-Maduro street protests in 2014. Ledezma was convicted in 2015 on charges of plotting a coup against Maduro. The detentions came hours after the United States imposed sanctions on Maduro over what it called his illegitimate election of an assembly to rewrite the constitution. All of Maduro's assets in the U.S. are frozen and Americans are forbidden from doing any business with him. Maduro showed his apparent indifference to the sanctions late Monday, calling them a sign of President Donald Trump's desperation and hate. "I will not obey imperial orders. I do not obey any foreign governments. I'm a free president," Maduro said. The sanctions against Maduro follow those imposed recently on a number of current and former senior Venezuelan officials. Mnuchin would not comment on possible future sanctions, including a ban on Venezuelan oil exports. He said the U.S. will monitor the situation. The Maduro government appeared determined to go through with forming the 545-member constituent assembly, even before it releases final results of the election. Details on what is likely to be included in a new constitution are unclear. Maduro has said it is the only way to pull Venezuela out of its severe economic and social crisis and stop the violence. The opposition contended the vote was rigged, in order to pack the assembly with Maduro supporters who could dissolve the opposition-controlled national assembly and fire officials who disagree with the government. Maduro's opponents are demanding early presidential elections. The White House says it is holding Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro personally responsible for the safety of two opposition leaders seized by police in the middle of the night. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called the opposition leaders' arrests "very alarming." The two men each had posted videos urging their followers to boycott Sunday's election. Maduro says he does not care. He raged on Venezuelan television: "They don't intimidate me. The threats and sanctions of the empire don't intimidate me for a moment. ... Bring on more sanctions, Donald Trump." Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino dismissed U.S. charges that Maduro is a dictator. He said dictators do not hold elections, invoke the constitution and work for peace to avoid civil war. Violence and protests for and against the election killed at least 10 people, bringing the total number of deaths in four months of anti-government protests to more than 120. Homeland Security waives environmental laws for wall By the A.M. Costa
Rica wire services
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is exempting itself from complying with environmental and other laws in constructing a wall along the Southern California border with México, the agency said Tuesday. The waiver would apply to a number of wall prototypes the agency intends to build in the area in carrying out an executive order signed by President Trump in January. In its statement announcing the decision, the department cited the San Diego sector in particular as an area of high illegal entry for which there is an immediate need to improve current infrastructure and construct additional border barriers and roads. Congress gave the authority to Homeland Security to waive certain laws in the interest of securing borders in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. The agency has exercised the waiver authority on five previous occasions between 2005 and 2008, during which most of the current border walls on the U.S. southern border were constructed. But months before Homeland Security's statement Tuesday, the Center for Biological Diversity along with U.S. Representative Raul Grijalva filed a suit against John Kelly and the department, saying that the proposed plans for the wall would endanger "dozens" of endangered and threatened species in the San Diego sector alone and environmental requirements should be observed. Last week, Customs and Border Patrol announced that the naming of companies to build the prototype walls would be delayed until at least November. Two companies that bid on mock-ups of the proposed wall appealed to the Government Accountability office after failing to make it to the second round and delaying the process. Eight to 10 companies were supposed to be chosen and announced in June to build prototypes. A day later, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a spending bill that included $1.6 billion for Trump's border wall, a sum of money, which may face challenges in the Senate. Refugee arrivals to U.S. plummet to lowest level By the A.M. Costa
Rica wire services
The number of refugees coming to the United States dipped sharply in July, dropping to the lowest level of monthly arrivals in more than a decade amid temporary Supreme Court orders that largely supported the government's efforts to curb the number of displaced people allowed into the country. By Monday afternoon, 1,224 refugees had arrived, according to U.S. State Department data. That is less than any other month since the 2007 fiscal year. The number plummeted in recent weeks after the Supreme Court determined that only refugees with close family ties to the United States will be allowed in for now. The country's highest court is scheduled to hear two cases related to President Donald Trump's travel ban in October. The sharp decline in July also comes as the U.S. reached a reduced limit for total arrivals set by Trump. That ceiling of 50,000 refugees for the fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, 2016, was reached July 12. Trump has insisted on that limit since January; it is a significant reduction over the Obama-set ceiling of 110,000. As it stands, refugees beyond that limit will only be resettled if they can prove they have bona fide immediate family members already in the United States. The family-relations requirement also extends to programs like those to resettle unaccompanied refugee minors who have no family to care for them in the refugee camps, but have foster families waiting for them in the U.S. Throughout six months of Trump's executive orders, the lawsuits challenging them, and rulings that started and stopped various parts of the travel ban on six countries and all refugees, the arrivals continued. The last two weeks of July saw the fewest arrivals since Trump's inauguration. The weekly average has been 751, according to an analysis of State Department data, with sometimes-dramatic fluctuations depending on court rulings. But during the weeks of July 16 and July 23, an average of 142 refugees came to the U.S. In the next two months, the Trump administration must announce how many refugees will be allowed in for the coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Resettlement agencies and civil rights organizations are lobbying to keep the arrival numbers as high as possible as the U.N. projects an increasing demand for permanent, safe homes for millions of refugees. To date, Trump has not backed down from an aggressive reduction in the total. Voice of America
photo
Luz Adriana
Chalarca embraces border guard.
At
border bridge, plea rises
for peace in Venezuela By the A.M. Costa
Rica wire services
For many months, Simón Bolívar International Bridge has been a conduit for people surging into this border city, many of them fleeing Venezuela's dire political and economic straits or just seeking to stock up on food and medicine that's scarce back home. On Sunday evening, the bridge also served as backdrop to a plea for peace as, 850 kilometers away in Caracas, Venezuela's socialist government wrapped up an election that many fear will tip the country into dictatorship and trigger more violence. "We’re praying to God for peace for the nation of Venezuela," said Luz Adriana Chalarca, founder of the Community of the Divine Infant. She had organized a vigil bringing at least a dozen people to the span to offer prayers and hymns. She and another woman each carried figures of baby Jesus encased in clear plastic. Others hoisted a Venezuelan flag that stretched nearly the width of the bridge and included an image of the Christ child. Singing and praying, the group marched to the Venezuelan side of the bridge, where two border guards stood watch. Chalarca, whose white shirt bore a Colombian flag on its sleeve, shook hands with one of the guards and presented him with the doll. The guard said nothing but, with a gentle smile, accepted the doll and a hug from Chalarca. Then a young woman in a baseball cap approached the guard. "We're the same. We’re brothers," she said to him. Alluding to Venezuelan security troops' use of force at anti-government protests, she added, "No more repression, please." The guard turned away, still silent and still clutching the Christ child. Prayer couldn't hold back politics. Voice of America
photo
What some
subscribers got slapped with.
International
sting hits
dark websites the hardest By the A.M. Costa
Rica wire services
They are known as the dark Web, encrypted corners of the internet that promise anonymity to customers who want to buy or sell illegal drugs, weapons and other contraband. But these futuristic marketplaces recently became much less anonymous after an international sting captured the addresses of thousands of users and shut down two of the biggest sites: first AlphaBay in early July, and then Hansa Market at the end of the month. Now, many users are wary of joining the next secretive marketplace, and that's exactly the point. U.S. and European law enforcement authorities say the closures of AlphaBay and Hansa Market were the largest dark Web criminal marketplace takedown in history. To dark Web users, the message is clear, said Europol Director Robert Wainwright: "You're not as safe, as anonymous, as you think you are." AlphaBay and Hansa were two of the top three criminal markets on the dark Web, sites that sprang up in the wake of drug market Silk Road's takedown in 2013. Hansa's users numbered in the five digits; AlphaBay had more than 200,000 customers and 40,000 vendors, making it 10 times as large as Silk Road. It generated nearly $1 billion in sales. The operation to shutter AlphaBay and Hansa grew out of several independent investigations, according to U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The investigation into AlphaBay appears to have started as early as 2015 when undercover agents posing as customers started making small purchases on the site. In one case, an agent bought an ATM skimming device; in another, an undercover officer purchased a small quantity of drugs. In December 2016, investigators got a break when they came across a priceless clue: the site operator's personal email address. In the days after AlphaBay's launch in December 2014, investigators learned, the administrator included his personal email address in AlphaBay's welcome email to new users singing up for the site's discussion forum. The email address was traced to Alexandre Cazes, a French-speaking Canadian website designer from Quebec. Born in 1991, Cazes had posted the email address on a tech forum as far back as 2008 and later used it to create PayPal and LinkedIn accounts. Meanwhile, Europol provided Dutch law enforcement authorities with a lead on Hansa Market that would allow them to identify the site's administrators and locate its servers in Lithuania, Germany and the Netherlands. Investigators then coordinated the timing of the two sites' takedown. A plan was hatched: The Dutch would move in first, followed by the Americans. On June 20, as German police arrested Hansa's two German administrators in Germany, Dutch law enforcement authorities moved to seize control of the site. The takeover was seamless. On July 4, the FBI took AlphaBay offline but made it look like an outage. Unaware that the FBI was on his tail, Cazes swung into action to bring the site back online. When Thai police, assisted by FBI and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents, raided Cazes' house in Bangkok the next day, they found he'd contacted AlphaBay's server host to request a reboot and was logged into its forum to answer comments by AlphaBay users. On his unlocked, unencrypted laptop, agents found passwords for AlphaBay, its servers and other online identities associated with the site. As rumors swirled that AlphaBay operators had absconded in what is known as an exit scam, authorities sought to quell the talk: AlphaBay was down for maintenance and would be up again soon, they posted on Reddit on July 6. In the days that followed, the number of users on Hansa jumped 800 percent as AlphaBay users streamed in, according to Wainwright of Europol. To cope with the flood of orders, authorities temporarily closed registration to new users. Then on July 20, authorities pulled the plug. The Dutch shut down Hansa, putting up a banner saying the site had been seized and controlled since June 20. A nearly identical FBI banner went up on AlphaBay. U.S. and European authorities went public with the news. Attorney General Jeff Sessions called AlphaBay's seizure the largest dark Web criminal market takedown in history. The intelligence yielded by the Hansa operation has given us a new insight into the criminal activity of the darknet, including many of its leading figures, Wainwright said. Dutch authorities said that 10,000 foreign addresses of Hansa Market buyers had been identified and shared with Europol. Over 500 deliveries were stopped in the Netherlands alone. Europol sent intelligence packages on drug shipments to law enforcement agencies in 37 countries. Wainwright said the identified users would be subject to follow-up investigation by Europol and partner agencies. Joseph Campbell, a former assistant FBI director, said the intelligence, users' names and phone numbers, email and IP addresses, banking and wire transfer information is invaluable to law enforcement authorities looking to dismantle criminal networks on the internet. Meanwhile, business is down on the dark web as shellshocked "AlphaBay refugees" lie low, waiting for the dust to settle. But sooner or later, they'll find a new home. DEA head criticizes Trump for remarks on use of force By the A.M. Costa
Rica wire services
The acting director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has chastised President Donald Trump for urging law enforcement officers not to be too nice when physically detaining criminal suspects, urging DEA agents to maintain the very highest standards when involved in such situations. Acting Director Chuck Rosenberg emailed a memo to DEA personnel on Saturday, one day after Trump seemingly encouraged excessive police force when addressing police in Brentwood, New York. "When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just want them thrown in, rough. I said, please don't be too nice," Trump said, drawing applause and laughter from the officers. The president's remarks drew criticism from many local law enforcement agencies, as well as Rosenberg's memo to DEA agents. "I write to offer a strong reaffirmation of the operating principles to which we, as law enforcement professionals, adhere," Rosenberg wrote. "I write because we have an obligation to speak out when something is wrong." Rosenberg was the first head of a federal agency to object to the president's remarks. The White House and the Justice Department have declined to respond to the memo. Rosenberg is a longtime Justice Department official who was twice a U.S. attorney in the administration of George W. Bush.
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What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
The
contents
of
this
Web
site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río Colorado S.A.
2017 and may not be reproduced anywhere without
permission. Abstracts and fair use are permitted. Check HERE for details |
A.M. Costa Rica sixth news page |
Published || Wednesday Edition, August
2, 2017 || Vol. 17, No. 152
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U.S. Embassy photo
Haney is well-liked.
Let's see if he can dance.
Haney to dance with the stars By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Former U.S. ambassador
to Costa Rica, S. Fitzgerald Haney, is still in the
spotlight only this time he will be on a dance
floor.
According to reports from Teletica and the show “Dancing with the Stars Costa Rica,” Haney will be participating in the upcoming season of the dance competition show. The 48-year old Haney officially began as the United States’ ambassador to Costa Rica officially on May 28, 2015. Since that time, the Spanish-language press and the Costa Rican government have laureled the former ambassador with praise for his friendliness and time spent as the primary representative of the U.S. government. That culminated with Manuel González Sainz, Costa Rica’s head of the foreign affairs ministry, awarding Haney with the Orden Nacional Juan Mora Fernández on his last day as ambassador back in July 14. The father of four will be joined on stage by some familiar faces in the local Costa Rican scene. The Costa Rican version of the U.S. television show began airing on Teletica back in 2014. It has not been announced when the next season will air. Defensoría reminds of discrimination By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
Tuesday marked the commemoration of the abolishing of slavery within the territories of the British Empire including its Caribbean territories. Although never formally part of the British Crown, the province of Limón has a strong minority of Costa Ricans of African descent. To that end, the Defensoría de los Habitantes launched a general reminder to the population and government institutions to respect anti-discrimination laws and to remember centuries of enslavement of Afro-descendants. “We must never again repeat the institutionalized absurdity of denying our human dignity, which is one, and of the rights and freedom of all people without distinction,” the ombudsman said. The policies of the ombudsman include urging the penalization of hate speech without defining what constitutes hate speech nor noting where free speech ends and censorship begins. It also urged further promotion of preserving the indigenous and Afro-Costa Rican cultural heritages. Aside from the generalities, the ombudsman did urge of the need for an ethnic self-identification option for the collection of statistical data and constructing indicators of economic, social and cultural rights for the purpose of further data collecting in case of the need to adopt special measures or affirmative action programs. The Defensoría stance is largely based on the United Nations’ Committee against Racial Discrimination that provided recommendations to governments on this issue back in 2015. |
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From page 7: Pérez Zeledón businesses win Seedstar award By the A.M. Costa Rica staff The recent edition of Seedstars Costa Rica included the participation of elementary and high school students with the rest of the adults to see which projects would receive some help from the Promotora de Comercio Exterior. The last event happened over the weekend at the Colegio de Ingenieros in Pérez Zeledón. More than 40 projects and innovative ideas were involved in the Symposium Brunca with the main prize going to the Fudesemillas project, a foundation that develops food for animals in the form of pellets made from tropical alfalfa. The other winner was Bambucoop, a cooperative that manfactures compressed bamboo wood. Additionally, the symposium allowed for a business conference composed of five purchasing companies in the region and 25 suppliers. Seven companies attending also received the licensing certificate of the country for the Marca País brand. Pedro Beirute Prade, the general manager of Procomer, said that the regional calls were a pleasant surprise for the organization. “With each contest, we discover a greater diversity of projects and participants who are most interested in promoting the development of their region through innovation, social conscience and sustainability,” he said. The winners received an initial check of $1,000 and an opportunity to join the other projects in the Seedstars final during the Buyers Trade Mission for September 2017, Prcomer said. “We have realized that outside the GAM there is a universe of projects and companies that, with the push of Procomer, can strengthen the country’s exportable goods,” said Marcial Chaverri, the director of financing for exports and imports as well as the organizer for Seedstars. Chaverri is referring to the greater metropolitan area consisting of San José and the surrounding communities. Procomer said that the last regional call will be held on August 10 as part of the Congreso de Valor Agregado in Orotina. |