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a new lockup in Hatillo By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Immigration officials will be inaugurating a new lockup for foreigners this morning. This is the place where illegal aliens are housed along with those suspected of being illegal. This also is where foreigners being expelled spend their last days in Costa Rica. The new location is in Hatillo Centro on San José south side. The center is supposed to be para extranjeros en tránsito, according to the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería. But don't expect cocktails like at some V.I.P. lounge at the airport. The new immigration jail replaces the one that was housed in the former Delta Uno Fuerza Pública headquarters on Avenida 3 near Parque España. The police headquarters moved to the west, and the immigration jail had to vacate. In Costa Rican terms the new lockup is 75 meters south of the Clínica Solón Núñez. Legion post now has a ladies auxiliary By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Some 14 woman have become charter members of the new Ladies Auxiliary of American Legion Post 16. Victoria Chaves of San Ramon is president, Enid Phelps of Heredia is secretary and Ofelia Crowninshield of Santa Rosa de Santo Domingo is treasurer, the legion reported. The Ladies Auxiliary will be meeting on the second Tuesday of each month at the Hotel Americana in Heredia. Further information is available from Ms. Chaves at 391-3323, Ms. Phelps at 261-2240, or the post adjutant, Kenneth Johnson, at 591-1695. The post is named in honor of Sergeant First Class Raymond Edison Jones, Jr., who died in Iraq and had relatives here. Three die near Puntarenas in spectacular crash By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A spectacular crash involving two tractor-trailers and two passenger cars killed three persons and blocked the Interamericana highway in Barranca for more than four hours Monday. One of the trucks burst into flames after the crash. One of the truckers died as did two local women in a passenger car that was caught between the two trucks. The site was in front of the Refinadora Costarricense de Petroleo plant where the road is just two lanes. The crash happened about 1 p.m. Barranca is near Puntarenas. Mother's Days benefit gift store operators By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Merchants were counting their winnings Monday night after have benefited from two Mother's Days in the same week. Stores were doing a brisk business Monday with those who had put off until the last minute a gift for Mom. Traditional Mother's Day is Aug. 15. But a law passed last year moves the official recognition of the day and the legal holiday to the next Monday to provide Costa Ricans with a three day weekend. There is strong sentiment to move the day back to where it was, and a proposed law may be introduced to that effect. This year, the wise offspring brought gifts to Mom last Tuesday and again Monday. Mother occupies a nearly divine position in the Costa Rican family, so observance of Mother's Day is just a step down from Christmas. The weather cooperated, too. The skies, although cloudy, did not dump a lot of rain. The Instituto Meteorológico Nacional says that the Central Valley and the north Pacific will experience less rain, thanks to a change in weather patterns. Rain will be isolated in the Central Pacific but more general in the south Pacific, the institute said. Bush OKs continuing to target drug planes Special to A.M. Costa Rica
President George Bush has authorized the U.S. Department of State to continue assistance to Colombia in carrying out an Airbridge Denial Program that targets civil aircraft "reasonably suspected of trafficking in illicit drugs," said the White House. The White House explained that the president's authorization was granted after determining that Colombia "has put in place appropriate procedures to protect against the loss of innocent life in connection with interdiction operations." The program began in the early 1990s, and it operates in Peru as well as in Colombia. However, it temporarily was suspended following the April 2001 accidental shootdown by the Peruvian air force of an aircraft carrying U.S. missionaries. The incident, triggered by a mistaken belief that the airplane was being used to transport illicit drugs, caused the deaths of Baptist missionary Veronica Bowers and her infant daughter. The program was resumed only after the governments of Peru, Colombia and the United States jointly established a new series of safety procedures to prevent similar tragedies. Reintroduced in Colombia in August 2003, the denial program is part of a broader counternarcotics effort that entails close cooperation between Colombia and the United States. Among U.S. federal agencies, the State Department takes the lead in coordinating assistance with the government of Colombia. |
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Third news page |
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| San José,
Costa Rica, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006, Vol. 6, No. 166 |
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| Audubon name creates a flap for Bocas development |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Sociedad Audubon de Panamá is irked that a Bocas de Toro developer has incorporated a certification from Audubon International in its environmental application for its Red Frog Beach Club. The Panamá society came out with a press release disclaiming any knowledge of Audubon International and said the organization has no relationship with the Panamá organization or the National Audubon Society in the United States, The Panamá group was critical of the project developers, Pillar Panamá, and the firm that prepared the environmental submission, Ingemar Panamá. But it turns out that there is an Audubon International, one of the unaffiliated Audubon groups in the United States. This one is located in New York. It is a not-for-profit educational organization, according to its Web site. |
The New York group has
a certification program for golf courses. In fact, it is critcized on
yet another Web
site, this one in Texas, for being too close to the golf
industry. The
organization receives money from the U.S. Golf Association, its Web
page said. Red Frog Beach Club says it has a World class Arnold Palmer golf course in the design stage and a 100-slip marina. A promotional video on its Web site shows no significant construction. Said the company: "The final result will be over 1,700 acres total, 3 miles of beachfront, and 1,000 meters of seafront. Red Frog Beach will eventually include over 250 single-family lots and 550 condo units. The total amount of units will be near 800 units." The development is on Isla Bastimentos, one of the islands that makes up Bocas. The location is just south of the Costa Rican border at Sixaola in Panamá eiher via Changuinola or Almirante. |
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Fourth news page |
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| San José,
Costa Rica, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006, Vol. 6, No. 166 |
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| Other nations asked to pressure for change in Cuba |
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Special to A.M. Costa Rica
The European Union and other members of the global community can play an important role in helping Cuba make a transition to democracy, said Thomas Shannon, the U.S. State Department's assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs. In a video conference last week with an audience in the Czech Republic's capital of Prague, Shannon said the Europeans can make it clear to the Cuban regime that they will not tolerate increased repression once Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, reportedly suffering from serious health problems, is no longer capable of "being present as a political leader." Shannon repeated the U.S. offer to consider lifting its trade embargo on Havana if the Cuban regime fulfills a number of requirements, such as releasing political prisoners; guaranteeing fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of speech and association; allowing the creation of organizations that are independent of the state, including trade unions, neighborhood associations, and political parties; and starting a pathway that leads to free and fair elections. The assistant secretary said President George Bush offered in a 2002 speech "to look at how the embargo could be lifted," but Castro rejected the offer. "The offer is still on the table," Shannon emphasized. He said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutiérrez, co-chairs of the U.S. Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, have noted that the United States wants to "find a way to engage with Cuba as it makes its transition to democracy. "We want to find a way to be helpful as Cubans begin to build and develop a democratic state," he said. But in Shannon’s view the members of Castro's regime have "no intention of giving up power." The powerbrokers in the regime, such as Castro's brother and designated successor, Raúl Castro, "will do everything they can to maintain the totalitarian state." "This is where we believe the international community" can make its opposition clear about such a political course, Shannon said. At the same time, Shannon reiterated the U.S. view |
that the Cuban people
themselves must drive a transition to democracy in Cuba. "Neither the United States nor other members of the international community can impose any kind of political situation in Cuba," Shannon said. "What happens in Cuba is something that is going to be determined by the Cuban people." Shannon said the strength of the international community's voice on promoting democracy in Cuba "is going to depend on the degree to which we all speak together. Therefore, we will work very, very hard to make sure that our voice and others are part of a concerted effort, as opposed to a diverse or disintegrated effort." The official said the United States is part of a global consensus that reincorporating Cuba into the larger community of democratic nations "has to be one of the primary diplomatic goals" of the international community. Shannon said Fidel Castro "is in the midst of a very serious health crisis," but the severity of his illness is unknown because the Cuban state is "opaque." Cuba's government, he said, "does not see information as something that it shares with its citizens or the world. Quite the contrary, it sees information as something that it guards and uses for political purposes." But Shannon said it is evident that at "80 years of age and suffering from significant health problems that the ability of Fidel Castro to continue to play an active role in the day-to-day management of the Cuban state is ending." Shannon said that "what we are seeing ... is the beginnings of a slow-motion transfer of power from Fidel Castro, a revolutionary leader, to individuals who represent the different institutions of a totalitarian state." As the process moves forward, Shannon said, "we believe that now is an important time for the United States and the international community and those interested in democracy, such as civil society and non-governmental organizations, to begin talking about what a transition to democracy in Cuba should look like, and what expectations the international community has for that transition." |
| López Obrado vows to keep fighting for presidency as
long as it takes |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Thousands of people gathered Sunday to hear Andrés Manuel López Obrador in the Zócalo, Mexico City's main square. López Obrador, who lost the election by a narrow margin, has vowed to keep on protesting on the streets as ¨long as it takes¨ if electoral officials declare his rival, conservative Felipe Calderón, the winner of last month's presidential election. It has been more than three weeks since López Obrador of the Partido de la Revolución Democrática called on his supporters to set up camps in the heart of Mexico City in demand of a full recount of 41 million ballots from last month's presidential election. Only last week, Mexican riot police fired tear gas to disperse protesters who rallied outside Congress in support of López Obrador. Sunday, while people in the southern state of Chiapas went to the polls to elect a governor, López Obrador spoke out against the Partido Revolucionario Institucional, which ran Mexico for seven decades, and the Partido Acción Nacional, which formed a coalition to put up a joint candidate in Chiapas. He says the only purpose of the coalition is to defend privileges, not to make changes for the better. What happens in Chiapas is important to López Obrador. A defeat in Mexico's poorest state, analysts say, could weaken his national protest movement to stop Caldereón from taking office. |
López Obrador
has vowed to keep his street protests going. He said he
plans to disrupt President Vicente Fox´s annual state of the
union
address to Congress Sept. 1 and to stop the federal electoral
tribunal from delivering a document to Calderón making him
president
Sept. 6. He has also threatened to interrupt the Independence Day celebrations Sept. 15, and has called a "national democratic convention" for Sept. 16, the day the Mexican army holds an annual parade. His strategy has raised fears of confrontations between police and protesters. The electoral tribunal ordered a recount in 9 percent of the country's 130,000 polling places. The recount has been completed but the results have not been made public. the Tribunal has until Sept. 6 to certify a winner. Cecilia Plazolo, a 58-year-old nurse sleeping in one of the tents in the Zócalo says López Obrador is the only politician who has ever cared for Mexico´s poor. "I´ve always been sad when I see malnourished kids, I always asked when can we find a president who cares about the poor? I´ve been supporting López Obrador for a while," she said. López Obrador's demand for a full vote-by-vote recount appears unlikely, but he says his campaign of resistance will continue. |
| Striking copper miners in Chile reject latest offer from
mine operator |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Striking workers at the world's biggest copper mine in Chile have rejected the latest offer from employers, bringing the strike into its third week. Employees at the Escondida mine in northern Chile turned down the offer from majority owner BHP Billiton, an Australian firm, after a meeting late Sunday. The company offered the mine's 2,000 employees a three-year deal or a four-year deal. The three-year deal included a 4 percent raise and almost $24,000 in bonuses, while the second deal included an additional raise of 1.3 percent in the fourth year and a $32,000 bonus. |
But employees say the
offers aren't enough. They say they want a deal
that reflects the surge in copper prices over the past several years.
Copper prices were near $3.40 a pound on Friday. Production at the mine has been at about 50 percent since the strike began. On Friday, BHP Billiton shut down the mine altogether after striking workers blocked the mine's access roads. Miners initially demanded a 13 percent wage increase and a $30,000 bonus, but cut their demands last week to 10 percent. The Escondida copper mine is in Chile's Atacama desert north of the capital of Santiago. The mine accounts for 8 percent of world copper production. |
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