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A.M. Costa Rica's Second news page |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Monday,
Aug. 25, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 167
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Plane with
cocaine and money grounded
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Police discovered a plane loaded with 400 kilograms of cocaine Sunday in Guanacaste's Bebedero de Cañas. Police detained six persons, including a Mexican who was piloting the plane and a Costa Rican co-pilot. Two more suspects are on the run, according to a spokeswoman from the Judicial Investigating Organization. Authorities also found a large sum of cash in a box and a sack aboard the aircraft that they expect could exceed $1 million, though a spokeswoman said no exact figure was known. An initial report from the Fuerza Pública said police found the car of the two men who fled near the entrance to the Llanos de Cortéz waterfall in Bagaces. Local forces flew a helicopter over the area to search for the suspects. Judicial investigators from the Cañas branch said that a surveillance team saw that the plane was coming from Guatemala Sunday morning to deliver the cocaine. The aircraft was found on a farm with a private runway near the energy plant Ingenio Taboga, the spokeswoman said. The runway was used to shuttle in planes, which were then loaded with drugs and refueled for their delivery. Officials said it's presumed that the plane was going to return to Guatemala and then go to Mexico. A report from the judicial agency said this investigation had lasted for more than two months, and authorities conducted surveillance operations to gather more evidence. New organic market planned for Zapote By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Central Valley shoppers will have a new organic farmers market to visit Sept. 13 and thereafter. The Asociación de Productores y Consumidores Orgánicos de Costa Rica said that the retail firm CEMACO has provided space for the event twice a month at the firm's location in Zapote. The association said it expected at least 20 producers to be present for the 1 p.m. inaugural. They come from San José, Alajuela y Cartago. This is a second Feria Orgánica El Trueque, which now is in Barrio El Carmen de Paso Ancho. The market has been in operation since 1999. Organizers said that all the products will be certified as organic. Farmers markets with the emphasis on organic have blossomed in the last five years. Of course, all food products are organic, but the term generally means production without agrochemicals and pesticides. The Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería has established standards with regulation 29782, and those at the new market will comply, said organizers. Three-day weekend for Labor Day By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Next weekend will be a three-day one in the United States. Monday is being celebrated as labor Day, the traditional end to the Northern Hemisphere summer. The day also provides a wake up call to tourism operators to prepare for high season, which starts in mid-December. The U.S. Embassy will be closed Monday, and expats here might find that companies and individuals with whom they do business in the north will not be in their offices that day. The holiday is not recognized in Costa Rica, where May Day is the time to honor workers. Police said the brownies contain marijuana By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Police at Juan Santamaría Airport detained an American man after they said they found bags of pot brownies in his luggage. Once police dogs alerted them to a suspicious smell, airport security officers found 365 grams of marijuana within the brownies, a Fuerza Pública report said. They detained the 58-year-old American identified by the last name Salladay. The police said the man has legal residency in Costa Rica. The arrest happened after the man had taken two internal flights from Nosara and Quepos, the report said.
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Aug. 25, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 167 | |
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| Gang invades and plunders small community near lake Arenal |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A gang of up to 14 armed men descended on the community of Nuevo Arenal, cut the power to part of the town and began to plunder. The gunmen overwhelmed a service station attendant and two security guards. The victims were tied up and put in the lubrication pit of the service station. The crime happened at 3:30 a.m. Saturday. The technique appears to be a new one and suggests that the raiders had knowledge of the community. A local security guard who responded to the crime suffered a blow to his head with an iron bar but his motorcycle helmet sustained most of the blow. He was quoted on a community discussion list saying "Thank God I'm fine. My materials are lost [motorcycle and gun] and I achieved at least a little calm that the crooks did not do more damage and we have no one dead. I will continue working for the safety of my people and hope to God this will help that the organization of our people is achieved." |
He is Andrey
Corrales, and he is being praised for his bravery. When he
arrived he tangled with two of the criminals but was overwhelmed when
others appeared. The raiders pistol whipped another man, a guard at the El Colono hardware store, and he required hospital care. The local Importadora Monge store was burglarized. Community residents are criticizing the lack of response by the Fuerza Pública. There are stations in Tilarán and La Fortuna. The Nuevo Arenal station has been closed because it is in disrepair. Residents say they are collecting money to repair the structure with the hope that police again will be stationed there. Nuevo Arenal is on the northeast side of the lake of the same name. Like other small communities it is vulnerable to a heavily armed group of crooks. Community members are hoping that some security cameras will give clues to the identity of the raiders. |
| Slide from
canyon wall partly blocks Río Sarapiquí By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Some 5,000 cubic meters of rock and soil slid from a canyon wall and into the Río Sarapiquí Thursday, but the nation's emergency commission said that the river was not blocked completely. Had the river been blocked, a large quantity of water would have backed up behind the slide and threatened locations downstream with an unexpected breakthrough. The Comisión Nacional de Prevención de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias said it was continuing to monitor the slide area, which is near Ujarrás. The river there flows through a tree-covered canyon with steep sides. The emergency commission said that the slide covered about 100 meters, more than 300 feet, of the river. Geologists did a flyover to study the location. The committee said that the nearest community downstream was La Virgen de Sarapiquí about 20 kilometers from the slide location. That's about 12.5 miles. The committee noted that there are 16 monitoring stations along the river. As a result of the slide, the downstream portion of the river will be muddy as the river carries away much of the material. The commission said that recreational activities on the river should be avoided. They cited rafting, and fishing among others. There are about 6,539 cubic yards in 5,000 cubic meters. |
 Comisión Nacional de
Prevención
de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias photo This
is where the wall of the river canyon collapsed.
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| Wacky Islamic State rumor shows up as an online news story
here |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
An online newspaper with close ties to the political party of President Luis Guillermo Solís uncritically reported Friday that the United States, Britain and Israel conspired to create the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. This is one of those Internet rumors that has been making the rounds for the last month. The newspaper, Informa-Tico, attributed these startling revelations to Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency leaker who now is in Russia. The news article drew two comments from readers who seem to have thought the story was true. |
The Internet is
full of reports about how this rumor had its roots in a
Tehran Times article earlier this year that also said that Abu
Bakr
al-Baghdadi, the reclusive leader of the Islamic State, was really a
Jewish guy named Simon Elliot who was working for the Israeli security
service. In fact, some Internet sources claim that former secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Central Intelligence Agency created the Al- Qaeda offshoot that has swept brutally across Iraq. Of course, the Mideast is so chaotic that there is plenty of room for bizarre rumors. The surprise is that an established political outlet in San Francisco de Dos Rios would uncritically publish such an article when there is plenty of real evidence on the Internet that the tale is a fake. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Aug. 25, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 167 | |||||
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| President downgraded tourism industry with new decree,
chambers say |
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By
Michael Krumholtz
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff Tourism leaders continue to clash with government officials over public policy decisions. The head of Costa Rica's tourism chamber says he is disappointed in President Luis Guillermo Solís' approval of a proposal that includes the category of tourism under the economic ministry. “The president's reaction disappoints us and we hope that this is not one of the things that ends up hindering the tourism industry's development,” said Pablo Heriberto Abarca, president of the Cámara Nacional de Turismo. “There's an urgent need for the implementation of public policy that oversees the growth of this industry.” Abarca said this shift shows that the government has thrown tourism into the background, ignoring its substantial contribution to Costa Rica's economy. Now under the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Comercio, the tourism sector essentially loses its autonomy and becomes a sub sector of the economy, Abarca said. Numbers from the chamber show that tourism accounts for 500,000 jobs across the country and that 20 percent of Costa Rica's exports every year come directly from tourist operations. Abarca said such a sizable contribution to the country's stability deserves to stand independently. |
“When a sector
reports data of 2 million annual visitors and the
creation of more than $2 billion, that means its a totally revitalizing
activity,” Abarca said. “We inconveniently believe the principal driver
of Costa Rica's economy should be treated this way.” A chamber-wide analysis of tourism's addition to the economic ministry has expressed worries that economists and politicians who design plans, programs, and policies for the industry will not be as effective as tourism leaders because their focus is dispersed into other areas. Abarca and the chamber leaders say they worry that the tourism industry's future policy makers know very little about how the sector operates. Abarca called on President Solís to make future decisions that will best promote the industry's boom. “I am making a respectful but vehement call that you, as the government's leader, address the tourism sector and reassure, as you yourself have reiterated, support for the industry and allow its growth,” Abarca said. The Cámera de Hotels also said in a release that it was unhappy that tourism was listed as an economic sub-sector instead of sector. The hotel chamber cited a presidential decree Wednesday that basically placed the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo under the economics ministry. The statement urged the government to correct what the chamber called a grave error. |
Here's reasonable medical care
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth
news page
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Aug. 25, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 167 | |||||||
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| Man said to be reporter freed by al-Qaida affiliate in Syria By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Islamic rebels in Syria have freed an American journalist they have held since 2012, just days after another American reporter was beheaded. Kidnappers turned over Peter Theo Curtis to a United Nations representative Sunday, although the circumstances of his release were not immediately known. He was believed to be held by the al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaida affiliate in Syria. In a video that surfaced during his captivity, Curtis said he was a journalist from Boston, Massachusetts, and was being well cared for. The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists said that Curtis was among about 20 journalists believed to be missing in Syria. In a statement, the White House said President Obama "shares in the joy and relief that we all feel now that Theo is out of Syria and safe. But we continue to hold in our thoughts and prayers the Americans who remain in captivity in Syria, and we will continue to use all of the tools at our disposal to see that the remaining American hostages are freed." U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry praised the release of Curtis and said the United States is using its widespread diplomatic, military and intelligence contacts to free other Americans held hostage in Syria. He said he is relieved to know that Curtis is coming home after being held by Jabhat Al-Nusra. In a statement released by the U.S. State Department, Curtis's family expressed gratitude to the U.S. and Qatar governments and others who helped secure his release. "My heart is full at the extraordinary, dedicated, incredible people, too many to name individually, who have become my friends and have tirelessly helped us over these many months," said Curtis' mother, Nancy Curtis, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Meanwhile, Britain said it is close to identifying a man, thought to be British, as the Islamic State fighter who beheaded American journalist James Foley as a protest against U.S. airstrikes against the militants in Iraq. The British ambassador to the United States, Peter Westmacott, told the CNN television news network that Britain is using sophisticated technologies and voice identification to track down the hooded killer shown in a video standing next to Foley before decapitating him. The Sunday Times newspaper reported British intelligence agencies have identified the jihadist, but its sources did not divulge his name. Lawmakers express concern over situation in Mideast By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. Congress is in recess and members are scattered across the country in their home districts. But a number of congressional leaders appeared on Sunday talk shows to voice alarm about the threat posed by the Islamic State militant group in the wake of the brutal murder of American journalist James Foley. The Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Michael McCaul, said that the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, presents the greatest threat the world has seen since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks of 2001. "This has been festering for the past year, and now it is culminating with the killing and beheading of an American journalist, which I think is a turning point for the American people," McCaul said on ABC's This Week. "It has sort of opened their eyes to what ISIS really is." The Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers, agreed. Rogers told NBC’s Meet the Press that some fighters from Europe and the United States who have gone to the Middle East to join the terrorist network could travel easily back to the West. “They are one plane ticket away from U.S. shores and that’s why we’re so concerned about it," he said. Retired U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen agreed on the seriousness of the threat, and said the United States needs to take a regional approach, working with its allies. “It's going to require a comprehensive approach," Allen said on This Week. "It's got to be more than simple pinpoint attacks on key ISIS locations that are just security locations in and around dams.” President Obama has tried to limit the new military campaign in Iraq to protecting civilians under dire threat and American diplomats. But he also said America will be relentless and do whatever it takes to protect U.S. citizens. Members of Congress reacted with strong emotions to the execution of James Foley, but some have cautioned that the U.S. should not be provoked into sending combat troops back into Iraq. A Democratic congresswoman, Donna Edwards, said Congress needs to debate any military escalation when members return in September. "But we need to have the debate. I think that is really important," she said. "I don't think the president can continue beyond the War Powers authorization without an authorization from Congress." Analysts say the president will likely weigh the consequences of expanding U.S. military action against the extremist group in the coming days. Quake in Napa, California, brings emergency declaration By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for portions of the state, following the biggest earthquake to shake the San Francisco Bay area in 25 years. The 6.0 magnitude quake struck in the middle of the night Sunday, jolting people out of bed and knocking merchandise off store shelves. More than 100 people were reported injured. The quake was centered between San Francisco and Sacramento. Most of the damage is in and around the town of Napa, in northern California's picturesque wine-making region. A number of buildings were damaged and several burned to the ground when gas pipes were split. Bricks, debris and crushed cars littered the streets, and power, water and gas lines were cut following the temblor. Napa Fire Department Operations Chief John Callanan said the city has exhausted its resources extinguishing six fires, transporting injured residents, searching homes for anyone who might be trapped, and answering calls about gas leaks, water main breaks and downed power lines. The city reported the area has sustained breaks in 50 gas lines and leaks in 30 water mains. Queen of the Valley hospital in Napa said at least 80 people sought treatment for minor injuries following the quake. The quake's epicenter was 80 kilometers southwest of Sacramento, and numerous small aftershocks have occurred in the Napa wine country, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It said up to 70 aftershocks are expected during the next week. The last earthquake of this size to strike the region was the 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake, which struck on Oct. 17, 1989. It lasted just seconds, but was destructive: 63 people were killed, nearly 3,800 were injured, and more than 28,000 homes and businesses were damaged. The Loma Prieta earthquake caused $6 billion in damages. The upper deck of a section of Oakland’s Interstate 880 collapsed, crushing cars and people on the lanes below. A section of the San Francisco Bay Bridge was also damaged. There were also more than 62,000 baseball fans at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park for the third game of the 1989 World Series. They were shaken but unharmed by the quake. The cities of Santa Cruz and Watsonville, California, and the San Francisco Bay area were especially hard hit. Obama seeks federal review of giving cops military gear By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
President Barack Obama, responding to days of racial violence in Ferguson, Missouri has ordered a review of the government practice of providing military hardware to state and local police. Senior administration officials, speaking Saturday, said the White House will review whether the government should continue providing such equipment, and how some weapons, including automatic rifles and mine-resistant vehicles, are deployed by local agencies. Photos and video footage of police in armored vehicles wielding military equipment while facing Ferguson protesters have alarmed many U.S. citizens and some lawmakers. The protests erupted Aug. 9, after an unarmed black teenager was shot and killed by a white police officer during a confrontation. Days of rioting ensued. Officials say the president wants to know whether federal grants allowing such hardware transfers are appropriate, and whether local police are properly trained with the equipment. They also said the review, first mentioned by the president on Monday, will take place in close coordination with the U.S. Congress. The push to upgrade state and local police capabilities came in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington. In his comments, Obama said he wanted to know that such military hardware was actually needed. He also said he wanted to ensure that the mandates of American police agencies and the U.S. military do not become blurred. Demographic change blamed for tensions in Ferguson By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
After nights of relative calm in the Missouri suburb of Ferguson, where a white policeman fatally shot an unarmed black teenager nearly two weeks ago, it appears tensions between protesters and the police are waning. Friday, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon ordered the state National Guard to withdraw, and there have been no reports of clashes during daily demonstrations sparked by the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown. But the apparent easing of tensions hasn’t silenced debate about the deep racial divide that Brown's death thrust into the international spotlight. To some observers, the incident and surrounding controversy over the so-called militarization of Ferguson's police department and its heavy-handed tactics towards African-Americans, come as no surprise. Population shifts in American communities over the past two decades created the kind of smoldering racial tensions that erupted in Missouri, said Sam Fulwood III, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. "What had been going on in Ferguson as well as in many, many, many other communities all across the country is demographic change, which has been uneven and has been perceived, particularly by people of color in those communities as disadvantageous to them," Fulwood said during a radio appearance. "That has bred a long sense of grievance and frustration and anger that is often most exhibited by interactions between youth and police." And so as Ferguson, a community of 21,000, slowly morphed from majority white to majority black, those who held power remain the same. "In 1980, 80 percent of the population in Ferguson was white. In 2010, the population was 85 percent black. So you can see the dramatic changing," Fulwood said. As Ferguson became ever more populated by communities of color, it also became poorer because, Fulwood said, it lost its economic base. Suburbanization in the United States has historically been defined by whites moving from cities and their poor, minority communities, taking their economic dominance with them, so-called white flight. But that narrative no longer applies. "We've seen a reversal across the country in recent years across the country, not just in Ferguson in St. Louis of the suburbs becoming increasing black and minority populations, communities of color. But they've become poorer," Fulwood said. And that trend plays out in local politics, leading to situations like Ferguson, where the vast majority of elected officials are white in the majority black community, argues Anthony E. Cook, a law professor at Georgetown University, who also appeared on Encounter. "When you look at the practices with regard to disenfranchisement, you see common practices throughout the nation," he said. "A lot of the local elections are not held during election year in November, they are held in April, in off months when voter turnout is going to be very difficult anyway." Cook said voter turnout in the past few elections in Ferguson has been as low as 2 to 5 percent, and those kinds of electoral barriers show that racism, while not enshrined into American law, has nonetheless become institutionalized. "You're not using race-specific classifications or strategies...no one may be having laws that say no blacks can vote or no blacks can be employed on the school board, but yet the very process by which you have structured the voting system and the means of selecting officers results in disproportionate numbers of blacks being excluded from the process, and marginalized in that process," he said. From there, both Fulwood and Cook said it's not hard to connect the dots and see how a Ferguson shooting can happen. Out of the tragedy of Brown's killing, Cook said, there lies a rare opportunity for Americans "We have the possibility here of creating a multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-ideological bi-partisan approach to dealing with this problem. I see Libertarians that are upset with the militarization of the police force...I see Liberals that are upset that you've got a situation where black minority poor communities are being disproportionately impacted by this brutality," he said. "This may be an opportunity to raise that to a level of national discourse." |
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| A.M. Costa Rica's sixth news page |
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Granmama just
loved plants, too
There is nothing in the world like a little roadside vivaro. You can pass them in the blink of an eye. “Wait! Stop, go back.” That’s me, on the way to Liberia. In the
There is shade cloth over many of the plants. Others are soaking up rays like bathers at Playas del Coco. I have to run my hand over them. I need to feel the crispness of the leaves. Near the house (there is usually a house) a little girl watches me and smiles. She is used to having visitors but scoots back inside when her mother comes out to see who is here. “Buenos dias,” my best Spanish. “Me gusta este flor.” And I do like the shrub. Its flowers are all yellows and orange and would look perfect near the lower door. “¿Cuánto?” The shrub is too good to pass up so we load it in the car. “Muchas gracias,” and I smile at the little girl who smiles back shyly. That is the way of the roadside vivaro. It’s just a little family business that sprang up because grandma wouldn’t stop growing flowers. We have a wonderful corner vivaro in Nuevo Arenal. A small house on a corner right in town. You could drive by a hundred times and not know that someone had a business there, but go through the gate, call out “Hola” and the proprietor appears. She has the face of a happy grandmother with plenty of smile lines around her eyes. She has been growing things for years, and many of her plants are unusual. She will chat you up in Spanish and not care that you don’t understand. It’s her way with visitors. The plants cover the ground next to the path. They laden the shelves and hang from hooks. Cacti have their own special place. Prices are so low you feel as if you are stealing. Most of the regulars never ask for change. There are bigger vivaros, of course. I love La Garita and the attendant smaller vivaros that spill over and down the surrounding streets. But there is nothing like grandma’s vivaro, tucked away around the corner or just down the road. Plant for Today
If you would like to suggest a topic for this column, simply send a letter to the editor. And, for more garden tips, visit the Arenal Gardeners Web site. |
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| From Page 7: Steel wire firm will employe 200 in Orotina By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A firm based in Belgium has opened a new plant in La Ceiba de Orotina to manufacture steel fibers for concrete. The firm is Bekaert, operating here as Bekaert Costa Rica S.A. The company will export its product, which is under the Dramix trademark to the rest of Latin America. Government officials said they were happy to see investment going to a location outside the metro area. The facility is 10,200 square meters, nearly 110,000 square feet, and includes the ArcelorMittal operation that was purchased by Bekaert. Some 200 people will work at the location. The expansion included participation by ArcelorMittal, and the facility was renamed BIA Alambres Costa Rica S.A. The objective is to better serve customers from various sectors in the region with a broader steel wire product portfolio in the construction, mining, oil & gas, agricultural, fencing and industrial markets, said Bekaert. The firm employes about 8,000 persons in Latin America and 27,000 worldwide. |
