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A.M.
Costa Rica
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Published Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016, in Vol. 17, No. 172
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San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 172
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Judiciary
on hot seat over boy’s murder
By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
The murder of an 8 year old over the weekend in Guácimo is generating criticism against the judiciary. The man accused of beheading the boy is the subject of two warrants that never had been executed. A 2014 case even was based on the allegation of sexually abusing a boy. Dead was Kendall Martínez. The suspect is Jordi Campos Mendoza. Prosecutors in the area have confirmed that they asked for and received a capture order for the man and turned it over to judicial agents. The dead boy had been abused sexually, investigators said at the time of arrest. This is not an unusual situation. Each day the Fuerza Pública reports on the arrests the previous day of persons wanted by the courts. Usually these individuals are picked up in the arbitrary searches in which the police engage. In most cases the allegations are not as serious as sexual abuse. But there are armed robbers and others convicted or suspects of violent crimes. There also is reluctance in some cases to find suspects. In one case, an A.M. Costa Rica employee was confronted by a naked man in a city park one evening. The man was arrested, and police found a rope and a hunting knife in his backpack. When the female employee checked later on the progress of the case, court officials said they could not find the man and suggested that the employee find him to help serve the appropriate papers. She declined. The lesser the crime, the more unlikely is the service of legal papers. The country’s new civil collection law is failing because there is a bottleneck in advising debtors of court dates, according to some lawyers. Adding to the problem is the custom of releasing many persons convicted of a crime because the case has to be reviewed by a higher court. That means the individuals are free for perhaps as long as a year. The Judicial Investigating Organization periodically releases mug shots of persons who are being sought. In many cases these are persons already convicted who did not show up after the conviction was upheld. In the case of the dead boy, the suspect Campos, will not be on the streets. He was remanded for six months of preventative detention. Pococí prison gets a dog detail By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
Drug detection is going to the dogs in the Pococí prison. The institution is now the second in the country to have a dog unit to catch persons trying to bring in drugs. The United States government provided $13,000 worth of construction material and also six dogs that officials said were worth $6,000 each. Because prisoners have close contact with visitors, there is a continual flow of drugs, alcohol, cell telephones and other banned items into the prisons. Prison police make periodic sweeps and find many prohibited items and weapons. Sometimes staffers are detained on allegations that they provided contraband to prisoners.
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Colorado S.A 2016 and may not be reproduced anywhere
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A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 172
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| Public
employees gearing up for a major protest over salaries
Thursday |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Public employees are calling a general strike Thursday, but the event really is a protest gathering outside the legislature building on Avenida Primera. There is a last-ditch effort to halt the gathering this morning when some union leaders meet with legislators. At issue is a bill, No. 12.506, that would change the way salaries are computed. The unions have said in press statements that they are well aware of the country’s deficit but they also say they are not responsible. They fear that the bill will be passed in the legislature this week. The protest seems to have the support of most of the country’s public employee unions. The major ones are are the Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos y Privados, Unión Nacional de Empleados de la Caja y la Seguridad Social, Bloque Unitario Sindical, the Union Medica Nacional and the Asociación Nacional de Educadores. The gathering is supposed to be between 10 a.m. and noon Thursday. At least 20 unions are involved. Lawmakers usually meet in general session at 2 p.m. The government is trying to standardize public employee salaries and eliminate lavish bonuses, called pluses. The Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos said that |
 The word huelga means
strike in Spanish.
these salaries are the result of long years of negotiating and fighting. There also is an anti-capitalist tone in which the protesters are opposing what they call neo-liberalism. Union leaders will be meeting today with Marta Arauz of the Partido Liberación Nacional who is one of the supporters of the bill in the legislature. They said they would advise her of the consequences of passage. Although streets will not be blocked all over the Central Valley Thursday, if the strike takes place, residents probably will not be able to send their children to public school and the public health system will be on emergency mode. |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page |
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San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 172
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| Bad
water threatens many in Africa, Asia and Latin America, WHO
says |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
More than 300 million people in Asia, Africa and Latin America are at risk of life-threatening diseases like cholera and typhoid because of the increasing pollution of water in rivers and lakes, the U.N. Environment Program said Tuesday. Between 1990 and 2010, pollution caused by viruses, bacteria and other micro-organisms, and long-lasting toxic pollutants like fertilizer or petrol, increased in more than half of rivers across the three continents, while salinity levels rose in nearly a third, the program said in a report. Population growth, expansion of agriculture and an increased amount of raw sewage released into rivers and lakes were among the main reasons behind the increase of surface water pollution, putting 323 million people at risk of infection, the agency said. "The water quality problem at a global scale and the number of people affected by bad water quality are much more severe than we expected," Dietrich Borchardt, lead author of the report, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. However, a significant number of rivers remain in good condition and need to be protected, he said. About a quarter of rivers in Latin America, 10 percent to 25 percent in Africa and up to 50 percent in Asia were affected by severe pathogen pollution, largely caused by discharging untreated wastewater into rivers and lakes, the report said. |
About 3.4
million people die each year from diseases or conditions
such as cholera, typhoid, polio or diarrhea, which are
associated with pathogens in water, the U.N. Environment
Program said. It's estimated that up to 164 million people in Africa, 134 million in Asia and 25 million in Latin America were at risk of infection from the diseases. It said building more sewers was not enough to prevent infections and deaths, adding that the solution was to treat wastewater. Organic pollution, which can cause water to be completely starved of oxygen, affects one of every seven kilometers of rivers (0.6 mile of every 4.4 miles) in Latin America, Africa and Asia, threatening freshwater fisheries, the U.N. Environment Program said. Severe and moderate salinity levels, caused by the disposal of salty water from mines, irrigation systems and homes, affect one in 10 rivers on the three continents, making it harder for poor farmers to irrigate their crops, it said. The trend of worsening water pollution was critical, Borchardt said. "It is much more expensive to clean up surface water from severe pollution than to implement proper management, which includes prevention of pollution," he said. "Tools are available but the challenge is to implement them." |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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A.M. Costa Rica's Fifth news page |
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San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 172
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in contests for the U.S. Senate By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
U.S. Sens. John McCain and Marco Rubio cleared their first hurdles on the way to being elected to new terms by winning the Republican primaries in their respective states on Tuesday. The 80-year-old McCain is trying to earn a sixth term representing the southwestern state of Arizona. He beat a tea party activist in the primary and moves on to face Democratic Rep. Ann Kilpatrick in the November general election. Rubio, who lost his bid to represent Republicans in the race for U.S. president, will also go up against a Democratic congressman after defeating millionaire homebuilder Carlos Beruff in the Florida primary. Rubio's November opponent is Rep. Patrick Murphy. In Florida, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz won her primary a month after resigning as chair of the Democratic National Committee. The vote for members of Congress takes place at the same time as the contest for president on Nov. 8. Up for election are one-third of the Senate's 100 seats and all 435 seats in the House of Representatives. Republicans currently hold majorities in both chambers. Obama frees 111 more inmates facing lengthy prison terms By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
U.S. President Barack Obama cut short the sentences of 111 federal inmates Tuesday in another round of commutations for those convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. The early release is part of Obama's effort to correct what he views as unreasonably long mandatory minimum sentences. His push to lessen the burden on nonviolent drug offenders reflects his long-stated view that the nation should remedy the consequences of decades of onerous sentencing rules that have put tens of thousands of Americans behind bars for far too long. Among those granted shorter sentences Tuesday were people convicted of drug offenses for trafficking cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine. But sixteen of the commutations included firearms offenses. White House Counsel Neil Eggleston said Obama has granted 673 commutations, more than the previous 10 presidents combined. More than one-third of the recipients were serving life sentences. "We must remember that these are individuals, sons, daughters, parents and, in many cases, grandparents, who have taken steps toward rehabilitation and who have earned their second chance," Eggleston said. "They are individuals who received unduly harsh sentences under outdated laws for committing largely nonviolent drug crimes.'' Obama has long called for phasing out strict sentences for drug offenses, arguing that they lead to excessive punishment and incarceration rates unseen in other developed countries. With presidential support, the Justice Department in recent years has directed prosecutors to rein in the use of harsh mandatory minimums. Presidents tend to use their powers to commute sentences or issue pardons more frequently near the end of their terms of office. Administration officials say the rapid pace will continue before Obama leaves the White House in January 2017. Donald Trump plans to meet Mexico’s president today By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump is meeting today with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, ahead of a planned speech explaining the Republican presidential candidate's immigration policies. Throughout his run for president, Trump has repeatedly touted his proposal to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexican border with the Mexican government picking up the cost. Peña Nieto has been among the Mexican officials who say there is no way that will happen. Peña Nieto's office said on Twitter the Mexican leader has invited both Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for talks about the relationship between the neighboring countries. There was no word from the Clinton campaign as to whether she planned to accept the offer as well. Trump's immigration speech is taking place in the southwestern border state of Arizona, which has for years been a focal point of U.S. efforts to curb the stream of illegal immigrants into the country. In recent days, Trump has offered mixed signals on whether he still supports his original call to create a deportation force to send the 11 million undocumented immigrants already living in the United States back to their home countries. "From day one I said that I was going to build a great wall on the southern border, and much more. Stop illegal immigration," Trump wrote on his Twitter account Tuesday, "Watch Wednesday!" Trump's staunch, nationalist anti-immigration stance won him wide support in the state-by-state Republican presidential primaries, helping him surge past seasoned politicians to the Republican nomination in his first contest for elected office. But national surveys less than three months before the Nov. 8 election against Mrs. Clinton show many voters in the broader electorate are opposed to mass deportation of families, many of whom have been living in the country for years. In several recent interviews, Trump, a brash real estate mogul and one-time television reality show host, has said he wants to quickly deport any undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of crimes, much as the U.S. government already does. He says he is opposed to granting the remaining undocumented immigrants who have not committed crimes a path to U.S. citizenship and said they have to pay taxes they owe the government. But he has left it unclear exactly how he wants to deal with this large group of immigrants, while still voicing support for construction of the border wall. His vice presidential running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, told an interviewer Sunday that Trump is like "a CEO at work," a corporate chieftain consulting with people and considering his options. "You see someone who is engaging the American people, listening to the American people," Pence said. "He is hearing from all sides." Mrs. Clinton favors border protection, but also comprehensive immigration reform, with a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the country. But such legislation has been stalled in Congress, with Republican opponents in the House of Representatives blocking a plan passed by the Senate and supported by President Barack Obama. Mrs. Clinton, a former U.S. secretary of state seeking to become the first female U.S. president, holds a five-percentage-point lead over Trump in the latest compilation of national polling by the realclearpolitics.com political web site. Tuesday's weekly NBC News/Survey Monkey tracking poll said she is ahead by a 48-to-42 percent margin, down from an eight-point edge a week ago. Numerous U.S. political analysts are predicting she will become the country's 45th president when Obama leaves office in January, but also say that unforeseen world events or blunders by either candidate in three scheduled Trump-Clinton debates in September and October could alter the track of the campaign. Congressional Democrats fear hackers working with GOP By the A.M. Costa Rica
wire services
Democrats in Congress, including the party's Senate leader, Harry Reid, have asked the FBI to investigate concerns that the Russian government may be attempting to undermine the U.S. presidential election through cyberattacks that could include tampering with voting results. "The prospect of a hostile government actively seeking to undermine our free and fair elections represents one of the gravest threats to our democracy since the Cold War," Reid said in a letter to FBI Director James Comey. Reid's letter, dated Saturday, was obtained by The New York Times and shared on its Web site Monday. It was followed Tuesday by a letter from four Democrats asking Comey to assess whether campaign officials working for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump may be colluding with Russian interests to carry out recent hacks against the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in order to interfere with the U.S. presidential election. That letter was signed by Reps. Elijah Cummings, John Conyers, Elliot Engel and Bennie Thompson, each of whom serves as the top Democrat on a different congressional committee. Republicans control both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Comey, speaking at a cybersecurity conference Tuesday, declined to give details about what the FBI was probing in connection with the political hacking but indicated the agency was closely watching what foreign countries are doing. "We take very seriously any effort by any actor, . . . especially nation states, that moves beyond the collection of information . . . and offers the prospect of an effort to influence the conduct of affairs in our country, whether that is an election or something else," he said. The two letters followed a spate of hacking attacks targeting U.S. political databases, including some that officials and cybersecurity experts have blamed on hackers working for the Russian government. Kremlin officials have denied that. The FBI examined breaches in voter registration databases in Illinois and Arizona but did not specify who might have been behind them. Reid said that the threat of Russian government tampering in the election was "more extensive than widely known and may include the intent to falsify official election results." He also voiced concerns about possible Russian government efforts to manipulate Trump's campaign ahead of the Nov. 8 election, and to use it as a vehicle to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin. U.S. Still hopes to complete trade agreement with Europe By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
The United States says it still hopes to complete a massive trade pact with the European Union by the end of 2016, even after French President Francois Hollande said Tuesday that negotiations had stalled. The White House said President Barack Obama was sending his top trade official, Michael Froman, to Europe in September to renew talks aimed at creating the world's largest free-trade zone. The United States is the world's single biggest economy, but collectively, the 28-nation EU is even bigger. "Our position on this has not changed," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. "We are continuing to work toward a goal of completing those negotiations before the end of the year," just weeks before Obama leaves office in January. Hollande said, "France prefers to look things in the face. These discussions cannot result in an agreement by the end of the year. The negotiations have bogged down, the positions have not been respected, the imbalance is obvious." French trade chief Matthias Fekl accused Washington of offering just crumbs in the negotiations. He said that next month Paris would ask the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, to halt the talks with the U.S. Sunday, German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said the negotiations "have de facto failed, even though nobody is really admitting it." However, the commission said Monday that while the talks are entering a crucial stage, it still wanted to complete a deal by late in the year. The trade talks started in 2013 but now are facing headwinds in the United States, France and Germany, where opposition to international trade deals has emerged as all three countries head to national elections. Iranian who studied in U.S. finally released from prison By the A.M. Costa Rica
wire services
Iranian authorities have released after five years a man jailed while home from his graduate studies in Texas, state media reported Tuesday. The report by the government-owned IRAN daily quoted Saeed Khalili, the lawyer for Omid Kokabee, as saying the country's judiciary will allow Kokabee to enjoy conditional freedom for the rest of his 10-year sentence. Khalili said Kokabee was released from jail in April to undergo medical treatment on his kidneys and will not return to prison. Kokabee, an Iranian citizen, had been studying optics in the physics department at the University of Texas. He was arrested in February 2011 and convicted of having relations with a hostile country and receiving illegitimate funds. Though Iran and the United States have no diplomatic relations, many Iranian students apply to study in the U.S. every year. Swimmer Lochte is mum on possible return to Brazil By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services
U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte isn't saying whether he'll return to Brazil to face a charge of filing a false police report over a gas station encounter during the Olympics. Lochte tells ABC's "Good Morning America" his legal team is dealing with the situation, adding “we're just trying to get this over with.” Despite his current woes, Lochte was named Tuesday as one of the contestants on the upcoming edition of ABC's “Dancing with the Stars.” Lochte admits he lied about having a gun held to his head at a Rio de Janeiro gas station, where he and three other American swimmers had stopped to use a restroom. Lochte says he has offered to reimburse fellow swimmer James Feigen for a nearly $11,000 fine Feigen paid to resolve legal issues and leave the country. Antibiotic resistance threatens cures for three sex infections By the A.M. Costa Rica
wire services
The World Health Organization warns of a growing threat of antibiotic resistance to three common sexually transmitted infections. The agency is issuing updated guidelines on treatments nations should follow to reduce their spread and improve sexual and reproductive health. Chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis are major public health problems. The World Health Organization estimates the three sexually-transmitted diseases together infect more than 200 million people globally every year. Chlamidya, which can cause infertility in both men and women, infects 131 million people. World Health said those who come down with this common bacterial infection frequently also have gonorrhea. And, that poses a particular problem because antibiotic resistance is most widespread and growing most rapidly in the treatment of gonorrhea. Medical officer Teodora Wi, in the agency’s department of reproductive health and research, says guidelines issued in 2003 recommended the antibiotic quinolones for the treatment of gonorrhea. She says the new guidelines advise against using this drug. “In most countries in Africa, they still continue to use quinolones because it is a WHO recommendation and we know that there is already very high resistance to this," said Wi. "So, that is why we need to update this and say quinolones should not be used anymore.” Wi says other safe, effective treatments are available. While a relatively small 5.6 million people are infected with syphilis, its potential impact can be devastating. Fetal death can result if a pregnant woman transmits syphilis to her fetus. In 2012, World Health reported that untreated syphilis infections in pregnant women caused an estimated 200,000 stillbirths and neonatal deaths. The new guidelines recommend a single dose of benzathine penicillin. Health officials say the injectable antibiotic is the most effective treatment for syphilis and cheaper than oral antibiotics. While the guidelines recommend safe, effective medical treatments for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis, the agency notes condoms remain one of the most effective methods of protection against sexually-transmitted infections when used correctly and consistently. |
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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 |
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| A.M. Costa Rica sixth news page |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Aug.
31, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 172
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Heavy rains take
toll on Interamericana By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Seasonal heavy rains Tuesday evening snarled traffic and caused flooding and slides. The Consejo Nacional de Vialidad said that the Interamericana Norte between San Ramón and Esparza had been closed due to a series of landslides. The highway agency said that the route would be closed into this morning. The series of slides started about 6:30 p.m, said the agency. The section known as Los Chorros and one called Alto de Cambronero were where the major slides took place. The road was blocked completely, said the agency. The agency said that machinery was brought in during the night to make an opening big enough for passenger cars and buses that had been trapped in the area. There also were reports of landslides on the highway to Puriscal. The rain hit just before evening rush hour and slowed traffic all over the Central Valley. Lawyers give final arguments in Brazil By
the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Lawyers at the impeachment trial of suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff wrapped up their final arguments early this morning, and are expected to take a short break before the Senate votes on whether to remove her from office. Ms. Rousseff is alleged to have illegally used money from state banks to cover deficits in the federal budget in an effort to boost her popularity heading into the 2014 presidential election. Ms. Rousseff, the country's first female president, denied any wrongdoing in the matter and accused her political opponents of using the trial as a way to overthrow her and undermine Brazil's democracy. "I know I will be judged, but my conscience is clear," she said during remarks to senators Monday. "I did not commit a crime." Lawyers from the pro-impeachment side, though argued that Ms. Rousseff's alleged corruption directly contributed to the economic issues Brazil has experienced over the past several years. "The world needs to know that we are not just voting about accounting issues," said Janaina Paschoal, the author of the impeachment request against Ms. Rousseff. "Impeachment is a constitutional remedy that we need to resort to when the situation gets particularly serious, and that is what has happened." Of the 81 senators, 54 must vote in favor of her impeachment for it to become permanent. Local media reports show that at least 52 senators have said they will vote to impeach Rousseff, while another 18 have said they will oppose the impeachment and another 11 are undecided. If removed, Ms. Rousseff will be replaced by her vice president, Michel Temer. |
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| From Page 7: U.S. home prices said to have risen modestly By the A.M. Costa
Rica wire services
U.S. home prices rose modestly in June, pushed up by strong sales and a limited supply of available properties. The Standard & Poor's CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, released Tuesday, increased 5.1 percent in June compared with a year ago. That's down from a 5.3 percent annual gain in May and is the slowest year-over-year pace since last August. Home values are still soaring in the Northwest, but have slowed to more sustainable rates elsewhere. In Northeastern cities such as New York and Washington, D.C., they are rising at roughly the rate of inflation, and in Boston, less than 5 percent. Still, nationwide prices are increasing more quickly than incomes as buyers compete for the dwindling supply of available homes. That could stifle sales in the coming months. Home prices in the Northwest continued to climb at a double-digit pace. They rose 12.6 percent in Portland, 11 percent in Seattle, and 9.2 percent in Denver. Those three cities have topped the list of price gains for the past five months. Cities in the Midwest were mixed. Home prices in Cleveland and Chicago rose 2.5 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively, while in Minneapolis they climbed 5.1 percent, the same as the nationwide pace. Southern cities saw stronger price gains. They rose 8.9 percent in Dallas, 7.9 percent in Tampa, and 5.8 percent in Atlanta. The 20-city price index plunged after the housing bubble started to burst in 2006, plummeting by more than a third before prices began to rise again in March 2012. In June, they were still 8.1 percent below their peak level. The Case-Shiller index covers roughly half of U.S. homes. The index measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The June figures are the latest available. |
