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San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, Oct. 19, 2006, Vol. 6, No. 208

Arias administration says general strike is not justified

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

There is no justification for the general strike that anti-free trade forces have planned for Monday and Tuesday, the Arias government said Wednesday.

In fact, the proposed general strike will cause great damage to the country, said Rodrigo Arias, the minister of the Presidencia. "It is disloyal to Costa Rica. To interrupt basic services causes great damage to the citizenry," he said.

Officials announced they have taken steps to eliminate the source of one rallying cry by the anti-treaty protesters. The Consejo de Gobierno and President Óscar Arias Sánchez approved three measures Wednesday that would prevent the production of firearms in Costa Rica.

Opponents of the treaty have claimed that if the Asamblea Legislativa ratified the pact, the way would be open for multinationals to set up arms fabricating plants here.

Arias said after the meeting with his consejo or cabinet that it was unlikely that he, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has pushed for years to curtail the international arms trade, would want to bring such plants to Costa Rica.

However, proponents of the general strike said they have received a favorable response from citizens on the issue of arms fabrication here, even though the idea may be a fabrication itself.

One measure approved as a decree Wednesday tells the Ministerio de Comercio Exterior to prevent arms plants from locating in the various free zones where foreign firms produce goods for export.

The second measure creates a commission to study the Costa Rican weapons laws with an eye towards passing an amendment to prevent arms manufacturer.

The third measure gives control to the Ministerio de Salud, the health authorities, for control of any plant that might manufacture arms. Previously the Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública was in charge.

The government also said that anyone who fails to report for a regular work shift on Monday or Tuesday would not be paid.

Rodrigo Arias said that the strike would cancel 89,000 medical appointments, postpone 1,160 surgeries, delay 279,000 lab exams and prevent the delivery of 307,000 prescriptions.

In addition, he said 900,000 school children would be affected. Teachers are expected to join the protest even though there is nothing in the free trade treaty that affects public education.

Arias noted that the ratification of the treaty is now in the hands of the assembly. Legislative leaders said Wednesday

One of the posters protesters will use Monday

that no more testimony would be taken at hearings on the document and that discussion now would be limited to lawmakers.

Opponents of the treaty are working to bring union dock workers from Limón and Moín into the strike. Union workers there want the government to promise that they will not put the docks out to bid for a private concession as happened on the Pacific at the Caldera docks. Workers have been engaged in job actions.

Union leaders, principally from the Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos y Privados, say they want agricultural producers to take a lead role in the general strike to show that the issues are far more than just employees of government monopolies who oppose the treaty.

They are seeking to get farmers to protest in San Carlos, San Isidro de El General, San Ramón and Limón. They also want to paralyze the entire educational system. The protest is being called the Primera Gran Jornada de Lucha contra el TLC, using the Spanish acronym.

Strikers are expected to occupy key highways and block traffic. In the past employees of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, the telecommunications monopoly, shut down the Internet. Utility workers could cut power and water supplies.

And those planning the general strike say that the one next Monday and Tuesday is just a start of a continual series of disruptions that will take place until the government rejects the free trade treaty.

One question mark is how many of the estimated 40,000 employees of the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social, the health and welfare agency, will join the protest. Union leaders there have struggled to show how the treaty might affect hospital and health workers with minimal success.

15 held on allegations they gave public land to relatives

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Investigators said they arrested 15 persons who used their government positions to award land to themselves, close relatives or accomplices.

The arrests came during dawn raids in Orotina, Paquera, Cóbano and Parrita.

The 14 men and one woman were employees of the Instituto de Desarrollo Agrario between 1993 and 1999 when the lands were distributed. The properties were supposed to go to the poor or those who would work the land.

Agents said that an inspection showed that a high percentage of the land was not being used. Instead it was being held for resale. The law prohibits transfer of such land for 15 years, but in some cases, fake papers were used to allow sales, agents said.

The law also requires that the appplicants meet certain requirements, and agents said that those who were arrested altered documents to show that those who recieved the land were eligible when they were not.

The investigation was delayed because much of the documentation for the agricultural development agency during that period had been destroyed. Agents say this was done on purpose.

The case is being handled by the Fiscalía Adjunta de Delitos Económicos, Corrupción and Tributarios of the Ministerio Público in addition to the Sección de Fraudes of the Judicial Investigating Oganization.

Investigators said that in-laws, brothers and other relatives of the public employees got the gifts of property. At least 65 separate cases are being investigated. The land area is some 689,108 square meters, agents said. That's about 170 acres.

The law prohibits public employees from giving land to themselves. In most cases the law is designed to provide a homesite or a small farm to poor persons in rural areas.
The investigation began in 2005 after news stories about the case appeared.

Judges are being asked to order the detained individuals not to leave the country. In some cases, prosecutors are seeking preventative detention.

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U.S. missionary gains his freedom in Haiti after being kidnapped Sunday
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services Parents of a U.S. missionary kidnapped in Haiti say he has been released after two days in captivity. The missionary, Pritchard Adams, had been kidnapped by four men as he left his Cap-Haitien church Sunday night. His parents confirmed he was freed late Tuesday. In a	telephone interview, they said the kidnappers had originally demanded at least $80,000 for his release, and then lowered the ransom to $5,000. They did not know whether the ransom was paid. Adams went to Haiti some 24 years ago, where he became the principal of a Christian school. He later moved to Cap-Haitien, where he opened a church, at first holding services in a World War II-era tent.

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