A.M. Costa Rica/Saray Ramírez Vindas It takes a lot of rain to drive a frog inside, but this little guy (gal?) was found perched atop a telephone antenna in Desamparados.

Home for unwanted
celebrates fifth year

Sunday is the fifth anniversary of the Tom and Norman Home in Guápiles.

The home is for unwanted adults, and financial support has been significant from the English-speaking community. The home is operated by the Angel of Love Foundation.

This year the event will begin at 9:30 a.m. with a pageant of golden agers. There will be entertainment and a golden age queen will be selected. The local grandmother who has been able to sell the most votes to benefit the home wins.

Later lunch will be served and bingo games will be played.

As in past years, transportation will be provided from San José. A donation of 500 colons ($1.10) is requested. Visitors are encouraged to bring donations of food or cleaning products. The bus will leave from in front of the Catedral Metropolitana in front of Parque Central.

Reservations may be made at 763-2121 or 763-4611.

Organizers are quick to point out that the home receives no support from the Costa Rican government. Residents typically are elderly who have no pension or homes. Many were found on the streets.
 

Victim of robbery
dies at his hotel

A U.S. citizen died Sunday or Monday perhaps as a result of what investigators assume was a robbery or a beating.

The man, identified as Willard Eugene Dickens, died in his bed at a small hotel in north San José. Investigators believe he was brought there by a guard or an attendant at some other hotel or dance club Sunday night.

The man who brought him to the Hotel El Crucero said that Dickens had been beaten up and robbed.

An autopsy will attempt to determine if the man died of injuries or from some medical condition, perhaps induced by the beating.
 

Liberación candidate
starts own party

It’s official. Antonio Alvarez Desanti is leaving the Partido Liberación Nacional to run for president as a candidate of a new party.

Alvarez went on television last night to explain his motives. Liberación is poised to nominate Oscar Arias, the former president and Nobel Prize winner.

Alvarez, who was a candidate in 2001, is expected to capitalize on the wave of corruption investigations that involve a number of officials at government agencies and independent institutes.

His departure from Liberación resembles that of Ottón Solís who founded his Partido Acción Ciudadana and finished as a close third for president in 2002.  Solís got so many votes that he forced Rolando Araya of Liberación and current President Abel Pacheco of Unidad Social Cristiana into a runoff.

A U.S. grand jury has indicted 24 persons for their alleged roles in a Colombian-based money-laundering conspiracy that used Costa Rica as a key location for exchanging currency.

The ring smuggled cocaine and heroin from Colombia and Venezuela to the continental United States, Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles and Europe.  The ring also used a complex system known as the Black Market Peso Exchange to launder their illicit drug proceeds.

Drug money delivered to operatives in Miami, Fla., and Puerto Rico was introduced into the U.S. banking system and eventually ended up in specified bank accounts throughout the United States, Colombia, Costa Rica and China for ultimate payment to the Colombian owners of the money, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The customs enforcement agency coordinated the investigation. The agency gave no further information on the specifics of the ring’s operation in Costa Rica.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the leaders of the drug organization were Juan Isidro Toloza-Pena and his brother Juan Andres Toloza-Pena. There are 21 co-conspirators. To date, the investigation has resulted in the seizure of roughly 250 kilograms of cocaine, 22 kilograms of heroin, 12 domestic and international bank accounts, at least $900,000 in currency, and an assortment of weapons and vehicles used by the members of the ring.

As part of the conspiracy, the suspects also created and invested in allegedly legitimate businesses to conceal the nature and course of the money, Immigration and Custom Enforcement said.

In connection with the money-laundering charges, the agency said the U.S. government is seeking forfeiture of 14 properties in Colombia and 16 domestic and international bank accounts for a total of more than $4 million.

Penalties for the alleged narcotics offenses range from 10 years' to life imprisonment and fines of up to $4 million. Penalties for the money-laundering offense range from a fine of not more than $500,000 or twice the value of the property involved in the transaction, whichever is greater. The penalty also can include imprisonment for 20 years, ICE said.

Roberto G. Median, ICE Special Agent-in-Charge for Puerto Rico, said the agency's operation against the drug dealers "combined the best investigative techniques of U.S. and foreign law enforcement to dismantle a money-laundering organization whose reach spanned the globe."

The multi-agency undercover investigation resulted in 14 arrests Friday morning in Puerto Rico, Colombia, and St. Maarten, N.A. Five other individuals already had been arrested.

Martin P. Rice, a retired professor living in Puriscal, has produced "At Home In Costa Rica (Adventures in Living the Good Life)." The book discusses the four years Rice and his wife, Robin, have spent here.

The book is organized into a series of letters that Rice sent home to friends and family. These letters described the difficulties he and his wife encountered from their first few days in San José and the joy they eventually found living in Costa Rica. 

Rice said that during his career he was "constitutionally unable to be late" for anything. A typical Type-A personality, he thrived on order and punctuality. Heading towards retirement, however, he said he knew that he needed a change.

Hoping to stave off post retirement depression, Rice said he and his wife and their dog, Jessie moved down to Costa Rica. The Rices were determined to work their way into Costa Rican culture.  The plan was to keep their minds focused on local custom and culture, he said.

Hopefully, this attention would keep their minds off of depression, they hoped. Four successful years later, Rice published his letters to share his experience. 

Rice, his wife and a pack of dogs, bats and other animals now live on a farm in Puriscal. They have named their house "Aqui me quedo" or "Here I stand" and plan on spending the rest of their days in Costa Rica, he said. 

The bats, too, occupy an important part of the book. Mrs. Rice saved two injured bats which have now produced a familiy.

The Rices at home

Click to see more

"At Home In Costa Rica (Adventure in Living the Good Life)" is available at Xlibris.com and will soon be available at Amazon.com and Borders online.  The book is 295 pages and carries an $18.69 pricetag.

Rice earned a doctorate in Russian literature at Vanderbilt University after attending linguistic classes in Berlin and Moscow. He spent 25 years teaching linguistics at the University of Tennessee. 

He wrote one other book, an academic effort, "Valery Briusov and the rise of Russian symbolism." After his academic career, Rice began developing educational software, founding HyperGlot Software and globalenglish.com. Both companies are involved in language education.

Despite living in an area well west of San José, Rice is well-known to English-speakers because he maintains an online presence with various Internet groups. He set up a Web site especially for the book where some excerpts are available as well as additional information.

The developing corruption investigation in Costa Rica has prompted a death threat against the president.

Abel Pacheco said Tuesday that someone with a Costa Rican accent placed a call to the 911 emergency service from the United States. The caller said that he would kill Pacheco if former president Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Echeverría went to jail.

Pacheco dismissed the threat in an informal chat with reporters Tuesday. He said the Judicial Investigating Organization and police agencies in the United States were looking into the threat. He said he would take not additional security measures, and added that this is not the first threat he has received.

Rodríguez, who returned to Costa Rica Friday remains under house arrest.

In other developments Tuesday, Eliseo Vargas, a key figure in the inquiry held a marathon session with prosecutors, and he was believed to be telling all in exchange for a reduction of charges.

Vargas, a former party leader in the Asamblea Nacional, was the executive president of the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social, the nation’s social welfare, medical and pension agency. 

He is involved in a $9 million commission paid on a loan from the government of Finland for the purpose of buying medical equipment and supplies from that country. Also involved are former officials of Corporación 

Meanwhile, the government of Taiwan said that it had paid $400,000 to a foundation in Costa Rica to promote civil liberties and human development. That was reported from the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto. The ministry asked the ambassador of Taiwan to explain payments, and that nation’s government answered Tuesday.

The $400,000 is believed to have found its way into a corporation in Panamá controlled by former president Rodríguez.

Taiwan said it had no knowledge of a $1 million payment reported made by a private company. The government said that bank secrecy prevents it from tracking down the money.

Vargas would not be the first former official to provide detailed information to prosecutors. He is a member of the Partido Unidad Social Cristiana, as is Rodríguez. The former president appears to be under investigation for possible involvement in a series of kickbacks, including one generated by a contract to improve the nation’s cellular telephone service and another deal to bury utilities lines in San José.

In another corruption investigation, a judge has prohibited eight persons associated with the Instituto Nacional de Seguros from leaving the country, included is the former executive president Cristóbal Zawadzki. The investigation involves some $2 million that was sent overseas in 2001. The institute is the nation’s insurance monopoly. The judge’s action took place last week but was reported Tuesday.

Agents raided five locations and arrested four persons Tuesday. They said the individuals were suspects in a series of home robberies that have taken place in San José and the metropolitan area over the last six months.

Gangs would force their way into homes, tie up the residents there and then pillage the residence for 

During the raids agents for the Judicial Investigating Organization discovered a large quantity of household goods they think was part of the proceeds of the crimes. 

The raids took place in Desamparados, San Juan de Dios and Aserrí. Anyone who thinks he or she was  a victim can call 295-3305 to view the goods.

Such mishaps do not happen here often, but Monday night a train ran over a woman between Batán and Limón.

Just before midnight a train crew said it saw a woman prone on the tracks but could not stop in time. Officials do not know if the death was a 

The death took place in an area know as 26 Millas. The name of the woman was not known.

Costa Rica has limited train service for cargo on the Caribbean coast and a cargo line between Caldera on the Pacific and San José.