Fuerza Pública officers battled rock-throwers and dodged an occasional bullet at a confrontation between the poor and the middle class.

Eight suspects have been detained and policemen have been injured. Some policemen have been hospitalized.

The violence is in Alajuela where a wall was used to separate the middle-class subdivision of La Rotonda from the informal settlement of Erizo.

The wall was constructed to keep residents of the slums from visiting the subdivision. Monday the wall was destroyed, and fighting has raged since.

Residents of Erizo claim that the wall blocks a road to their living area. Subdivision dwellers say the wall blocks thieves and worse from the subdivision.

Violence flared several times Tuesday when police in riot control formation came at the rock-throwers. Police carried Plexiglas shields.

Officials said they found several casings from bullets in the area suggesting that someone was sniping at the police formations. 

Four of the arrests were made Tuesday afternoon when subdivision residents tried to erect a new wall.

The structure is steel-reinforced concrete, and it has been reduced to rubble, apparently by a piece of large construction equipment.
 

Press freedom index
goes up but rank dips

Reporters Without Borders just released its third annual worldwide press freedom index. The ranking for Costa Rica is lower than last year.

In 2002, when the first index was released, Costa Rica ranked 15th in the world with a score of 4.25. Last year, the country moved several places down to 24th, but the score actually improved to 3.8. The lower the score the better.

This year, however, Costa Rica took another drop in the rankings to 35th  and the score rose to 7.63.

The index is compiled using questionnaires filled out by journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activist. Some 167 countries were included in this years index. North Korea rated 167th with a score of 107.5. Cuba is 166.

From the documentation provided by the reporter group, Costa Rica seems to have been measured while a La Nación reporter still faced defamation charges for writing about a diplomat.

That case has since been resolved in favor of the reporter.

Banana growers face
dislocation in south

A lawyer for banana producers estimated a loss of $483 million in the southern zone.

The lawyer, Gonzalo Carrillo, was testifying before a legislative commission set up to study the result of a fraud by an international company.

The company, Noviliti, purchased the entire production of bananas in the southern zone and then did not pay the $14 million that was owed. That default triggered a long series of problems for banana growers, who also lost preferential rights to sell to Europe.

The 1994 deal was with the Corporación Bananera Nacional.

Carrillo said that the company has never paid a single coin from the deal that was made in 1994. As a result, banana farmers are in a bad way. Many have lost their land, the lawyer said.
 

New transport minister
named by Pacheco

Randall Quirós is the new minister of Obras Públicas y Transportes. He was named Tuesday by President Abel Pacheco to replace Ovidio Pacheco, who left Monday.

Quirós served as vice minister to the Presidencia.

Pacheco, the 14th high official to leave the administration, said he did so for health reasons. But he also was named Sunday in La Nación as associated with a predatory financing company in Turrialba. The firm charged 5 percent a month to the poor farmers and others.

"The Motorcycle Diaries" is based on the journals of Ernesto "Che" Guevera. Directed by Walter Salles, the film documents a journey by Guevara and his sidekick Alberto Granados across Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Peru. The first part of their journey is made on a 1939 Norton motorcycle that’s on its last legs. Their fuel for this journey is idealism. 

Gael Garica Bernal ("Y tu mama tambien") takes on the role of Guevera and does well. Though Rodrigo de la Serna as Alberto Granado is outstanding and steals the show. Granado is portrayed as a lusty character that punctuates the film with witty remarks and makes watching the film very enjoyable. Yelling matches of name-calling and several motorcycle crashes are the highlight of the first half. 

The film attempts to capture the atmosphere of Ernesto and Alberto's 1951-1952 odyssey from the original literary works and succeeds brilliantly. The cinematography of the film is breathtaking. It is important to note that the film is very much an artistic portrayal and is not intended to be controversial. 

There is a consciousness that Guevera is being portrayed in an ideological way. Guevera is shown as a man who has to be honest with everyone he meets, even if the truth hurts. At times the film seems to focus too much on the romanticized myth of Guevera. Costa Ricans who saw the film commented on the fact that it made them want to do something meaningful with their lives. 

"I don’t think it’s possible to make a bad film about Che Guevera." Said Rudy Chinchilla Valverde. 

Guevara was a revolutionary who fought for social justice, and his legend is an inspiration to thousands who languish under oppressive regimes. Yet beyond the myth is a complex and driven man capable of ruthlessness and hard line loyalty to an ideology that trampled on human rights. 

Adriano Rojas Acosta is a Costa Rican who has visited Cuba. He is interested in going to see the film and said he expects it to say how Guevera became a revolutionary and what his motives were. "I think that he fought for a good cause, but I am not such a fan of his because of the methods he used. He would be considered a terrorist today." 

The leper colony scenes in particular portray Ernesto as a Christ-like figure, in stark contrast to the naughty boy we see earlier. The travelers volunteer for three weeks at San Pablo, a leper colony deep in the Amazon where nuns enforce a

strict separation between patients and staff and refuse to feed anyone who does not attend Mass. 

Guevara, a medical student, rebels against the rules and refuses to attend Mass or wear rubber gloves when greeting patients. To show his solidarity with the lepers, he swims across a stretch of the Amazon to be with the patients on his 24th birthday. On this occasion, he gives his first political speech. 

"We believe, he said, "and after this trip even more firmly than before, that Latin America's division into illusory and uncertain nationalities is completely fictitious."

When Alberto goes to work in Venezuela, Ché returns to Buenos Aires, proclaiming himself a changed man. "I will be on the side of the people . . . . "

When the credit starts to role original photos from Guevera and Granado’s journey appear on the screen to give a certain amount of authenticity to the film. 

Cinemas in Costa Rica are showing the Motorcycle Diaries in Spanish. A.M Costa Rica staff are finding out if viewings can be arranged with English subtitles. 

MANAGA, Nicaragua —An observation mission by the Organization of American States will monitor Nicaragua's municipal elections, set for Nov. 7.

A spokesman for the U.S. mission to the hemispheric oganization said that the United States will provide up to $100,000 to the 30-person observation team, while Sweden has pledged to give $130,000.

The Nicaraguan Embassy in Washington said the elections will take place in about 150 municipalities in Nicaragua.

Meanwhile, OAS Permanent Council Chairman Aristides Royo of Panama said the council will continue to closely monitor developments in Nicaragua, as that may help "preserve the country's democratic institutions."

The OAS emergency visit to Nicaragua came in response to a request by Central American presidents after Nicaragua's Superior Council of Comptrollers announced it would suspend Bolaños's salary and seek to impeach him, charging that Bolaños had refused to submit information on the origin of funds for his 2001 election campaign. Bolaños says the charges stem from his own anti-corruption campaign against the country's top political leaders.

The OAS said the visit to Nicaragua was intended to support democratic institutions in the Central American nation.

The U.S. Treasury Department, in response to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's announcement that U.S. dollars will no longer be circulated in Cuba as of Nov. 8, has condemned Castro for attempting to "pool U.S. dollars for his own profit while "shaking down the Cuban people with a 10 percent penalty. 

In a press release issued Tuesday, Juan Carlos Zarate, the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crime, described Castro's decision as "an act of economic desperation and a clear signal that President George Bush's strengthened policies towards Cuba have hurt the Castro regime."

The decision announced late Monday means that Cubans wishing to spend the U.S. dollars they hold will have to exchange them for local "convertible" pesos, pegged to the dollar, with a 10 percent commission going to the Havana government. 

President Fidel Castro took part in the televised announcement, in the first public appearance for the 78-year-old Cuban leader since he fell and broke an arm and knee last week. 

However, some U.S.-based economists say it is simply an effort by Havana authorities to gather in some scarce hard currency. 

The fee, which will also be paid by foreign tourists in Cuba, will apply only to U.S. dollars, and Cuban officials encouraged Cubans living abroad to remit other currencies such as Swiss francs or Euros. 

Dollars have been in wide circulation in Cuba since 1993, when Castro legalized the U.S. currency following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the loss of subsidies to Cuba from Moscow and its allies. 

As part of a package of steps aimed at speeding a political transition in Cuba, the Bush administration in May cut remittances by Cuban-Americans in half, limited family visits to the island to once every three years, and slashed the amount of money they can spend there each day from $165 to just $50.