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| Costa Rica Expertise Ltd http://crexpertise.com E-mail info@crexpertise.com Tel:506-256-8585 Fax:506-256-7575 |
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How the candidates fared
U.S. says it wants continued
good relations with Nicaragua By the A.M. Costa Rica staff and wire
services
The United States said Tuesday it wants to have continued good relations with Nicaragua, where leftist former President Daniel Ortega appears headed for victory after Sunday's election. The State Department says the state of relations will depend on the platform of the new Managua government. Though some members of the Bush administration and the U.S. Congress had expressed concern about the prospect of a return to power for Ortega, the State Department is voicing hope for a continuation of good relations with Managua after the apparent victory by the leftist politician. The counting is not yet complete. State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said he was withholding a final judgment until certified election results are in and until U.S. officials have heard the report of international observers on the conduct of Sunday's vote. However, McCormack said the United States has made a commitment to Nicaragua through the U.S.-Central American free trade agreement and a U.S. Millennium Challenge aid project active in parts of Nicaragua under the political control of Ortega's Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional. McCormack expressed hope the relationship can go forward: "They have an interest in continuing that relationship. We've also worked on debt relief for them," he noted. "So we, the United States, have made clear that we want to have a good relationship with the Nicaraguan people and we've acted on that, we've shown that." McCormack said ultimately the platform of the incoming Nicaraguan government will determine the relationship. The United States had an antagonistic relationship with Ortega's Marxist government in the 1980s and backed Contra rebels in a proxy war against his Soviet-backed administration. Though Ortega says he has moderated his political views since then, some U.S. officials, including Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, have warned that a Sandinista return would scare off foreign investors and jeopardize Nicaragua's participation in the free trade agreement. Some congressional Republicans have urged economic action against Managua in the event of an Ortega win. The situation was made worse because Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, no friend of Washington, strongly backed Ortega. Spokesman McCormack said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had a telephone conversation Tuesday with former President Jimmy Carter, who is in Nicaragua to monitor the election and has said the relatively-minor problems noted were not severe enough to affect the outcome. Carter has met with Daniel Ortega and urged reconciliation between him and Washington. The U.S. State Department has been criticized for its strategy leading up to the vote Sunday. U.S. officials clearly support Eduardo Montealegre Rivas of the Alianza Liberal Nicaragüense at the expense of José Rizo Castellón of the Partido Liberal Constitucionalista. U.S. officials felt that Rizo was too closely tied to disgraced former president Arnoldo Alemán, who has been convicted of corruption. Rizo was vice president under Alemán. By backing Montealegre, the U.S. officials split the anti-Ortega vote, critics said. In fact, Rizo and Montealegre together appear to have captured more than 53 percent of the popular vote. Montealegre, himself, was foreign minister under Alemán and involved in a major scandal. He was a former member of the Partido Liberal Constitucionalista. World tourism on track despite war, U.N. reports Special to A.M. Costa Rica
World tourism continues to exceed expectations, showing resilience against factors such as this summer’s Israeli- Hizbollah war in Lebanon and terrorist threats to air travel, with international arrivals for the first eight months up 4.5 per cent and poised to set another all-time high, according to latest United Nations figures “The short term outlook remains very positive, especially against the background of a strong world economy and as favourable exchange rates continue to encourage European and Asian travellers,” the U.N. World Tourism Organization said in its World Tourism Barometer. “International tourism is likely to remain buoyant unless major incidents occur.” Growth for the whole of 2006 is forecast at 4.6 per cent. Growth is expected to continue in 2007 at around 4 per cent worldwide, which though slightly slower than in previous years, is much in line with U.N.’s long-term forecast growth rate of 4.1 per cent a year through 2020. In the first eight months of 2006 international tourist arrivals totalled 578 million worldwide, up from 553 million in the same period of 2005, a year which saw an all-time record of 806 million people travelling internationally. With an increase of 9.8 per cent for the period, Africa is this year again the world’s regional leader. Sub-Saharan Africa, with 12.6 per cent leads the performance so far, pulled notably by South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique, Swaziland and the Seychelles. Asia-Pacific was the world’s second fastest-growing region in the first eight months with 8.3 per cent. While south and south-eastern destinations surpassed the average growth and northeast Asia was close to it, arrivals to Oceania were on the negative side. The Middle East’s results at 6 per cent are on track despite military-political setbacks. Data so far shows that the 34-day conflict between Israel and Lebanon had only very limited impact on the region as a whole. Although it has taken its toll on demand for some destinations, past experience suggests that consumer confidence can recover quickly and international arrivals could end 2006 up by 7.2 per cent. Europe’s growth of 3.1 per cent is not as modest as it might seem at first glance and if the rate is maintained for the rest of 2006 it would mean 14 million additional arrivals. There has been little evidence of travel plans being cancelled as a result of terrorist threats to aircraft, even to the United Kingdom where the plot was centered. Overall growth for the Americas was a 2.5 per cent. Central America (8.7 per cent), South America (8.1 per cent) and the Caribbean (5.1 per cent) exceeded the global growth average but North America at 0.4 per cent fell well below, pulled down by declines in Canada (4.1 per cent) and Mexico (3.8 per cent) in spite of the 4.3 per cent growth in the United States. |
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Costa Rica Third news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006, Vol. 6, No. 222 | ||||||
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 A.M. Costa Rica/Noel Dekking
Performers from the Cirko Vivo light up the night at the opening of
the Casa en Vivo project
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New
architectural display draws on many local talents
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By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
Jugglers and all kinds of performers from Cirko Vivo helped inaugurate an architectural display Tuesday night in a once-empty building in Barrio Amón. The project is a promotional one by Grupo Nación and its Su Casa magazine. The idea also is to help the Municipalidad de San José in its efforts to beautify San José. A stage on the sidewalk and street at Avenida 7 and Calle 7 hosted performers while guests waited to enter the structure, the former Mireya Gurdián home, which has stood unused for years. It is Gothic in tone with rose-type ornamentation cast from concrete. The galleries inside contain 30 different architectural proposals in just 700 square meters of space. |
One of the central themes is restoring and
rescuing older buildings with new and innovative interior architecture
styles. The displays also announced the confidence that the
architects
of Costa Rica can help shape this vision. Luz Letelier Bellalta and Pietra Stagno Ugarte are co-founders of the Luz de Piedra architecture company, one of the groups involved in the gallery. On their Web site they explain that their work focuses on integrating nature into the work space and a passive material use of light. They also emphasize the use of sustainable energies and proper social treatment for construction workers. Organizers hope that the gallery will influence future decisions of the municipality of San Jose. The gallery will be open to the public on Thursday for a month and an admission is being charged. |
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Judicial
process seems to swallow some corruption cases
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By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
The corruption watchdog Transparency International, continued its efforts this week to link corruption with lack of development. As if on cue, a health ministry worker Tuesday fell into police hands with the allegation that she and an associate tried to extort a bribe from the operator of a freshly rented small soda or restaurant. A Universidad de Costa Rica professor has estimated that some 90,000 payoffs take place in Costa Rica each year to the tune of $29 million. But the case of Guiselle Ramón Barquero, 55, is unusual. She was arrested. The Judicial Investigating Organization said that Federico Rodríguez had just rented the location for his small restaurant in the Mercado Borbón in downtown San José. As an employee with the Ministerio de Salud, the Ramón woman could approve the location and issue a health permit. Instead, agents allege, she asked Rodríguez for $1,000. They said he paid $800. The Sección de Fraudes of the Judicial Investigating Organization and the Fiscalía de Delitos Varios of the Ministerio Público got involved, and the next payment of 20,000 colons (about $38.50) was made with marked bills, agents said. Also held is Jorge Chacón Carvajales, 56. He collected 70,000 colons ($135) to do unspecified repairs on the restaurant areas and had been recommended by the Ramón woman, said agents. Another unusual case is that of Gustavo Valverde Chavarría in Nicoya. He was suspended from his job during a corruption investigation, according to a spokesperson for the Poder Judicial. The action was taken by the Consejo Superior del Poder Judicial after a local television station aired the case. A man said he had been offered a favorable settlement in his court case in exchange for payment. Transparency is based in Berlin, Germany. Several times a year it releases summaries of corruption studies. The one released Monday involved the self-perception of corruption as reported in several other surveys. The university professor's survey here was done directly with residents of Costa Rica. This year Transparency said Costa Rica was ranked 55 of 163 countries and 7th among the nations of the Americas. Canada was 14th worldwide and the United States was 20th. The numbers are volatile. Costa Rica used to score about 40th in the Transparency surveys. But then two former presidents ended up in jail for a time while prosecutors investigated a pair of high-profile scandals. One was the alleged kickbacks of an estimated $9 million through executives of the firm Corporación Fischel from a $33 million loan for hospital equipment. The other was an alleged payoff by Alcatel, the French telecommunications company that won a major contract to provide cellular telephones in 2002. The scandals broke two years ago. Former president Miguel Ángel Rodriguez Echeverría lost his post as secretary general of the Organization of American States and spent time in La Reforma prison. Former president Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier also was in prison for a time. Rodríguez has since written a book about his treatment and has been critical of the judicial process that seems to have made little progress in two years. In fact, the judicial process has been strongly criticized for its lack of action with criminal cases. In Nicoya it took a television station to trigger an investigation. The television stations and Spanish-language dailies also pounded on the payoff scandals. Meanwhile, many bribery cases are investigated for years. There is a growing frustration among Costa Ricans with judicial solutions to crime, both white collar and of the streets. |
And with the change in government, lots of dirty linen came out of the closet. There is the case of the Romanian patrol cars purchased for police. But they do not work well and there are no parts. There are the continuing cases of small payoffs to Tránsito officers. A new vehicle law proposal would create an office of inspector general to field complaints of bribes. The law, if passed, also would criminalize paying a bribe. But the law also would jack up road fines so that payoffs would be a much better option for a motorist. On the business front, the multitude of permits and approvals needed to do almost anything create happy hunting for bribe seekers. Rodríguez, the man with the Mercado Borbón soda probably needs up to 10 different approvals in order to open his small restaurant. A large construction project requires 10 times as many. So it is the overlapping and complex laws that also pave the way for corruption, as has been pointed out many times, including by Transparency, which says corruption hampers development. President Óscar Arias Sánchez vowed to eliminate corruption, and then his administration was hit with a flood of corruption complaints from acts initiated in or previous to the Abel Pacheco administration. The Dirección General de Migración was found to be a hotbed of fake documents and special interest with residency permits for sale. There still are a number of complaints from the aduana, the customs service that collects import duties. One case is that of Costa Rican consuls outside the country preparing documents so that as many as 5,000 motor vehicles could be imported without owners paying the hefty duties. The foreign ministry said in October 2004 that the Costa Rican consulate in New York was being investigated. Tax officials said the investigation includes South Korean vehicle vendors, Costa Rican notaries and vehicle importers here. But little has been heard since. And the case just seems to have gone away. |
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Fourth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006, Vol. 6, No. 222 | ||||||
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Iceland faces major
diplomatic protests over whale hunting
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The United States, 24 other countries and the European Commission have delivered a protest to Iceland's government urging it to halt its ongoing whaling operations and reconsider its decision to start commercial whaling. The diplomatic protest, formally known as a demarche, was signed by Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States, together with the European Commission. "The fact that 25 countries and the European Commission created such a strongly worded protest demonstrates the breadth of opposition to Icelandic commercial whaling," said Bill Hogarth on Friday. He is U.S. commissioner to the International Whaling Commission and director of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is the federal agency of the Commerce Department in charge of managing whales and other marine mammals in U.S. waters. Iceland announced Oct. 17 that it would resume commercial whaling for the first time in 20 years and would issue permits to hunt nine fin whales and 30 minke whales. Since then, Icelandic whalers have killed seven fin whales and one minke whale. Oct. 18, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez issued a statement on Iceland’s resumption of commercial whaling, calling the move “disappointing” and saying that “Iceland is going in the wrong direction on the issue.” |
Shortly thereafter, the
U.S. ambassador to Iceland expressed U.S.
displeasure directly to the Icelandic fisheries minister and minister
of foreign affairs. The United Kingdom’s ambassador to Iceland delivered the joint diplomatic protest on behalf of the 25 countries and the European Commission. “We're extremely disappointed that Iceland has decided to resume commercial whaling in spite of the international ban and absent any agreed upon management system,” Hogarth said. “Its actions undermine the proper functioning of the International Whaling Commission.” Iceland’s hunts for minke and fin whales will be conducted without any transparency about the country’s compliance measures, enforcement activities or other management measures in place to ensure the country does not exceed its quotas, said the U.S. agency. Minke and fin whales are protected under the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, and fin whales are on the U.S. endangered species list. The United States strongly and repeatedly has objected to Iceland’s lethal research whaling program, conducted since 2003. The United States supports the current moratorium that bans commercial whaling, in place since 1986, but also has participated in all negotiations to establish a new system for regulating whaling if the moratorium ends. In 2004, then-Commerce Secretary Donald Evans certified Iceland under the Pelly Amendment to the U.S. Fishermen’s Protective Act of 1967 as a country that was undermining the effectiveness of the 1948 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling through its scientific whaling. Such a finding authorizes the president to impose sanctions prohibiting imports of fish and fish products from certified countries. |
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Mercury will cross the face
of the sun today, and event will be visible here
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
It's not a good idea to even look at it without protective equipment, but Mercury will be passing in front of the sun this afternoon, the first time since 2003, according to The National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "The transit or passage of a planet across the face of the Sun is a relatively rare occurrence," said NASA. "As seen from |
Earth, only transits of
Mercury and Venus are possible. There are
approximately 13 transits of Mercury each century. In comparison,
transits of Venus occur in pairs with more than a century separating
each pair. Mercury will appear only 1/194 the size of the sun, so its tiny disk will require a small telescope to see, using a special solar filter to protect the eyes, said NASA. In Costa Rica the transit begins at 1:12 p.m. |
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Suspect brought back to
answer allegations of murdering companion
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A 24-year-old man is the principal suspect in the strangling death of a woman Saturday evening in Alajuelita. The man, identified as Carlos Ulloa Corrales, was brought back to San José Monday night to face the allegation. He was located in Batán in the Provincia de Limón. |
Dead is Helen Venegas
Corrales, 21, a former Batán resident who moved
to the Central Valley about threee months ago to be with Ulloa. They
lived in Concepción Abajo de Alajuelita. Investigators said they thought the death was a case of domestic violence. Venegas died when the arms of a sports jacket were pulled around her neck. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006, Vol. 6, No. 222 | ||||||
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