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A.M.
Costa Rica
Your daily English-language news source Monday through Friday |
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San
José, Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 16, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 226
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Two taxes are
being challenged
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Two taxes are being challenged in constitutional court appeals. The first challenge is against a 10 percent surcharge on imported beers. This tax dates from 1936. The money is supposed to go to the Instituto de Fomento y Asesoría Municipal, a government organization that is seldom in the news. The name of those filing the appeal are not listed, but the claim is that such a special tax just for imported beer is prejudicial and contrary to international treaties. Also being challenged is the tax on motels. The stiff motel tax of 60 percent is one of those direct levies that go directly to a government agency. In this case, the recipient is the Instituto Mixto de Ayuda Social, the anti-poverty agency. The appeal is that this designation is contrary to a law that says all money should go to the national treasury. The implications of this case are vast because many taxes are directed to specific entities. Among these are the luxury home tax, the corporate tax and the airport exit tax. A proposed $4 increase in the airport exit tax would go to the country's Olympic committee. Lottery sales can attract crooks By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Christmas is a time for giving, even if the giver doesn't want to. And the law enforcement agencies are urging methods to prevent thefts. The emphasis this week is on the gordo lottery. The drawing Dec. 13 promises $2.6 million to four persons or groups of persons. That means lottery vendors will have significant funds on their person as they sit on street corners or walk the avenues trying to sell the lottery tickets that are 70,000 colons for a full sheet. The Fuerza Pública is holding classes for lottery sellers. Among other suggestions is that they should not put up resistance to a robbery. And they should watch out for crooks when they close up shop and head home with a large stash of cash, the police agency said. The police agency will be increasing its presence in the Central Valley for Christmas, and a priority will be lottery vendors, said the agency. Each year vendors are robbed, and at least one has been murdered during a robbery over the last few years. The threat of criminal activity is one reason a lot of lottery winners do not make the fact public. Lottery ticket purchases face other challenges, some vendors are selling counterfeit lottery tickets, so purchasers should obtain their tickets from trusted locations. Vice president at exploitation summit By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Vice President Ana Helena Chacón is in the United Arab Emirates today and Tuesday attending a summit on protecting children from the Internet. The event is We Protect Children Online 2015, sponsored by the Middle Eastern country and the United Kingdom, said Casa Presidencial. The goal is to eliminate sexual exploitation of children by means of the Internet, said the presidential summary, which also noted that the costs are being born by the organizers of the conference. Representatives of some 50 counties are expected to attend today and Tuesday. In a statement, the vice president was quoted saying that Costa Rica, which depends on tourism, centers much effort in the fight against organized crime that promotes sexual tourism on line which is a flagrant exploitation of children. Costa Rica has launched a Web site designed to attract persons interested in sexual encounters with the young. The site ends up telling them of the penalties. Jehovah’s Witnesses stress family By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Jehovah’s Witnesses stressed family happiness at a weekend convention in San Antonio de Belén. The Witnesses’ three-day convention series demonstrates how the example of Jesus can give parents and children the tools to build stronger and more united families, said an announcement. The convention also included an examination of the Sermon on the Mount. Roberto Monge, a spokesman for the convention program, said the "Sermon on the Mount offers timeless advice that can help parents to better use their time and resources to build a more secure and loving family environment.” Broncos quarterback sets NFL record By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Quarterback Peyton Manning of the Denver Broncos now holds the National Football League's all-time record for passing yardage. Manning broke the record of 71,838 yards held by longtime Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre, who retired after the 2010 season after two years with Minnesota. Manning surpassed Favre before the home fans when he completed a four-yard pass in the first quarter Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs. But that was the high point of the game for him. He was benched trailing 22-0 in the third quarter after completing only 5 of 20 passes for 35 yards, with four interceptions, and Denver went on to lose 29-13. If he had won, Manning would have broken Favre's all-time regular season wins record of 186, which is a mark he had said he wanted even more. Instead, he finished his day with a record 71,871 yards. Manning played his first 14 seasons with the Indianapolis Colts, taking them to two Super Bowls, winning the title game in 2007. He has been with Denver since 2012 and guided the Broncos to the 2014 Super Bowl where they lost to the Seattle Seahawks. Manning is the only player in the NFL to have won five most valuable player awards. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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copyrighted by Consultantes Ro Colorado S.A 2015 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 Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 16, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 226 | |
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Bad day at Tamarindo This is the result of fire Friday afternoon at the popular Patagonia Del Mar restaurant in Tamarindo. Neighbors said they heard explosions before the two-story structure burst into flames. Firefighters did not arrive for 32 minutes after the alarm. They were from Filadelfia and Santa Cruz, plus a tanker crew from Liberia. In addition to the restaurant, a laundry, two apartments and a real estate office were involved. Firemen blamed an electrical problem in a corridor decorated with vegetable fibers and bamboo. Fire fighters were short-handed and Fuerza Pública officers helped with the hoses. |
 A.M. Costa Rica/Patti Fraser
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Cops
detailed to docks
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Fuerza Pública officers moved into the Limón docks Sunday. Officials said that the action was to comply with international security rules. However, the presence of the police also is a message to the union of those who work on the public docks. The Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Junta de Administración Portuaria de la Vertiente Atlántica is prone to pull wildcat strikes. The union is opposing the construction in Moín of the APM container handling terminal which, some members feel, will put the inefficient public docks out of business. Gustavo Mata Vega, minister of Seguridad Pública made the announcement. He said that an agreement had been reached with the port manager, the Junta de Administración Portuaria de la Vertiente Atlántica, a public agency. The police presence is to guarantee the national security exportations and international commerce, said the ministry. About 80 percent of the nation's exports pass through the Limón and Moín docks. Every time the union strikes, there are major losses to pineapple and banana producers. |
 Ministerio de Seguridad Pública photo
Police officers on the job
at the public docks. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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be
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| A.M. Costa Rica's Fourth News page | |||||
| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 16, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 226 | |||||
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| Infected coffee leaves found to hold possible solutions to
the rust fungus |
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By the University of Michigan news
staff
Coffee rust has ravaged Latin American plantations for several years, leading to reductions in annual coffee production of up to 30 percent in some countries and threatening the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of small-scale farmers in the region. A new study by University of Michigan researchers suggests that the coffee plants themselves may hold biological weapons that could someday be harnessed in the fight against the coffee rust fungal pathogen. Those potential weapons are themselves funguses, a surprisingly diverse community of more than 300 species of them, including 15 likely fungal parasites, living on coffee leaves, within or alongside the yellow blotches that mark coffee rust lesions. Using an old-fashioned handheld paper punch, U-M researchers collected leaf samples from both infected and uninfected coffee leaves at coffee farms in Chiapas, Mexico, and in Puerto Rico. They found up to 69 fungal species living on a single quarter-inch-diameter leaf disc from uninfected leaves and up to 62 species on rust-infected leaf discs, according to Timothy James, a university mycologist and lead author of a paper in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology. "Latin America is experiencing unprecedented epidemics of coffee rust, so identification of its natural enemies could aid in developing management strategies or in pinpointing species that could be used for biocontrol," said James, an associate professor. "We recovered a surprisingly high fungal diversity in extraordinarily small samples of coffee leaf material, more than 300 species in a sampling area that, in total, was much smaller than the average size of a single coffee leaf. These hyper-diverse communities highlight the complexity of fungal diversity of unknown ecological function within these leaves." James' co-authors on the paper include faculty members Ivette Perfecto of the School of Natural Resources and Environment and John Vandermeer, who have operated research plots at an organic coffee farm in southern Chiapas, Mexico, for nearly 20 years. The leaf-dwelling fungal species include 15 likely fungal parasites, organisms that grow on other funguses. The best-known of these so-called mycoparasites is white halo fungus, which is known to attack insects and help keep coffee rust fungus in check. It's possible that other fungal parasites on the leaves could be developed as biocontrol agents to combat coffee rust. But |
 University of Michigan
photo
An infected coffee leaf
Vandermeer and Ms. Perfecto warn that tinkering with the complex ecological webs present on traditional shade-grown coffee farms could cause more harm than good. For example, spraying a newly developed fungicide on infected coffee plants could inadvertently destroy natural fungal enemies of coffee rust, worsening the problem. "Our approach is mostly one of prevention, keeping the farm strong and healthy with a lot of natural enemies that can combat the pests, rather than trying to solve a problem after it has emerged, which has been the approach of agronomists and pest-control management people," Ms. Perfecto said. In the study, leaf samples were collected from three coffee farms in Chiapas and five farms in Puerto Rico's central mountain region. DNA was extracted from 46 leaf discs, amplified using polymerase chain reaction, then sequenced using single-molecule DNA sequencing. A total of 313 fungal species (or closely related groups of species) were found. The 15 likely fungal parasites were identified based on their association with coffee rust lesions or their genetic similarity to other suspected mycoparasite species. Culturing and inoculation studies should now be used to test the mycoparasitic funguses and verify that they are, in fact, parasites of coffee rust, the authors wrote. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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contents of this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río
Colorado
S.A. 2015 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's
Fifth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 16, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 226 | |||||||
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NFL tightens game access in wake of attacks in Paris By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The National Football League stepped up security inside and outside stadiums Sunday as America's most popular sports league responded to a series of attacks across Paris that left at least 129 people dead. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security informed the National Football League there are no known specific threats, but league commissioner Roger Goodell ordered tighter security at all venues. The league said security at its games is robust. Two of the coordinated attacks in Paris occurred outside a stadium where France was playing Germany in a soccer match. The NFL has mandatory metal detector screening at its games and employs multiple layers of perimeter security external at stadiums. It told fans coming to NFL games Sunday to expect lineups and delays. Among the new precautions is a complete ban on entering stadiums with backpacks, satchels or purses. If any essentials are needed, the NFL said fans should carry them in small, clear plastic bags. Inspections by security guards could delay fans from getting to their seats after traditional pre-game tailgating barbecues in the parking lot. About 17 million spectators attend NFL games every year. U.S. officials admit nation is big target for radicals By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Horrific terrorist carnage in Paris has refocused Washington’s attention on the Islamic State and its ambition to strike within the United States. Amid a global outpouring of grief and sympathy for France, U.S. lawmakers note America is also in the crosshairs. “We are a harder target, a harder target to reach,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, speaking on ABC’s "This Week" program. “But we know ISIS aspires to attack us here in the United States as well,” he said, using another acronym for the militant group. “We cannot allow ISIS to have this sanctuary in Syria and Iraq from which to plan and direct attacks against us,” Schiff added. White House officials are seeking to reassure the American public. “There is not a specific, credible threat to the homeland at this time, but we are going to be very vigilant,” said President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, also on "This Week." Of particular concern: the Paris attacks demonstrated that terrorists can plan, coordinate and execute bloody plots with little or no Internet chatter or other communication that may tip off intelligence agencies. If Islamic State caught France by surprise, could it do the same to the United States? “The reality is even the best intelligence will not stop a determined enemy that adapts to our defenses, and ISIS has adapted,” said Schiff. Reports that one of the Paris attackers may have been a Syrian asylum seeker will bring increased scrutiny of the Obama administration’s pledge to accept 10,000 refugees from Syria. For months, Republican presidential contenders have blasted the administration’s campaign against the Islamic State as woefully inadequate. Now, they are disputing White House assurances that Syrians granted U.S. asylum will be subjected to thorough screening and vetting. “You have a thousand people come in, and 999 are just poor people fleeing oppression and violence. But one of them is an ISIS fighter. If that is the case, then you have a problem, and there is no way to vet that out,” said Sen. Marco Rubio. “You cannot pick up the phone and call Syria.” Democratic candidates vow more aggressive approach By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
U.S. Democratic presidential contenders promised a more aggressive fight against the Islamic State group, but offered few specifics on how they would do so, as they faced off in their party's second debate of the primary election campaign. The debate, held Saturday in the early presidential nominating state of Iowa, focused largely on national security and foreign policy, coming after the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris, France. The forum began with a moment of silence for the 129 people killed and hundreds wounded in the Paris gun and bomb attacks, which have been claimed by the Islamic State group. Early in the debate, former secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed to crush the Islamic State, saying it "cannot be contained, it must be defeated." The comments were seen by some as an implicit criticism of President Barack Obama, who insisted this week the extremist group has been contained and was not gaining in strength. From the outset, Mrs. Clinton cast herself as the most experienced foreign policy candidate on stage. "This election is not only about electing a president. It’s also about choosing our next commander in chief," she said. "Our country deserves no rest because all of the other issues we want to deal with depends on us being secure and strong." Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose campaign has focused more on domestic than foreign policy, used slightly more hawkish than usual language to describe his strategy to deal with the Islamic State. Sanders said he was shocked and disgusted by the Paris attacks, and vowed the U.S. would lead the global effort to "rid our planet of this marvelous organization called ISIS." As he has repeatedly done during his presidential run, Sanders also criticized Mrs. Clinton for her 2002 congressional vote in support of the U.S. invasion of Iraq: "I would argue that the disastrous invasion of Iraq, something I strongly opposed, has unraveled the region completely and led to the rise of al-Qaida and to ISIS," Sanders said. Former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, who is lagging far behind Clinton and Sanders in opinion polls, said the Paris attacks represent the new face of conflict of warfare in the 21st century. "And there is no nation on the planet better able to adapt to this change than our nation. We must be able to work collaboratively with others. We must anticipate these threats before they happen," O'Malley said. All three candidates said the U.S. should do more to help refugees fleeing violence in the Middle East, provided they are sufficiently screened for security risks. The Obama administration is making plans to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees in fiscal year 2016, a significant increase over the 2,000 accepted in the previous year. O'Malley said the U.S. has the moral responsibility to do more. "I was the first person on this stage to say we should accept 65,000 refugees," he said. "And I believe that needs to be done with proper screening. "There are other ways to lead and to be a moral leader in this world than at the opposite end of a drone strike," O'Malley added. While Mrs. Clinton stressed the No. 1 requirement is that the U.S. is kept safe, she also expressed support for accepting 65,000 Syrian refugees, provided there is an extensive screening and vetting process. The candidates spent much of the first half of the debate discussing foreign policy issues, in a possible reflection of how the Paris attacks are reshaping the 2016 presidential race. "There will be more of a focus on national security and foreign policy," said Alex Ward, the associate director of the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Washington-based Atlantic Council. The shift in emphasis will likely benefit Mrs. Clinton, who, because of her time as America's top diplomat, has the most extensive foreign policy experience of any candidate in either party, according to Ward. But while all of the candidates are feeling pressure to come out with tough anti-Islamic State statements, none on Saturday offered substantive new information about how they would combat the group, he said. "They all went a bit further than they did in the past, but didn't go too deep into how they would see their ends met," Ward said. The candidates also focused on several non-foreign policy issues, including the economy. Sanders defended his plan to raise the federal minimum hourly wage from its current level, at $7.25, to $15, saying: "It is not a radical idea to say that someone who works 40 hours a week should not be living in poverty." The independent senator, who caucuses with the Democratic Party, refers to himself as a democratic socialist and has constantly spoken of the need to reduce the growing inequality gap. Mrs. Clinton, meanwhile, said she supports raising the minimum wage to $12, adding that individual states could choose to go higher than that. In one of the more notable exchanges of the night, Mrs. Clinton and Sanders clashed over how best to regulate Wall Street. The senator said Mrs. Clinton's plan was not good enough and said she could not be trusted, in part because she accepts campaign funds from corporate donors. Mrs. Clinton shot back, accusing Sanders of impugning my integrity. She said her plan is more comprehensive than Sanders' because it will "go after all of Wall Street, not just the big banks." The debate comes as opinion polls show Mrs. Clinton extending her lead over Sanders, who has provided what many see as an unexpected challenge. 'Trumbo' recounts persecution of Hollywood screenwriter By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
With the United States awash in conversation, protest, and confrontation about issues of race, the new film "Trumbo" comes along at just the right time. The film is ultimately a cautionary tale about constitutional rights of freedom of speech and freedom of association and how precious and fragile they can be. Filmmaker Jay Roach tells the story of Dalton Trumbo, the highest-paid screenwriter in 1950s Hollywood, whose career came to a halt when he and other Hollywood artists were blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee because they refused to testify about their possible association with the American Communist Party. “Breaking Bad” star Bryan Cranston delivers a cantankerous and eloquent Trumbo, who faced his predicament with a devil-may-care attitude and a shrewdness that helped bring an end to the political witchhunt in Tinseltown. When Trumbo, a Colorado native, testifies in front of the committee in the late '40s, he is flippant and combative. To the question "Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?" he replies, “Many questions can be answered yes or no only by a moron or a slave.” Trumbo was neither. Cranston said it was not just the flamboyant character of Dalton Trumbo that drew him to the role, it was his story. Trumbo was a man who told stories for a living, but was forced out of his job because he refused to abandon his right to silence, he added. “This man who was a prolific writer the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood at the time and a member of the American communist party and summoned to Washington to make a statement under oath, under the penalty of imprisonment to forgo his First Amendment rights and freedoms and civil liberties that were granted to the citizenry by the forefathers that fought long and hard to create that as a foundation of America," said Cranston. Cranston inhabits Trumbo, enunciating every line as if it is going to be chiseled into a rock. Talking about his socialist beliefs and fat wallet to his friend and fellow screenwriter Arlen Hird, played by Louis C.K., Trumbo exclaims, “It’s the perfect combination! The radical may fight with the purity of Jesus, but the rich guy wins with the cunning of Satan.” But Trumbo’s acerbic wit didn't win him any friends. In 1950, he was sentenced for contempt of court and went to jail for 11 months. He was no longer allowed to work in Hollywood, but, when faced with the prospect of poverty, he worked illegally. Small struggling studios hired him for a small fee under the table. He used aliases for the scripts he produced, and he produced many. His back had been injured during his time in jail, so he wrote around the clock sitting in a warm bathtub. The grueling schedule and his foes' prying eyes took a toll on him. Gossip columnist and fervent anti-Communist Hedda Hopper, played by Helen Mirren, was one of Trumbo’s fiercest enemies. She vowed to wipe him off the face of Hollywood but eventually she failed. The film warns of the perils of political control over civil liberties, but it also offers a silver lining: creative talent is a currency in markets such as Hollywood and cannot easily be quelled by political fanatics. Trumbo won two Academy Awards writing under different names, and his work on the blockbusters "Spartacus" and "Exodus" won over superstar Kirk Douglas and filmmaker Otto Preminger. They were powerful enough to veto the blacklist and put Trumbo's name under his work. The blacklist was officially over when President John F. Kennedy broke through picket lines outside movie theaters protesting Trumbo's involvement in "Spartacus" to go see the film. But Trumbo's uplifting message of the triumph of the human spirit is paired with the toll that 13 years of political oppression and ostracism took on the screenwriter. And though the story has a happy ending of redemption, neither Trumbo nor his family knew if his persecution was ever going to end.  Saphon Energy file photo
This is example of
bladeless dish.New
bladeless generator
spares lives of passing birds By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Energy created by conventional three-blade wind turbines is cheap, sustainable and pollution-free. But according to current estimates, the devices' fast-moving blades kill up to 300,000 birds annually in the U.S. That could change with a bladeless wind converter called Saphonian, designed by Tunisian engineer Anis Aouni. He studied ancient sailboats and the movements of birds and fish to develop a parabolic dish that rotates in a peculiar pattern while catching the wind like a ship’s sail. “It's like a big eight in space," Aouni said. "It's a movement that we can find in nature. . . . We find the same movement in fish tails when they are moving, or in birds' wings.” The bladeless converter creates less noise than traditional wind turbines and does not suffer from the gyroscopic effect, which makes it easier to adjust to changes in wind direction. The prototype is a little more than 1 meter in diameter, but computer models show it is scalable to bigger sizes. Aouni hopes it eventually will be able to turn 80 percent of wind energy into electricity. “In practice, we reached 1.7 times the performance of a traditional wind turbine," he said. "Economically, it is a machine that costs much less than an equivalent wind turbine.” Tunisian company Saphon Energy, which developed the prototype, has won several awards for the new turbine, including support from Microsoft’s initiative to help African startup companies. |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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contents of this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río
Colorado S.A. 2015 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's sixth news page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Nov. 16, 2015, Vol. 16, No. 226 | |||||||||
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Avoid going
buggy over those true bugs
There we were, out for an open-air drink with new friends, the Piazzas, when a bug wandered across the table. My hubby, Metric Man, whipped
So, in order not to be completely ignorant, I looked them up and was surprised to find that if you type “what is a true bug” into a search engine it comes up with an answer, so here it goes. A true bug is from the order Hemiptera (which meant absolutely nothing to me) and has “piercing, sucking mouthparts” (which did mean something to me). True bugs are the those insects that puncture a hole in our plants, inject saliva, and suck out the food. Ewww. Aphids are Hemiptera and are a scourge to gardeners, particularly when they attack our roses. Cicadas, leafhoppers and shield bugs are bugs. The bedbug is a human parasitic true bug but not the mosquito. Evidently the wings of the mosquito are different, and its head is too small. In any case, true bugs seem to be parasites on plants and people. Yuck. Too much? Wait. What about all those other bugs we have been calling bugs that aren't bugs. Take the Diptera for example. This order is the true [there's that word again] fly and includes the house fly and the mosquito but not other things with the word fly in them like the butterfly, dragonfly, or firefly. Oh my aching head. Or the Orthoptera which have hind legs for jumping. That one is easy: grasshoppers, the praying mantis and its relatives, and the other happy hoppers. More than you wanted to know? Me too. I have no intention of going around naming something before I spray it or squish it. Still, when you find a cluster of bugs on a branch somewhere, it's nice to know if you can safely leave them alone or if they will come back to attack your plants.  These guys? True bugs fully equipped with sucking mouthparts that can damage your plants. Next time I see them, I won't stop to take a picture. They have to go.  Plant for the Week
I have a thing about pink, so here is my flowering maple (Abutilon) which comes in yellow,
orange, and red as well. They are easy to start from cuttings and
should be planted in full sun. This one was started from a 25
centimeter cutting about a year ago and is now two meters tall. Sadly,
leaf cutter ants enjoy the leaves as much as we enjoy the flowers.If you would like to suggest a topic for this column, simply send a letter to the editor. And, for more garden tips, visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/Arenal-Gardeners/413220712106845 |
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| What we published this week: | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Earlier |
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| From
Page 7: Domestic employees to get bigger raise Jan. 1 By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Although the general minimum wage increase Jan. 1 is 0.67 percent of the current rate, domestic employees are getting 1 percent, according to the Consejo Nacional de Salarios. The 0.67 percentage was the original suggestion of the government. Labor representatives sought increases from 2 to 7 percent, and employer negotiators suggested 0.08 percent. The government has separated out low-wage domestic employees and others for larger increases to provide a living wage. Many Costa Ricans work in private jobs for the government-stipulated minimums, which are different for each job category. Eventually the Ministerio de Trabajo will post a list of the legal minimums. |
