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Second news page |
 Click HERE for photo tour of 526 properties for SALE or RENT in Escazú, Ciudad Colón, Santa Ana, Rohrmoser, Curridabat, Heredia and the Pacific Coast. |
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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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 A.M. Costa Rica/José
Pablo Ramírez Vindas
This Indonesian import seems to have an extreme case of
anorexia. It is one of the exhibits at Plaza Roosevelt in San Pedro de
Montes de Oca through Sunday. Some 139 exhibitors have a variety of art
objects.Flat tax proponent is guest of embassy here By Silleny Sanabria
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff Alvin Rabushka is an expert in tax policies in the United States and other countries, especially Russia. He originated and promotes a flat tax plan and wrote a book with that name. He stresses the idea that every country should have flat
In the case of Costa Rica, he said that the country needs urgently a flat tax reform because the country depends on the exports and imports to survive. The flat tax is simple, and all people who should pay the taxes can understand it better, he said. And it will make a better personal economy that at the same time will help the national economy too, he added. He was here as a guest of the U.S. Embassy. Costa Rican lawmakers are now considering a complex tax reform package that is anything but a flat tax. However, the chances of passage are not considered certain. The flat tax proposal designed for the United States taxes all income, once and only once, at a uniform low rate of 19 percent. It permits a tax-free allowance of $25,500 for a family of four, thereby exempting many poor and lower-middle-income households from taxation, according to the Hoover Institution. All wage earners would pay less tax than under the current system. The flat-tax plan tax returns can be filed on a postcard, according to the proposal. And this e-mail message came from what planet? By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
English may be the universal language of the Internet, but a number of foreign spammers universally butcher its grammar, syntex and vocabulary. For example, what is this guy trying to say? "As a worthy purchaser we grant you as occasions offer with information and renews. Our logs indicate that you perhaps have necessity in a supplement." The message may be from an online pharmacy, but with a fake return address, the Web link provided might simply be a virus source. Even with a second try the effort falls short: "We apologize and hope you will take a jaundiced view at medicaments we sell. Again, let us introduce our drugs at attractive prices which may be urgent needed." And then there is the alleged mortgage offer: "Your specific position has been judged to the important committees, and upon prudent weighing up, we are able to propose to you the ensuing prospect. Based upon prudent weighing up you qualify to obtain a sizable revenue on your initial property investment." The best guess is that the spammer ran the original message through an online translation program. The original appears to have been written in an Asian tongue. Pair arrested in city after store burglary By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Policía Metropolitana officers arrested a pair of Nicaraguans early Wednesday morning who are charged with burglarizing a store in the San José center. The two suspects were identified as a 17-year old youth and a 25-year-old man identified by the last names Urrieta Centeno, officers said. Officers said they arrested the pair some 300 meters from where the break-in took place. The two allegedly forced their way into the store and had a large quantity of merchandise shoved in four bags, officers said. The men only used force to gain entrance into the store and cost some $100 damage, officers said. |
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| Tamarindo group fights municipality over land swap |
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By Jesse Froehling
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff Tamarindo has developed quickly from a quiet fishing town to a secret surf destination to a well-known surf destination, to an attractive tourist spot and finally to one of the most popular tourist destinations in Costa Rica. But now some residents are seeking to curb the rampant development before the town loses its character. In only the past couple of years, the town has spread far away from the beach, sprouted a plethora of hostels and cabina joints and even allowed fast-food franchises such as Burger King and Subway to set up shop. Luxury hotels, overpriced eateries and North American-style, North American-priced homes can be seen nearly everywhere. And in banks, gift shops and grocery stores, the Costa Ricans who work there but lack English are adept at communicating with calculators and hand signals. But with the announcement of a seven-story luxury condominium called Naxos that is planned for a piece of property between Tamarindo and Playa Langosta, several residents say the developer, Construcciones Generales de Costa Rica S.A., and the Municipalidad de Santa Cruz have gone too far. According to the company's Web site, the Naxos will have one-, two- and three-bedroom luxury condos with such pleasantries as jacuzzis, marble counter tops, high ceilings and exquisite designer tiled floors. The building should be open sometime in the beginning of 2007, the company said. Jerry Hirsch is with the Asociacion Pro Mejoras de Tamarindo, a 10-year-old group of residents. The association is made up of North Americans as well as Ticos, according to Bruce Mckillican, a member. But the group is also trying to involve the many Argentinians and Italians who call the town home as well, he said. They are battling the municipality to bar the construction of the building. The Naxos legal advisers posted a bulletin in Spanish on Tamarindobeach.net inviting the public to a meeting regarding the construction of the Naxos building. According to the bulletin, the point was to “clear doubts about the construction of the building as well as explain the point of the development of the project and clear up the worries of the local public.” Ramiro Cascante posted a bulletin soon after in both English and Spanish informing the company that while their intent was welcome, it may be beneficial to the public to post another bulletin in English. This never happened. A day before the scheduled meeting, the company canceled it, citing the “belligerence of certain persons and the low level of dialog that would exist. We have information that there are intentions to create |
improper controversy
and manipulations that break the good faith and true spirit of the
meeting.” Part of the concern is that the company may be building on an alameda, or green zone. Hirsch's association has filed a lawsuit against the Municipalidad de Santa Cruz for issuing a permit to Construcciones Generales to allow it to build on the site. Jennifer Orellana with the company said that Naxos is not being built on an Alameda and the property was bought with all the legal documentation and that the firm has all the necessary permits allowing it to build. A letter from Oswaldo Angulo Angulo, head of the census and land registry office of the Municipalidad de Santa Cruz to Pastor Gomez Ruíz, mayor of the municipality, says the same. Because of an earlier exchange of parcels, the land is no longer designated as a green zone, and the company has the right to build, the municipality says. The association recognizes that the company might have been caught in the middle of the municipality's dealing of green zones. However, the association maintains that Naxos is being built on public land and has filed a lawsuit against the municipality to stop construction of the building. According to Griet de Pypere, the president of Promejores, although the lawsuit is directed at the current administration, those officials are not at fault. The association's lawsuit stems from the actions of the prior mayor. It alleges that the land in Langosta where Naxos is being built was once a green zone and was exchanged for another one in the inland section of Tamarindo. Therefore, the country lost a green zone, the association claims. The lawsuit alleges further that the municipality illegally exchanged the public land. According to the association, the owner of the Urbanización Beko in Langosta, Claudio Cerdas, negotiated with the municipality to keep the land he was supposed to donate to the public. The way the law works, if someone owns a certain amount of land and wants to build a subdivision, he must donate 15 percent of the land to the public. The lawsuit alleges that Cerdas, knowing the value of the land he was giving away, negotiated with the municipality to keep the valuable land in exchange for less valuable land on the inland side of Tamarindo. The lawsuit said that the municipality accepted the agreement but it was not in their power to do so, Ms. De Pypere said. Ms. De Pypere recognizes that the Naxos building may have unwittingly been caught up in all this. “We are not suing Naxos. If they bought the property without knowing, they are a victim as well as we are,” she said. |
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| Two reported killed in sidewalk confrontation in city |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A young man with a revolver fired into a group of lottery vendors late Wednesday morning, and the Cruz Roja said that two of the victims died. The gunman fled on foot, but two officers of the Policia Muncipal captured a suspect about two blocks away. He is a relative of two of those shot, The shooting took place on Calle 20 across the street from the Junta de Protección Social de San José, the agency that produces and markets weekly lotteries and several other lottery versions. One of the dead was identified as Juan Pablo Cortés Ureña, 25, when he arrived at Hospital San Juan de Dios. The identity of the second dead victim could not be determined, but Luis Gilberto Monge Guerrero, 24, had been reported in critical condition in Hospital San Juan de Dios earlier in the day. |
One victim, shot in the
leg was Gilberto Chacón Agüero, 49, who went to
Hospital México, attendants there said Wednesday night. He was
reported
to have successfully gone through surgery. Carlos Luis Monge Salas, 61, believed to be the father of the gunman, also was in Hospital San Juan de Dios. However, the Cruz Roja said Wednesday night that two of the victims had been transferred to Alajuela. The shooting took place on the sidewalk in front of the establishment operated by the elder Monge. The Judicial Investigating Organization had no information on the case, but policemen said informally that the shooting appears to have stemmed from a dispute over money. The 17-year-old suspect, when captured, carried some 7 million colons in cash, some $14,200. The 11:30 a.m. incident caused police to block the heavily traveled street. |
| Conspiracy alleged in bids about airport in Trinidad |
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Special to A.M. Costa Rica
MIAMI, Fla., — A federal grand jury has indicted eight persons and two companies for allegedly engaging in a wire fraud conspiracy to manipulate the bid process for a construction project at Piarco International Airport in Trinidad. In a statement, U.S. officials said the indictments allege that the eight defendants conspired to engage in wire fraud, a federal offense under U.S. law, by rigging the bid process to secure construction contracts for the airport. According to the indictments, on two different occasions, the defendants arranged for a shadow bidder to submit a fraudulent and over-inflated bid for one of the airport's construction projects. The defendants perpetrated this action, said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, to make their own inflated bid appear reasonable by comparison. On both occasions, the defendants' inflated bids were accepted, said the agency, which is the investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. |
Charged
in the wire fraud conspiracy were defendants Raul J Gutierrez, Rene
Diaz de Villegas, Eduardo Hillman-Waller, and Armando Paz, all of South
Florida, and Steve
Ferguson and Ishwar Galbaransingh, both of Trinidad and Tobago.
Also
charged were Calmaquip Engineering Corp., a Miami-based corporation
that supplies specialty
equipment needed to operate airports, hospitals and office buildings,
and Northern Construction Ltd., a Trinidad and Tobago construction
company. In addition, the indictment charges seven of the defendants with conspiring to launder money received as a result of the fraud. According to the charges in the indictment, the defendants participated in transferring money paid by the government of Trinidad and Tobago to Calmaquip Engineering Corp. in Miami through a series of complex financial transactions designed to conceal the funds origin. If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of five years' imprisonment on the wire fraud conspiracy charge and a maximum sentence of 20 years' imprisonment on the money laundering conspiracy charge. |
| Karen Hughes turns her attention to three Central American
nations |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The U.S. undersecretary for public diplomacy will lead a delegation of business executives to three nations in Central America next week. A statement issued Wednesday by the State Department said the official, Karen Hughes, will be accompanied by chief executives of major U.S companies such as PepsiCo and JPMorgan Private Bank. The delegation will visit Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, where a series of natural disasters damaged economies in the region. The region was hit multiple times by hurricanes. |
The trip aims to
encourage private sector assistance for reconstruction efforts in the
area. The trip will last from Sunday to Tuesday. President Bush has asked the business leaders to see U.S. assistance efforts already underway. The delegation includes Steve Reinemund, chairman and chief executive officer of PepsiCo, Inc.; Bob Lane, chairman and chief executive officer, Deere & Co.; and Maria Lagomasino, former chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Private Bank. The delegation will receive briefings from representatives of the U.S. embassies, the U.S. Southern Command, and non-governmental organizations. |
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