The security ministry has graduated 27 members of the Policía de Fronteras who completed a course taught by members of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The course began in September.

Topics included investigation of dubious documents, physical conditioning and border inspections.

The students were some who graduated from a basic course at the Escuela Nacional de Policía earlier this year.

The U.S. agency has been involved in such courses since 2010 under the regional security initiative.

The ministry continues to beef up its border security and officials have been embarrassed recently by disclosures that helicopters have been transporting drugs from this country to the north. Police managed to locate some of the secluded landing spots and make some arrests.

The drugs appear to have been brought into Costa Rica by fastboat and transported by air from the Limón area to staging locations in the northern part of the country where the crafts were refueled.


Another plan to fix bridge
will cost about $9 million


The bridge over the Río Virilla will be rebuilt for 4.5 billion colons, about $9 million.

This is the troubled span on the General Cañas Autopista that has been the subject of multiple attempts at repair. At one point officials said they thought they would have to build a new bridge.

The 53-year-old span will be reinforced to handle 40 tons. The current limit is 24.5 tons. Some 90,000 drivers use the bridge each day. It is one of the main connections between San Jose's downtown and Juan Santamaría airport, Alajuela and points west.

The Japanese Agency for International Cooperation is providing technical advice on reinforcing the bridge.

The main problem with the current span is that it is too flexible and the concrete deck becomes broken by heavy traffic.

This is the so-called platina bridge because a metal plate over an expansion joint continually becomes loose. At first the situation was a joke because the bridge defied efforts to fix it. Then the Consejo Nacional de Vialidad set contractors to work over one holiday, and a motorist killed a highway employee. The problem lost its humorous aspects long ago.


Sala IV constitutional court
receives a new magistrate


Nancy Hernández López has been named to the Sala IV of the Corte Suprema de Justicia by lawmakers. She received 44 votes Monday. She only needed 38. The term is for eight years.

The new magistrate worked for years in close association with Luis Paulino Mora Mora, the president of the court, who left the vacancy when he died. Ms. Hernández was supported by a legislative nominating committee.


Finance minister leaves post
for surgery until Jan 6


The Ministerio de Hacienda said Monday that the minster, Edgar Ayales, would soon undergo surgery.

A vice minister, José Luis Araya, will hold the job until the minister returns.

The exact nature of the medical problem was not disclosed. Nor did the ministry say where the procedure would take place.

Ayales is schedule to return Jan. 6.

He is the Chinchilla administration point man for tax reform and recently completed what was called the national dialogue in which public comment was sought on the financial crisis facing the country due to unbridled spending.

Ayales is expected to unveil a number of new taxes that the administration will submit to the legislature. Among these is a proposed value added tax.


Venezuela faces yet another
major electrical power outage


Venezuela's second massive power outage of the year plunged much of the nation into darkness on Monday night, prompting renewed talk of sabotage from President Nicolas Maduro's government and cries of incompetence from its foes.
 
Power went off in Caracas and other cities around the country soon after 8 p.m. local time to the intense annoyance of residents and commuters.
 
“I feel so frustrated, angry and impotent,” said sales adviser Aneudys Acosta, 29, trudging through the rain along a street in the capital after having to leave the disrupted underground transport system. “I live far away and here I am stuck under the rain. Something's going wrong that they're not sorting out. The government needs a Plan B. This is just not normal.”
 
Monday's outage appeared similar to a massive Sept. 5 blackout that was one of the worst in the South American country's history.
 
Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver who narrowly won a presidential election this year after the death of his mentor and former leader Hugo Chávez, accused the opposition then of deliberately sabotaging the grid to discredit him.
 
His powerful ally and national assembly president, Diosdado Cabello, repeated the same accusation after Monday's blackout.
 
“I have no doubt that today's electricity sabotage is part of the right-wing's plan,” Cabello said on Twitter.
 
In some wealthier parts of Caracas, where opposition to the socialist government is strongest, people began banging pots and pans out their windows in a traditional form of protest.
 
Some shouted, “Maduro, resign!”
 
Venezuela has been suffering periodic electricity cuts around the country for several years, although the capital has been spared the worst outages.
 
Critics say the power problems symbolize the failure of the government and its 15 years of socialist policies in resource-rich Venezuela.
 
The country has the world's largest crude oil reserves and is blessed with big rivers that feed hydroelectric facilities generating two-thirds of its power.
 
The blackouts, sometimes due to planned power rationing and at others to utility failures, have not affected the oil refineries, which are powered by separate generator plants.
 
Electricity Minister Jesse Chacón said the same major transmission line that went down in September and carries about 60 percent of national supply had again been affected.
 
He said power would return to Caracas within an hour. Parts of the capital were slowly regaining power during the evening, according to residents.