The bulls got a break Wednesday. Ministerio de Salud officials put the brakes on the tradition bull baiting that was supposed to start at 3 p.m.

The reason given was that contractors who erected a new bull ring at the site in Zapote did not also build a small room for police officers.

Health officials already had given approval to the ring. The concern over the quarters for police did not stop the opening of the Festejo Popular Wednesday night. Rides, food stands and other attractions were given a green light.

The bull baiting is expected to resume today. A hundred or more provisional bullfighters will get in a ring with a single bull and run around trying to avoid the confused animal.

The festival in Zapote east of San José goes on until Jan. 3.

The Fuerza Pública said it was stationing an average of 700 officers at the festival to provide security for attendees. Police also will be using five cameras in conjunction with Radiográfica Costarricense S. A. to keep an eye on festival activities. This is the second year that cameras will be used.

Asian kidnap ring
triggers four arrests

Four people who have been investigated for a series of abductions of Asians were arrested Tuesday night and in the early hours of Wednesday by officials from the Judicial Investigating Organization. 

Three men and a woman, all of Asian descent, are suspected to be the leaders of a gang of abductors. They were arrested in casinos and restaurants in San José and Alajuela.  The investigation that led to these arrests began in March when an Asian man was abducted from the restaurant Los Gamelos in Alto de Guadalupe. 

Arrests have been made in connection with this abduction, but officials have said that there may be other cases that have not been resolved. Typically Asian abductees do not file police reports.

There have been eight abductions of Asians this year. Officials are also investigating abductions that date back to 2002 that share similar characteristics. 

Prisoners will get
international phones

Following a request made by the Defensoria de los Habitantes, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad will be installing the 116 international collect call service to public telephones for prisoners in Costa Rican jails. The service will be available for inmates from the beginning of January. 

The Defensoria said that this is the only way that inmates would be able to communicate with family members. This is especially true for foreign inmates who do not have family in Costa Rica. 

"It is important that ICE, re-establishes this service as the telephone cards available don’t allow the prisoner to call outside of this country," said José Manuel Echandi, the defensor de los habitantes.  He also said that it should be remembered that although a person may be in prison he or she still has fundamental human rights. 

Four face drug charges
on shipments north

Anti-drug investigators have arrested four men as suspects in the shipment of cocaine into the United States and Canada. Three persons were arrested Wednesday.

Officials said that an Canadian-Iraqi, Jousif Dlaymi, 43, was the leader of the drug ring.

The ring is suspect of smuggling cocaine into North America by hiding it in books, sculptures and various boxes. The investigation started with the seizure of some 11 kilos of cocaine by police in Memphis, Tenn., officials here said. Toronto was another destination point for the gang, said agents from the Policía de Control de Drogas.

The Memphis air cargo shipment was traced back to Guanacaste.

Also arrested Wednesday were two Costa Ricans, identified by their last names and ages as Gómez Calderón, 36, and Jiménez Barberena, 29.

Dlaymi was arrested at his home in La Garita. He is married to a Costa Rican and has a child here, police said.

A fourth man, a Canadian identified by the last name and age of Roberge, 33, was arrested while leaving Daniel Oduber International Airport near Liberia Dec. 13. Anti-drug police said he had two kilos of cocaine in his luggage.

No break for A.M. Costa Rica

The news does not stop, and our readers come first.

So A.M. Costa Rica will publish every day this week and next. Christmas and New Year’s are the two days a year that this newspaper does not publish. But this year the two holidays fall on Saturday, a day when A.M. Costa Rica does not publish.

We also are aware that persons all over the world rely on us for breaking news, such as the early Christmas Day earthquake last year.

The Defensoria de los Habitantes has demanded that the health ministry apply stricter controls on swimming pools in tourist areas.  The Defensoria want the ministry to look more closely at the hygiene and the safety of the pools.

The recommendation came after an inhabitant filed a complaint after his two children drowned in a pool at one of the sports centers. 

The defensor de los habitante, Jose Manuel Echandi, said that the Ministerio de Salud should create a register of swimming pools that meet the necessary safety requirements in order to ensure the safety of those who use them. 

The requirements listed are that the swimming pool should clearly display its varying depths and have signs that caution the user. The swimming pool management also should instruct users on how to behave. the pool should have good lighting, an adequate number of changing rooms and life rings, said a release from Echandi’s office.

Furthermore the Defensoria de los Habitantes said that there should be a constant presence of lifeguards who remain vigilant at all swimming locations. The Defensoria said that at least 80 percent of the beaches in Costa Rica do not have enough life guards present to attend emergency situations. 

"The Defensoria consider it to be vital that the country should maximize its safety measures in places that have the most tourists, as well as warning people how dangerous the area is that they are visiting," said Echandi. 

The figures for drowning from the Judicial Investigation Organization show that in the years of 2002 and 2003 292 people have died. Males have been the main victims in rivers, beaches and swimming pools. Some have been caught in dangerous riptides at popular tourist beaches.

Six children have been saved from drowning at Playa Conchal in Quepos, Puntarenas. The mother, Rosa Rivera Nuñez nearly lost her six children: Tatiana, 8, Aaron, 4, Joel, 7, Tania, 9, Dennis, 10 and Miade, 11 to the currents in the Pacific.  The family was enjoying a vacation and had decided to go for a swim in the sea. 

The swift action of the Coast Guards at the beach saved the lives of the children, who live in Quepos.

"They would have surely died," said an official from the

After several minutes of swimming against the strong currents the coast guardsmen rescued the children with the help of an onlooker who loaned them his Jet Ski.
After medical checks carried out at the Quepos coast guard base, the six children were reported healthy.