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New, harsher traffic law
goes into effect. . . maybe By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Tránsito police began arresting drunk drivers Tuesday under the new traffic law, based on the belief that the law had been published in the La Gaceta official newspaper. The situation was confusing because officials had said that three aspects of the law would take effect 10 days after publication. An additional confusion was that the electronic edition of the La Gaceta, the one consulted most frequently, did not contain the required publication of the law. The action by traffic officers seems to have been instigated by an order from a criminal court judge. Tránsito officers set up a checkpoint on Avenida 2 at the main Banco de Costa Rica office and began making arrests Tuesday morning. One of those detained was a taxi driver who registered 3.5 grams of alcohol per liter of blood. He may have had more but the breath device police use to check the alcohol content only goes to 3.5 grams. Under the new law legally drunk is .75 grams, about three to four beers depending on the individual. The taxi driver was so drunk that he could not stand up after he got out of his cab and had to be taken away in the back of a pickup where he remained horizontal for the trip to court. There was also some confusion if the higher fines in the new law would take effect. A criminal charge that puts a drunk driver into prison is separate from the civil fines in the law. German Marín, director of the Policía de Tránsito and an aide were on television explaining the new law. And everyone accepted the statement that the law had been published. Beside drunk driving, the new law penalizes immediately with jail excessive speed over 150 kph (about 93 mph) and engaging in drag races. Other penalties in the new law take effect in nine months. These include offenses like talking on a cell phone while driving or failing to use a seatbelt. Our reader's opinion
Put new taxes into roadto attract tourists here Dear A.M. Costa Rica: Why is it that their seems to be no public official in Costa Rica with any foresight or common sense. They are adding $22+ million in taxes at the airport to the already $40+ million in departure taxes. It is my understanding that they are going to spend $40 million on ads and ect. to promote tourism in Costa Rica. If they would take the money and fix the roads, do something about all the traffic violations and do something about all the violent crime, they would not have to be putting out ads promoting Costa Rica. Word of mouth is the best advertising you can have. For the last few years I have been inviting all my family and friends to come visit Costa Rica. But no more. My wife, a Tica, has told me that with the shape the country has gotten into to, never ask anyone to come again, and I will not until things improve. When I left here in April, there was a one block long street close to me with one speed bump. When I came back in November the street had holes big enough to tear off a front wheel and two new speed bumps added big enough to tear out the bottom of your car. There was plenty of asphalt to have fixed the holes, but that would make sense. If the streets were in good enough shape and didn’t have a speed bump every few meters where people could drive at steady rate of 30 or 40 kph, maybe they would not be so inclined to drive so fast. Of course if the police would ever start giving tickets for speeding, running red light and driving on the wrong side of the road I am sure things would change, but I don’t have much faith in that when I see the police drive the same way. Bob Woodrow
Curridabat No paper for Christmas A.M. Costa Rica will not be published tomorrow, Christmas Day. But publication will resume for Friday, Dec. 26. No paper will be published for Jan. 1, either. Nevertheless, the news will be monitored continually and the paper will publish a special edition and notify subscribers to the daily digest in the event of a major breaking news story.
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| A.M. Costa Rica third newspage |
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Bus passengers not only have
to stand in line but must carry their luggage too, to pass through
Costa Rican exit controls and to enter Nicaragua. |
| Tractor-trailers
were backed up more than 5 miles at the Peñas Blancas border
crossing. Costa Rican officials blamed most of the delays on Nicaraguan
agents. |
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Making a run for the border
is harder than you think
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| Those
thinking about making a land trip to Costa Rica better wait until after
the Christmas holidays. Officials said they are handling some
10,000 exits a day as many Nicaraguans head back home for the holidays.
These Guillermo Solano photos from the Ministerio de |
Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública show the long lines of tractor trailers and of bus passengers. The truck line was more than 5 miles long at one point. The scene will repeat itself after Jan. 1 as the vacationers return to Costa Rica and their jobs. |
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Sala IV constitutional court
will hear appeal of Nicole Kater extradition order
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Sala IV constitutional court said Tuesday that it would hear the case of the U.S. fugitive mom Nicole Kater and ordered a temporary halt to her extradition. The woman is wanted in the United States to face a federal charge of international child abduction. The court was reacting to an unusual request by the nation's chief prosecutor, who said that an appeals court hearing that resulted in an order for her extradition violated her rights. The court also ordered that the appeals court, the Tribunal de Casación Penal de San Ramón, to send it the file on the case. |
The woman was arrested April 22,
and the child, Tierra Zion Gehl, now
8, is believed to be in California with her father, John Gehl. Ms. Kater has been fighting extradition and even sought refugee status. The request from the chief prosecutor, Francisco Dall’Anese Ruiz, said that she had been a victim of domestic violence. However, law enforcement officers said that she had not been living with the father for at least a year before a custody hearing in Humboldt County, California, Superior Court. Ms. Kater left California in August 2005, just before the custody hearing. Subsequent to her flight, a judge ordered that the father have full custody. And then the FBI stepped in. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
| A.M. Costa Rica fourth news page |
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Human Rights Commission gets
cases of two murdered journalists in Bolivia
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Special to A.M. Costa Rica
A hemispheric journalism advocacy group says it has submitted two Bolivia journalist murder cases to Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The group is the Inter American Press Association, and the cases are those of Juan Carlos Encinas and Carlos Quispe Quispe. The submissions were made on Dec. 19. Encinas, 39, was a freelance journalist. On July 29, 2001, a clash erupted between members of two local cooperatives engaged in limestone mining in the Catavi district of Los Andes province, in Bolivia. Encinas was carrying a video camera and tape recorder to cover the incident. Several shots rang out and he was injured, but the ambulance intended to take him to hospital for treatment took three hours to arrive. He died from internal bleeding. A year earlier, on July 5, 2000, his camera was smashed amid a shoot-up as he was covering another incident for the “Enlace” news program broadcast by La Paz television station Canal 21. Eight people were arrested and then released on bail. A court later ordered the arrest of three other people but now, seven years after the crime, they still remain at large. Quispe, 31, was a fifth-year communications student at the San Andrés University’s School of Social Sciences in La |
Paz. He had been hired as a trainee
at radio station FM 90.7, Radio Municipal in Pucarani while still at
school. On March 27 a demonstration by 300 people against the local mayor erupted into an invasion and destruction of the radio station, located on the first floor of the city hall. Quispe was identified as a Radio Municipal reporter. He was beaten with sticks and whips. The radio station was destroyed, and Quispe died from his wounds two days later. Over six months the case changed public prosecutors five times. The Inter American Press Association holds that in both cases there was violation of the principles of the American Convention on Human Rights contained in Articles 4 (right to life), 8 and 25 (right to access to justice) and 13 (right to freedom of expression). With these new Bolivian cases and in the framework of its Anti-Impunity Project the Inter American Press Association submitted a total of 22 investigations into murders of journalists since 1997. The autonomous Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is based in Washington, D.C. The other hemispheric human rights body is the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which is located in San José. The commission sometimes refers cases to the court. The commission will accept a case if there has been excessive delays in the home country or if justice has been denied. |
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$12 billion arms deal By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Brazil and France have signed a $12 billion defense deal that could lead to Latin America's first nuclear submarine. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio da Silva signed the agreement Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro with his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, who was in the city on a two-day visit. The submarine deal will involve Brazil's purchase of the technology to build four conventionally powered attack submarines and a nuclear-powered submarine. Separately, Brazil is expected to buy 50 Cougar transport helicopters built locally by the subsidiary of the European aerospace group EADS. Last week, Brazil presented a new defense plan which shifts the focus of its military toward protecting the Amazon and newly found massive, off-shore oil reserves. El Salvadorian troops coming home from Iraq By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Salvadoran President Elias Antonio Saca says his country is ending its military presence in Iraq at the end of this month. President Saca said Tuesday that El Salvador has fulfilled its mission in Iraq, and that the troops will leave sometime after Dec. 31, when the United Nations resolution that authorized the international coalition there expires. However, at about the same time Tuesday the Iraqi parliament in a quick voice vote followed to approve the presence of non-U.S. forces to remain in Iraq until July 31. This includes troops from Britain, Australia, Estonia and Romania, as well as El Salvador to remain in the country. It was not certain if this might cause Saca to change his mind. El Salvador has had troops in Iraq since 2003, as part of the coalition led by the United States. El Salvador is the only Latin American nation that still has military forces in Iraq. Fighting in Iraq has killed five Salvadoran soldiers and wounded 20 others since 2003. Some 200 Salvadoran troops are stationed in Iraq. |
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