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President
Pacheco Denies Aid to Fugitive Plot Against
Venezuela
President
Abel Pacheco is denying that he or any of his
government officials have given any aid to an
alleged plot against the democratically-elected
President of Venezuela.
In a statement issued in Panama where he is
attending Panamanian centenary celebrations, Pacheco
said "our government has always been respectful
of all governments, especially those of our brother
republics."
Pacheco assures
that "President Chavez Frias himself is
conscious of the fact that with respect to any
coup d'etat, Costa Rica is the first nation in
line to defend institutional order."
According to a story
in the daily La Nacion, Pacheco
adds that he has no knowledge of what he describes
only as rumors that have come to the knowledge of
President Chavez Frias but that, under whichever
form, he will ask his Foreign Ministry to contact
the Venezuelan government and to make appropriate
investigations.
During a radio/TV
broadcast, Sunday, President Chavez Frias had
denounced the existence of "sectors within the
Costa Rican government who are giving aid to
coupsters, giving them assistance, financial
resources!" He had highlighted former
Confederation of Venezuelan Trade Unions (CTV)
president, Carlos Ortega and presented a
compromising tape-recording as evidence that
fugitive from Venezuelan justice, Ortega is abusing
the conditions of his political asylum in Costa Rica
by planning continued terrorist attacks against
Venezuelan interests.
Pacheco said he was
aware of Chavez Frias' reference to Ortega, but
will await confirmation of the specific complaint
adding that if a beneficiary of political asylum
is involved in any such activity, he will
immediately lose the privilege. Meanwhile,
he says that deputy Costa Rican Foreign Minister
Marco Vinicio Vargas will be briefed on the
situation this afternoon.
Opposition elements
in Venezuela are, however, already attempting to
exacerbate the diplomatic situation in claims that
President Hugo Chavez Frias is considering an
immediate suspension of oil shipments to Costa Rica
in parallel with a similar suspension ordered
against the Caribbean Dominican Republic last month
when Santo Domingo refused to take action against
coup conspiring Venezuelan ex-President Carlos
Andres Perez who had sought refuse in the Dominican
Republic under similar terms of political asylum.
Under the terms of
the San Jose Pact, Venezuela and Mexico have
undertaken to sell oil on extremely favorable credit
terms to a string of 11 nations in Central America,
including the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Cuba.
Powell in Nicaragua to discuss security, trade matters
US Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Nicaragua Tuesday for an official visit that will include talks on trade and security.
A key discussion item is Nicaragua's offer to destroy nearly 2,000 SAM-7 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles in its military warehouses.
The missiles were bought from the former Soviet Union by the leftist Sandinista government in the 1980s during their civil war with US-funded right-wing insurgents.
Nicaraguan soldiers serving in post-Saddam Hussein
Iraq are also likely to be on the agenda.
Some 115 Nicaraguan soldiers are currently in the region, as part of a force led by Spain responsible for parts of southern Iraq. A second group of 115 soldiers could be sent out, but officials have said their deployment depends on foreign assistance.
Powell, who spent the day in Panama at ceremonies commemorating that country's 100 years of independence, landed in a US airplane that also brought Nicaraguan President Enrique
Bolaños and Foreign Minister Norman Caldera.
Bolaños and Caldera, as well as army head Javier Carrion and Defense Minister Jose Guerra will meet with Powell on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Bolaños has been pushing for a broad Central American disarmament.
Nicaragua, along with Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador
and Costa Rica, are also in the final stages of negotiating a joint free-trade agreement with the United States.
Powell however is not likely to be bothered by anti-American protesters: starting at mid-day police outlawed all protests to the visit.
Earlier protesters gathered outside the US embassy here to vent their rage at US policy in Iraq well as the free trade agreement.
Panamanians Celebrate
Centennial
President Teddy Roosevelt wanted an interoceanic canal and Panamanian leaders wanted to separate from Colombia.
Out of the two visions came Panama, which on Monday marked its centennial with church bells and parades.
President Mireya Moscoso described the 100-year-old country on Monday as a "land of transit and a cosmopolitan nation open to ideas and customs, without discrimination or prejudices and open to the world."
The ceremony at the municipal palace was attended by fourteen presidents, including Costa Rica's Abel Pacheco,
Guatemala's Alfonso Portillo, Nicaragua's Enrique
Bolaños, Honduras' Ricardo Maduro, El Salvador's Francisco Flores,
the Dominican Republic's Hipolito Mejia and Taiwan's Chen Shui-bian.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived later and praised the progress Panama has made in the 14 years since U.S. troops deposed former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega.
Aguinaldo is Coming
December is a
month of festivities and family for the Christmas
holidays. To most workers it also mean an extra
paycheck, known as the "aguinaldo".
All workers in Costa Rica are paid in December a
bonus or aguinaldo that is equivalent to one month's
salary. If the worker has less than one year working
with the company, then the amount is pro-rated.
This year the government estimates will pay to
public employees more than 40.500 Million Colones in
aguinaldo, representing a 15% increase over the 2002
period.
The aguinaldo is paid in December, usually in two
installments coinciding with the pay periods of the
1st and 15th of the month. The government has said
it will pay it's aguinaldo on the 5th of December.
And unlike the years past, government authorities
has said that all public employees will be paid at
the same time this year.
According to Martha Castillo, Vice-Minister for the
Economy and Trade, she urges that consumers plan the
spending of their aguinaldo.
Her recommendations are to prepare a budget, make
only those purchases that are necessary and save the
rest. She also recommended that shoppers don't go
over their means in purchasing Christmas
gifts.
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11 million Venezuelans will take to the streets to guarantee the democratic process
President Hugo Chavez Frias says that more than 11 million Venezuelans will take to the streets to guarantee the democratic process against opposition plans to sabotage a signature gathering campaign aimed at petitioning an eventual revocatory referendum against his rule.
"We are ready to take them on," Chavez Frias said in his weekly, Sunday radio/TV broadcast live from the San Carlos Borromeo fort at Pampatar Bay on Venezuela's tourist paradise island Margarita. "we will take whatever constitutional means necessary to defend the election process from sectors which continue to conspire against my government."
"If they think they return to destabilizing the country, they should not be under any illusions that they will meet a 'permissive' Chavez Frias! With the power of the Constitution and loyal patriots in the Armed Force (FAN) and the Venezuelan people, they will not be able to force their will against the country ... more than 11 million Venezuelans will take to the streets to protect our democracy."
"They should not believe that they will be able to deceive the people one more time," Chavez Frias told his listeners and viewers across the nation, noticeably angered by recent revelations that former Venezuelan Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV) president Carlos Ortega (currently enjoying political asylum in Costa Rica) and the CTV's current president Manuel Cova had been caught plotting against the government in a taped telephone conversation. "They are very very wrong if they think that they can have another April 11 ... in Venezuela they will have another April 13 instead (referring to his restoration to power two days after the coup d'etat)!"
"There is no doubt in my mind that a 'hairy hand' is behind all of this but I reassure you that we will gather enough signatures together to put them all to flight ... they say they can gather, I don't know how many million signatures against me ... but it will be difficult for them to achieve and the tape recording shows their plans more clearly than the cock crows at dawn ... our intelligence services are on top of it!"
Following up on the diplomatic impasse with the Dominican Republic, President Hugo Chavez Frias says that "Gladly, relations between our two nations have got better ... just a few days ago, Interior & Justice (MIJ) Minister Lucas Rincon Romero was in Santo Domingo and today, Sunday, our ambassador, General (ret.) Francisco Belisario Landis is returning to his post there as a signal of our best intentions to improve relations."
Chavez Frias adds that he has given instructions to Foreign Minister (MRE) Roy Chaderton Matos to file complaint with the government of Costa Rica as a result of the taped telephone conversations and in consideration that as a fugitive from Venezuelan justice, Carlos Ortega is living in that country under circumstances of political asylum granted to him. "We are duty bound to alert the Costa Rican government of Ortega's criminal conspiracy against Venezuela!"
"My political adversaries should not permit these criminals, fugitives, corruptos to deceive them yet again ... they are thinking of destabilizing the country again ... I am going to call on the Organization of American States (OAS) and in the name of the government and the armed forces of Venezuela, I will guarantee security for the opposition signature campaign as well as our own ... but those who sign against me should know that in reality it is not to get rid of me but to secure a return of Carlos Andres Perez and old-time corruption!"
Brazil warned about consequences of possible US crisis
Former Brazilian planning minister Antonio Kandir warned on Monday about the consequences the country's economy might face if a "very serious crisis" hits the United States.
During the congress of the Latin American Institute of Iron and Steel, held in Rio de Janeiro, Kandir said Brazil would be very fragile should a crisis occur, with very low international reserves and a very high public debt.
Kandir said a possible crisis in the United States would lead to an enormous fiscal deficit in Brazil.
The ex-official, an opposition of the present government, hailed the "political-economic responsibility" taken by the government and its considerable reduction in public expenditure.
High fiscal burdens "increased irregularities in the economy, produced unfair trade practices, led to an escalation in crime
and reduced the stimulus for investments", said
Kandir.
He also pointed out that the perspective of a crisis in the United States would make it advisable to maintain "for some
years" high interest rates as a precaution measure.
He proposed to invest in education, scientific research and technology promotion, for in 15 years the production and commercialization processes will be very different in view of the advances in research and development.
Mexico protests new US law against bio-terrorism
Mexico has protested a US law against bio-terrorism to be implemented next month, a senior official said Monday.
The new law, which will take effect on Dec. 12, requires foreign exporters and producers to provide the US Food and Drug Administration with records including the description of the product, information on the exporters and producers and the planned date for the entry of shipment into the United States.
Mexican food producers and exporters will be affected by this measure which, according to some businessmen of the sector, will turn into a "lock" that leaves half of Mexican companies outside the US market.
However, Mexican Agriculture Minister Javier Usabiaga said on Monday that Mexico is forced to abide by the new law, as it is part of the internal legislation of the United States.
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