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An Average of
Three Deported Every Day
According to
figures released by the Dirección General de
Migración y Extranjería del Ministerio de
Seguridad Pública., every 24 hours 3 foreigners are
deported from Costa Rica and 107 are refused entry
at the various entry ports.
Immigration officials have deported a total of 889
persons between January 1 and October 27 of this
year. The majority are Nicaraguan and Colombian
nationals.
According to the report, Nicaraguans take first
place for deportations at 631, while Colombians are
in second place with 115 deportees.
The report shows that 31.810 persons where either
refused entry or immediately turned back once
discovered that they had entered the country
illegally during the first 10 months of the year.
Costa Rica Main
Destination for the Sexual Exploitation of Women;
Report
A Mexican
publication indicates that Costa Rica is the final
destination for a Latin American network dedicated
the sexual exploitation of women of ages between 12
and 17 years.
So, it is assures the Mexican publication
"Universal". In it's online edition of
November 6, a report by the Inter-American
Commission of Women.
In the report it is said that a network that
traffics women originates in the Dominican Republic
and after passing by several other countries, the
principal destination is Costa Rica.
The publication says
that Costa Rica is also receiving women from other
countries like Bulgaria, Russia and the Philippines.
All of them are victims of sexual exploitation,
according to the Mexican newspaper.
And according to the
publication, taking part in the network are lawyers
and government employees.
Ecuadorean Refugees
Head for Home
A group of Ecuadorean refugees that had been rescued after four days adrift at sea left Costa Rica on Saturday for home aboard an Ecuadorean Navy ship, the Costa Rican Coast Guard reported.
The 101 Ecuadoreans were picked up Nov. 9 and transferred to a holding station on Costa Rica's Coconut Island in the Pacific Ocean. They were on their way to the United States when their boat's engine broke down.
The refugees left on the Calicuchima, a ship sent by Ecuador's Navy, according to a written statement by Coast Guard Director Carlos Alvarado.
Of the 101 refugees, 32 were women and children.
The refugees were sunburned and suffering from dehydration when picked up by Costa Rican authorities. They left "healthy and safe," Alvarado said.
Family of Murdered
Man Says Foreign Affairs Failing Canadians Overseas
The family of a New Brunswick man murdered in Costa Rica says Canada's Foreign Affairs Department should take lessons from countries like China when it comes to helping citizens in foreign lands.
Bob Whipple of Saint John, N.B., says he remains bitter about the way the Canadian Embassy in Costa Rica responded to the murder of his 25-year-old son, Brad, who was gunned down last year in San
Jose.
Whipple says Foreign Affairs officials deserve much of the criticism they are currently getting from people like William Sampson and Maher Arar, who have accused the department of mishandling their cases and a string of others involving Canadians suffering overseas.
"I realize the Foreign Affairs Department is taking a lot of heat these days, but I think much of it is well deserved," says Whipple.
"Mr. Arar and Mr. Sampson should be pleased that at least Foreign Affairs is speaking to them. We were met with a resounding silence."
Sampson and Arar - both Canadian citizens - say they were tortured and forced to sign bogus confessions in foreign countries while Canadian officials did little to help them.
Sampson was accused of planning a deadly bombing in Saudi Arabia, while Arar was accused of consorting with terrorists in Afghanistan
after he was deported from the United States to Syria.
Whipple's son, a graduate of the University of New Brunswick, was in San Jose to teach English, fulfilling a lifelong dream to live and work in a foreign country. He was murdered Oct. 21, 2002, as he was walking home with a friend. A gang surrounded them, possibly to commit a robbery, and Brad was shot to death.
21 Leaders Prize
Ibero-American Summit's Bilaterals
Leaders of Latin America, Spain and Portugal worked as hard on bilateral meetings as they did on the wider agenda of their two-day summit: trade, discrimination and UN reform.
The annual summit allows the 21 leaders from Spain, Portugal and their former American colonies to set common policies. But much of the action is in the wings.
However, the summit did formally approve the establishment of a permanent secretary general to represent the group. The new post will be defined at the next summit in Costa Rica.
Bolivian President Carlos Mesa opened the session calling on the group to create its own trade bloc. On the sidelines, Mexican President Vicente Fox and Uruguayan President Jorge Batlle signed a free-trade pact -- Mexico's first with a Mercosur country.
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Colombia explosions leave one dead, 72 injured
Grenade explosions hit two bars in a popular Bogota nightclub district late Saturday night, leaving 72 people injured, one woman dead, police said Sunday.
Of the injured, 19 are in critical conditions.
Rescuers reached the scene soon after the attack and police cordoned off the area of the blast.
Initial investigation showed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the largest leftist guerrilla group in the country, should be responsible for the explosions, which took place at 11 p.m. local time in the upscale Zona Rosa district in northern Bogota.
Three Americans and one German were among the injured, said Bogota police chief Daniel Castro.
Saturday's attack was a terror act against civilians by FARC, Castro said.
The police have detained a suspicious 25-year-old man.
Colombia's four-decade-old civil war pits the leftist guerrillas, government forces and the far right paramilitaries against each other. About 3,500 people, mostly civilians, are killed in the fighting each year.
Attacks against US forces in Iraq endanger Bush's re-election
The re-election process of US President George W. Bush is being endangered by repeated attacks against US forces deployed in Iraq, a US expert on Arab issues told Costa Rica's newspaper National on Sunday.
The present troubling situation in Iraq and repeated insurgent attacks against US soldiers are threatening Bush's re-election process in November next year, said Husein Ibish, director of Communications of Arabian-American Committee against Discrimination.
The US forces' military occupation in Iraq is an important factor affecting next year's presidential election, despite the fact that Bush's re-election is heavily dependent on whether the US economy gains steam.
The Iraq war might be a potential tragedy for those who started the war as all excuses leading to the war are based on illusive information, he said, adding that those people are losing credibility for they failed to show weapons of mass destruction inIraq and to prove the ties between the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime and the terrorist group Al-Qaeda.
Ibish recalled that the United States once paid dearly when some US leaders brought the country into meaningless wars like
the Vietnam war.
On the future of Iraq, Ibish said the saying that the main purpose of the Iraq war is to promote democracy in the Middle East is only illusions of some "new conservatives" in the United States.
The latest accident involving US forces is a crash of two US helicopters in northern Iraq Saturday killing 12 coalition soldiers, which brings the death toll of US soldiers to more than 50 this month.
Facing the mounting security pressure in Iraq, the United States has decided to shift the security responsibility to the Iraqis to reduce US casualties before next year's presidential election by selecting a transitional government in Iraq earlier than scheduled.
UN officials condemn bombing in Turkey
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned Saturday the terrorist attacks on two synagogues in Istanbul, Turkey.
Annan said he was appalled at the loss of life and extended his condolences to the Turkish Government and the families of the victims. The UN chief urged that all measures be taken to bring to justice those responsible for the heinous acts.
Meanwhile, Bertrand Ramcharan, acting High Commissioner for Human Rights also issued a statement Saturday, condemning the terrorist bombings in Istanbul.
Ramcharan said it was "particularly disturbing" that the bombers targeted places of worship. He reiterated that nothing can justify such wanton attacks against civilians. "These acts are a complete denial of human rights, and first among them the right to life," he said.
"Whatever their claims, those who carry out this type of attack-- whether they act as they have done recently in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; against civilians and places of worship in Iraq, and in too many other places to count -- are criminals that must be brought to justice in accordance with international human rights law," he added.
Car bombs exploded almost simultaneously outside two Istanbul synagogues crowded with worshipers Saturday, killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 300.
Turkish officials initially said the blasts were probably caused by explosive-laden vehicles activated by remote control or timer, but Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said later the explosions could also be the work of suicide bombers.
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