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Costa Ricans Protest
Trade Agreement With US
Social groups and trade unions of Costa Rica demonstrated in
San José on Monday against negotiations by countries of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States.
The eight round of talks between the U.S. and the
Central American countries began Monday morning in
Houston, Texas.
Costa Rica will hold a bilateral meeting with US negotiators to see their proposals on telecommunications. The meeting follows Washington's warning that Costa Rica could be left out of the free trade agreement which also involves El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Trade unions, environmentalists and religious groups took to the streets to march in front of the Foreign Trade Ministry and concluded their demonstration outside the Costa Rica Congress.
The demonstrators carried placards accusing the government of intending to sell the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), which monopolizes the telecommunications and energy sectors of the country.
Other individuals shouted phrases against ex-president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oscar Arias, calling him a
traitor. Arias has defended CAFTA.
Albino Vargas, chief of the National Association of Public and Private Employees (ANEP), told the press that the opening up of telecommunications would represent the closing of ICE, because it would not be able to survive the competition with transnational firms.
Amid demonstrations, Minister for the Presidency, Ricardo Toledo, maintained: "The treaty under negotiation is to benefit every Costa Rican." He repeated that public employees in the demonstrations would not receive any salary.
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Trade Talks Timing important for U.S. approval
If trade negotiators from Central America meeting
in Houston, Texas, this week get their way, immigrants from their countries living in the United States may one day find themselves doing business with banks from their homelands.
So-called "national treatment" for banks in the United States and Central America is one investment matter under discussion by countries involved in the Central America Free Trade Agreement talks, which got under way Monday.
"U.S. banks could set up shop in Central America and be treated as national banks, like Central American-owned banks, or vice versa," said Miguel Lacayo, El Salvador's minister of the economy.
Lacayo made the comments Monday in an interview from El Salvador, while a team of negotiators from that and four other Central American countries met in Houston for the eighth of nine rounds of
year long talks.
If signed, CAFTA would be the first regional trade accord the United States has signed since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993.
If not, the timing gets embroiled in the U.S.
elections.
The countries involved are Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras,
El Salvador and Nicaragua.
Negotiators expect to wrap up discussions on several chapters of the agreement this week, including the services and investment portion of the accord.
Tough negotiations, such as allowing private investment in Costa Rica's national telecommunications and electricity company, will probably not be discussed here, a Costa Rican negotiator said.
Continental Sets
Up New Flights to Costa Rica
Continental Airlines on Monday announced that it will introduce nonstop service between Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Liberia, Costa Rica, on Jan. 31, 2004, subject to government approval.
Liberia will be the ninth destination in Central America served by Continental, which currently offers service to every capital city in Central America from Houston and to six Central American destinations from New York/Newark.
Continental will operate a 124 seat Boeing 737-700 on the route, with flights timed for connections at Bush Intercontinental Airport to and from dozens of destinations throughout the United States, Canada and Europe on the nonstop service to Liberia.
Three weekly flights on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday will depart from Houston Intercontinental Airport at 3:30 p.m., arriving in Liberia at 6:53 p.m. The return flight will depart Liberia on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 8 a.m., arriving in Houston at 11:50 a.m.
Continental is based in Houston.
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44 paramilitaries surrender in Colombia
A total of 44 Colombian paramilitaries laid down their arms under the close watch of the Marines, a spokesman of the Colombian navy said on Monday.
The spokesman said the illegal combatants handed over their arms and supplies near the Solano Bay.
They decided to surrender after the government promised that they would receive educational, legal and social support in their effort to return to normal life.
According to official figures, some 2,500 rebels and paramilitaries have laid down their arms in the past 14 months thanks to the promise made by President Alvaro
Uribe.
Currently, Bogota is making progress in the peace process with the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, the principal paramilitary group in the country. It is expected that its 13,000 combatants will completely demobilize by December 2005.
Colombian president rejects rebel conditions for hostage release
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe rejected on Monday the conditions set by the guerrilla organization, the National Liberation Army (ELN), for the release of a Spanish citizen who was kidnapped along with seven other foreign tourists.
"The government cannot allow that a kidnapping, which is a terrorist act, becomes an international show and a reason to internationalize terrorism," Uribe told the press.
The guerrilla group had demanded on Monday a withdrawal of government troops from the mountainous region of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the presence of international observers and the release of one of its leaders, in exchange for the freedom of a Spanish citizen, Asier Huegun
Echeverria.
The decision to free Echeverria "is a gesture of solidarity with the Basque people," said Francisco Galan, a spokesman for
ELN, from his cell in Itagui prison. The ELN had set the release of Galan as one of its conditions.
The Spanish hostage of Basque origin was kidnapped by the ELN on Sept. 12 in northern Colombia, at the archaeological site of Ciudad Perdida, along with four Israelis, two Britons and a German.
One of the British hostages, Matthew Scott, managed to escape and is now back in London.
"The Basque people, like our people, have suffered from the exclusion of the Spanish government. Thus, we have taken the decision to liberate the Basque citizen," said the ELN's central command in a statement.
The ELN has asked to have Felipe Torres, another ELN spokesman who recently completed his prison term, along with a Catholic Church commission, to coordinate the security conditions and details of the release of the hostage.
"We expect that the commission of the Catholic Church accompanies us and that it coordinates with our spokesmen Francisco and Felipe to create the necessary conditions to facilitate the liberation," said the statement read by
Galan.
Uribe rejected the ELN's conditions, but said he would "allow the mediation of the Catholic Church" to look for acceptable ways toward the release of the hostages.
US Working closely with UK, France and Germany on Iran: US spokesman
The United States said Monday it is working closely with Britain, France and Germany on Iran's nuclear program and the investigation of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA).
"We all support full compliance with the IAEA and Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) requirements without delay or conditions," State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters.
"It is our view that Iran's obligations under the NPT and the IAEA safeguards agreement are non-negotiable," he said. "We are confident that the foreign ministers will make this clear to Iran if they travel there and the need for such compliance."
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer arrived in Tehran late Monday, telling reporters he hoped for a constructive dialogue on the issue. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and his French counterpart Dominique de Villepin will join Fischer for meeting with Iranian officials Tuesday.
The IAEA has set an Oct. 31 deadline for Iran to prove it is not using its atomic energy program as a cover for developing nuclear weapons.
The United States accuses Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is only for generating electric power.
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