Today's Stories: Costa Rica Expands List of Oil Suppliers UBC Student Drowns in Costa Rica Ticos Excel in Technology Favorite Destination U.S. Latino Leaders Not United on CAFTA News Briefs

Costa Rica in Crisis Unions, Truckers and Government Talk What Visitors Think What of Today and Tomorrow: Our Opinion Fotos of the Protests     Monday - Thursday

NEWS BRIEFS: Father Minor Calvo, the priest who is accused of being the principal author in the murder of journalist, Parmenio Medin, has been remanded to four more months of preventive detention. Calvo had been release on bail following his first arrest and re-arrested May 28 when it was discovered that he was involved in the threatening of several witnesses in the case. Calvo will remain in preventive detention until December 28, when his detention will be reviewed. Six foreigners were detained by immigration police whe they arrived at the Juan Santamaria airport in a small private plane en route from Golfito. The foreigners carried valid passports, however, did not have the required entry stamp by Costa Rican officials. All six were from South America, however, immigration officials did not disclose the exact country of origin.

Although Venezuela continues to be the single most supplier of combustible products, other nations and private companies are taking a larger role in the country's purchase of the product.

In 2001, 55% of all petroleum products imported by the the Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo (Recope) was purchased from Petróleos de Venezuela, S. A. (PDVSA).

This year alone 9.6 million barrels of oil were purchased during the period of January and July of this year, however, only 31.82% were supplied by the Venezuelans.

The United States, Brazil and Colombia are increasingly filling the gap in the supply of petroleum products to Costa Rica.

This increase was due to several major events that stopped the flow of oil from Venezuela - in November 2002 and February 2003, a strike at PDVSA dropped the oil flow by 30% and in January and February of this year, Venezuela sold no combustible products.

In addition, the management at Recope has evaluated the possibility of a major shortage of oil in Costa Rica, if it continues depending solely on one country.

The United States, Brazil and Colombia have been making up the difference in the last year. In the 2001 and 2002 period Brazil and Colombia supplied no oil, however, in 2003, Brazil wass fifth on the list of suppliers and this year, along with Colombia, provided 10.86% of the oil products.

The United Kingdom, France and Holland have been supplying Costa Rica with petroleum, however, the lower cost of import from places close by like Brazil and Colombia make it economically more viable for Costa Rica.

Last year, Costa Rica purchased $526 million dollars of crude oil. This year it has purchased $339 million dollars to date, a 26% increase over the same period last year, which is mainly to the higher cost of the product.

Recope in Costa Rica is a state owned company that purchases crude oil and then refines it into gasoline products for consumption in Costa Rica. Recope is the only supplier of gasoline in Costa Rica; gasoline retailers having to buy from Recope, which also sets the retail price for each liter of gasoline sold.

The current price for a liter of gasoline is ¢312.5 colones per litre for regular and ¢326 colones per litre for super. A price increase has been submitted by Recope to the regulating authority, which is expected to increase the price of a litre of gasoline by ¢22 colones.
 

UBC Student Drowns in Costa Rica
A 19-year-old University of British Colombia, Canada (UBS) student who once dreamed of being a synchronized swimmer in the Olympics has drowned in a river-rafting accident in Costa Rica.

Christina Dennett was part of a group of student volunteers on the last day of a three-day camping and rafting trip on the Pacuare River at a well-known whitewater spot near the town of Siquirres.

The former provincial-level swimmer was pinned under rocks and couldn't swim against the current, a trip organizer said.

Dennett was in Costa Rica with International Student Volunteers, a Los Angeles-based organization that combines educational, cultural and adventure programs worldwide for students.

The tragedy came three days after the students had completed a two-week community-service project. They had just begun the recreational portion of their month-long trip.

Rafael Galo, owner of Rios Tropicales whitewater-rafting company, said Thursday that six boats, including Dennett's, were in the water when the accident occurred at about 1 p.m. at a well-known spot named el Rapido de los Indios on the river.

He said Dennett's raft had already traversed the toughest parts of the river when it hit rocks, dumping all eight passengers into the 40-metre-wide waterway, which was shallower than normal.

The other students quickly swam to the safety of boats in the area, but Dennett was unable to swim against a rapid current which pinned her under rocks a metre below the surface.

"The force of the water got her in a funnel. It was like going through a funnel and not being able to fit," Galo said. "She fell in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Unable to swim to Dennett, guides clung to ropes while they tried to reach her. By the time four of them hauled her out, she had already drowned.

Her body was taken by boat to police waiting at the takeout point at the town of Siquirres.

Ticos Excel in Technology
Cisco Systems highlighted Costa Rica for its performance in technology and is betting on maintaining its investment in Latin America, by confirming the meaning and need that for the region has the modernization of information technologies.

Cisco's Americas International president Keith Goodwin pointed out that all of the residents in Costa Rica will be plugged to the Internet in the short term.

He added that it is a fact that businessmen, the government, and educational institutions in this Central American nation are fully aware of the fact that technology is the best answer to increase productivity in a world featuring strong competition.
 

Favourite Destination
The Spanish traveler, considered the one that consumes the most and spends the most among European tourists, has Costa Rica as his favorite destination, 40 percent of those who came to Central America visited it.

Costa Rica was also the favorite destination for all Europeans, since it attracted 34 percent of those visiting Central America.

The data were disclosed by tourist sector sources, who assert that this year Central America will break the 5-million tourist barrier.

U.S. Latino Leaders Not United on CAFTA
By EVELYN IRITANI, Los Angeles Times

An emotional battle is brewing in the U.S. Latino community over whether a proposed free trade agreement with five Central American nations and the Dominican Republic will bring greater prosperity or despair to the immigrants who have settled in the United States and the relatives they've left behind.

The Central American Free Trade Agreement would drastically lower tariffs on U.S. farm products, consumer goods and services sold in that region and make it easier for those countries to export their products, including sugar and apparel, to the United States.

CAFTA, must still be ratified by the U.S. Congress and the governments of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

Yet many prominent Latino organizations — including the League of United Latin American Citizens; the Salvadoran American National Network, and the Central American Resource Center — oppose CAFTA. They have argued that it would hasten the outsourcing of U.S. jobs and encourage the exploitation of poor Central American workers and the environment.

The tensions over CAFTA are reminiscent of the impassioned debate that divided the Mexican-American community a decade ago when the Clinton administration pushed through the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada.

Those divisions were on full display recently when CAFTA supporters held a conference for Latino business leaders in Los Angeles featuring El Salvador's president, Tony Saca, and the ambassadors of El Salvador and Nicaragua.

While Saca accused CAFTA's critics of turning a job-creating trade pact into a "political piñata," Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., told the crowd that he "believed in a CAFTA but not this CAFTA" because the protections for workers were not as strong as for products and intellectual property.

"I learned from NAFTA that good intentions are no substitute for enforceability of rules," said Becerra, a lawyer who supported NAFTA's passage.

Latino business leaders such as Mauricio Fux, senior vice president at Los Angeles-based La Curacao, defended the trade pact. They said it would help the struggling economies of Central America compete against China and reduce shipping costs and other barriers that have prevented Latino entrepreneurs from exploiting opportunities back home.

"By lowering the duty rates on both sides, it will give us more confidence in investing in those regions," said Fux, whose company operates several large department stores in Southern California, exports goods throughout Latin America and owns the U.S. franchise for the popular Guatemalan restaurant Pollo Campero.

The split in the Latino community further complicates the prospects for CAFTA, which has been signed by President Bush but is opposed by Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry and labor groups. Kerry has said he would not approve CAFTA unless it was revised to include stronger protections for workers and the environment.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus hasn't taken an official position on CAFTA because its 20 Democratic members have been unable to reach a consensus. Reps. Hilda Solis, D-Calif., and Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., have joined Becerra in opposing the agreement, and no caucus member has publicly supported the measure, according to Maria Meier, executive director of the caucus.