Pacheco Urges Figueres To Honour Costa Rica By His Return
President Abel Pacheco made his strongest comments on the case yesterday, following the news that Figueres would not return, asking the former president to honour Costa Rica.

The president sent Figueres a short letter asking the former president to honour Costa Rica as he did during his presidency between 1994 and 1998.

"Mr. ex-President: having had the honour to occupy the presidential chair, means forever having the obligation to answer the questions being put to you by the people. Your duty is to present yourself and give explanations on the accusations made against you. If your respect to the people and the institutions do not compel you, then as an example of the life your father, you should feel obligated to do so."

The letter was sent to Figueres in Geneva, Switzerland, where the former president lives and until recently worked for the World Economic Forum.

Pacheco, during the celebrations of the 56th anniversary of the abolition of an army in Costa Rica, commented that "it is regrettable - very regrettable - that even though our other former presidents are in jail and only a court can decide if they are guilty or not, they had the 'gallardia' (the bravery) and respect of the laws of our country that made them presidents."

"José María is obligated, if only by his conscience, to come to Costa Rica and give face to justice. It is a duty of a gentleman and a patriot and of a man to demonstrate courage."

Pachecho said he cannot order that Figueres return nor can he order that he brought back by force. It is up to the Ministerio Público and the Fiscalía to make the demands and use the law to that end. By way of the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (Foreign Ministry), the Fiscalía can make a request for extradition, but that is beyond his powers as president.

"I frankly believed he would return. I knew his father José Figueres Ferrer and know his answer regarding his son."

José Figueres Ferrer - Don Pepe -  was three times president of Costa Rica. In 1948 he headed the revolutionary movement of National Liberation in protest for the government's disrespect of democratic suffrage, due to Teodoro Picado's administration's decision not to accept the decision of the people of the newly elected President Mr. Otilio Ulate Blanco.

Among many other achivements in his political life, he has the following: He established the "Junta Fundadora" (Founding committee) of the Second Republic of Costa Rica, which in time summoned a Constituent Assembly that drafted the 1949 Constitution of Costa Rica, and he exercised as President during a year and half.

Don Pepe he abolished the army, which is perhaps the most acclaimed and famous of his achievements. He also established the new official lyrics of the National Anthem and created the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) that ended the electrical power crisis that the country had suffered until then.
 

Costa Rica OKs Refugee Status for Cubans
A man who gained attention while trying to reach Florida aboard a 1959 Buick converted into a boat was among 20 Cubans held by U.S. authorities who were granted refugee status in Costa Rica, authorities said Wednesday.

The Cubans were transferred this week from the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay Cuba to Costa Rica.

Luis Grass Rodriguez first attempted the trip across the Florida Straits in a seagoing Chevrolet pickup in July 2002 and was sent back to Cuba. He tried again the following February, this time in a converted 1959 Buick sedan, and U.S. officials brought him to Guantanamo.

U.S. officials first asked the government to accept the 20 refugees last summer, shortly after they arrived at Guantanamo along with a larger group of rafters, all of whom originally had set out for Florida.

Grass Rodriguez and several others went on a brief hunger strike in September to protest their detention while awaiting the chance for asylum.

Costa Rica chose the 20 arriving Wednesday based on personal interviews with government officials, said Rogelio Ramos, Ministro de Seguridad Publica.

The refugees include a medical anesthesiologist, mechanics, and tourism experts among others, Ramos said, adding, "We're talking about a majority of people with very high education levels.

The United States has agreed to provide financial help to the refugees while they adapt to life in Costa Rica, Ramos said.

Free AIDS Testing at Caja Hospital and Clinics
Authorities at the Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social (CCSS) - commonly referred to at the Caja -  estimate 12.000 cases of HIV in Costa Rica, however, they only know only of 4.000, meaning there are some 8.000 out there who are infected but don't know it.

Of those known to be HIV positive, 1.897 cases are under treatment for AIDS and another 1.664 have died since 1983 when the first case of AIDS was discovered in Costa Rica.

The Caja reports that it spends about ¢8 million colones (us$17.500) each year on each AIDS patients only in pills and other medication.

Caja authorities are launching a campaign to find those who are infected but don't know it or too scared to go in for an examination, offering free testing at any Caja hospital or clinic in the country.

Caja statistics show that in the past a patient diagnosed HIV positive lived only 2 years before succuming to the virus, but now life expectancy can reach 20 years or more. In Costa Rica most of those infected are males between the ages of 15 and 49. The incidence of women contracting the virus is growing daily.

In the world there are 42.000.000 reported cases of AIDS.
 

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Police Intensify Downtown Patrols for the Holiday Season The Christmas season is officially underway in Costa Rica with the start of the "aguinaldo" - the Christmas bonus that all salaried employees - both in the public and private sector - receive each year in December. Employers are obligated to pay their employees the equivalent of one month's salary during the 1st and 15th of December. Government employees will get theirs on the 6th, the government announced this week. This means that shoppers with pockets full of cash are subject to being mugged by those taking advantage of the seasonal rush. As of yesterday monring, the Fuerza Pública added more than 1.000 police officers in addition to the 300 municipal police that will be ensuring a "safe Christmas". In addition to the uniformed officers, there will be more "undercover" operatives walking the downtown streets. The Fuerza Publica has already parked their mobile police station on Avenida Central, in front of the Parque Central. The trailer serves as a communications station as well as a temporary holding cell for those arrested and a place for citizens to make complaints. Rogelio Ramos, Minister of Public Security, said that his police force will keep an watchful eye on "habitual" criminals, criminals known to police and frequently in police custody. Police says that at night is when the criminal elements do their most work with the most number of assaults reported. Private Rescue Team Searching for Missing Tourists in Nicaragua A private rescue team has taken over the search for two missing tourists from England and the United States who set out to climb a Nicaraguan volcano and disappeared. Briton Nicholas Roth, 28, and Jordan Alexander Ressler, 23, of San Diego, were last seen as they left to climb the 4,600-foot Maderas volcano, 60 miles southeast of Managua, on Nov. 15. A search led by the Nicaraguan army was called off over the weekend, but a private team contracted by the parents of Ressler set up a field camp at the base of the Maderas and continued to look for the pair on Tuesday, said Mario Molina, owner to the Hotel Merida, the area's only major lodging center. Nicaragua still has personnel assigned to the search, and Red Cross members from Costa Rica have joined the effort, Molina said. The head of the private squad of searchers, 48-year-old Bruce Donaldson, is a former soldier directing a team of six Americans. He said Wednesday he remains optimistic the team will find Ressler and Roth alive - even though they haven't been seen in 15-plus days.