Quick Links: -  Costa Rican Murder Spurs U.S. Bill -  Immigration Investigating Soccer Players -  New Road to San Carlos -  Bruce Harris Wins Second Case In Guatemala -  Nations Try to Bridge Americas Trade Deal Divide -  Super Bowl A Hit for Sports Books -  Mail to US, Canada and Costa Rica Held Up at London Heathrow Airport -  Former Argentine first lady under corruption investigation

Costa Rican Murder Spurs U.S. Bill
A woman whose 23-year-old daughter, Shannon Martin, was murdered in Costa Rica urged senators Monday to endorse a bill making victims of crimes overseas eligible for compensation from the state.

Jeanette Stauffer, of Topeka, Kansas, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that passage of the measure would show victims and their families that the state cares about them. Her daughter, Shannon Martin, was a student at the University of Kansas who was stabbed to death in May 2001 in Golfito, Costa Rica, while doing research for a thesis.

Stauffer said she and her husband spent $5,200 just to return her daughter's body to the United States and that their expenses eventually reached more than $100,000.

"Not only were we dealing with the gut-wrenching pain of losing a daughter, we had to rely on people in Costa Rica to choose the casket, prepare her for burial and return her body in time for the planned funeral," she said. "My husband and I were overwhelmed by all of the red tape we had to endure."

The state established a victims' compensation program in 1978, as a last resort for victims who could not have their expenses covered by an offender, the federal government, the workers' compensation system, disability benefits or some other source. A state board determines whether a victim receives money.

However, under Kansas law, a victim or victim's family cannot make a claim if the crime occurred outside the United States and is not the result of terrorism.

"It's too late for Shannon's family, but it's hoped this bill would help others," said Sen. Dave Jackson, R-Topeka, a backer of the measure.

Last year, Costa Rican judges sentenced two men to 15 years in prison each for Martin's murder. Stauffer said her daughter, who'd spent the spring and summer of 2000 in Golfito doing research, had returned for only a week more in 2001. Her assailants attacked her as she left a nightclub close to her residence.

"She screamed and fought while the killers brutally stabbed her 14 times," Stauffer said. "She knew she was being killed."

The committee took no action on the bill Monday. However, Chairman John Vratil, R-Leawood, said after the meeting that he expects the panel to endorse it.
 

Immigration Investigating Soccer Players
Costa Rican authorities are investigating the immigration status of about 30 foreign-born soccer players who were brought to the country to play for first-division clubs.
 
Immigration officials want to ensure that all the players invited to join squads in Costa Rica entered the country legally and have remained on valid visas, according to Belisario Solano, sub-director of Immigration.

Solano said authorities had received several complaints that some soccer stars were being permitted to enter Costa Rica without proper documentation and that others were allowed to remain in the country illegally, long after their temporary residency visas had expired.

"We are going to be very strict," Solano said at a news conference on Monday.

Authorities will begin by checking the immigration status of foreign players on the Club Sport Cartagines squad, including Argentines Carlos Diaz, Jose Luis Zelaya and Ariel Segalla, as well as Claudio Ciccia of Uruguay.

Players on eleven other teams in the top division will also be investigated, he said.

Costa Rican soccer rules allow each first division team to sign a maximum of four foreign players. Most of the foreigners playing professionally here are from Central and South America.
 

New Road to San Carlos
Some 30 years in waiting, this April will see the start of construction of the highway to San Carlos, northwest of San José.

On MOnday, the Costa Rican Chancellery signed an donation agreement between China, Taiwan and Costa Rica.

The new road will connect San Ramón with Cuidad Quesada and San Carlos. The 29 Kilimeter road will cost about $62.000.000 U.S. Dollars.

According to Javier Chávez, Ministro de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT), the contract for the work is read and will be sent to the Contraloría General de la República (Comptroller's office) for approval.
 

Bruce Harris Wins Second Case In Guatemala
The First Penal Judge of First Instance closed a criminal accusation presented against Bruce Harris in 1997 by the ex-Judge Aida Marizuya Rabasso for the supposed crime of “lack of respect for a Judge”.

The decision was known soon after the conclusions of another suit against Harris by the 12th Criminal Sentencing Court, which absolved Harris of the crimes (under Guatemalan law) of slander, calumny and defamation in an accusation placed against him by the notary Susana Luarca de Umaña.

The two cases are closely related as both accusations were placed against Harris after a press conference held by the Solicitor General and Casa Alianza on September 11th, 1997 that revealed a series of anomalies in international adoptions from Guatemala.

Harris mentioned the name of Judge Marizuya, then an employee of the judiciary, because she would send babies, declared by her to be in abandonment, to the “Association Los Niños de Guatemala”, which then adopted the babies to foreign couples at between US$ 15,000 and US$ 20,000 each. The legal advisor to this organization was the notary Susana Luarca de Umaña.

It was on January 30th, 2004 that the 12th Criminal Sentencing Court absolved Harris of all accusations and civil responsibility presented by Luarca de Umaña, former wife of the ex-President of the Guatemalan Supreme Court.

Then Judge Marizuya presented the demand against Harris on October16th, 1997 – a few days after the notary’s accusation – as she considered Harris’ declarations had offended her honor as a First Judge of First Instance of Minors. The judge accused Harris of “lack of respect for a judge” under articles 410 and 411 of the Criminal Code, despite the fact that those articles had been declared in violation of the American Convention of Human Rights.

More than six years later, the First Penal Judge of First Instance accepted a petition by the Public Prosecutor to reject the case and file it, which was just notified to Harris, the accused. The Public Prosecutor determined that they could not proceed against Harris for lack of respect for a judge as Marizuya, who has since been separated from her job, pretended.

“We are very pleased because this accusation against me was directly related to the comments I made regarding international adoptions in 1997 at a press conference. Now we have two cases within a short period of time which should be considered as two steps forward for Guatemala’s freedom of expression and for the well being of the country’s children”, Harris said.

In Guatemala, Article 35 of the Constitution states that “no crime is committed by publications that contain complaints, criticism or claims and against functionaries or State employees for actions taken whilst in power”, which is why the ex-judge was not in a position to accuse Harris of any crime.
 

Nations Try to Bridge Americas Trade Deal Divide
Nations negotiating a free trade pact for the Americas are tentatively bridging differences that have stalled a planned agreement between 34 countries, documents obtained by Reuters showed on Monday.

A draft proposal from the United States, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica and Mexico, addressing among other issues elimination of export subsidies, was handed to South America's Mercosur bloc in recent days, said a source close to talks.

"It seemed to have been very welcomed by the Mercosur," the source said on condition of anonymity ahead of Tuesday's opening of meetings in Mexico to discuss the pact.

Some countries, led by the United States, are in favor of a more comprehensive free trade agreement for the Americas, while the Mercosur nations, mainly Brazil and Argentina, are worried about giving up too much to U.S. interests.

Trade officials are meeting in the Mexican city of Puebla this week to map out a way to reach a Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement, or FTAA, by next January's deadline.

A U.S. trade official warned two weeks ago that plans to complete the Western Hemisphere trade pact this year could be at risk if nations are unable to agree on the details of a compromise plan in Puebla.

The source said the meeting could go a long way toward sealing the accord.

"If they and the Mercosur can reach an agreement, it (an FTAA) is practically a done deal," the source said of the proposal.

The proposal to Mercosur countries, which also include Paraguay and Uruguay, shows that the United States and the bloc are getting closer to a compromise on key FTAA demands, including reducing regional, trade-distorting export subsidies.

The text of the proposal calls for "eliminating export subsidies in the region as defined in the World Trade Organization Agreement on Agriculture, while dissuading the use of export subsidies by non-member countries in the FTAA."

Scrapping export subsidies, which are particularly heavy for U.S. agricultural products, is a key demand of Argentina and Brazil.

 

 

Agenda Nacional  de la Niñez Casa Alianza