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Pacheco to Visit
Colombia, Mexico, U.S. and Spain
The Presidential House has announced that beginning next Saturday and up to
the 6th of March, President Abel Pacheco, will be traveling outside of Costa
Rica for visits to Colombia, Mexico, the United States and Spain.
February 21 will kick off the trip with an official visit to Colombia,
responding to an invitation by Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, when he
visited Costa Rica last June. Pacheco is expected to visit Cartagena and
Bogotá.
A few days later he will visit Mexico, who according to Chancellor Roberto
Tovar, Pacheco will take the opportunity to invite Mexican President Vicente
Fox to an official visit to Costa Rica.
His trip will continue with a visit to New York City on Wednesday the 25th
where he wil receive the Kolbe Peace Prize given to him by the Catholic
Family and Human Rights Institute. The prize is in recognition of Costa
Rica's fight against the cloning of human embryos.
Following his stay in New York City, Pacheco will head south to Miami for a
few days, and then off to Spain before returning to Costa Rica on the 6th of
March.
In Spain, Pacheco is scheduled to meet with the member countries of the
Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica (BCIE). It is expected that
during the meeting and Pacheco's visit, Spain will be installed as a member
of the BCIE.
Pacheco will be accompanied on his trip by his wife Leila Rodríguez, and by
Chancellor Roberto Tovar. Also along for the trip will be Presidential House
press and protocol bosses Alejandro Brokke and Jorge Arce, respectively.
Pirate Taxis Will Meet to Plan Protests
Today Sunday, at 1pm, "pirate" taxis will meet at the plaza de Jardines de
Moravia to discuss what measures they will take to fight the latest
government move to put them out of business.
According to Carlos León, a spokesperson for the group, they expect more
than 5.000 of the 75.000 "piratas" that are in the country.
This past week, the Minister of Obras Publicas y Transporte (MOPT), Javier
Chaves, signed an agreement with the ARESEP - the government body that
regulates public prices and services - for a fine of ¢600.000 to ¢1.200.000
colones and the confiscation of vehicles of "pirate" taxis.
US Embassy Closed
Monday
The U.S. Embassy will be closed on Monday the 16th
of February in observance of President's Day in the United States.
Radio Program in
Costa Rica on the Five Broadcast
The “De cara a la realidad” program, broadcast by Radio Columbia, one of the
most heard radio stations in Costa Rica, talked about the situation of the
five Cuban political prisoners in the US.
Presented by journalist Camilo Rodriguez, the program was attended by Cuban
artists Leonel Pérez Pérez and María de las Nieves Morales, members of the
Ad Libitum duet, who explained the unjust sentences suffered by these
anti-terrorist fighters.
According to the Cuban consulate in Costa Rica, they also referred to the
violations of human rights against The Five, including the refusal of visas
to the wives of Gerardo Hernandez and Rene Gonzalez, which also affects
Ivette, Rene’s youngest daughter.
During the half-hour broadcasting, the musicians performed some of the songs
of the “Si no creyera en la esperanza” recital, dedicated to the Five Heroes
of the Republic of Cuba.
Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labañino, Fernando Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez and
Rene Gonzalez have appealed to the 11th Circuit of Atlanta for the amount of
arbitrarieness committed against them during the trial in Miami, which even
violate the US constitutional laws.
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Colombia: Militia Invades Peace Communities
Rightist paramilitaries took over two self-styled "peace
communities" of resettled peasants in a jungle area in northwestern
Colombia, a non-governmental organization said here Thursday.
The Interdenominational Commission of Peace and Justice said the raids
occurred early Wednesday morning in Nueva Esperanza and Pueblo Nuevo,
encampments of black families who had been driven out of their former homes
by violence linked to Colombia's four-decade-long civil war.
Both communities are located along the mutual boundary of Antioquia and
Choco provinces, and they have contingents from Peace Brigades International
and the interdenominational committee placed there.
The first raid took place in Nueva Esperanza, with 30 armed men entering and
"filming the place with a video camera" as they announced that they planned
to stay in the area, the NGO said in a communique. The government was
informed of the raids on Wednesday, said the NGO, which called for
solidarity with the peace communities.
Mexico: Fox
rallies to wife's defense
President Vicente Fox rallied to the defense of first lady Marta
Sahagún on Thursday after Congress ordered an audit of a charity that she
runs, and legislators proposed a law that would prevent her from running for
the presidency in 2006.
The moves capped more than a week of heated debate over Sahagún's
involvement in politics and her role as head of the Vamos Mexico charity
foundation, which has been tardy in presenting a detailed accounting of its
income and expenses.
Fox on Thursday denied accusations that executive branch funds may have been
used to support Sahagún's foundation.
''This investigation, and any other investigation that aims to make
government accounts more transparent, is welcome,'' Fox said in broadcast
remarks. ``This administration has nothing to hide, and thus nothing to
fear.''
''We do disagree, however, when these audits are used with ill intent to sow
mistrust in the public's mind,'' Fox said. He added that presidential guards
did accompany Sahagún to charity events to protect her but that all of the
logistic costs for those events were paid by the foundation, not taxpayers.
Fox said the executive branch's own audit of Sahagún's participation in
presidential trips had yielded four ''observations'' by auditors -- in other
words, four recommendations that did not involve accusations of wrongdoing.
On Wednesday, Congress' leadership body -- which sits when the full
legislature is in recess -- ordered the country's general accounting office
to investigate whether any of the foundation's employees were being paid out
of presidential funds.
The criticism of Sahagún may backfire by giving her more media attention and
making her appear the victim of a smear campaign.
Peru's
President Mulls Cabinet Shuffle
Peru President Alejandro Toledo met with union leaders and state
governors Friday to discuss ways out of the worst political crisis his
administration has faced since taking office 30 months ago.
As part of the solution, Toledo has pledged to name a politically
independent Cabinet to appease critics calling for his resignation in the
wake of a scandal that sent his approval rating to a mere 7 percent.
The crisis erupted last month with allegations that a former adviser tried
to help a fugitive general linked to former President Alberto Fujimori's
regime bribe judges slated to hear his corruption case.
The allegations came as a tough blow to Toledo, who took office in July 2001
pledging to re-establish a strong democracy and clean up corruption.
Toledo has lost credibility with many Peruvians, according to recent polls,
which show that he is viewed as indecisive, untrustworthy and incapable of
delivering on promises to create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
But Peru's economy remains among the strongest in Latin America and with no
protesters marching through the capital, the current crisis has - so far -
been a political one played out in the media.
That could change next month, however, with protests planned by Peru's
largest union confederation and the governors of 13 of the nation's 25
state-like regions.
Peru's government gazette, El Peruano, reported Friday that Prime Minister
Carlos Ferrero presented Toledo with a list of 34 candidates for the
16-member Cabinet. A Toledo aide told The Associated Press that the new
Cabinet - Toledo's fifth - would be named in a few days.
The Cabinet consultations were held without the heads of the two main
opposition parties - populist former President Alan Garcia and conservative
leader Lourdes Flores.
Peru's leading statesman, former U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de
Cuellar, criticized the two for unwittingly playing into the hands of their
shared political enemy - Fujimori.
"They are making Fujimori a dream for many ignorant Peruvians who don't have
a clear view of politics and say that this didn't go on under Fujimori,"
said Perez de Cuellar, now serving as Peru's ambassador to France.
Fujimori ran Peru with an iron fist for a decade, resulting in economic and
political stability but at the price of stifling dissent.
Fujimori fled Peru to Japan in November 2000 amid a corruption scandal that
toppled his regime. Protected from extradition by Japanese citizenship,
Fujimori is wanted by Peruvian prosecutors on a dozen charges ranging from
corruption to authorizing death squads.
Fujimori has vowed to run for Peru's presidency in 2006, even though he is
legally banned from doing so until 2011.
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