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Costa Rica Plays FTAA
Card
Gov. Jeb Bush got a boost Monday for Miami's bid to become the headquarters
of a proposed 34-nation Free Trade Area of the Americas pact.
Leading a Florida business mission through Central America, Bush got
official word from Costa Rica that it would back Miami as its second choice
in the race for the FTAA office.
"We are committed to Trinidad, but in case Trinidad were to withdraw, we
will consider endorsing Miami," Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco told a
news conference Monday after meeting privately with Bush.
Miami has been campaigning for months to secure the coveted FTAA office that
would employ at least 100 people, attract business travelers and bring
international prestige to the host city.
Trade ministers from the 34 nations crafting the world's largest free-trade
zone are to select a site among the 11 rival cities during a meeting this
summer in Brazil.
Bush has already won the endorsement of Uruguay for Miami's bid, but most
countries have been mum so far on their selection. That's because the
headquarters decision will be taken by consensus, and endorsements are seen
as a bargaining chip on other international issues.
Costa Rica had earlier endorsed Trinidad's capital of Port of-Spain for the
FTAA headquarters, in exchange for Trinidad's backing a Costa Rican for a
top international post.
But Port-of-Spain seems a distant rival in the headquarters race. It trails
frontrunners Miami and Panama City, Panama, lacking ample airline links,
low-cost telecom and a large pool of bilingual professionals, officials say.
Gov. Bush is leading several dozen executives on a five-day swing through
Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua this week to promote
business with Florida and push Miami's FTAA bid.
Joining him are leaders of FedEx, American Express, Bank of America, Amedex
Insurance Co., Motorola Inc., Citrix Systems, Seaboard Marine Ltd. and Steel
Hector & Davis, among other companies.
This is Bush's second trip to Central America this year. Last month, he
represented his brother, President Bush, leading the U.S. delegation to the
inauguration of Guatemalan President Oscar Berger.
The Florida team is to meet today with Nicaragua's President Enrique Bolaños
and other Nicaraguan business and government leaders.
Two 11 Year Old
Girls Shot in Schoolyard Accident
Yesterday, a new chapter on violence was written in Costa Rica.
At the school, Unidad Pedagógica Rafael Araya Rojas en La Florida de Tibás,
it appears a 17 year old boy was carrying a handgun in his backpack, which
apparently went off injuring two evelen year old girls.
The young girls identified as Rojas Rojas y de Campos Barrientos, were
eating their lunch at the school lunch area when a gunshot was heard.
According to school authorities, it was thought at first, to be a
firecracker. However, it was discovered that the two girls were seriously
injured.
One girl was hit in the left leg, while the other was hit by the same bullet
in the right foot, according to Red Cross workers who immediately attended
to the scene.
Education Ministry and school authorities are investigating the scene. Early
reports tell of a young man, who could not be detained, was figured to have
caused the accident. Authorities inspected the area, including using dogs to
help in the search, but came up empty. They weren't able to find the gun and
the young man had disappeared.
Education officials have been worried about this type of incident happening
in Costa Rican schools, that yesterday became a reality. Officials are
vowing to ensure that this does not happen again.
Actor
Paul Newman Visits Costa Rica
In his first visit to Costa Rica, actor Paul Newman, is here to
support a project to help children along with the Fundación Arias para la
Paz y el Progreso Humano.
Newman, who is now 79 years old, arrived in Costa Rica yesterday afternoon
on a private flight with his first stop in Rohrmoser at the house of former
Costa Rican president and Nobel prize winner, Óscar Arias.
Newman is the driving force behind the
Hole in the
Wall Camps, the world's only network of camps for
children with life threatening illnesses. To date, over 70,000 seriously ill
children from 34 states and 27 countries have attended free of charge.
The meeting between Newman and Arias is he first between the two men, with
the intent of setting a camp in Costa Rica for children of Central America.
The proposal is to find a Costa Rican organization that is interested in
this project and with the help of the Hospital Nacional de Niños providing
vital information about children in need.
Newman and his four members of his committee will be in Costa Rica all week.
Newman brought along for the trip his golf clubs and fishing rod.
"Piratas"
Block Highway in Protest
| Monday, hundreds of informal taxis or "piratas"
from various sectors of San José, blocked the main east-west highway (circumvalacion)
in front of Parque de la Paz, south of San José, to make their voice
heard against the government's recent regulation to fine them from
¢600.000 to ¢1.200.000 colones for providing illegal taxi services. |
Foto: La Nacion |
The object of the protest is to once again ask the
government to let them work without applying the fines and threat of
confiscating their cars. A spokesperson said that the majority of the
piratas realize that they are operating outside of the law, but they count
with a necessary service and are willing to keep a low profile in such.
The informal taxi drivers decided at at the last moment against a march on
Presidential House, however, they will continue to press President Pacheco
and the Minister of Obras Publicas y Transporte (MOPT), Javier Chavez.
American
Accused of Abusing Poor Girls in Nicaragua
Arnold Peter Einsner, a 53-year-old US citizen, sits in a jail cell in
Managua where he will be tried in court for the crime of “corruption of
minors” for sexually abusing Nicaraguan girls between the ages of 8 and 14.
The victims, according to Nicaraguan authorities, are poor girls who were
living in the streets of the country’s capital. The trial is set for
February 23rd before a jury.
The police detained Einsner on December 17, 2003 after
they received a tip from a woman. It seems that he tried to pay her to
help him in contacting children for him to abuse in exchange for money.
Based on the photographs and videos found in the suspect’s house during
the police raid, the authorities are investigating the possibility that
some of the young victims were Honduran.
Einsner was working as a regional sales representative for the Global
Tell company from Coral Gables, Florida, which required him to
constantly travel to Central America, leaving open the possibility there
are more victims in other countries of the region. |
© Casa Alianza.
Arnold Peter Einsner,
will go on trial 23 Feb. 2004. |
The police have also released legal documents in which two mothers
“waived” the rights of their little girls, aged 14 and 9, to the foreigner
and gave him permission to take the children to school to hospital. One of
the women maintained that she gave into pressure, but the detainee is
currently paying school tuition for her three sons and was giving them money
to buy food.
The District Attorney has already located one of the victims. Einsner
reportedly contacted one of the girls while she was selling cold water at a
stoplight. In her testimony, the girl claimed the American was responsible
for sexually abusing her.
The authorities suspect that at least three more individuals were involved;
one, a woman, who various girls call “teacher”. They suspect that she was in
charge of contacting the potential victims and delivering them to the
individual. She received $100 as pay for her “work”.
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US-Canadian border crossing briefly closed
A busy crossing on the US-Canadian border was briefly closed
Monday after a grenade was found in a car entering Canada from the United
States, media reports said.
Canadians officials were quoted as saying that "a small amount of
explosives" was discovered in a car entering Canada from the United States,
at the Peace Arch border crossing in the northwestern US state of
Washington.
The Cable News Network (CNN) reported that a grenade was found in the glove
compartment of the car.
The woman driver was taken into custody and questioned, but was released
later as officials believed she had no knowledge there was a grenade in the
car.
The crossing was immediately closed for about an hour from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
local time, and a Canadian bomb squad was called in to remove the
explosives, the reports said.
Honduras to send
troops in Iraq
Honduran Deputy Chief of Staff Hector Pavon went to the Palmerola
Comayagua military base Monday to see off 95 Honduran soldiers joining the
Iraqi peace mission.
Reports from the Honduran Armed Forces said that 93 of them will leave
Tuesday for Iraq, therefore completing the second expedition battalion
comprising 373 soldiers and officers.
Under the Spanish command of the Plus Ultra Brigades, the Honduran troops
will participate in humanitarian assistance, peacekeeping mission and the
re-establishment of basic services in the central-southern city of Najaf.
Honduras sent troops to Iraq as part of a multinational stabilizing force.
And the United States, who led a war on Iraq last March, has about 123,000
troops in Iraq.
The first group of 185 Honduran soldiers left on Feb. 2 for the Middle East
country.
New Peruvian
cabinet sworn in
Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo swore in a new cabinet headed
by the ruling party's legislator Carlos Ferrero in a ceremony held Monday in
the Government Palace.
The president brought back his first Finance Minister Pedro Kuczynski, and
named Justice Minister Baldo Kresalja, Education Minister Javier Sota,
Health Minister Pilar Mazzetti, Minister of Works Javier Nevez, Production
Minister Alfonso Velasquez, and Minister of Transport and Communication Jose
Ortiz.
Jaime Quijandria was moved from the Ministry of Finance to Energy and
Mining, while seven other ministers remained in their posts.
Quijandria and Housing and Constructions Minister Carlos Bruce were the only
officials who constantly held ministerial positions through five cabinet
reshuffles since the beginning of Toledo's administration in 2001.
Ferrero, Bruce and Agriculture Minister Jose Leon are members of the ruling
party Possible Peru (PP), while others are all independent professionals
with experience in both the private and public sectors.
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