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Costa Rica
Ready Give Carlos Ortega His Marching Orders
The Costa Rica government has sent a letter to exiled Venezuelan
Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV) president, Carlos Ortega warning him
that he could face eviction from Costa Rica.
Commenting on the warning, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry (MRE) has
admitted receiving a copy of the letter and claims that “continuous faults
committed by Ortega has forced Costa Rica to remind him that asylum carries
with it a series of duties to be observed. That country is concerned about
his recent declarations … this is not the first time he has been reminded of
his asylum status.”
The Ministry says the letter should be seen as an ultimatum and taken
seriously.
Ortega continues to manipulate CTV from his Costa Rica and Miami bolt-holes
and to exercise an iron grip on the CTV (as he did for many years as union
boss of the Oil Workers Federation-Fedepetrol) through general secretary,
Manuel Cova and Executive member, Pablo Castro.
Ortega’s opponents claim that he continues to use the Confederation as a
political tool against President Hugo Chavez Frias and although he has
promised to return to Venezuela on several occasions, he has not kept his
word, preferring to seek political asylum in Miami.
CTV colleagues and Coordinadora Democratica (CD) members, Alfredo Ramos and
Froilan Barrios have made feeble attempts to oust Ortega, complaining that
the CTV has become too embroiled in politics but most commentators say it’s
a question of the pot calling the kettle black. The failure of the CTV ro
elect another president in Ortega’s prolonged absence is seen a sign of
Ortega’s grip on the CTV.
Shannon
Martin English Center Opens
An English and technology center in Costa Rica
dedicated to Shannon Martin opened Monday. Jeanette Stauffer, Martin's
mother, said the Shannon Lucile Martin English Center has begun teaching
four Level 1 English classes in the southern coastal town of Golfito.
Martin was a University of Kansas student when she was stabbed to death in
May 2001 in Costa Rica while collecting rare fern samples for a project.
Stauffer, as executive director of the Shannon Lucile Martin Foundation,
created the center to help the impoverished community develop marketable
English and technology skills that lead to jobs in the tourism industry.
The classes, which are free for students and community residents in Golfito,
uses a computer-based, teacher-assisted English program developed by the
U.S. military, Stauffer said. The classroom for the center was constructed
inside the Costa Rica Coast Guard Academy.
OAS
Should Get Rid of Its Voting System
Former Costa Rica President, Miguel Angel Rodríguez, the
front-runner in the race to become the next head of the 34-country
Organization of American States, has some very good ideas about how to make
the group more relevant. Unfortunately, he is not pushing for what would be
the most important one -- getting rid of the institution's ridiculous voting
system.
Rodríguez, a soft-spoken economist who obtained his Ph.D. from the
University of California at Berkeley and served as president of Costa Rica
from 1998 to 2002, already has won the endorsements of 23 countries --
including Mexico and Canada -- for his candidacy to become OAS secretary
general. The election is to take place in early June at the group's annual
meeting in Ecuador.
U.S.-backed Salvadoran President Francisco Flores reportedly wants to enter
the race after his country's March 21 elections. But several senior OAS
diplomats told me that it would be too late for Flores to mount a credible
campaign by then because most countries already have committed their votes.
In an interview earlier this week, the former Costa Rican president said
that two of his top priorities will be strengthening the OAS human rights
commission and turning the organization into a more visible lobby for Latin
America in Washington, D.C.
While the OAS human rights system is probably the group's most successful
branch, it is chronically overworked and under-funded, he said. Much of the
OAS human rights commission's funding currently relies on donations, and
many of its officials work part time.
''It's the jewel of the [inter-American] system, but it's a part-time
occupation,'' Rodríguez said. ``It doesn't have the capacity to solve all
the cases that are presented to it.''
Rodríguez says that one of the major pending assignments of the OAS is to
help Latin America influence U.S. policy on key issues, such as the region's
foreign debt, immigration issues or U.S. farm subsidies. The OAS has been
almost exclusively focused on spreading its message to the south, while
neglecting to do it to the north, he says.
''We have to reverse that trend. I will try to have lunch once a week with
an important U.S. senator or congressman involved in foreign affairs, visit
the Congress and meet with congressional staffers at least four times a
month, and appear once or twice a month at U.S. think tanks or academic
institutions.''
Until about a decade ago, the Washington-based OAS was seen by many in the
region as a group created to rubber-stamp U.S. military interventions and
was mostly known in Washington for the lavish parties at its majestic
headquarters.
Gruesome
Find in New Jersey Home
A body believed to be that of a missing Wall Street bond analyst
was discovered entombed in concrete at a stately Newark, New Jersey home
yesterday, more than 10 months after the woman was reported missing.
Authorities said the body, presumed to be 35-year-old Maria Cruz, had been
stuffed into a suitcase and buried in a carriage house at a home once owned
by Dean Faiello, a Newark man who fled the United States last year after
pleading guilty to posing as a doctor in New York.
Faiello, 44, who is believed to be hiding in Costa Rica,
is wanted for questioning in Cruz's disappearance. He also faces an
arrest warrant issued in December after he failed to show up for
sentencing on charges he practiced medicine without a license.
"I think that's where he is. I haven't spoken to my brother in months. I
wouldn't describe us as close," said his sister Debra Faiello.
Investigators said they linked the pair after learning that shortly
before Cruz disappeared on April 13, she had an appointment at a
Manhattan skin clinic Faiello owned. |
Danny Faiello Wanted in the U.S.is
believed to be hiding in Costa Rica |
After unearthing the body yesterday, police said they needed to await the
results of an autopsy today to confirm the woman's identity and determine
how she died.
Authorities began investigating Faiello long before Cruz's disappearance.
In October 2002, Faiello was arrested and charged with three counts of
unlicensed practice of medicine after an investigation by police and the New
York state attorney general determined he had performed unlicensed surgeries
and other procedures at SkinOvations, a clinic he ran in Manhattan.
Authorities said Faiello falsely advertised he had certification in "laser
hair removal, collagen treatments, acupuncture and tattoo removal."
"He was misleading them (patients) and mistreating them because he was not
licensed for what he was doing," said Roy Geronemus, a Manhattan
dermatologist and immediate past president of the American Society of
Dermatologic Surgery.
In June, two months after Cruz disappeared, Faiello pleaded guilty to
conspiracy and unlicensed practice of medicine, which carries a maximum
sentence of four years, said Paul Larrabee, a spokesman with the New York
Attorney General's Office.
Faiello fled to Costa Rica in September, according to the Essex County
Prosecutor's Office.
Since he was scheduled to be sentenced in December, a warrant was issued for
his arrest, Larrabee said. "It is certainly our hope to have him in
custody," he said.
Price of Gasoline Going up Again: Highest Ever!
The Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (ARESEP) - the government
agency that governes public prices and services - has approved another hike
in the price of gasoline as requested by the national pretrolium company
Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo (Recope).
The hike will see ¢17.8 colones added to the price of super gasoline, ¢17
colones to regular and ¢13.9 colones to deisel gasolines. The price hike
will take effect as soon as the increase is published in the offical
newspapers La Gaceta, which is expected in a next coming days.
The increase means that a 45 litre tank filled with super will now cost
¢13.200 colones up from ¢12.400.
The cost of each litre of gasoline at the pumps will, once published, be set
at: ¢293.70 from the current ¢275.90 for super; ¢280.70 from 263.70 for
regular; and ¢207.90 up from ¢194 for deisel.
Recope says that the increase is due to an increased cost of the
international price for crude oil, to which Recope has added a ¢1.3 colones
for each litre of gasoline as the annual price adjustment for profits for
the refinery.
Largest Egg
Recorded in Cuba
A Cuban chicken taken away the record held by a Costa Rican
chicken for laying the largest egg in the world.
The egg weighed in at 148 grams. This broke the record
in the
Guinness World Records that was
recorded by a Costa Rica chicken in 2003 laying an egg weighin 110
grams.
That was the news coming from the Cuban press yesterday. However, the
Agricultural Board in Costa Rica is not aware of this record and we
could not find any more information on the Guinness website. |
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According to the Cuban report, the record breaking chicken was a newbie,
laying the largest egg in it's first try. The Cuban television news
dedicated some minutes specially to this report.
The chicken is reportedly from the Cuban province of Las Tunas, some 600km
west of La Habana and owned by Humberto Cao.
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Mexican
Ex-President Lopez Portillo dies
Jose Lopez Portillo, who served as Mexico's president from 1976
through 1982, died Tuesday, family members and medical officials announced.
He was 83 years old.
Lopez Portillo died at Angeles del Pedregal Hospital in Mexico City, where
he was being treated for pneumonia.
Sworn into office while Mexico was wallowing in its worst economic recession
since World War II, Lopez Portillo seized on an oil boom to prop up the
country's economy.
He promised to bring prosperity for all especially to the millions of people
struggling on the edge of poverty.
And he did for a while.
During his six-year his term, new oil exploration brought unparalleled
prosperity. But it was followed by such a huge bust that the economy wound
up worse off than before.
And in his last state-of-thenation address to Congress he wept, apologizing
that he had not done much for Mexico's legions of poor.
By then, the bottom had fallen out of the world crude oil market, Mexico's
principal source of income. As a result, the peso had to be sharply devalued
three times (a devaluation accompanied every presidential changeover for
decades).
Mexico fell deeply into debt, and the economy was in shambles.
The country had lived way beyond its means. And for many years after the
boom went bust, Lopez Portillo was reviled by the public.
Lopez Portillo was the eldest son of two children of a soldier and
bureaucrat who had difficulty making ends meet.
After working as a professor of political science at the National Autonomous
University, he joined the country's ruling party and climbed the ladder
through the government bureaucracy.
Lopez Portillo was serving as treasury secretary when President Luis
Echeverria tapped him to as his successor, assuring his election in a
country dominated by the authoritarian Institutional Revolutionary Party.
But Lopez Portillo had no political experience when he took office. And he
inherited some nasty problems from Echeverria, his one-time friend who
struggled to put down leftist activists and resorted to inflationary
policies to improve living standards.
Shortly after he left office, Lopez Portillo divorced his first wife Carmen,
an amateur pianist with whom he had three children, and took up but
apparently did not marry his former Tourism Secretary Rosa Luz Alegria,
while he lived in Spain. They split up and later he married retired film
star Sasha Montenegro with whom he had two children. They returned to
Mexico.
In 1996, Lopez Portillo suffered a stroke. He survived and recovered.
He underwent emergency double bypass heart surgery in 2001 to repair damage
caused by blockage in his arteries. Doctors cited respiratory and heart
problems when the former president was hospitalized Monday.
Indian
Wounded in Ecuador Protests Dies
A 60-year-old Indian woman died from gunshot wounds suffered in a
confrontation with soldiers during protests against the Ecuadorian
government, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities, or Conaie, said
Wednesday. The woman died in a hospital in the Andean city of Cuenca a day
after being wounded during Monday's clashes in the Navon district, Conaie
spokesman Jose Yungan told EFE.
Five others were seriously wounded in the incident, while another seven
people were treated for minor injuries at the scene. Indians blame the
government of President Lucio Gutierrez for the woman's death, which, they
say, occurred when soldiers shot at protesters who refused to clear off a
road they were blocking as part of their demonstration.
The Indians were protesting the government's economic policies and the
prospect of Ecuador's signing a free trade agreement with the United States
or joining the Washington-sponsored Free Trade Area of the Americas.
The protests were merely a warning of what lies ahead should Gutierrez fail
to adjust his policies, Indian leaders said, maintaining that the
smaller-than-expected response to their "national mobilization" did not
reflect weakness or disunity in the indigenous movement.
Violence
Feared in Planned Argentine Road Blockades
A showdown that many fear could turn violent was brewing here
Wednesday, the eve of planned massive road blockades by radical protesters
known for masking their faces and carrying clubs.
The government called on the organizations of unemployed workers to reflect,
and warned that it would take steps to prevent acts of violence during the
roadblocks planned for Thursday.
Amid a controversy in which a court also intervened, President Nestor
Kirchner's administration said that, although the population overwhelmingly
opposed the blockades, he would maintain his decision "to not repress" the
protests.
The most radical of these so-called "piquetero" groups, which bring traffic
to a standstill to make their demands known, have called for protest rallies
in more than 90 sites throughout the country Thursday.
Their main demand is that the government restore unemployment subsidies for
some 250,000 heads of household. Kirchner's administration has rejected the
demand and said it wants to gradually replace payments with jobs.
At present, nearly two million families are receiving the 150-peso ($50)
monthly subsidy, which is aimed at reducing the high level of poverty that,
according to official figures, affects some 55 percent of the population.
But critics of this assistance program claim it fosters political cronyism
and lacks adequate control measures to ensure that the funds really reach
their intended targets.
"Blocking roads is an absolutely unacceptable form of protest at this stage
of events," said Cabinet chief Alberto Fernandez, who praised the
willingness for dialogue President Kirchner has demonstrated since his
inauguration last May. After speculating that "there are people who look for
provocation" to make themselves out to be victims, Fernandez noted that
"there is a high level of (public) rejection against the act of blocking
roads, and the government should avoid falling into that provocation."
Piquetero groups first appeared during a protracted recession that started
in 1998 and played a prominent role in the social unrest at the end of 2001
that led to then-President Fernando de la Rua's resignation. Thursday's
protest will include a blockade of the main roads to Buenos Aires, which
could cut communication between the capital and its populous suburbs for
several hours.
After the piqueteros called for the blockades Tuesday, a judge in La Plata
ordered police to ensure that a 50-kilometer (31-mile) stretch of highway
that links that city with the Argentine capital remains open. Buenos Aires
provincial authorities said they would obey the court order.
On the federal level, Interior Minister Anibal Fernandez said "we will try
to ensure that citizens can move freely," but he did not specify what
measures would be taken. "We trust there will be no attempt by those who
insist on carrying out these blockades to trigger government repression and
make themselves out to be victims later," the minister said.
For their part, the protest groups have already announced their decision to
defy the La Plata judge's ruling.
"The impoverished situation of more than 250,000 families is more important
than free movement," said piquetero leader Raul Castells.
Relations between the government and the piqueteros soured further last
Friday when a small group of demonstrators attacked cars that were trying to
make their way through a piquetero roadblock on a downtown Buenos Aires
avenue. The Cabinet chief told Radio Mitre that such an incident was
"unacceptable" and called on the more radical piquetero groups to "realize
the amount of public rejection you are arousing."
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