Today's Stories: - Fake Doc Arrested - National Parks Might Close - Exports at a Good Pace - Colombian president dismisses commanders - Colombian rebels counter-attack - Bush signs order to tighten travel restrictions to Cuba Dean Faiello arrested in Costa Rica

Marco Badilla, Director of Immigration

Fake Doc Arrested
Fugitive "killer" Dean Faiello was arrested by immigration police on Thursday afternoon in Samara, Guanacaste, 190Km northwest of San José.

The fake doctor's extended vacation came to an end yesterday, when immigration police found him swimming in the pool at a Pacific beach resort.

Investigators traced the fake doctor to Costa Rica,  when they found the body last week of, Maria Cruz, a missing Manhattan woman buried in concrete at Mr. Faiello's former home. 

Faiello has not been charged in the death of the woman, but investigators said Ms. Cruz had an appointment with Faiello for treatment of a tongue lesion on the last day she was seen alive, April 13, 2003.

They believe a botched illegal operation might have killed her, but the exact cause of death has yet to be determined by medical examiners.

Investigators learned that Faiello had used his credit card at the Villas Playa Samara, a resort in Guanacaste. Also yesterday, Costa Rica's daily Spanish newspapers ran photographs of Faiello, and investigators received tips from people who saw him at the resort, officials said.

Marco Badilla,  Director of Immigration, in a press conference following Faiello's arrest and return to San José, confirmed that agents of OIJ (Organismo de Investigacion Judicial) and Interpol, assisted immigration police in arresting Faiello.

Badilla said that Faiello was being held overnight by immigration for violation of overstaying his 90 day visitors visa. Faiello, according to immigration records entered Costa Rica on 19 Sept. prior to his sentencing in a New York court, and had not left the country.

Badilla read to the press the judge's CAPTURA Y REMISION - an order to capture the man and to place in custody of judicial officials. The order was signed by Judge Patricia Solano Castro on 26 Feb. The judge's order includes a request by the U.S. to extradite Faiello to the United States.

Badilla told the press that Faiello will spend the night in the police cells of the Quinta Comisaria in the hands of the Delta 1 Team and will be handed over to Judicial officials - the criminal courts - in the morning and is set to appear in the First District Court of San José.

Rogelio Ramos, Minister of Security, said that officials are processing the paperwork necessary to deport Faiello. He did not release other details of the arrest.
 

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National Parks Might Close
Several national parks, such as Arenal Volcano and Tortuguero, and wildlife refuges, such as Barra del Colorado and Cano Negro, might be forced to close their gates to visitors starting next July, as a result of a budget cut for the park system of over $2.4 million decided by the Ministry of Finance.

Sources at the Ministry of the Environment asserted that the reduction in funds would make it impossible for park wardens to give proper maintenance to the sites and to have them in such condition as to handle visitors.

Analysts believe that if the decision is not revoked, a fatal blow would be delivered to the mainstay of the Costa Rican tourist industry, since out of the 1.1 million people from abroad who took a vacation in Costa Rica, 770,000 visited two to three national parks as an average.

 

Exports at a Good Pace
Costa Rican exports reached $481 million in January, 4.5 percent more than in the same month in 2003, according to data from the Central Bank.

This increase is markedly lower than the one experienced in January 2003, but at that time the nation had recorded a marked dropped in exports and the recovery accounted for the extraordinary difference.

The chairman of the Chamber of Exporters of Costa Rica, Antonio Burgues, pointed out that 2003 is not a good reference, because it was an atypical year. He added that the increase this January shows that a stage of moderate growth, more adequate to the real conditions of Costa Rica, has been reached.

According to Burgues, this yearís average growth in exports will be from 5 percent to 10 percent, a normal range given the overall conditions.


 

Colombian president dismisses commanders
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe announced Thursday the dismissal of several commanders of the army, police and the Security Administrative Department (DAS).

Military sources confirmed the removal of Gen. Hector Martinez Espinel, commander of the 9th Army Brigade.

Col. Hernando Santos Rodriguez, commander of Huila Province's police, and Major General Javier Hernan Arias, commander of the 4th Army Division, might also be dismissed along with several DAS officials in the following hours.

The reason behind the dismissals is the negligence shown in last Wednesday's guerrilla attacks and kidnapping of three businessmen in Neiva, capital of Huila in central-western Colombia.

Interior and Justice Minister Sabas Pretelt de la Vega condemned the attacks on Neiva and the town of Santa Maria in Huila, calling on local inhabitants to provide information to prevent future raids by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

They are "criminal acts that all society must condemn," he said.

During the attack on Santa Maria, 11 soldiers and four guerrilla fighters died while 15 people were wounded and three businessmen kidnapped.

An official spokesman said, "The guerrilla used gas cylinders loaded with explosives and mortar grenades to break the ring" of regular troops.

FARC, the largest rebel group in the country, is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

Colombia has been ravaged by a four-decade-old civil war, the longest in Latin America, in which government forces, leftist guerrillas and far-right paramilitaries fight one another, leaving about 3,500 people dead each year, mostly civilians.
 

Colombian rebels counter-attack
Colombian guerrillas have hit back at government forces in the southern province of Huila. At least 12 soldiers were killed and another 15 wounded in the attacks which end a series of victories for the security forces.

Three businessmen were also kidnapped in the assault by the Marxist rebels.

The hardline President Alvaro Uribe was so upset by the news he has sacked the general in command of the region and the head of the secret police.

The guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) out-manoeuvred the security forces in Huila, dealing them the first serious defeat of the year.

The rebel operation began with an attack on an army camp in the town of Santa Maria where 50 rebels roundly defeated the military force leaving heavy casualties.

But this attack was just a diversion to cover a kidnap operation in the nearby city of Neiva where guerrillas dressed as police drove into town and snatched three wealthy citizens.

The guerrillas in both operations escaped back to their jungle strongholds.

President Uribe, elected on the back of his promise to crush the rebel insurgency, is reportedly furious at the guerrillas' audacity and has sacked the general and chief of police responsible for the region.
 

Bush signs order to tighten travel restrictions to Cuba
President George W. Bush on Thursday signed an order to tighten travel restrictions to Cuba, accusing the Cuban government of taking moves to destabilize relations with the United States.

The order would expand the government's authority to prevent unauthorized vessels from the U.S. to enter Cuban territorial waters. Under the order, the U.S. authorities would be empowered to inspect any vessel in the U.S. territorial waters and take other steps if necessary.

Meanwhile, Bush said that over the past year, the Cuban government took a series of steps to destabilize relations with the U.S., such as threatening to rescind migration accords with the U.S. and close the U.S. interests section in Cuba and claiming the U.S. intended to invade Cuba.

Bush said the Cuban government, headed by Fidel Castro, "has since 1959 maintained a pattern of hostile actions contrary to the U.S. policy interests."

The move was in sharp contrast with the White House announcement on Thursday of lifting the U.S. travel ban to Libya for its compliance of destroying its weapons of mass destruction.

Cuba has been under U.S. embargo for over four decades.