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Faiello To
Fight Extradition
Dean Faiello, the subject of a manhunt this past week by Costa
Rican officials and four New York City cops, is now behind bars at San
José's San Sebastian jail.
Faiello was picked up on Thursday by Immigration officials in a luxury villa
in Sámara beach on the Pacific coast and returned to San José the same
night.
He spent his first night in an immigration holding cell since his 90 tourist
visa had expired and was in the country illegally and transferred to the
First District Court in San José to answer to judge's order for capture.
Yesterday, the courts ordered him in preventative detention for two months,
while the judicial system sorts out the legal process of extraditing him to
th
The U.S. has requested that Costa Rica extradite Faiello to New York, to
face up to 27 charges of practicing medicine without a license and his
involvement in the death of financial analyst, Maria Cruz.
Faiello had been charged and convicted of practicing medicine without a
license in New York and jumped bail in September before being sentenced.
Last week, the badly decomposed body of Maria Cruz was discovered in a home
that had been owned by Faiello, who was the last known person to have seen
her alive.
Faiello came to Costa Rica on Sept. 19 last year, according to immigration
records, and had been living it up in San José's gay community and enjoying
the beach areas. He told the New York Post reporter that he was surprised
that he was being sought so soon after Cruz's body was discovered and that
her was not aware that he was the target of an international manhunt.
Faiello refused to answer reporters' questions about Cruz and her death.
He may not be talking, but others are. The owner of the beach resort in
Sámara, where Faiello was arrested, told reporters that he didn't talk much
to hotel staff and other guests, preferring to keep an air of mystery about
himself, other than to say he was a doctor.
Police found in his hotel room what appeared medical equipment, suggesting
he may have been practicing or planning on practicing medicine in Costa
Rica.
Faiello refused voluntary extradition, meaning he is placing is future in
the hands of the Costa Rican courts to decide if they will accept the
request by the U.S. in a process that can take anywhere from three months to
a year.
One item of discussion that is being faced by the judicial system is whether
Faiello will face the death penalty or live imprisonment if returned to New
York. Costa Rica will be hard pressed to extradite Faiello if he faces those
penalties. The U.S. will have 90 days to make their intentions clear, at
which time the Costa Rican courts will determine Faiello's faith.
One source close to the situation told insidecostarica.com that the U.S.
will not seek the death penalty in the case and will be asking the Costa
Rican courts for a quick decision and extradition of the man.
Arias
Wants To Be President Again
Former Costa Rican president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias has
announced he will run for president in 2006 after the country changed the
re-election rules.
"I cannot say no to the people, if they believe that I can help them more
than others," Arias told a local radio station late Thursday.
Arias, who president of Costa Rica from 1986 to 1990, was awarded the Nobel
prize for peace in 1987 for his work on a regional peace plan.
Costa Rica has long been the most stable country in Central America. It was
a beacon of stability in the 1980s as much of the rest of the region was hit
by civil wars.
After enjoying a healthy economy in the 1990s, it is now grappling with a
high fiscal deficit and was hit last year by strikes over conditions the
United States is demanding in exchange for a free trade deal.
Costa Rica last year abolished a 1969 law banning presidents from standing
for re-election and a court ruled that the country's leaders may stand
again.
The new re-election rules that were adopted last year allow a former
president to run again and serve for a second term, though not
consecutively. The rules require that there is a minimum of 8 years between
re-elections.
Pacheco Awarded Prize for Anti-Cloning Efforts
A Catholic group awarded its first Kolbe Prize for Peace to Costa
Rica's president Abel Pacheco de la Espriella, for his efforts in trying to
secure a global U.N. ban on human cloning.
At a gala dinner Thursday, U.S. Ambassador Stuart Holliday read a letter of
congratulations from President George Bush to President Pacheco, and also
announced that the United States had recommitted itself to the Costa Rican
proposal in anticipation of the renewed U.N. debate on human cloning
scheduled for September.
The Kolbe Prize for Peace is awarded annually to the person who has most
advanced the culture of life and the dignity of the human person on the
international stage. The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM)
is the custodian of the Kolbe Prize.
In his remarks, Pacheco said: "Human cloning, whether done with the purpose
of creating identical copies of other human beings or to make scientific
experiments, constitutes a grave breach of human dignity."
More than 250 U.N. ambassadors and business and political leaders attended
the event, including the Holy See's permanent observer to the United
Nations, Archbishop Celestino Migliore.
Costa Rican President and UN Secretary-General Discuss Turmoil in Haiti
The tumultuous situation in Haiti was high on the agenda of talks
in New York today between the President of Costa Rica Abel Pacheco and
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
| At a press conference following their meeting, Pacheco
said, "every day that goes by is another bloodbath" and expressed hope
that a multinational force under UN auspices would be dispatched to
Haiti as soon as possible. |
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He stressed the need for an agreement, voicing confidence that President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide would realize that "something has to be done" in
response to the violence.
Yesterday, the Secretary-General named John Reginald Dumas of Trinidad and
Tobago as his Special Adviser for Haiti, while the Security Council adopted
a presidential statement pledging to urgently consider options for
international engagement, including sending an international force to
support a political settlement.
A spokesman for Mr. Annan today said the Secretary-General supports the
diplomatic efforts, including those of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), to
resolve the crisis. "Ultimately it is the Haitians that have to make hard
decisions," Fred Eckhard said.
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Prosecutor
Killed in Bolivia Bomb
Witnesses say the car blew up when Ms Von Borries tried to start it
A prosecutor who worked for the Bolivian customs agency has been killed by a
car bomb.
Police said Monica Von Borries died instantly as started her car outside her
home in the eastern city of Santa Cruz.
Ms Von Borries was a leading figure in the fight to eradicate the production
of coca, the raw ingredient of cocaine.
Her death comes four months after the civil unrest that left 56 dead and
caused the former president to flee.
Police blamed the attack on "terrorists" and announced an investigation.
The explosion that damaged her car was so powerful that it damaged other
vehicles and smashed windowpanes in buildings nearby.
The last major car bombing in Santa Cruz took place two years ago.
New Challenge
Monica Von Borries was a well known prosecutor who built her reputation
fighting drug operations.
She began working the customs agency in 2000 after moving from a special
anti-drugs unit.
A government spokesman, who condemned the killing, her work with the customs
agency had been similar to that with the anti-drugs unit.
Bolivia, with the help of money from the United States, has been one of the
most successful Latin American countries in eradicating coca crops.
The attack comes as South America's poorest nation struggles with social
tensions.
Last October widespread protests that paralysed the country and forced
former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada to stand down.
The caretaker President, Carlos Mesa, has been seen as doing a remarkable
job in restoring some peace to South America's poorest nation.
But a BBC correspondent in Latin America says this attack could represent a
new challenge to the nation's fragile stability.
Venezuela:
G-15 Protesters Clash With National Guard
Venezuelan National Guard troops fired tear gas and charged at
opposition demonstrators Friday, as thousands of protesters took to the
streets to demand a vote to recall President Hugo Chavez. At least 17 people
were hurt in the melee, officials said.
The confrontation came as leaders of developing nations - called the Group
of 15 - began a summit in the Venezuelan capital. The military has put
50,000 troops and police on the streets for the summit and warned it will
not tolerate opposition protests.
Guard troops fired dozens of tear gas canisters at the jeering crowd on a
Caracas boulevard several miles from the summit at the Hilton Hotel. Dozens
of protesters broke from the crowd and threw rocks at military police.
Others set trash and tires ablaze and blocked a highway.
At least eight people were shot and wounded, including a cameraman for
Televen TV and a military policeman, according to the Caracas fire
department. Nine others sustained other injuries, including a photographer
for El Impulso newspaper and a National Guardsman, were injured. In
addition, dozens were overcome by tear gas.
Venezuela's government cut live TV and radio broadcasts of the violence on
private channels and replaced it with summit coverage.
Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel accused an "aggressive, coup-plotting and
terrorist" opposition of provoking Friday's violence. He said a house owned
by a pro-government party was burned.
A government statement claimed radicals from the leftist Red Flag party and
the center-right Democratic Action party triggered the confrontation.
Manuel Cova, head of the Venezuelan Labor Confederation, and other
opposition leaders said the protests would continue.
Chavez insists an opposition petition for a recall referendum - being
scrutinized by elections officials - is ridden with fraud. Elections
officials have suggested they may toss out the petition for technical
reasons.
The Organization of American States, the European Union and the U.S.-based
Carter Center have urged Venezuela to ignore technical glitches in favor of
voters' apparent intent.
On the eve of the summit, the Group of Friends of Venezuela - Brazil, Chile,
Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the United States - issued a statement from
Brazil calling for "transparency" in Venezuela's electoral process. The
group was formed to help Venezuela resolve its political crisis, which has
included a brief 2002 coup in which dozens died.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, once considered a close ally
of Chavez, urged Chavez recently to respect the will of voters. Chavez was
elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000 to a six-year term.
Relations between Venezuela, a top U.S. oil supplier, and the United States
have been strained over Chavez's friendship with Cuba's Fidel Castro and his
criticism of free market policies.
Da Silva met Chavez on Friday along with Argentine President Nestor Kirchner
to discuss finance issues before the summit's inaugural session. He planned
to return to Brazil early to visit Vice President Jose Alencar, hospitalized
with pneumonia.
Fighting poverty with oil wealth, dismantling industrialized nations'
protectionist trade barriers and reducing foreign debt were central themes
contained in a draft summit declaration circulated Friday.
Chavez and Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe signed a pact Thursday to
share energy technology and develop mining in the African nation. Such
accords can help liberate developing nations "that have remained susceptible
to the dominance of the western countries," Mugabe said.
Formed in 1989, the G-15 actually includes 19 countries: Algeria, Argentina,
Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya,
Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
The group's influence and work have waned in recent years, and a summit was
canceled last year because of unrest in Caracas.
Venezuela will turn the G-15 presidency over to Algeria on Saturday.
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