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Fiestas In
Palmares
All Costa
Ricans know that Palmares is synonymous with "fiesta" for 10 days starting
Thursday, 15 January.
The town starts planning its annual party, Las Fiestas de Palmares, in July
the year before, and the payoff is tremendous. The festival is welcoming,
well-organized, and fun for everyone, especially the young people.
The tope - a procession of purebred horses - kicks off the week; fairgrounds
north of the town center are then transformed by fireworks, roller-coaster
rides, concerts and sporting events like mountain-biking races.
There is also a bullfighting ring where Palmares hosts its own running of
the bulls and bullfights, in which the bulls never die.
The palm-filled park and gray stone church (made with whole slabs and a
special eggshell cement) are here year-round, but otherwise, there's not
much more for visitors to see.
New 'Signs' Rules in San José
San José has been plagued with all sorts of
signs and commercial posters that the Municipality of San José is finally
taking action.
Monday, the law that San José needs to take down the signs and clean up the
streets, was published in the official newspaper La Gaceta and the city is
moving into action.
The new law allows retailers and other commercial enterprises to have only
one sign facing the street, with a maximum width of 65 centimeters. The
height of the sign cannot exceed the property and cannot be lower than 3
meters from the sidewalk.
The new rules will come into force within 6 months, giving time for
businesses to make the necessary adjustments.
Nicaraguan Boy Found Dead
Omar Josué Vargas Valle, a child of only 2
years and 11 months, was found dead in
Piedades Sur de San Ramón,
yesterday morning after more than 20 hours he had been missing.
The little boy was found about 600 meters from the family home. The cause of
death is not yet known as police continue their investigation, though there
is no sign of foul play.
The Nicaraguan family whose main activity is working the coffee fields of
the area alerted authorities on Sunday of the boy's disappearance. Red Cross
workers, along with community members, were involved in the search.
Florida Moves to Close Adoption Agency
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The state took steps
Monday to shut down a south Florida adoption agency that has been linked to
an international baby trafficking ring, saying it broke dozens of state
rules.
International Adoption Resource has been under scrutiny since September,
when Costa Rican authorities raided a house in San Jose and found nine
Guatemalan babies in a suspected illegal adoption ring.
State investigators said in a complaint made public Monday and obtained by
the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that it intends to revoke the company's
operating license for actions that "negatively affected many children in
Central America."
The company's director lied on her resume, gave the state incomplete
financial audits, and did not include in case files information such as
where children came from or why their parents were giving them up, according
to the state.
The adoption agency also allegedly tried to place a child with a homosexual
couple, despite a state ban.
Violations by the adoption agency "posed an immediate serious danger to the
public health, safety and welfare of the children and potential adoptive
families," said Jack Moss, district administrator of the Department of
Children & Families.
The company's attorney, Michael B. Cohen, declined to comment on the
specific allegations, but said the adoption agency is contesting them.
In September, officials in Costa Rica discovered nine Guatemalan babies in a
makeshift nursery, allegedly run by an illegal adoption ring. Officials
linked the babies to a Costa Rican lawyer associated with the Coral Springs
agency.
An attorney for the company acknowledged that the adoption agency leased the
house, which was used by Guatemalan women who wanted to bypass a halt on
foreign adoptions in their country. But she said the arrangement was legal
under Costa Rican law.
California Group Will Visit Costa Rica
High school students expand their horizons: Six Oak Grove High School,
California, students will set off for Costa Rica on Friday night to
explore the rain forest, help save leatherback turtles and deliver toys to
orphans.
The group will make several stops during the eight-day trip. They will
deliver toys, clothing, pencils, paper and other educational supplies to a
shelter for abandoned children in the town of Liberia. They will spend time
playing with the kids and working on projects such as a vegetable garden.
They will also throw a pizza party for the orphans.
The Oak Grove students will also go to Playa Grande, a beach in Las Baulas
National Park, where they will watch the nesting of the endangered
leatherback turtles. The students will wake up before dawn to help gather
turtle hatchlings they find on the beach to protect them from predators.
They will later release the hatchlings to the ocean after the sun sets.
In addition, the students will visit the Monteverde Cloud Forest, where they
will see butterflies, monkeys, iguanas, poison dart frogs and other
creatures native to the rain forest.
This will be the ninth visit to Costa Rica for Gary Hubbs, the Oak Grove
biology teacher who created the program at the high school and leads the
trips. Hubbs estimates he has taken about 30 students to Costa Rica in the
past four years.
The students have to raise the money for the trip themselves, and they don't
get any academic credits. But Hubbs said they usually come back with a sense
of responsibility toward the environment as well as a better sense of how
lucky they are.
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U.S., Dominican Rep Begin Free Trade Talks
The United States and the Dominican Republic began talks on Monday to
include the Caribbean nation in a U.S.-Central American free trade agreement
struck last month.
Despite a last-minute plea from Dominican businesses to delay entering any
tariff-eradicating accord, President Hipolito Mejia said his country of
nearly 9 million was ready and willing to ratify a deal.
An agreement would add the Dominican Republic to the Central America Free
Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, reached in mid-December between the United States
and El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Costa Rica backed out of
the accord but expects to conclude further negotiations with Washington this
month.
The Bush administration hopes to submit CAFTA to the U.S. Congress this
spring.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative hopes to conclude the talks with
the Dominican Republic by then to present one package to lawmakers. It said
including the country would increase the size of the CAFTA by 40 percent and
make the CAFTA countries collectively the second-largest U.S. trade partner
in Latin America behind Mexico.
The Dominican Republic imports around $4.3 billion of U.S. goods a year but
import tariffs average 8.6 percent. U.S. industrial sectors that stand to
gain from free trade are computer manufacturers, telecommunications and food
producers.
U.S. sugar farmers are worried that including the Dominican Republic in the
pact will lead to substantial new imports, and sugar groups have already
announced they will oppose CAFTA because of Central American sugar imports.
In the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti,
the poorest country in the Americas, business leaders appealed over the
weekend for a delay until 2007 in the implementation of any free trade deal.
Poultry producers fear they will be unable to compete against cheaper U.S.
chicken.
Mejia dismissed the appeal as unfounded.
In the past, the government has assured producers of rice, corn, garlic,
onion, chickens, milk, beans and sugar that those sectors would continue to
be protected under any trade agreement until the United States dismantles
its subsidies.
Cuba Tightens Its Control Over Internet
Cuba tightened its controls over the
Internet on Friday, prohibiting access over the low-cost government phone
service most ordinary citizens have at home.
The move could affect hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Cubans who illegally
access the Internet from their homes, using computers and Internet accounts
they have borrowed or purchased on the black market.
Cuba's communist government already heavily controls access to the Internet.
Cubans must have government permission to use the Web legally and most
don't, although many can access international e-mail and a more limited
government-controlled intranet at government jobs and schools.
Now Cubans will need additional approval to access via the nation's regular
phone service. Since few Cubans are authorized to use the Internet from home
-- only some doctors and key government officials -- the new law amounts to
a crackdown on illegal users.
The law states that the move is necessary to "regulate dial-up access to
Internet navigation service, adopting measures that help protect against the
taking of passwords, malicious acts, and the fraudulent and unauthorized use
of this service."
As for foreign firms and individuals, most are authorized to use the
Internet in Cuba, usually via a more expensive telephone service charged in
American dollars and already off limits to most Cubans.
E-net, the Internet service of the Cuban telephone company Etecsa, told
customers in a letter Friday the new law would take effect late Saturday. It
affects all other Internet service providers in Cuba as well.
E-net is the largest of a handful of Internet providers in Cuba -- all of
them heavily monitored and controlled by the government.
E-net customers who do not have the dollar phone service can keep accessing
the Internet with the ordinary phone service with special cards sold at
Etecsa offices, the letter says.
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