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102 Vehicles Seized
at Palmares Festival
Transit police had announced a
non-tolerance policy with the visitors to Palmares. In the first few
days of the festivities, 102 vehicles have been seized, mostly from
those driving under the influence of alcohol.
In addition to the confiscations, 1.234 fines have been levied against
drivers for different traffic violations. In most of the cases, traffic
violations were to drivers leaving the festival and returning to San
José.
Transit police have set up roadblocks to control vehicular traffic
around the area of Palmares as well as stop violators.
The fine for driving under the influence of alcohol is not a heavy one
for most drivers, being set by law at only 20.000 colones or about $50
in addition to having the vehicle impounded. However, getting the
vehicle back can be a nightmare to the owner for the time it takes to
present him or herself to a special court and have the vehicle released.
Changes in Residency Proposed
Becoming a resident by way of
marriage has become fashionable, according to immigration officials.
Each year that are between 60 and 120 residencies are issued that
are based on a marriage of a foreigner to a Costa Rican. According to
the Family Code, a marriage can take place without the foreigner being
present, provided he/she has given a power of attorney to notary
public to that effect.
Immigration director Marco Badilla, indicated that they currently have
80 request for residencies by Cuban Nationals that are being supported
by that section of the Family Law.
In addition, Badilla, stated that each year they get numerous requests
by persons who are in the process of being deported, to avoid having
having to leave the country, including, the case of a minor who works in
a night club, who is married to a 60 year old man to obtain residency in
Costa Rica.
Getting married in Costa Rica is a simple process that involves the
couple to be married, a lawyer and witnesses. The couple in fact never
have to meet, they can each sign the marriage document separately - by
power of attorney included - which the lawyer then registers for it to
be official.
With document in hand, a foreigner now married to a Costa Rican can
apply to the immigration department for residency, which allows the
person to remain in the country legally.
The residency process can take usually up to a year to process, at which
time a provisional residency cedula is issued.
Many foreigners are now living and working legally in Costa Rica,
obtaining their residency in this way. Most have never met their spouse,
just a name of a piece of paper and following the issuing of residency,
file for divorce.
Some lawyers are in the practice, for a fee, of providing the spouse for
the foreigner in addition to providing the legal services of completing
the marriage and the residency application.
Badilla said that the country is at risk with these types of requests
and said that a proposal is being put forth by the immigration
department to have the law changed and stop the entry of foreigners who
have criminal or doubtful pasts and to become residents by way of
marriage.
Flu Vaccines by Internet
Flu preventions are being hawked online, including vaccines not licensed
by the U.S. government, doctors and the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration warn.
A website registered to an address in Costa Rica, MedicationX.com,
offers to ship syringes pre-filled with one of two vaccines, at $25 to
$35 a dose. Neither is approved for sale by the FDA, making it illegal
to import them, said Steven Masiello, of the FDA center that oversees
vaccine quality.
The site says flu shots are shipped by mail and can take up to two weeks
to arrive. But un-refrigerated vaccine can lose its effectiveness, said
Steven Black, co-director of the Vaccine Study Center for Kaiser
Permanente, a California-based HMO.
U.S. Official to Address
Adoptions
A top U.S. State Department
official will travel to Costa Rica to bring greater accountability to
international adoptions.
Maura Harty, head of the Bureau of Consular Affairs, will travel to meet
Rosalia Gil, Minister of Your and directorr of the Patronato Nacional de
la Infancia -PANI - the country's child welfare agency.
Harty's visit to Costa Rica is routine. Harty will also travel to
Guatemala for similar meetings. The Bureau of Consul Affairs is the U.S.
agency in charge of issuing visas in overseas adoptions.
Harty's visit comes a week after Florida child welfare officials moved
to permanently shut down a Coral Springs adoption agency with alleged
ties to a baby smuggling case in Costa Rica.
In September, Costa Rican authorities raided a house in San Jose and
found nine Guatemalan babies suspected of being part of an illegal
adoption ring.
The house was leased by International Adoption Resource Inc., a Coral
Springs-based adoption agency that has since been closed. At least three
women whose children were found in the house admitted receiving money in
exchange for their children, according to officials there and in
Guatemala.
IAR, through its attorney, admitted it leased the house where the babies
were found but denied any wrongdoing or allegations of baby smuggling.
The agency is currently under investigation by state and federal
authorities and an international arrest warrant was issued last year for
Rolf Levy, an IAR employee.
This is the second time Harty is meeting PANI officials.
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Latin America Agenda: The
week ahead
An extraordinary session of Brazil's congress begins on Monday 19
January. The session was called by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who
is keen to press ahead with the reform programme ahead of the Carnival
holiday in late February.
The main body of the social security or pensions reform was passed in
December, but the lower house has still to vote on some related issues, such
as the ceiling that will be applied to pensions paid by state governments.
In total 32 items are on the agenda in the extraordinary session which
continues through to 13 February. The senate will consider a bankruptcy law
approved by the lower house last year that should help make it easier for
creditors to seize collateral in the event of default, and hence reduce
borrowing costs.
It will also consider a judicial reform proposal that is designed to make
judges more accountable to the public. Among other measures to be discussed
in the lower house are rules governing public private partnerships in
infrastructure.
Discussions are still under way in Brazil pending an expected reshuffle of
cabinet, needed to formally incorporate the PMDB Brazil's biggest party into
the government alliance. The central bank's monetary policy committee meets
on Tuesday 20 January and Wednesday 21 January and could reduce interest
rates by a further 0.5 per cent to 16 per cent.
Argentina is bouncing back strongly from its financial crisis of
2001. The full extent of the recovery will become clearer on Wednesday, 21
January when November figures for gross domestic product are published.
Analysts at New York-based IDEA expect growth of more than 10 per cent for
the 12-month period to end-November. This would put the country on course to
record higher growth for the year than the 7 per cent that had been
expected. Central Bank figures published on Friday forecast growth of 6.6
per cent in 2004, compared to market estimates of between 4 and 5 per cent.
A poll published ahead of the World Economic Forum that opens in Davos,
Switzerland on Wednesday 21 January shows that 79 per cent of Latin
Americans feel public safety has deteriorated in the last decade and 66 per
cent feel living standards are lower.
In both cases, Latin Americans are more dissatisfied than inhabitants of any
other region of the world. On average 50 per cent of respondents thought
living standards had deteriorated and 57 per cent thought security had
deteriorated.
Costa Rica, which retired from negotiations with the US over the
formation of a Central American Free Trade Agreement in mid-December, is set
to conclude talks on a possible re-entry into the deal on Friday 23 January.
The US Trade Representative has reached agreement with Guatemala, El
Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras. Opponents of the treaty are confident that
it will not be approved by the US Congress.
Venezuelan legislators will be drafting new laws that allow President
Hugo Chavez to take funds directly from central bank reserves. Mr Chavez,
who potentially faces a recall referendum in the next two to three months,
is seeking to use up to $6bn of the reserves on social and other programmes.
Foreign reserves stand at $20.7bn. On Friday, Venezuelan bonds fell sharply
in price on the news. Electoral authorities have taken delivery of a
petition seeking the recall of Mr Chavez and other legislators. They are
expected to rule on whether there are enough valid signatures (the
opposition need at least 2.4 million) by mid-February. and on Wednesday 21
January shows that 79 per cent of Latin Americans feel public safety has
deteriorated in the last decade and 66 per cent feel living standards are
lower.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias reaffirms military-civilian symbiosis
Maracay Garrison commander General
Raul Baduel has taken up his post as Venezuelan Army C-i-C replacing General
Jorge Luis Garcia Carneiro, who is slotted as the new Defense Minister.
Speaking at the hand-over ceremony in Fuerte Tiuna barracks, President Hugo
Chavez Frias has praised both officers as "brave soldiers who have known how
to assume responsibilities, face up to situations and opened up paths ...
they have become a symbol of the new homeland and of the symbiosis between
soldiers and the People."
The President says he wants to see a stronger union between the Armed Force
(FAN) and civilian and that it is vital in 2004 which will be a "decisive
and definite year for the process of change" that he heads.
Baduel and Garcia Carneiro were key figures in the return of President
Chavez Frias to office after he was toppled from power on April 11, 2002 and
replaced for a day and a half by Pedro Carmona Estanga.
The President's military-civilian policy is a central tenet of his
Bolivarian Revolution and was started in 1999 as the Plan Bolivar 2000,
which has been described as an Internal Defense & Development (IDAD)
exercise. The plan hit the rocks at the end of 2001 with accusations and
revelations of corruption, mostly by Generals and officers, who rebelled
against the President in April 2002 ... however, officers linked to the
President, such as General Cruz Weffer, were also spotlighted for illegal
practices.
The latest accusation of corruption concerning active service military
officers revolves around the sale of cheap Mission Mercal (priority
government food distribution program) to Chinese-owned supermarkets ... the
Military Intelligence Directorate (DIM) is investigating the allegations and
several junior officers have been penalized.
Despite such allegations, both Generals Baduel and Garcia Carneiro are said
to be firmly behind the IDAD plan, which continues to be implemented
throughout Venezuela, especially in border areas.
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