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No Agreement Reached With Informal Taxi Drivers
Following the protest that blocked Avenida Segunda
Monday and on the promise made by the government to dialogue, yesterday
informal taxi drivers "porteadores" met with Minister for the Presidency,
Ricardo Toledo.
Though no agreement was reached between the government and representatives
the porteadores, the informal drivers have agreed to drop any further
actions of protest. For the time being, that is.
Toledo assured licensed taxi drivers that no agreement was signed with the
porteadores. A massive show of force by taxi drivers was present outside the
offices of the Ministry of Transport yesterday afternoon.
Portaedores are drivers who have contracts with individuals
or companies to transport them to and from work. They differentiate
themselves from "piratas" or pirate taxis who operate similar to a taxi
service but without a taxi license.
Porteadores mark their cars with signage as: 'San Jorge', 'Transportes
Carolina' and 'Tico Welcome'.
Javier Chaves, Minister of Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT), said that
there is no guarantee that the porteadores will not pick up passengers on
the street, an illegal action, and thus MOPT will maintain it's policy of
sanctions against illegal taxis - porteadores and piratas - by confiscating
their cars and levying fines.
The only possible solution to the current situation is the government to
undertake a study on the demand for taxi services in the country, to see if
there are more licensed taxis required. However, this is not a solution for
the illegal taxis.
Earthquake in the
South Zone
According to the Observatorio Vulcanológico y
Sismológico de Costa Rica (OVSICORI), an tremor with a magnitude of 4.2 on
the Richter scale was registered yesterday afternoon at 3:15pm.
The epicenter was located 5 kilometers northeast of Puerto Armuelles
(Panama) with a depth of 17 kilometers. Puerto Aurmelles is a border town
near Costa Rica.
.Yesterday's tremor was close in origin
to the shake of 25 December 2003 when a quake of 6.3 hit and left 1 dead
and 40 injured and hundreds of homes were reported damaged or destroyed.
The tremors yesterday were felt in Coto Brus, Laurel, Pueblo Neuvo and
Bajo Los Indios, all in the southern zone, near Golfito and the Panama
border. |
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No injuries of property damage was reported in yesterday's
earthquake.
Costa
Rica Loses to Canada 1-2 in Soccer
Goals by Christine Latham and Aysha Jamani led Canada to a 2-1
victory over Costa Rica on Monday in women's Olympic soccer qualifying.
The host team will face the United States, winner of the other group, on
Wednesday, while Canada meets Mexico. The winners of those games will go to
Athens.
Canada, which finished fourth at the 2003 World Cup, pressed hard at the
start of the match at Costa Rica's National Stadium. Latham struck six
minutes into the match. Jamani added a second goal at 20 minutes with a shot
that went through the legs of defender Monica Salazar, confusing goalkeeper
Alejandra Alvarez.
Shirley Cruz scored for Costa Rica in the 63rd minute.
In the evening's first game, Raiza Gutierrez scored two goals for Panama in
a 3-0 victory over Jamaica.
Gutierrez broke a scoreless tie with a penalty kick at 60 minutes and added
a second goal at 81 minutes. Maritzenia Bedoya scored four minutes later.
Botanical
Garden Jumps at Chance to Revive Toad Species
The Atlanta Botanical Garden may be the salvation of a tiny tropical toad
once thought to be extinct but rediscovered last year in Costa Rica.
Amphibian expert Ron Gagliardo eyes a close cousin of the harlequin toad
that will be used to prepare a botanical garden breeding program for the
species.
In cooperation with Costa Rican wildlife officials, amphibian expert Ron
Gagliardo plans to set up a captive breeding program at the botanical garden
for the so-called harlequin toad, which had not been seen since 1996.
Gagliardo will return to Costa Rica this month to try to collect a few
male-female pairs of the toad to establish the breeding program in Atlanta.
"We would like to get at least five pairs," he said.
The toads would be bred in tropical terrariums at the
botanical garden. The offspring would be taken back to Costa Rica and
released to build up populations in the wild.
Gagliardo and other scientists went to Costa Rica in December to verify
the harlequin toad is surviving in the wild. After a grueling hike into
a mountainous rain forest, the team found three toads in the private
Rainmaker Reserve in southwest Costa Rica.
The poisonous toad, with its distinctive yellow and black markings, was
thought to have become a victim of development, habitat loss, global
warming and a deadly fungal disease known as chytridiomycosis. Its
"rediscovery" came when Justin Yeager, a University of Delaware
researcher, and assistant Mark Pepper were visiting an ecolodge near the
Rainmaker Reserve last June. In a display terrarium there were what
appeared to be a couple of harlequin toads.
The lodge's operators did not know the identity of the species. They
said surveyors had found the amphibians in the private reserve and
brought them to the lodge to be displayed. |
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The harlequin toad wasrediscovered
last year in Costa Rica.
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Amphibian expert Ron Gagliardo eyes a
close cousin of the harlequin toad that will be used to prepare a
botanical garden breeding program for the species |
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The researchers contacted Federico Bolaños, a University of Costa Rica
herpetologist, who confirmed the toad was Atelopus varius, or harlequin
toad.
Shortly afterward, Yeager called his friend Gagliardo at the Atlanta
Botanical Garden to tell him the news and ask his help with a captive
breeding program.
While the 28-year-old botanical garden is best known for its plant
collections, including rare and endangered species from tropical rain
forests, it also is a major supporter of amphibian research and education.
"Plants and animals go hand in hand," Gagliardo said. "They depend on each
other for survival, especially in the rain forest."
But a precipitous decline of frogs and toads worldwide has scientists
worried that the world may be seeing the first signs of an environmental
crisis.
Worldwide, an estimated 200 frog and toad species are in decline.
Amphibians have porous skin that makes them especially sensitive to changes
in their environment.
They are among the first to suffer from pollution, destruction of wetlands,
invasive species and ultraviolet radiation.
Most of the more than 70 species in the Atelopus genus — the one the
harlequin toad belongs to — are believed to have gone extinct in the past 10
years, Gagliardo said.
"You could say that the Atelopus has become the poster child of global
amphibian species decline," he added.
That's why the rediscovery of the harlequin toad last spring sparked a
ripple of excitement and hope among herpetologists.
"It is an important discovery," Gagliardo said. "We have another chance of
seeing the harlequin toad again in Costa Rica."
He said that by determining why the species has survived in the Rainmaker
Reserve, scientists might be able to devise methods for protecting the
creature and warding off its extinction.
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U.S.
Concludes Trade Pact With Morocco
The United States and Morocco concluded a free-trade agreement
Tuesday designed to remove tariff barriers and open markets to industries,
farmers and consumers in both countries.
The accord is similar to those the United States has reached in recent weeks
with Australia and five Central American countries: Guatemala, El Salvador,
Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica.
The Bush administration has been accelerating its negotiating efforts since
last year when it won authority from Congress to complete new free trade
deals.
Under the "fast track" rules, agreements must face up-or-down votes, without
amendments, in both the House and Senate. Passage is politically difficult
this election year, especially because Congress has only a short session
after the July 4 recess. Last year Congress approved trade agreements with
Chile and Singapore.
The agreement with Morocco, a Muslim North African nation, is the second the
United States has reached with an Arab country; the first was with Jordan in
2001. Negotiations resume Wednesday on a similar deal with Bahrain, a
Persian Gulf emirate, and the Bush administration hopes to add the Dominican
Republic in the Caribbean to the agreement with the five Central American
nations late this year.
U.N.: War crimes
unpunished
The Guatemalan government has failed to resolve the deaths and
disappearances of more than 200,000 Guatemalans during the country's
36-year-civil war, and those implicated continue to go unpunished, a United
Nations report concluded Monday.
Impunity, lack of recognition and compensation for victims, and a refusal to
search for clandestine cemeteries are some of the ways in which the
government has failed to address the problem, the report said.
Three administrations have been in power since recommendations were issued
five years ago by a special commission formed to investigate events of the
war.
''Progress has been little and the volume of tasks still pending is
enormous,'' Tom Koenigs, head of the U.N. Mission to Guatemala, told
reporters. ``There is no punishment or sanctions against those responsible
for the atrocities.''
The commission, composed of a U.N. representative, an Indian leader and a
lawyer, was charged with investigating the causes of the war that ended in
1996, identifying human rights violations, and making recommendations for a
national reconciliation.
The commission's report, titled Memory of Silence, attributed 90 percent of
the massacres and human-rights violations to the army and issued 84
recommendations to the government.
Since then, the attorney general's office has not opened a single case to
punish those presumably responsible for massacres against Indian populations
during the conflict, Koenigs said.
The government also has not made a sufficient effort to investigate the
forced disappearance of people during the war or to support a program to
compensate victims' families, Koenigs said.
President Oscar Berger, who took office in January, said recently that a
priority of his administration would be to redress the promises the
government made when it signed peace accords in 1996.
Chávez foes
barricade major streets
Tense street demonstrations to protest delays in a recall drive
against President Hugo Chávez spread throughout Venezuela on Monday, closing
off major Caracas highways and boulevards with burning tires and trash.
National Guard and military police armored vehicles dispersed throughout the
nation, although many street barricades remained.
Protesters throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at soldiers surrounded Plaza
Francia, the east side Caracas square where dissident military generals
camped out last year.
''In any other context, a mayor is against public disorder . . . but the
government is trying to strangle four million people who want elections --
nothing more and nothing less,'' said Leopoldo López, mayor of the Caracas
municipality of Chacao. ``This is democratic fraud.''
Protests spread as anticipation grew over an expected announcement by the
National Elections Council, CNE. The board was scheduled to announce Sunday
night whether opposition activists collected enough signatures to demand a
recall referendum but twice postponed its announcement as tensions grew,
promising a statement today.
Pro-government board members already indicated that many of the 3.4 million
signatures presented to the CNE were set aside for appeal because volunteers
helped signers fill out the petition form. The action was widely viewed as a
deliberate obstacle designed to derail the referendum.
To compel a recall, the opposition needs 2.4 million signatures. Leaders
claim to have collected 3.4 million, but sources say about 700,000 were
rejected outright and another 700,000 were set aside for ''repair,'' because
the signers allowed volunteers to fill out their names and ID number.
CNE member Jorge Rodríguez said people whose signatures were sent to repair
would have five days to come forward and verify their signatures. But the
opposition balked, saying the 1,000 verification centers the CNE proposed --
with just one table each -- are not enough.
''Only a dope would accept that,'' said opposition leader Henrique Salas
Rmer, a former governor who is considered a likely candidate should early
elections be needed. ``It's absurd.''
Opposition leaders denounced the appeal process as rigged and called for
supporters to take to the streets.
''We've had it up to here,'' said Michael Rodríguez, touching his forehead
with his hand, soiled from lighting tires ablaze in Chacao. ``The idea is to
paralyze the country. They are trampling all over us, and we've reached the
end.''
Small protests of burning garbage choked the east-side suburbs where much of
the opposition lives. The major highway through Caracas was blocked as were
Libertador and Francisco de Miranda avenues.
``We have to close down the whole of Caracas! said demonstrator Teófilo
Rodríguez, a 53-year-old civil engineer, who carried a can of petrol in his
hand and a whistle around his neck. ``There's no alternative now but the
people in the streets with sticks and stones.''
Opposition leaders criticized the armed forces for throwing tear gas and
shooting rubber bullets at demonstrators. One hospital cleared its
first-floor emergency room, after a tear-gas canister flew through the
window into a waiting room filled with patients.
''This is a medical center,'' Dr. Guillermo Cabrera told reporters. ``Not
barracks.''
Defense Minister Jorge Luis Carneiro expressed satisfaction, saying poor
neighborhoods were free of protests.
''We can't permit disorder in the streets that causes chaos,'' said Gen.
Julio Quintero, who runs the military joint command.
``We are not militarizing Caracas. We're doing our job to prevent public
disorder. We're trying to keep traffic moving and free of obstacles.''
Libertador mayor Freddy Bernal, a Chávez supporter, said he plans to file a
criminal complaint against several opposition leaders, including Mayor López,
whom he accuses of instigating violence.
Venezuela is bitterly divided among those who consider Chávez a Fidel Castro
in the making and those who view him as a savior of the poor.
He enjoys fervent support by at least 30 percent of the population, tens of
thousands of whom cheered him on this weekend as he railed against President
Bush.
Chávez accused Bush of plotting his overthrow and threatened to withhold oil
from the United States. Using vulgar language to call Bush a ''chump,''
Chávez accused him of stealing the 2000 elections and challenged Bush to a
wager: Who will be president longer?
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