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Pacheco on
Trade, Haiti and
El Salvador Elections
Costa Rica's president, Abel Pacheco, believes that legislative bodies in
the United States and Central American nations will approve the free trade
agreement within the year. In an interview with The Associated Press on
Tuesday, Pacheco said he was optimistic the Central American Free Trade
Agreement, or CAFTA, would bring trade and jobs to the region, even though
it requires Costa Rica to open up its state-run telecommunications and
insurance industries to competition.
"We are not afraid of competition," he told AP President Tom Curley and
Kathleen Carroll, the news organization's executive editor.
Late last year, Costa Rica pulled out of free trade negotiations with the
United States because it didn't want to open up its telecommunications and
insurance industries.
A compromise was reached in which Costa Rica agreed to open its insurance
market to foreign competition by 2011, and privatize three key sectors of
its telephone market - wireless services, private network services and
Internet services.
Although Pacheco acknowledged that Costa Rica's Congress was divided over
CAFTA, he said he believed the agreement would become a reality this year.
Pacheco said he hopes CAFTA will help Central America better compete with
China, which he viewed as an economic threat because its economy was built
on "slave work."
He said reducing poverty levels was the key to fighting terrorism around
the world. "Hunger produces hate, and hate produces terrorism," he said.
He also called on the world to "invade Haiti with an army of" aid
workers, including doctors and teachers. The Caribbean nation was rocked by
a rebellion that ended with the departure of former President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide.
Pacheco said he was concerned about Latin America's "leftist movement,"
adding that he was glad Tony Saca of the conservative Nationalist Republican
Alliance won Sunday's Salvadoran presidential elections.
Saca, a pro-U.S. politician and former sportscaster, beat former
Communist Party chief Schafik Handal of the Farabundo Marti National
Liberation Front.
Unlike some countries who have softened their support of the U.S.-led
action in Iraq after recent bombings in Spain, Pacheco said Costa Rica would
continue to support its ally. He also said the United States had never
pressured Costa Rica for its support.
"You have to be at your friend's side in the good and the bad times," he
said.
Band Caught Following Shootout with Police
Last night, the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ)
detained several men who formed part of the criminal band known as "Los
ingenieros", who specialized in robbing construction sites.
The name "Los ingenieros" was given to the group because, according to
police sources, the men would arrive at a constructions site claiming to be
engineers and then took to stealing construction materials from the site.
They operated mainly in the Turrialba, Cartago and Jacó areas.
The heavily armed men were caught following a shootout with police in Escazu
Centro.
The four men were identified as Edwin Sandí, 47, who was the leader of the
band; Pablo Cedeño, 30: Daniel Figueroa, 35, who is an ex-OIJ official; and
Juan Mena, 35.
The band had 36 complaints against them, including impersonating officers of
the OIJ and Immigration.
Sex
Education in Schools Falling Behind
Experts recognize that sex education in Costa Rica is behind the
times. In 1995, a sex manual never made it to the classrooms because the
Catholic Church was opposed to sex education in the schools.
The law, passed some three years back, is clear on the rights of children
and youths to be educated on sex, both in biology as well as social and
spiritual.
Notwithstanding, it has not been until this year that the Ministry of
Education (MEP) has made a ruling on sex education in the classroom. And the
decision is that there will be no sex education, however, teachers can
include sex in all their subjects.
For example, in Mathematics, teachers can include statistics about sex abuse
and AIDS. In Social Studies, students are allowed to write papers on sex
gender and human sexuality.
The MEP will be holding workshops for teachers to educate them on the new
policies. The workshops will also extend to school psychologists and social
workers.
"BiblioBus"
More than 1,700 books have been collected by a California State University -
Chico State student group to help a Costa Rican organization start a mobile
library.
The Chico State chapter of Students in Free Enterprise is organizing a book
drive to support the construction of a library bus in Quepos, in the central
Pacific region.
SIFE, a student-led nonprofit organization, teaches students economics,
entrepreneurship, business and free enterprise through learning-outreach
projects.
Working in conjunction with Asociación Cultural Quepos y Manuel Antonio,
SIFE is attempting to gather Spanish children's books to stock the "BiblioBus,"
a bus purchased by the ACQMA, which will be converted into a bookmobile.
SIFE members will travel to Quepos in June to help ACQMA deliver the books.
The ACQMA, a nonprofit organization founded in 2001 by residents of Quepos,
came up with the idea for a "BiblioBus" because the closest library to the
village is 75 miles away.
Matthew Meuter, a marketing professor at Chico State and adviser for the
Costa Rica project, said that would be an all-day bus ride for the residents
of Quepos. Meuter traveled to Costa Rica with his family last September and
that is when he met Kris Krengel, president of ACQMA. Krengel told Meuter
about the "BiblioBus" project and Meuter agreed to help.
The ACQMA has raised $7,000 toward the "BiblioBus" project, but its goal is
$25,000. SIFE is attempting to not only collect books, but also to develop a
business plan for the ACQMA once the project is ready.
"Our goal is not to just prop them up, but teach them to do business on
their own," Meuter said.
Courtney Twiss, Costa Rica project leader, said it is difficult to hold a
large-scale event on campus because SIFE is looking for children's books in
Spanish only. Twiss said she hopes to create more exposure for the project
but does not want to receive a lot of books that SIFE cannot use.
One of the group's promotional goals is to hold a book drive at the local
Spanish radio station, she said. "On April 5, we are going to get a
collection box at the info center," Twiss said. "It will be there for two
weeks."
SIFE has received multiple donations to its "BiblioBus" projects, including
more than 1,000 books from Scholastic Publishing Company and 125 books from
a private donor in San Jose. Room to Read, a company based in San Francisco,
also donated 600 books to the project.
"We rarely see these things run by student organizations," said John Wood,
Room to Read president and founder. "I think this is a great idea."
Room to Read has contributed to the building of 63 schools and 700 school
libraries and donated 300,000 books to poor and underdeveloped countries.
Since nearly all of the countries that receive aid from Room to Read are in
Asia, hundreds of Spanish books were available for donation.
The national SIFE organization holds competitions where students from
campuses all over the country present international projects. One of the
judging criteria is proving the project's global effectiveness.
Since Chico State's SIFE chapter is creating a marketing plan for the Costa
Rica project and teaching them how to organize their efforts as a business,
the project fits the national SIFE criteria, said Mollie Perlman, former
Chico State SIFE chief executive officer.
"Sometimes it is hard to look at it that way because we are doing something
so much more than just trying to win an award," Perlman said. "We are just
trying to make this project a success."
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Colombian
Bavaria aims to be number 7 world brewer
Colombian brewer Bavaria (BAV) said on Tuesday it
aimed to become the world's seventh-largest brewer within three years, up
from its current ranking as No. 10, as Latin American populations grow and
beer consumption increases.
After spending $1.1 billion on expansion and buying brewers in Peru,
Ecuador, Panama and Costa Rica to double its output over the past three
years, Bavaria will need no further acquisitions to take it to No. 7,
President Ricardo Obregon said.
He said Bavaria, controlled by Colombian businessman Julio Mario Santo
Domingo, was currently the 10th largest brewer in the world following the
merger of Brazil's AmBev (AMBV4) and Belgium Interbrew (INTB).
"This is an absolutely feasible challenge, because the brewers which are in
front of us don't produce much more than the 27.8 million hectoliters of
beer products we produce and sell," Obregon told a news conference after a
shareholders' meeting.
The company's shares rose 0.77 percent on the Colombian Stock Exchange to
18,260 pesos after Obregon spoke.
According to independent industry research body Canadean, Bavaria is only
the 15th biggest brewer in the world, but Canadean listed Bavaria's total
brewing at only 22 million hectoliters in 2003, considerably below Bavaria's
own figure.
The Colombian brewer has an advantage over its global competitors in that
populations are growing in its Latin American markets and beer consumption
per capita is relatively low, with room for expansion.
Bavaria dominates markets in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Panama.
The company aims to reduce its total debt to $1.5 billion in two years,
Obregon said, after acquisitions took its liabilities to $2.07 billion at
the end of 2003.
In a few years, with lower debt and more sales, the company might look to
further expansion, Obregon said.
The debt is made up mainly of bonds Bavaria has issued in Colombia and loans
from the Andean Development Corporation.
Bavaria's sales jumped 65 percent to 4.74 trillion pesos ($1.8 billion) in
2003, due to its acquisition of a controlling share of Peru's only brewer,
Backus (BKJa) (BKJi). But a strengthening Colombian peso hit net profits,
which fell 73 percent to 101 billion pesos ($38 million).
Exports currently make up a small share of Bavaria's sales, notably from
exporting Peruvian brands such as Cusquena to the United States. But the
company hopes to increase sales to the United States and Europe, and is
considering plans for a new brand of premium beer to be sold throughout its
home markets, Obregon said.
Bavaria plans to invest $148 million in 2004. (US$1 = 2,669 pesos)
Venezuela will not take Kerry's criticism seriously: official
A Venezuelan government official said his country
would not take seriously the criticism by US Democratic presidential
candidate John Kerry against the Venezuelan government and its president,
saying it is just Kerry'sstrategy to get more votes.
Condemning Venezuela's President Chavez's policies as "detrimental to our
interests," Kerry said on his website (www.johnkerry.com) Monday the United
States should lead international pressure to persuade him to allow a recall
vote.
Kerry's remarks would only hold specific weight once he reached the White
House, Tarek William Saab, President of the Venezuelan National Assembly's
Permanent Commission on Foreign Affairs, was quoted as saying in an
interview published by local daily El Nacional on Tuesday.
"I think that, in any case, his victory will not mean a break-up because he
is a representative of the status quo," Saab said, adding that Kerry could
"soften the pro-war features of George W. Bush's government."
Saab denied the alleged ties between Chavez and drug-cartel chiefs, which
was another accusation waged by the US presidential candidate.
"I do not think the Kelly statement is very serious because the United
States authorities have already denied this connection," said the official.
"Kerry's strategy is to get new supporters in the Florida state," Saab
added.
Saab said he preferred to wait until November when the US elections are
actually held and anticipated that "the Venezuelan leader will congratulate
the new president of the United States."
Argentina pledges transparency in dealing with foreign creditors
The Argentine government said Tuesday that it would
hold talks with foreign creditors with transparency.
Twenty-two groups of foreign creditors would be invited to meet in the
Argentine capital of Buenos Aires, when evidence of national growth and
economic revival of the country would be shown to them, said a letter
addressed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The letter pointed out that the Argentine government would also hold
"dialogues with local bond holders" and the timetable for a supervision
system would be worked out by mid-April this year.
Meanwhile, a fund of 3.1 billion US dollars has been disbursed to cover a
payment that expired on March 9.
The Argentine government assured in the letter that economic conditions in
the country was favorable, which would fuel up a sustainable growth and
benefit their efforts to eliminate poverty.
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