"Exciting" was the description of yesterday's first game between Saprissa and Heredia at the National Stadium in La Sabana. The two teams tied yesterday and will play again this Thurday at the Ricardo Saprissa stadium. Today's Stories: • Four Arrested in Drug Bust • New Cellular Towers; New GSM Service May be Stalled • Costa Rican Woman Arrested in Panama for "Coyotaje" • Latin America a Hot Market for Investors • Dominican president concedes defeat in election • 3 shot to death when Dominican presidential polls begin

According to a police report, the four men were under surveillance by the aerial section of the Fuerza Publica, when they noticed a speed boat that carried several tanks of gasoline, giving authorities the suspicion that the men were preparing for a long trip.

Shots were exchange during the arrest, two of the Colombians were wounded and needed medical treatment at the nearby Hospital de la Anexión de Nicoya. The wounded men were identified as Panameño
Zamora and García Viasa .

The other two men were identified as Caicedo Bonilla and Enrique Ramos and a small quantity of drugs and an undisclosed amount of cash was found on their persons.

The Fuerza Publica's K-9 unit is continuing the search of Puerto Carrillo for the drugs that the men are suspected that the men could have thrown overboard when the police pursuit began.
 

New Cellular Towers; New GSM Service May be Stalled
ICE - Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad - recently announced the installation of new cellular towers, both for the TDMA and GSM technology - with the objective of bettering coverage for cellular subscribers.

The new TDMA cell towers were in the areas of Jicaral de Puntarenas, Santa Bárbara and El Roble de Heredia, while the GSM cells were installed in San Rafael y Bello Horizonte de Escazú, Puerto Cortés, San Antonio de Alajuelita, La Trinidad de Moravia, San Pablo and Barreal de Heredia,

In total, ICE now counts with 240 towers for TDMA and 292 for GSM service.

Meanwhile, Pablo Cob, president of ICE, is looking at the possibility of temporarily suspending the process of the new GSM network that was awared to the Ericsson company to intall 600.000 new cellular lines.

Cob referred to a letter sent to ICE by legislative deputies, Luis Gerardo Villanueva, of the Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN), and Humberto Arce, of the Bloque Parlamentario Patriótico (BPP), who are asking ICE to slow down the process while the accusations of corruption and peddling of influence are cleared.

The accusations stem from a trip recently taken by Álvaro Retana, manager of ICE and José Antonio Lobo and Hernando Pantigoso, both ICE board of directors members, last October, who were supposed to be a world telecommunications conference in Swirtzerland, all the while they were in Prauge, Czech Republic.

During their Czech stay, Retana and his board members stayed at the Bristol Hotel in Prague, same as the Erisson's general manager in Costa Rica, Ricardo Taylor.

The accusation is that the meeting between the ICE chiefs and Taylor went on while the decision on the new GSM service was being considered. Ericsson had not yet been awarded the contract, that was also being bidded by Motorola and Alcatel.

Related Story: Using a cell phone in Costa Rica

Costa Rican Woman Arrested in Panama for "Coyotaje"
Panamanian immigration officials detained at Panama's national airport - aeropuerto Internacional de Tocumen - a Cuban woman who is naturalized Costa Rican, under suspicion of operating a band of "coyotes".

Panamanian officials say the woman, identified by her last name Morera, is the leader of the group, that along with her husband and an unidentified Panamanian official, specialized in getting Cubans to the United States.

The woman was arrested at the airport's coffee shop while waiting the arrival of eight Cubans.

According to immigration officials, the Cubans were advised, once at the airport, to change clothes to throw off immigration officials. The Cubans told immigration officials that they paid about $7.000 each to the woman to be taken to the U.S.

Immigration officials say that the Cubans, once in Panama, would enter Costa Rica by land at the Paso Canoas crossing.

Latin America a Hot Market for Investors
Latin America, along with other emerging economies around the world, has experienced a stock market resurgence. Though there has been some cooling lately, the average stock mutual fund investing in Latin America is up 36 percent over the past 12 months, says Lipper Analytical Services.

Hottest markets in U.S. dollar terms the past 12 months have been Colombia, up 141 percent; Venezuela, 81 percent; Peru, 54 percent; Chile, 44 percent; Brazil, 40 percent; and Mexico, 36 percent. But all of these markets were in recovery mode.

"Latin America hit a very deep bottom, and many people were fearful that it would never come back," said Geoffrey Dennis, Latin American equity strategist with Smith Barney in New York. "There had been the fallout from the collapse of Argentina, chaos in Venezuelan leadership and worries that Brazil would default on its debt."

The region seems on the right path as reforms initiated in the 1980s continue to progress. The floating currencies in the major markets make their economies more flexible and less vulnerable than in the past.

"It's a good time to be investing in Latin America because you still see many company stocks trading at half their valuations," said Claudio Brocado, portfolio manager for Fidelity Latin America Fund, up 41.05 percent over the past 12 months.

The greatest economic stability in the region is in Mexico, which often moves in sync with the United States because three-quarters of its exports go to the United States. But in virtually every Latin American country, politics are a persistent concern.

"In Brazil, the economy is doing fine, but the stock market has been selling off entirely due to politics and the president's inability to put out fires surrounding a corruption scandal," said Andrew Clark, senior analyst with Lipper Analytical in Denver. "That's not unusual in Latin America."

Costa Rica, known as Central America's Switzerland because it hasn't had a standing army for decades reaps dividends from a history of tranquility.

"We initiated investment coverage of Costa Rica a month ago because, even though there are only four stocks, it is a sound and safe country," said Jay Garcia, managing director of Latin American equity research for Samuel A. Ramirez & Co. in New York. "Tourism is its No. 1 industry, and we feel there will be a lot of future interest from foreign investors."

Costa Rica's Florida Ice & Farm Co., which sells soda and beer (with 25 percent of its beer operations owned by Heineken), and financial institution Banco Cuscatlan are Garcia stock recommendations. Neither is available directly on U.S. exchanges.

3 shot to death when Dominican presidential polls begin
Three people died Sunday when the presidential elections began in the Dominican Republic in a confusing shootout at a ballot stations in Barahona, 180 kilometers southwest of the capital Santo Domingo.

The dead are the militants Rafael Carrasco and Waner Carrasco of the ruling Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), and Ramon Ramirez of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD).

Opinion polls revealed former president Leonel Fernandez of the PLD is the favorite candidate, followed by the current leader Hipolito Mejia of the PRD.

More than 2,000 ballot stations opened on early Sunday morning to allow 5,020,793 Dominican registered voters to pick the president for a four-year term.

Authorities hope the turnout will be higher than 2000, when only 24 percent of the registered voters cast their ballot.

The election day will end at 06:00 p.m. local time (2200 GMT), with the closing of the ballot stations.