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Thursday Is
The Day for Rodríguez
Former president
Miguel Ángel Rodríguez who is
currently under house arrest, is
expected to go before a judge on
Thursday, when the Fiscalía's
appeal will be heard.
Rodríguez was given house
arrest for the next six months
while the Fiscalía
investigations the allegations
against the former president. A
judge refused the Fiscalía's
request to place Rodríguez in
preventive detention (jail) and
the Fiscalía appealed.
Judge Gabriela Lara decided on
Monday that both parties will be
given an opportunity to make
their arguments in court.
The Fiscalía is expected to
argue in favour of jail for the
former president, while
Rodríguez is expected to argue
for a reduction of the
¢250.000.000 colones bond that
is required to pay as a
condition of his house arrest
and a continuation of his house
arrest.
In Washington, more bad news
came for Rodríguez as the
Organization of American States
(OAS) decided that the former
Secretary General was not
entitled to the pension given
the former leaders of the OAS.
The decision not to allow
Rodríguez a lifetime pension was
based on the fact that he was
not in office for much time -
less than a month - and that he
did not resign for medical or
other such reasons, but rather
due to accusations of
corruption.
The salary paid to the Secretary
General is kept secret, however,
it is believed to be around
us$20.000 monthly. Former
leaders of the OAS normally
receive a pension of 90% of
their salary.
Yet Another
Minister Resigns President
Pacheco's Administration
Ovidio Pacheco, the
newly appointed Minister of
Obras Públicas y Transportes is
the 14th minister to resign from
president Abel Pacheco's
administration.
The decision was made public
following a revelation by the
Spanish language newspaper La
Nación, accusing the
minister that one of his family
businesses involves high
interest lending in the small
town of Turrialba.
Pacheco admitted that in the
1970's the company was involving
in lending money at rates of 60%
per year and higher and resigned
his post rather than cause the
government any embarrassment and
further damage to Costa Rica's
image.
La Nación reported that
the company Agropecuaria La
Pradera S.A. was being managed
up until the year 2002 by the
law firm Pacheco and Pacheco,
and is now being run by
Pacheco's sons.
Pacheco had been at the
Ministerio de Obras Publicas y
Transporte (MOPT) for only six
weeks, replacing Javier Chaves,
who resigned following the
blockades and protests against
the government and it's policy
on the vehicular inspection
contract with Riteve SyA.
Pacheco had also been a
legislative deputy for the
periods of 1990-1994 and
1998-2002 and was secreaty
general of the Partido Unidad
Social Cristiana (PUSC) between
1995 and 1996. The PUSC is the
same party of former presidents
Calderón and Rodríguez and
current president Abel Pacheco.
UN Delays
Decision on Human Cloning Ban
Sixty-one countries, including
the United States, believe that
all scientific research using
cells extracted from cloned
embryos should be banned
immediately and support Costa
Rica's proposal to ban both
reproductive and research
cloning.
However, 24 other nations --
including Singapore and South
Korea -- say that cloning for
research purposes, if regulated
properly, has the potential for
advancing health and science.
Those nations are supporting a
proposal by Belgium that would
ban reproductive cloning but
allow research cloning. The
Belgian proposal would leave the
question of cloning for research
purposes up to the discretion of
individual countries.
The Royal Society, Britain's
national academy of science, is
urging countries to reject the
U.S.-backed proposal to ban all
forms of human cloning. The U.N.
General Assembly in December
2003 agreed to delay until the
current session a discussion
about a treaty that would
recommend banning human cloning.
According to Bernard Siegel,
executive director of the
Genetics Policy Institute, the
delay marks a "tremendous
victory" for proponents of stem
cell research, as well as a
"definite erosion of the U.S.
plan to ban" cloning for
research purposes.
However, an "up-or-down" vote
may still take place, according
to David Prentice, who is
monitoring the debate for the
Family Research Council - a
group that supports the
U.S.-backed ban. "I think the
Costa Rican proposal probably
will pass" if a vote occurs,
Prentice said.
Roberto Tovar, Costa Rica's
minister of foreign affairs,
said, "Today we must decide
whether the international
community will adopt a
utilitarian ethic that justifies
the deliberate creation of human
embryos with the purpose of
destroying them for scientific
experiments".
Coffee
Harvest Expected to Drop
The Instituto
Costarricense del Café (ICAFE)said
it predicts a drop of 7% over
last year, in the production of
coffee during this harvest
season, which begins in
November.
ICAFE blames the lower prices
for the coffee bean in the past
several months. Coffee bean
price have been regaining
strength in the market and that
could mean a good harvest next
season.
Currently the price paid to
pickers is ¢500 colones per
bushel.
Dedication Makes a Difference
Notwithstanding distances, bad
roads, low wages, and overall
poor conditions, the dedication
of Costa Rican teachers makes a
difference, particularly in the
most distant places, where they
go beyond the call of duty to
help their students learn.
This became evident in an
analysis by the daily La
Nacion, whose writers
visited schools throughout the
country and confirmed that the
education system progresses in
many cases solely because of the
dedication and resourcefulness
of the teachers, given the lack
of facilities to develop their
work.
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