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Wife of Former ICE Director
Flees Costa Rica
Following the
revelation on Monday that the
wife of former Instituto
Costarricense de Electricidad
(ICE) director, José Antonio
Lobo, had received a payment of
US$2.400.000 dollars from
ALCATEL, immigration officials
confirmed yesterday that, Jean
Philp Gallup, had abandoned
Costa Rica on a flight to New
York at 8:15am yesterday
(Tuesday) morning.
The Dirección de Migración y
Extranjería confirms that Philp
boarded a Continental airlines
flight with direct service
between San José and New York,
surprising officials since the
investigation had just gotten
underway on Monday, following
reports of payoffs in awarding
the ALCATEL contract for GSM
cellular service.
ALCATEL was awarded a contract
valued at US$149.000.000 dollars
to install 400.000 GSM cellular
telephone lines, that would add
to the country's TDMA cellular
network.
The GSM contract was the second
contract awarded to ALCATEL by
ICE. A contract valued at
US$109.000.000 was awarded to
ALCATEL in May to install a
fixed telephone central system.
According to Pablo Cob,
president of ICE, José Antonio
Lobo was a member of the board
of directors that approved the
ALCATEL contracts.
Philp left the country on the
same day that the Spanish daily
newspaper
La Nación
broke the story of the payoff.
Official at the
Ministerio Público were quick to
add that notwithstanding the
woman's departure, the case will
remain open and an active
investigation will be conducted.
The report comes on the heels of
the Contraloria General de La
Republica (Comptroller's office)
not approving the Ericsson
contract for 600.000 new GSM
cellular lines, following
reports of clandestine meetings
between former ICE executives
and Ericsson, among other points
of contentions the Contraloria
had on the contract.
ALCATEL, along with other
communications firms had bid on
the new contract, however,
Ericsson was chosen by the ICE
board of directors.
Up in
Smoke
More
than forty police officers from
Control de Drogas (PCD) section
of the Ministerio de Seguridad,
Fuerza Pública, Unidad de
Intervención and Vigilancia
Aérea, along with forty five
officers from the U.S. decended
a the Talamanca region on
September 16 to destroy a
marijuana plantation.
Over the 10 days of operations,
408.011 plants were burned,
covering an area of 34.000
square meters. To give an idea
of the size of the plantation,
the area burned is about equal
to area of Tibás.
The marijuana is planted and
cultivated by the indigenous of
the area, which is one of the
few economic resources for them,
then distributed for the local
Costa Rican market by gangs
specializing in drug sales.
The police operation cost some
¢70.000.000 colones (US$143.442
dollars), of which 70% of the
cost was absorbed by the U.S.
Police are expected to re-visit
the area in six months time, the
time estimated to replant and
grow the new plants to the point
that it can be sold.High ranking
officials of the Poder Judicial
were called to the Casa
Presidencial yesterday for a
meeting with President Abel
Pacheco.
Poder Judicial Gets More
Manpower to Combat Scandals
The president called on the
officials for a quick resolution
to the scandals that have been
plaguing the country the last
couple of weeks - the
Fischel-Caja and the Alcatel
payoffs head the list.
The government is giving the
Poder Judicial a boost with more
manpower and an increased
budget. However, the Fiscal
General (head prosecutor),
Francisco Dall'anesse, says that
the government handout just
barely covers the cost of the
current investigation his office
is conducting.
The Poder Judicial will have a
budget of ¢9.100 million colones
(a little over US$20.000.000
dollars) for the 2005 calendar
year.
Looking for a Job?
The
Instituto del Café de Costa Rica
(Icafé) has set a 800 number for
those interested in picking
coffee this season, to direct
workers to area were their
services are needed most.
Callers to 800-800-2233 can
learn of which area are in most
urgent of coffee pickers and job
availability.
The areas of Coto Brus, Pérez
Zeledón and Turrialba are the
hardest hit with a shortage of
pickers, as the heavy rains of
the last few weeks have advanced
the harvest season, according to
Icafé.
In the past, Ministry of Labour
officials would visit picking
sites to inform workers of areas
with available jobs. The
Ministry hopes that the hotline
will better inform workers and
displace them in areas most
needed.
Icafé calculates that the
2004-2005 crop will generate 2.5
million bushel baskets.
Delta Adding Second Daily Flight
to Costa Rica
Delta Air Lines Inc.
is adding a handful of new
routes in Latin America as part
of the carrier's strategy to do
more lucrative international and
long-haul flying that low-cost
competitors haven't yet
encroached on.
The additional connections
between Atlanta and several
Latin American countries may
also help bolster Atlanta's bid
for the permanent headquarters
of the secretariat for the Free
Trade Area of the Americas, say
Delta executives and local
economists.
Delta plans to add a second
daily flight in December to San
José, Costa Rica, as well as São
Paulo, Brazil. The carrier also
plans to re-enter Buenos Aires,
Argentina, and it will begin
service to Belize before the end
of 2004.
The Latin American market
represents one of Delta's
biggest growth segments, showing
a 10.4 percent increase in
revenue so far this year, from
$270 million during the first
half of 2003 to $298 million for
the same period of 2004. Delta
has flown to Latin America only
since 1997, when it inherited
some routes to Mexico and the
Caribbean through its
acquisitions of Western Airlines
and Northeast Airlines.
AT&T Readies Big Push Into
Business-IP Markets
Thwarted in its attempts to make
a profit in consumer-telephony
markets, AT&T Tuesday announced
its "transformation" and
outlined an aggressive rollout
of business IP-network
enhancements. The firm also
revealed that nearly 75 percent
of its $34.5 billion revenue in
2003 came from its business
customers.
AT&T said it is expanding its IP
network in global markets,
including China, Thailand,
India, Costa Rica, and Mexico,
while at the same time opening
Internet Data Centers in
Frankfurt, Paris, London, and
Tokyo. The company also said
that it is extending its network
disaster-recovery solutions into
Europe.
"We're taking the experience and
expertise we've gained through
our own ongoing transformation
to help enterprise customers
with perhaps the most complex
networking challenge they
face--the eventual migration to
all IP," said AT&T president
Bill Hannigan in a statement.
The firm indicated it is
following its large customers
into international markets. AT&T
noted that its largest assets
outside the U.S. are now in
Europe, while it is expanding
its global IP network into the
Asia-Pacific and Latin American
regions. The firm stated that
the expansion is evidence of the
speed with which it "has
transformed its business from a
traditional telecommunications
bandwidth provider to a leading
integrator of enterprise and
application networking solutions
that leverage the flexibility
and ubiquity of IP."
Earlier this year, AT&T came out
on the short end of a series of
court and FCC rulings that make
it impossible for it to make a
profit in consumer local and
long-distance markets; as a
result, AT&T has ceased to
compete in consumer markets.
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