Puntarenas Festival Today!
Puntarenas is the largest
province in Costa Rica and each
year this port town hosts, what
is perhaps the best Carnaval,
with music, dancing and girls in
bikinis.
This year the Carnaval goes on
until the February 13. It all
started with the choosing of the
"Reinva del Caranval" (Festival
Queen) on Thursday, and the Tope
on Saturday. However, today
Sunday, is when the party really
gets going.
Some of the activities planned
for today are soccer or football
on the beach, public dances,
parades and music on the Paseo
de los Turistas, the boulevard
that fronts the ocean and of
course, the bulls.
President Conditions FTA
The President of Costa Rica Abel
Pacheco insisted that he will
not submit the Free Trade
Agreement between Central
America and the United States to
the Legislative Assembly, even
though El Salvador has already
ratified the FTA and other
nations are in the process of
doing so.
President Pacheco has reiterated
that the FTA will be approved
here once it is certain that it
will benefit all social classes.
Inflation Rocketed
Consumer prices increased 1.96
percent in January. This means
that almost one third of the
wage increase that benefits
workers since last month - 6
percent - is already gone.
This was the highest inflation
for January in the last eight
years, after it went 2.06
percent up in 1997.
This means that a family has to
dedicate close to 2 percent of
their income to meet their basic
needs, as compared to last
December.
The Central Bank is aiming at an
overall 10 percent increase in
inflation by the end of 2005,
and bank president Francisco
Gutierrez said that, generally
speaking, January is one of the
months when inflation increases
the most.
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Coalition for 2006
Independent persons and
political parties - both
registered or in the process of
doing so - are talking on the
possibility of establishing a
coalition for the February 2006
presidential election.
Meanwhile, there are other
parties striving to establish
alliances, with the same goal in
mind.
Even though nobody has so far
made a commitment, almost all of
the groups that plan on
partaking in the 2006 race agree
on their interest to establish
coalitions.
According to analysts, even
though the two major parties
have lost power because of the
involvement of several of their
leaders in corruption scandals,
the candidacy of Dr. Oscar Arias
represents the possibility of
those organizations to extend
their influence at the highest
government level.
As a result, the dissenters from
the major parties, the new and
emerging groups are pondering a
coalition as their sole means to
have true say in the next
presidential term.
Rains Hit
Banana Crop
The
damage caused by recent heavy
rains and floods in the banana
plantations on the Costa Rican
Caribbean will prevent the
country from exporting some 2
million boxes of the fruit.
"We are actually scared about
the negative consequences," said
Luis Umana, the chairman of the
National Chamber of Independent
Banana Growers.
He explained that a banana tree
that is in the water for 12 to
24 hours is damaged, but
survives; however, if it is
exposed for 36 hours, the tree
is rendered useless, and a
grower has to wait for seven to
nine months to get another crop.
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