Former President Figueres To Be Charged With Contempt
Tomorrow, Tuesday, is a the day that Costa Rica will formally charge former president José María Figueres Olsen, for not appearing before the Comisión Legislativa de Control de Ingreso y Gasto Público (legislative commission).

The charge of "contempt" will be presented before the Ministerio Público against the former president by several legislators who make up the commission.

Figueres is being asked to appear before the legislative commission to answer their questions surrounding his admission receiving a us$906.000 payment from the French telecommunications firm Alcatel. Figueres says that the payment was a consulting fee for services he rendered the company by way of a contract given to his former presidential aide, Roberto Hidalgo, who also received us$900.000.

Another us$900.000 was paid to Carmen Valverde, sister of then Alcatel Costa Rica president, Edgar Valverde, who was fired by Alcatel and is currently under investigation for corruption.

The charge will come following the Figueres' refusal to appear before the commission on four calls. The former president will be charged under Article 307 of the Penal Code which calls for 15 days to one year jail time for anyone who disobeys an "official" order given by a public official.

Costa Rica's political constitution gives legislative deputies the right to call anyone before a commission to answer their questions. Ricardo Toledo, former Ministro de la Presidencia in president Abel Pacheco's administration, is heading the push to have Figueres charged.

One the charge against the former president has been made, the Fiscalía (Prosecutor's office) can then ask a competent court to have a international warrant of capture issued against Figueres and ask the International Police organization, INTERPOL, to arrest Figueres wherever he may be and brought back to Costa Rica forcibly.

Former president Figueres is currently living in Switzerland and has ignored a formal letter by INTERPOL that his presence in Costa Rica was requested.
 

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Madam Trial Begins Tomorrow Miguel Hernán Monge Muñoz and Gustavo Poltronieri Barrantes, associated of the Madam known as Sinaí had admitted to belonging to the prostitution organization headed by woman, who is to face her first day of trial tomorrow (Tuesday). Monge and Poltronieri have accepted the charges against them presented by the Fiscalía (Prosecutor's office) in a preliminary hearing last November and were given each three and fours months prison time for their role in the organization. Monge and Poltronieri, in an agreement they made with the Fiscalía, also agreed to pay ¢5 million colones to each of the three minors who made the charge against the group. Based on the charges presented by the Ministerio Público, the organization was headed by Sinaí Monge Muñoz, between 1992 and October 2003, the time of her arrest, operating out of a house located in Hatillo 3, south of downtown San José. Customers would contact Sinaí by telephone and arrange to meet the girls on a nearby street or would have them delivered to them. It was well known that you could call on Sinaí and she would send a bus load of girls to choose from. Some of the girls who worked for the Madam were underage, authorities say. Documents on the investigation say that the Madam would instruct the girls to charge between ¢25.000 and ¢90.000 (us$50 and $200), of which the girls were to kick upstairs to the Madam between ¢5.000 and ¢25.000. Police had been on the trail of the Madam for a long time. On October 9, an undercover officer convinced the Madam by telephone that he was a client and agreed to pay us$100 for the services of one of her girls. Poltronieri personally delivered to the undercover agent a 15 year old girl along with a 19 year old . The undercover agent chose the minor and took her to a motel in San José when the young girl was ready to provide sexual favours to "the client". That is all the evidence the authorities needed. Police had already arrested Poltronieri soon after he dropped off the young girl and the proceeded to raid the home of Sinaí and arrest her and one other associate. Cristian Solano Brenes and a woman only known as Jimena, avoided being captured and are still at large. Jimena was featured in a Spanish television exposé where she was caught on hidden camera delivering two young girls, dressed in school uniforms, to the news reporters. The video was shown on Spanish television and caused a scandal here, which intensified the investigation of the prostitution organization run by Sinaí. If convicted, the Madam could spend the next four to ten years behind bars, with no time off for good behaviour, the sentence given for those involved in prostitution involving minors. Colon to Hit 500 by December Been keeping a close eye on the devaluation of the Colon? Well, the Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR) is predicting that by the end of the year, the buy and sell of the colon will at least ¢41 Colones more for each US Dollar. The BCCR is predicting that by December of this year, the Colon will be at ¢501 Colones to each US Dollar, up from the ¢459.69 opening at the beginning of January. Fifteen years ago, the Colon exchange was at ¢100 Colones to each US Dollar. In 1990, a round trip airfare to neighbouring Nicaragua cost us$170 or ¢17.000 colones at the then exchange rate. The cost of the fare in US Dollars is pretty well the same today, but due to the devaluation of the Colon, the cost in Colones is currently ¢78.000 Colones. Ok, if you earn in Dollars, but not, as most, earn their salaries in Colones. The BCCR is predicting a devaluation rate of 9% and and inflation rate of 10% for this year. Last year the BCCR had predicted basically the same, but the inflation rate closed at 13.3% and the devaluation at 9.69% in December, that is to say that the Colon really lost 3.44 percentage points. The BCCR is worried that if inflation is not lowered or at least maintained under control, they will need to further devalue the Colon and this will worsen an already bad economic situation the country is facing. The BCCR is calling on the government to keep a tight belt on it's spending and maintain tight fiscal controls.