Sixaola Completely Under Water
Sixaola, a small town at the
most Southern part of the East
coast of Costa Rica with borders
with Panama, is a community that
been totally isolated and
trapped by the floods of the
past two weeks.
The constant rains, at times
torrential, of the past few days
have done little to help an
already hard situation for most
of the residents of the area.
Many homes are in the area are
built of posts, keeping it above
normal flood waters, but served
little of no purpose as in some
cases the water level reached
the roofs of some of the homes.
It's been two weeks of constant
rain for the entire Atlantic or
Caribbean zone that has affected
communities from the Northeast
to the most Southeast parts of
the country. And not only the
low lying areas have been
affected, as the swollen rivers
have over boarded their banks
and affected communities up to
100 kilometers inland, including
some of the mountainous areas.
In the mountains, mudslides have
made life difficult for many,
destroying homes and property as
it makes it's way down the
mountain, taking along
everything in it's path. In some
cases, rescue workers had
difficulty reaching those
stranded by passages that were
risky to cross.
Most of Sixaola is completely
under water. Cases of diarrhea
and varicela have been reported.
The Comisión Nacional de
Emergencia (CNE) has had to use
helicopters to reach some
communities, handing out some
1.500 bags of necessities - food
mainly - daily.
Despite the hardships, the risk
to life and worsening living
conditions, most residents of
the area have no intention of
leaving Sixaola, as in the other
communities affected, a land
that has kept them with working
and growing.
Banana plantations provide most
of the direct and indirect jobs
in the area, which now are at
risk due to the destruction some
of the plantations and crops.
Guilty Plea in Sales of Fake
Lipitor Made in Costa Rica
The
scheme that sold counterfeit
cholesterol drug Lipitor made in
Costa Rica and smuggled and sold
in the U.S. had resulted in the
2003 recall - one of that
nation's largest prescription
drug recalls - of 200.000
bottles real tablets made by
Pfizer, and exposing the
vulnerability in a
pharmaceutical distribution
system considered the safest in
the world.
A Florida man pleaded guilty
yesterday in U.S. federal court
to participating in the
multimillion-dollar conspiracy.
Details of the international
scheme to manufacture and sell
counterfeit Lipitor was revealed
in a New Jersey Star-Ledger
article in December 2003.
According to court documents,
the group purchased equipment
and chemicals to manufacture
counterfeit Lipitor tablets in
Costa Rica and Honduras. After
the tablets were smuggled into
the United States, they were
packaged using sophisticated
labels made by a company in
Florida. The labels described
the Lipitor as made by Pfizer,
authorities said.
In an 18-page plea agreement,
Julio Cruz, 42, of Miami,
admitted working with others to
purchase $8.3 million worth of
Lipitor with the intent of
illegally importing it into the
United States.
Cruz was charged with selling
more than 4 million counterfeit
Lipitor tablets between December
2002 and March 2003. He faces as
much as 11 years in federal
prison without parole and could
be fined as much as $750,000.
Albers Medical Distributors, a
small wholesaler in Kansas City,
paid more than $12.8 million for
the counterfeit and illegally
imported Lipitor, according to
information from authorities. It
served as one of the portals by
which the Lipitor eventually
made its ways to pharmacies
across the country.
Tourists
Stay Longer
The average stay of foreign tourists in Costa Rica has increased from 10.4
days in 2001 to 13.5 days in 2004, according to the Ministry of Tourism and
the National Chamber of Tourism.
Even though this extended stay does not
mean larger income, because visitors do not increase their budget,
occupation at hotel grows
According to the sources, European visitors are
the major reason for the extended stay, since they come from very far and
try to make the most out of their vacation.
While in 2001 European tourists
accounted for 13.3 percent of the overall number of visitors, they now
represent 16 percent. Tourists from the United States, at 41 percent, remain
the largest number of visitors.
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Do You Know Where Your Credits
Cards Are?
Tourists and residents alike are
warned to keep a close eye on
their credit cards and to
closely review the monthly
statements for unusual
purchases. Thieves can easily
duplicate and clone stolen cards
and in a short time take it to
the credit limit.
Yesterday, police were able to
break up a gang, using
information contained in the
magnetic stripe of credit cards,
that defrauded banks and their
customers for some ˘40 million
colones (us$86.500 dollars).
A man identified only by his
last name Rodríguez, living in
Aserri, south of San José, took
advantage of customers at upper
scale hotels by duplicating the
information stored on the card
and selling it to a group who
duplicated or cloned the cards.
The group, according to the
police report, would continue to
use the card until the it
reached the credit limit. More
than 50 foreigners and nationals
were affected by the fraud.
A joint effort by the agents of
the Asociación Bancaria
Costarricense (Costa Rican
Banking Association), La Sección
de Fraudes del Organismo de
Investigación Judicial (OIJ)
(Fraud Squad) and the Servicio
Policial de Intervención
Inmediata (SPII) were able to
stop the gang.
The arrests took place in
Desamparados, Aserrí, Barrio la
California and Calle Blancos in
San José, that saw the arrest of
an Italian identfied by the last
name Salvatorrene and another
Costa Rican, Jimenez along with
Rodriguez. The investigation had
been going on for more than two
months when police first
detained a man identified only
by his last name Valerín who was
attempting to use one of the
cloned cards. More than 600
false plastic card, three
magnetic strip readers and two
computers were confiscated in
the police action.
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