American Survives Fall From
Bridge in Quepos
Jack Nesseth, the
55 year old American, knows all
about luck when a pipe tore
through when his rental car
overturned over a bridge over
the Paquita river in Quepos on
Sunday morning.
The man lived thankful that the
tube was old and rusted as it
passed centimetres from a main
artery. Nesseth had the same
luck back in the Vietnam war,
when he recuperated from an
injury to his right knee
suffered from an exploding mine.
The American who originates from
Seattle, Washington, has been
living in Costa Rica for some
three years, settling in Jacó
beach.
Rescue workers were on the scene
minutes after the accident and
tell the story of how the
vehicle hit the bridge barriers,
and overturning, landing on it's
back with the wheels in the air,
five meters down. The tube,
about 10 meters long, went
trough the windshield and struck
Nesseth in the chest, coming out
trough his shoulder and then out
the car door.
Rescue workers say the man was
conscious and complaining. The
tube was cut, leaving part of it
in Nesseth's body as we was
rushed to hospital for surgery
to remove it.
The bridge over the Paquita
river is only one of the many
bridges in the area that in a
poor state of repair, some
completely dangerous and should
not be used, but are vital to
connect the communities in the
area.
Pedro Gutiérrez, the surgeon who
performed the operation at the
Quepos hospital told that the
immediate attention on the
scene, the careful transport of
the patient and the "company of
God" all contributed to the
man's life.
Rándall Quirós, Transport
Minister, told the daily Spanish
language newspaper Al Dia, that
he was not aware of the bad
condition of the bridge but
would look into it personally.
The CONAVI - a division of the
Transport Ministry - was to send
a team engineers to study the
Paquita bridge and others in the
area.
Focus on Lowering
Inflation
During the next two years, the
Central Bank will concentrate on lowering the rhythm of the increase in
consumer prices.
The goal is to lower the inflation from the 13 percent recorded in 2004 to
10 percent in 2005 and 9 percent in 2006.
The president of the Central Bank, Francisco Gutierrez, made the
announcement when presenting the economic goals for the next two years. In
order to lower inflation, he explained, the Bank will apply a restrictive
monetary policy, which means recalling money from the streets to prevent
people from spending and putting pressure on the prices.
Social, academic, and productive sectors reacted to the announcement of the
Central Bank by stating fears on an increase of poverty and a loss of jobs.
The Bank's measures imply that the economy will only grow 3.2 percent, as
compared to 4.2 percent in 2004; therefore the production of goods and
services will be lower, as will the number of new jobs. T
he latter fact will affect mainly the young people who will be looking for
jobs in the coming months.
20,000 Textile Jobs
Endangered
More than the low-cost production of
China, the Costa Rican textile sector fears the transfer of plants from here
to elsewhere in Central America.
That threat would become reality if the other Central American nations
approve the Free Trade Agreement with the United States, while Costa Rica
lags behind in that respect.
According to sector sources, such a scenario means the loss of 20,000 jobs.
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Canadian Deportation Order Broke
Up Marriage, Tearful Claimant
Says
CBC News, Canada
WHITEHORSE - A refugee claimant
from Costa Rica was in tears as
she boarded a plane with her two
children in the Yukon on Friday,
saying her husband had chosen to
desert her rather than obey a
deportation order.
Katherine Zuniga and her husband
Eliel Villegas had tried every
possible avenue to stay in
Whitehorse with their children,
four-year-old Gressley and
two-year-old Dereck.
Citizenship and Immigration
officials suspended a
deportation order issued in
December, based on the couple's
argument that they faced
physical harm from organized
crime in Costa Rica.
However, a review later reversed
that decision, and the couple
was told they had to leave
Canada.
Shortly before getting on an Air
Canada flight Friday, Zuniga
told reporters that Villegas was
determined to stay, so the
couple had separated the night
before.
"He's gone. He left me," she
said, as a crowd of supporters
looked on.
Zuniga was to travel with her
two children to Vancouver and
then Toronto, before flying back
to Costa Rica, where she says
she will have to change her name
and live in hiding.
"I begin my life [again], but it
is not safe," she said.
The way federal officials
handled the affair was
"disgusting," said Rick Karp, a
businessman in Whitehorse who
has supported Zuniga, Villegas
and about four dozen other
would-be refugees, mostly from
Latin America, who arrived in
the city by bus in the summer of
2004.
Karp was particularly upset that
no federal officials were at the
airport on Friday to provide the
woman with her passport or
tickets.
"They've torn this family apart,
and no one was here to advise
this poor mother, with her two
children, on any procedures," he
said.
"It's absolutely unforgivable."
There is no word on where
Villegas is or whether a warrant
will be issued for his arrest
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