San José, Costa Rica - Thursday 26 August 2004

1.116 Unique Visitors Daily Average in July!  What's This? 

Updated every day by 8:00AM Central Standard Time

Images as this are on all the front pages of  today's newspapers and on national television screens all day yesterday. Click for larger image!

Costa Rica in Crisis
One Day of Protest Continues, Picking Up Steam
We began the week with taxi drivers and truckers staging what was being called a 24 hour general strike against the government and it's policies and many end the week with no hospital services, no telecommunications and school rooms without teachers, if the unions that represent the workers at the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) and various teachers unions like APSE an ANDE.

Protests Bring Costa Rica to the Verge of Paralysis
The government is now facing demands from farmers, public employees, high school teachers and social organizations, all of which have declared a strike against the approval of a free trade treaty with the United States and anti-inflationary measures.

Goodbye to Costa Rica on Foot
Thousands of tourists found themselves stranded in various parts of Costa Rica, not being able to get to the Juan Santamaria airport for their flight home.
 

SUGEF Recommends Closing Banco ELCA
The Superintendencia General de Entidades Financieras (SUGEF), is recommending that Banco ELCA be closed due to the impossibility of the partners of the bank to capitalize it and the impossibility to find a buyer for the bank.

Gasoline Prices to Increase
The Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (ARESEP) has announced that it will render a decision on the petition of the Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo (RECOPE), asking for a price increase in the cost of gasoline.

Venezuelan Ambassador in Costa Rica Receives Threats
The Venezuelan Ambassador to Costa Rica, Nora Uribe Trujillo, said she has received threats, by telephone, related to the Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez's recent triumph in that country's referendum on August 15.

Canadian Police Look for Links to Organized Crime
Montreal police said Wednesday they will look for links to organized crime after finding a large stash of weapons and explosives in a minivan, in front of a building along Rene-Levesque Boulevard that houses the consulates of Costa Rica and Panama.

Grieving Father Torches U.S. Marines Vehicle
Carlos Arredondo, a Costa Rican native,  was devastated by the death of his son in Iraq lashed out Wednesday by setting fire to the government van that brought U.S. Marines to deliver the news, severely burning himself in the process.

Church's Chicken Works With Local Costa Rican Talent
Church's Chicken, a division of AFC Enterprises, Inc., employed Costa Rican on-air talent, support crew and an assistant director to film its new ad campaign in various locations across the country.

Did you Know?
NASA's Astronaut, Costa Rican Franklin Chang Diaz is the astronaut that has traveled more times to space and is one of the scientists that discovered the fourth stage of matter , the plasma.

Nicaragua to exchange terrorism information with El Salvador
Nicaragua will exchange terrorism information with El Salvador to prevent members of Al Qaeda from infiltrating into the country, said Nicaraguan Interior Minister Julio Vega on Wednesday.

Cuba opposes Panama's pardoning of anti-Castro activists
The Cuban government reiterated Wednesday that if Panama gives a pardon to four anti-Castro activists, Cuba will sever diplomatic ties with that country, according to the official daily Granma.

Ecuador, Brazil stress regional integration
Brazilian and Ecuadorian leaders said here Wednesday that they would promote development of ties between the Andean Community (Ancom) and the Common Market of the South (Mercosur).

Chavez ready to meet Bush to improve relations
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is ready to meet US President George W. Bush to try to improve relations, Venezuela's Foreign Minister said Wednesday.

International News from the New York Times
 

SPECIAL REPORTS ARGENTINA: Mapuches Accuse Benetton of Seeking Gold on Their Land Mapuche Indians in Argentina denounced Thursday that the Italian clothing manufacturer Benetton, which bought up 970,000 hectares in the southern part of the country, owns a mining company that found gold on land that a Mapuche family was evicted from by the courts in May. Mauro Millán, with the 11 de Octubre Mapuche-Tehuelche Organisation, told IPS that the discovery "proves Benetton's real interest in that area -- an interest that has little to do with ecology and is not limited to sheep farming and reforestation, as they claimed." In October 2002, Benetton kicked the Curiñanco-Nahuelquirs, a poor Mapuche family, off of 250 hectares of marginal, hilly land in Cordón de Leleque, in the southern province of Chubut, 1,500 km southwest of Buenos Aires.

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