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updated by 7:00 a.m. CST each day
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Man Who Killed his
Wife and Two Children had a Judge's Order to Stay
Away
Jonathan
González Alvarado, 21, a Nicaraguan national, had
violated a judge's order imposed on him earlier this
month to stay away from his wife following a
domestic violence charge made against him.
On the 11th of July, a judge that handles domestic
violence cases in Goicoechea, ordered that the man:
leave the residence; stay away from his wife,
including making threats or bother her at work or
home; and not go near the home.
Tuesday morning González
shot his wife and two small children ending thier
lives. The man is in police custody.
According to neighbors, the man was not employed and
frequently had arguments with his wife over money,
demanding that she give him her paycheck. Police had
been called to the residence on numerous occasion
when neighbors called police having head death
threats made by the man against the woman.
Neighbors and friends had started a campaign to
collect funds to have the bodies of the woman and
her two children send to Nicaragua for burial.
Three Charged in
Prostitution of Minors
In an early afternoon raid yesterday, police
arrested two women and a man for the prostitution of
minors.
The police action was taken in San Sebastian, south
of San José, at a massage parlor that had been
under investigation for months. Two minors were
found at the location to be offering sexual services
to clients.
According to police, the two minors were under the
age of 15.
The business had been under investigation and
investigators had been waiting for confirmation that
minors were being prostituted and present at the
location before taking action.
The two women charged claimed to only work there -
one being the manager and the other an assistant.
The man, according to police, was a customer who had
just paid and entered the room with the minor,
supposedly, for a massage.
It appears that the woman who claims to be the
manager had been under investigations in the past
for similar offences.
The two women face a prison term of up to 10 years
if convicted of the crimes of prostitution of
minors. In Costa Rica, crimes that include sexual
offences against minors do not allow for parole or
reduction of sentences. The full term set by the
courts must be completed.
In the last 2 years, 40 persons have been arrested
and either been convicted or are awaiting trial for
crimes against minors.
Of the 40, one third are foreigners nationals from
Switzerland, Germany, England, Canadian and
American.
Colombian Refugees
Fear Paramilitaries
Terrified
that the violence and death threats they fled from
in their native country have followed them here, a
group of Colombian refugees is resorting to
desperate measures to convince Costa Rican
authorities that paramilitary and guerrilla groups
have infiltrated Costa Rica.
The Costa Rican
government and local rights groups insist there is
no evidence to support the claims, but the refugees
are adamant that the threat is real, and say Costa
Rica has become a "powder keg."
During the past year,
several Colombians have been gunned down by armed
men on motorcycles. With the assailants still at
large, the refugees fear that paramilitary groups
are hunting them down and systematically killing
them off.
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Young people main victims in Colombian civil war
Young people are the main victims in the Colombian civil war, with nearly two-thirds of the 38,000 combatants in illegal armed groups being youngsters aged 14 to 26,a United Nations official said here Wednesday.
"Undoubtedly, young people are the main actors and victims in the Colombian conflict. Those who kill and those who die are youngsters," said Marc
Franche, an investigator in the United Nations Development Program.
Combatants are mostly recruited from poverty-stricken rural areas, where unemployment, sexual violence and alcoholism are prevalent, said
Franche, who was in Bogota for the Forum on Youth and Armed Conflict, organized by a group of Colombian media.
Senator Antonio Navarro denounced a government policy which fails to cover young people in rural areas and leaves illegal armed groups the sole source of financing for them.
Colombia has been ravaged by a four-decade-old civil war, whichpits leftist guerrillas against paramilitary and government troops.An average of 3,500 people, most of them civilians, are killed every year in the conflict.
Lawmakers call on US not to cut military aid to Colombia
The reduction of US military assistance to Colombia would lessen the vigor of its armed forces and lead to intensified internal armed conflict in the Andean country, parliamentarians said Wednesday.
Senate Vice President Efrain Cepeda told reporters that the United States must keep on supporting Colombia in its conflict, and this was not a sole responsibility for Colombian authorities.
Legislator Camilo Sanchez said the US Congress must understand that Colombia had sacrificed lives in the fight against the so-called "violent ones."
Luis Velez said US lawmakers had said in talks that their government's help was guaranteed because of the achievements Colombia has made in fumigation of illegal drug plantations.
The United States announced on July 1 it would suspend more than 47 million US dollars in military assistance to 35 countries,including Colombia, because of their refusal to sign bilateral accords to exempt US citizens from the International Criminal Court.
Colombia, the third largest recipient of US military assistanceafter Israel and Egypt, insists that a 1962 agreement, renewed in 2000, already protects US citizens from the
ICC.
Over the past three years, Colombia has received more than two billion dollars in US aid through Plan Colombia, a 7.5 billion dollar program launched in 2000 for fighting drug rings, eradicating illicit plantations and compensating affected peasants.
Washington provides 1.3 billion dollars for the program.
Washington, concerned about possible politically-motivated prosecution of US citizens through the ICC, has been busy forging bilateral accords to seek immunity for its citizens from its justice.
US weighs decision to release photos of Saddam's sons
The United States were weighinga decision to release graphic photos of the dead sons of Iraqi former President Saddam Hussein, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Wednesday.
"We are still weighing the decision," Wolfowitz said at a newsconference. But he hinted that Washington was leaning toward releasing the pictures.
"We are going to make sure the Iraqi people believe us at the end of the day," he said, hoping the release might reduce attacks on US troops in Iraq and quash Iraqi fear that Saddam will return to power.
US officials said the faces of Saddam's sons, Odai and Qusai were still recognizable despite the bodies were in a "pretty bad" shape.
In Baghdad, the top US commander, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, said their identification were proved through dental records and other means.
Odai and Qusai were killed Tuesday by American troops in the northern city of Mosul in Iraq.
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