The project named "pymes" is part of the Banco Nacional's development branch and Banco Internacional de Costa Rica (BICSA), which will is putting aside ¢100 Million Colones for Pymes.

This partnership will permit loans and credit lines for export and import companies. In Costa Rica, 3 out of 4 national companies involved in export and import are small to medium sized.

The objective of the new service is to increase this sector of the industry. Most Costa Ricans believe that access is to credit is only for the large corporations.

The change is all part of preparation for business to be ready for the upcoming Free Trade Agreement.
 

Gasoline Prices Keep Going Up
The latest is the Aresep's (Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos) appoval of an increase in gasoline prices. The increase will se ¢7.3 per litre of super, ¢6.9 for each litre of regular and ¢5.6 for diesel.

The increase now brings the cost for each litre of gasoline at the pumps to ¢301 for super, ¢287.6 for regular and ¢207.9 for diesel.

What this means, is that a to fill a tank of 45 litres with super will now cost ¢13.545. In the last four months, the cost to fill the 45 litre tank has increase ¢1.500.

The increase has to first be published in the official newspaper La Gaceta, which is to appear within the coming week.

This increase comes on the heels of the last increase seen on February 28 of this year, when the cost of a litre of super gasoline jumped ¢17.8.

The increase is on the request of Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo (RECOPE) - the national refinery - to reflect an increae in prices in world oil and the devaluation of the colon.
 

Saprissa Eliminates Fire from Champions Cup
Deportivo Saprissa eliminated the Chicago Fire from the CONCACAF Champions Cup on Wednesday despite losing 2-1 to the MLS team.

Andy Williams and Jim Curtin scored second-half goals to rally the Fire to a 2-1 win, but the Costa Rican club advanced to the final by a 3-2 aggregate score.

Saprissa defeated Chicago 2-0 on April 14 in the first semifinal leg. It will host the winner of the Alajuelense-Monterrey series on May 5 in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Alonso Solis slipped the ball inside the left goalpost in the 11th minute, beating backup goalkeeper D.J. Countess from 10 yards for the early lead.

Williams scored from 8 yards to tie the game in the 55th minute. Dipsy Selolwane controlled the ball at the top of the 18-yard box and set up Williams with a quick pass to the right side.

Curtin redirected Nate Jaqua's shot to beat goalkeeper Francisco Porras from 3 yards in the 86th minute. Fire midfielder DaMarcus Beasley appeared to score twice, but was called offside on both goals.

Report Says Latin America Losing Hope in Democracy
A majority of Latin Americans say they would support the replacement of a democratic government with an "authoritarian" one if it could produce economic benefits, according to a United Nations report released Wednesday in Lima, Peru.

The report, a harsh self-analysis compiled by Latin Americans, says that the region, which has succeeded in freeing itself from a long history of military coups and dictatorships, is facing a new challenge to democratic rule because of popular disenchantment with its elected governments.

Created by the United Nations Development Program, the report looked at 18 nations and conducted opinion surveys of 18,643 citizens and lengthy interviews with 231 political, economic, social and cultural figures, including 41 current or former presidents and vice presidents.

Fifty-five percent of the people polled said they would support the replacement of a democratic government with an authoritarian one; 58 percent said they agreed that leaders should "go beyond the law" if they have to, and 56 percent said they felt that economic development was more important than maintaining democracy.

"This shows that democracy is not something that has taken hold of people's minds as strongly as we had thought it would," said Enrique Berruga Filloy, Mexico's ambassador to the United Nations.

The report says that while unhappiness with political leadership has a long history in Latin America, the people now complaining are faulting democracy itself.

Voter turnout is falling across the region, especially among the young, while civil unrest is on the rise.

Since 2000, four elected presidents in the 18 countries surveyed have been forced to step down because of plunges in public support, and others may now be in peril. The countries surveyed were Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

All of these countries have either introduced or consolidated electoral democracy over the past 25 years, emerging from unrepresentative one-party politics or harsh and repressive military rule. All of them hold regular elections that meet international standards of fairness and enjoy a free press and basic civil liberties.

The report acknowledges distinctive circumstances in individual countries, but it argues that there is a broadly shared political culture and social structure that transcends them. "The common denominators of this phenomenon outweigh the many national differences," it says.

The report attributes the erosion of confidence in elected governments to slow economic growth, social inequality and ineffective legal systems and social services. Despite gains in human rights from the days of dictatorship, most Latin Americans, it says, still cannot expect equal treatment before the law because of abusive police practices, politicized judiciaries and widespread corruption.
 

Argentine judge issues int'l arrest warrant for former president
An international warrant for the arrest of former Argentine President Carlos Menem and a request for his extradition were sent to the Interpol and the Argentine Foreign Ministry, a judicial source said on Wednesday.

The warrant was issued on Tuesday after Menem had failed to appear in court for four times in an ongoing probe into charges of embezzling up to 60 million US dollars in public funds during his 1989-1999 rule. It was approved by Buenos Aires Federal Chamber President Martin Irurzun on Wednesday.

The arrest order will be sent to the headquarters of the Interpol, which will transmit the order to all its offices.

The extradition request will be delivered to the Chilean government by the Argentine Embassy in Chile, judicial sources said.

Menem, 73, recently moved to Chile to live with his Chilean wife and their 5-month-old son. He said last week that he would not travel to Argentina for the court appearance.

The former president has repeatedly denied the charges of corruption, describing them as politically motivated.

In 2001, Menem was put under house arrest for seven months during a failed attempt to prosecute him in connection with alleged weapons smuggling.
 

Chile denies granting political asylum to former Argentine president
The Chilean government denied Wednesday that it would grant political asylum to former Argentine president Carlos Menem, who is living in Chile.

Government Secretary-General Francisco Vidal said Menem will be detained and extradited if Chile's Supreme Court approves a request presented by neighboring Argentina.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Soledad Alvear said she did not discuss this case with her Argentine counterpart Rafael Bielsa.

"We heard yesterday of the Argentine judge's decision and this must be processed through the judicial power. The extradition request must first reach the Foreign Ministry and then we shall immediately send it to the Supreme Court, that must rule," she explained.

On Tuesday, Argentine Judge Jorge Urso issued an international arrest warrant for Menem after he failed to appear in court in an ongoing corruption probe.

Menem is accused of fraudulent administration of public funds while he was president of Argentina, allegedly paying prices above the market rates in contracts during the building of two prisons.

Menem is also facing a corruption probe into undeclared funds held in Swiss bank accounts and charges of arms trafficking to Ecuador and Croatia during his time in office.

Menem has been living in Chile's capital Santiago since last December with his Chilean wife and former Miss Universe Cecilia Bolocco and their newly born son Maximo.

He refused to return to Argentina, arguing the probes are part of a "political persecution" against him.