Today's Stories: General Strike to Last 24 Hours "Chuky" Arrested by Police. Again! Has Costa Rica’s Fiscal Reform Plan Finally Died? Malls are Sprouting Out all Over Costa Rica.

According to figures released by ICE - the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad - Costa Rica is third in the consumption of cellular service, with 4.8 hours per month average per user. In first palace is Hong Kong, followed by the United States.

Organizers say there will no road blocks to stop traffic, nor any kind of blockades at any government offices, they simply looking for a slowdown.

The General Strike is to last 24 hours and being staged to protes the monopoly of vehicular inspections given to the Spanish firm Riteve SyC; the recent increase in public salaries for the second half of the year; and the Tratado Libre de Comercio (TLC) - the Free Trade Agreement Costa Rica signed with the United States.

The protest is to be felt country wide and the major road and arteries in San José and outlying areas are targeted. A group is to gather in front of Casa Presidencial and the Legislative Assembly buildings.

Former legislator, Célimo Guido, is one of the persons at the front of the organization. Guide is still waiting his day in court resulting from a 2002 protest where a bus as burned on a public street. He has been against Riteve being awarded the contract almost from the beginning.

"Chuky" Arrested by Police. Again!
Police were able to arrest - again - the 14 year old boy known as "Chuky" that has been a thorn in their side for some time and is believe to be responsible for stealing of up to ¢1.9 million colones this year.

Chuky has been problematic for both the Fuerza Publica and the Ministro de la Niñez, who according to Minister Rosalia Gil, says they don't have a proper facility for him.

Chuky, who cannot be identified by his real name, at 14 years of age has already 29 criminal complaints against him - was apprehended at his home in El Infiernillo de Alajuela, following a robbery in downtown San José on Saturday, when accompanied by three other youths, they entered a store pretending to be customers and then made away with the money in the register when a clerk was distracted.

A store's security guard was able to apprehend one for the youths following a chase that led to the Parque Central. According to witnesses, three adults were waiting outside the store.

Police know the home of the minor and waited for him when he got home, where they found him carrying on his person ¢260.000 colones.

The minor told San José police chief, Eduardo Guzmán, "Take me where you want. You know you have to let me go."

Both the Ministerio de Seguirdad Publica and Ministerio de La Niñez, through el Patronato Nacional de la Infancia (PANI) have not been able to find a suitable way maintain the boy.

To date his file has accumulated two sentences, where alternative sanctions were applied, one case is pending a court hearing and seven other are under investigation, including that of Saturday's robbery. Another 16 cases of low priority for police were passed on to the PANI.

Guzmán said the minor is in the hands of the Second Circuit Court in Goicoechea waiting for the Fiscalía Penal Juvenil to take over the case.

Chuky has already spent some nine months in a detention centre for minors located in Luis de Santo Domingo de Heredia; the shelter, Hogares Crea en Birrisito (Heredia); in the Comunidad Encuentro (Higuito de Desamparados); in the Hospital Nacional Psiquiátrico (Pavas), and PANI facilities.

Last June, the boy was tied to the robbery of the Mutual Alajuela on Paseo Colón, where ¢600.000 was taken and in March the robbery of ¢1.200.000 colones from the Banco Nacional, also on Paseo Colón.

The young boy has had a turbulent upbringing, filled with violence and aggression against other young boys. At 11 years of age he was leader of a youth gang known as "teletubbies".

Has Costa Rica’s Fiscal Reform Plan Finally Died?
by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com,

According to a report in the national press, two members of the Legislative Assembly's fiscal reform commission believe Costa Rica’s long-awaited fiscal reform package has no chance of making the statute book.

“The fiscal plan is dead,” remarked Patriotic Bloc legislative deputy Humberto Arce, a member of several of the commissions that have studied and modified the plan, according to the Tico Times.

Arce believes that the court currently investigating alleged procedural irregularities in the debating of the tax reforms will call a halt to progress of the package.

Last month, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court, Sala IV, accepted an action by two deputies who charged that the former president of the Legislative Assembly, Mario Redondo, violated the Constitution by acting with secrecy and without the required approval of two-thirds of lawmakers last March in an attempt to accelerate the debate on the tax plan.

If the justices of the Sala IV rule against Redondo's actions, all changes made to the plan since March would have to be annulled.

Federico Malavassi, a commission member and opponent of the tax plan concurred with Arce's view. “It has died. It was killed by Mario Redondo and his gang,” Tico Times quoted him as saying.

However, Rendondo, the ruling Social Christian Unity Party deputy and a supporter of the plan reckons to have enough votes to steer the tax reforms through. “We'll keep moving forward with the plan because it's a crucial reform that the country needs.”

The Permanent Fiscal Reform Plan was first conceived two years ago to bolster the government’s tax revenues, pay off the country’s growing foreign debt, and reduce the deficit to 2.65% of GDP through a series of tax hikes and improved collection methods.

Malls are Sprouting Out all Over Costa Rica.
Some $125 million dollars is being invested in six malls that are under construction in various parts of the country: Mall Sambil in Santa Ana; Plaza Rohrmoser; Paseo de las Flores and Plaza Batsi in Heredia; an entertainment complex in Alajuela, behind the Hotel Hampton Inn & Suites; the Centro Comercial La Ribera, in Belén; and Plaza Occidente, in San Ramón.

This is in addition to the current malls, Multiplaza in Escazú, Multiplaza Este and Mall San Pedro in the east end of San José and Terra Mall in Tres Rios, without counting the numerous small shopping and commercial centres.

The town of Liberia, in Guanacaste, counts with it's own mall. The small enclosed mall is the first mall outside of the Central Valley and is in addition to the Burger King food mall that has been in operation for some time.

Unlike the Hipermás, in Escazú, and de Center Mall, in Heredia, all are under construction slated to open in the near future, while some are just finishing the last details, ready to open it's doors.

The Hipermás, in Escazú, was complete, the store was being stocked, when a landslide at the rear of the property caused engineers and the Municipality to suspend operations. The rear of the building was torn to make way for a re-inforcement of the support wall. The work is still being carried out and no opening date has been announced.

In the case of Centre Mall in Heredia, the owner says that they have contracted a new firm to carry out the new environmental impat studies and if everything goes well, they should be obtaining their permits from the Secretaría Técnica Ambiental (SETENA) and open by the end of 2005.

SETENA, in March of this year, rejected the study submitted by the owners of the mall, saying it didn't comply with minimum specifications set out in their guidelines.

Mall Sambil is perhaps the most ambitious project. Located in front of the Parque Empresarial Forum, Santa Ana, earth movement has just begun on what is being called the largest mall to be built, with 46.500 square meters of commercial area, built on two floors, on 121 square meters of land.