Today's Stories: Banco Elca May Avoid Closing; Buyer Still in Negotiations Basic Telephone Service Cost to Increase; Long Distance Lower More Foreigners Rejected Demolition Threat to Coastal Bars, Restaurants British Cloning Call Divides Scientific World Did you know?

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Good news for small depositors of Banco Elca. The president of la Asociación Bancaria Costarricense (ABC), Jorge Monge, confirmed that the 2.056 depositors with less that ¢4.4 million colones (US$10.000) may be able to make withdrawls as early as next week. ABC has ¢900 million colones on hand to support small and medium depositors at private banks.

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Alvarado, who is currently in preventive detention in the San Sebastian jail since July 23, has sent Lester a counterproposal last week, a week after the banking regulator, Superintendencia General de Entidades Financieras (SUGEF), presented it's first report that is calling for the bank to be closed.

Little is known about Lester, however, it is possibly the last hope for Banco Elca before it is closed for good, due to irregularities found in the bank's credit portfolio and other administrative irregularities that placed the bank in solvency problems.

Lester is well known in real estate circles in the Naples, Florida area.

Alvarado and Lester began their negotiations days before the SUGEF intervened on June 29.

El Financiero reports that, notwithstanding the intervention, Lester continued to negotiate with Alvarado and with Alvarado's detention, intermediaries have been hired to continue the negotiations.

The last offer made by Alvarado was a counterproposal sent to Lester on August 22.

Sources close to the negotiations says that Lester is heading a group of foreign investors who want to establish themselves in Costa Rica.

SUGEF and the Consejo Nacional de Supervisión del Sistema Financiero (Conassif) are not fully convinced that the group as sufficient banking experience.

Rules governing bank ownership are stipulated in the Ley de Constitución de Bancos Privados, de 1986, in which article 6 clearly spells out that anyone wanting to be a partner in a bank must provide the government authority with a curriculum, criminal record reports, authority that the SUGEF can fully investigate the individual, three personal references and a statement of financial stability.

No matter what Lester's motives for wanting to buy the Banco Elca, for sure, the 2.500 or so investors and depositors will need not go through the long and torturous closing and liquidation of the bank and recover their savings almost immediately.

Basic Telephone Service Cost to Increase; Long Distance Lower
The cost of telephone service is going up. The Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep) held a public meeting where no one showed up to oppose the 12% hike requested by the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE). Both, cellular and fixed line telephone service is affected by the increase.

The cost of cellular service with 60 minutes of call time will increase from ¢2.900to ¢3.250 colones per month and the per minute cost after the initial 60 minutes will increase from ¢30 to ¢34 colones at peak times (7am to 7pm) and from ¢23 to ¢26 colones at other times.

Fixed line telephone service will go from ¢1.650 to ¢1.850 colones per month for residential service and ¢2.000 to ¢2.240 for business customers. The per minute call cost will go from ¢3.25 to ¢3.75 colones.

In addition, ICE requested a decrease in the cost of long distance calls by 33% for all calls made to the U.S., Canada and Mexico and 8% to Europe. In contrast, calls to Central America will increase by 25% for calls made between 10pm and 7am.

More Foreigners Rejected
Immigration officials have vowed not to let their guard down and are continuing their operatives to expose and expel all foreigners who are illegally in Costa Rica.

A report by immigration officials says some 30.000 foreigners rejected at all border points, mainly in Peñas Blancas and Los Chiles on the northern frontier with Nicaragua.

That number is higher than rejections registered in 2002 and 2003. In 2002 there were 21.570 rejections, while in 2003,  26.862 rejections were recorded.

Most of the rejected foreigners were Nicaraguans Also, Colombians,  and Panamanians were rejected as they tried to enter Costa Rican territory.

In total 29.461 Nicaraguans, 294 Panamanians, 172 Colombians, 89 Americans, 69 Peruvians, 39 Ecuadorians, 30 Dominicans, 15 Indians, 10 Cubans, 10 Canadians, 9 Bolivians, 5 Argentines, 5 Venezuelans, 4 Chileans, 5 South Africans and 5 Guatemalans, bringing the total to 30.223 rejections to date for this year.

In addition, there were 730 deportations to date.

Demolition Threat to Coastal Bars, Restaurants
Some of the Guanacaste Coast’s more popular bars and restaurants may disappear as part of an order by the Municipality of Santa Cruz to seize back land within the so-called 50-meter maritime zone.

Seafood restaurants in Brasilito, a popular bar in Potrero, beach houses in Playas Tamarindo and Penca and a group of at least nine, local, family houses are all targeted in a 30-page report issued by the State Comptroller General’s office.

The report, scathing in its criticism of the Municipality, alleges 59 buildings, most of them in Brasilito, Tamarindo and Potrero, are illegal under Law 6043, which in essence states that the first 50 meters of coastline above the high tide mark is considered public zone and no construction is allowed.

In most cases, the next 150 meters is a restricted zone, which can be given in concession by local Municipalities.

The Comptroller General’s report, which includes photographs, points to a beach house construction near mangroves in Playa Penca, a stone wall for a private home in Potrero, a wooden bridge it says was constructed by owners of a hotel over mangroves in Playa Avellanas, a beach house and hotel in Tamarindo, various illegal drains and sewers, and a bar in Potrero.

Municipal Engineer, Miguel Torres, stressed last week the issue was a complicated one, and each example would be studied on a case by case basis.

“Some of these cases date back before the maritime law was established,” he said. “There are others that are protected under different articles of laws, and of course there are some who have violated the law.”

Whole families are affected by the Comptroller’s Office report, which instructs the mayor of the Municipality of Santa Cruz to take immediate action over what it terms “the illegal occupation of the restricted zone of Brasilito Beach” in the area known as El Precario"

The President of the Municipality, Marlene López Obando said that before the Comptroller General’s report, the council had been working on the problem.

Ten million colones had been set aside in last year’s budget to relocate families who occupied the land before the law was passed in 1977.

“This money will not be for everyone,” Ms López Obando said. “People who can prove they have been there since before the law was passed, will be considered.”

Ms López Obando said it was up to the mayor and his administration to find the land upon which to relocate people.

“It is sad, and sometimes the law is unjust, but we have to comply,” she said. “It hurts us that our people have to be turned out but they are within the 50-meter zone and we have the responsibility to relocate them.”

Mayor Pastor Góimez Ruiz said the Municipality was working on a plan that would detail how the demolitions will be handled.

“We have to study the cases of those people who may have acquired rights, who lived in the area, before the maritime law came into existence,” he said. “I expect we will put this plan in action in September.”
 

British Cloning Call Divides Scientific World
Britain's leading scientific institution is urging countries to back a campaign to stop a possible ban on stem cell research.

The stem cell research ban would be part of a UN treaty outlawing human cloning.

Yesterday's call by the London-based Royal Society has split the scientific world.

The society wants the UN to ban the cloning of babies, or reproductive cloning, but to make no ruling on using the technology for medical research, or therapeutic cloning, at its 59th General Session in October.

The General Assembly is divided over whether to allow therapeutic cloning to continue or to adopt a broad cloning ban championed by the Bush administration and Costa Rica with strong backing from the US anti-abortion movement and many predominantly Roman Catholic nations.

The Royal Society says cloning to produce full-grown babies should be outlawed but argues that therapeutic cloning should continue.

In therapeutic cloning, cloned embryos are allowed to grow for two weeks. While still smaller than the head of a pin, their stem cells can be harvested for use as "spare part" tissues, scientists hope.

Britain banned reproductive cloning in 2001, but became the first nation to endorse therapeutic cloning.