President Pacheco Gives
Declaration
Legislative Deputies had hoped
that yesterday's appearance
before them by president Abel
Pacheco who clear up their
questions surrounding the origin
of a us$500.000 contribution by
the government of Taiwan and the
us$100.000 contribution by the
French telecommunications firm
Alcatel to Pacheco's
presidential campaign in 2002.
Their hopes to the answers faded
away when Pacheco skillfully
declared everything but told
nothing to the commission
investigating the financial
affairs of the political parties
in the last presidential
elections.
Humberto Arce of the newly
formed political party, Unión
Patriótica (UP), asked that the
president be censured at least
until he decides to co-operate
with the commission regarding
the financial donations that led
him to the president's chair.
Arce added that the only
credible version of the events
surrounding the campaign
contributions is that told by
second vice-president, Luis
Fishman, that Pacheco had told
him to deposit the Alcatel
monies into his (Fishman)
personal account and which he
later gave to the Pacheco. Arce
added that this to him is a
crime, especially in the midst
of political scandals a
president knew that he was
accepting money from a foreign
entity.
With respect to the Taiwanese
donation, Pacheco again was
evasive in his answers. He again
re-affirmed that it was not he
would made the request for the
contribution.
"The president does not have any
answers, sometimes he remembers,
others times not... his duty is
to answer the questions. We know
he is crafty in evading
answering." Said Arce on
Pacheco's declaration.
Italian Investors To Learn of
Business Opportunities in Costa
Rica
The Italian Embassy in Costa
Rica and the Cámara de Industria
y Comercio Italo Costarricense,
have organized the "Contatto
Italia" promotion, with the idea
to promote Italy and Italian
investment in Costa Rica and
Latin America.
Also participating in the event
are businesses from Nicaragua,
El Salvador and Honduras as well
as from Venezuela, Colombia and
Perú.
The hope is that Italian
investors will have an
opportunity to explore the
potential markets in the region
and discover new business
ventures.
Costa Rica currently exports to
Italy 9.6% of all exports to
Europe, especially bananas,
pineapple, coffee, melon and
leather.
The Contatto Italia project is
being hosted at the Italian
Ambassador's home in Curridabat
and will continue well into next
week.
Higher Inflation
The president of the Central
Bank of Costa Rica, Francisco
Gutiérrez, announced that the
overall inflation for 2004 will
be close to 12.5 percent, the
highest in eight years.
This is higher than the
estimations included in the
monetary program for the year,
which set inflation at 11
percent.
Gutierrez explained that the
monetary variables - amount of
money, interest rates, and
exchange rate - have not
departed from what was expected,
but that the increase in the
price of fuels and of some goods
pushed inflation further up than
had been expected.
He added that the Central Bank
will apply in 2005 a more
restrictive monetary policy, in
order to bring inflation down,
back to some 10 percent.
Children Get AIDS From Moms
In
Costa Rica, 43 children under 12
suffer from AIDS, and 38 of them
were infected by their mothers
during pregnancy, said Dr. Solon
Chavarria, director of the
HIV-AIDS Department of the Caja
Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS)
- the Social Security
Institution.
This way of infection worries
health authorities, because the
women to men ratio of AIDS
patients has changed: while in
the 80s it was 1 woman for every
7 men, the figure is now 1
female for every 4 males who
suffer the disease.
In order to stem the trend,
health authorities have launched
a campaign to prevent AIDS in
general and to prevent mothers
from infecting children with the
disease.
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Costa Rica's Software Sector
Expects Growth
Costa
Rica's software sector should
end 2004 with exports of us$90
million compared to us$70
million in 2003, according to
Adolfo Cruz, head of the
three-year Prosoftware program,
which came to term this week.
The 2003 result means a 40%
growth from the us$50 million
registered in 2000 and it is
worth noting that globally the
sector decelerated during this
same period, Cruz told
BNamericas. Prosoftware is part
of a government initiative that
aims to build software exports
to us$1.2 billion by 2010, which
means a goal of 15% annual
growth on average.
Total IT industry exports from
Costa Rica should grow to us$470
million in 2005 compared to
us$410 million in 2003, Cruz
added. The figures do not
include revenues on the part of
Intel, which has a chip factory
in Costa Rica.
The us$2.5 million Prosoftware
program launched in 2000 with
us$1.5 million funding from the
Inter-American Development Bank.
The rest came from Costa Rica's
technology and communication
chamber Camtic, government
export agency Procomer, national
high-tech center Cenat and the
academic council Conare.
The program benefited 80
companies directly and played a
part in helping the pool of
qualified IT professionals grow
to 4,000 by year-end 2003 from
2,000 in 2000, Cruz said. More
than 20 firms have achieved
capability maturity model or ISO
9000 quality certification, or
are in the process of applying
for them as a result of the
program, according to local
press.
Prosoftware organizer Camtic is
now designing a follow-up
program for which it will again
seek funding from the IDB, among
other entities. The aim this
time will be to help the
original Prosoftware
beneficiaries consolidate their
overseas sales, Cruz said. The
program budget and full donor
list have not yet been defined,
but there are signs of interest,
he added.
Conviction of American in Peru
Upheld
The Inter-American Court of
Human Rights has upheld the
20-year-sentence of Lori
Berenson, a New York native
convicted in Peru for terrorist
collaboration with Marxist
guerrillas, President Alejandro
Toledo said Thursday.
Berenson's legal team, led by
former U.S. Attorney General
Ramsey Clark, had argued that
her trial in Peru failed to meet
international standards for
fairness, and that she faced
hostile judges who relied on
coerced testimony and tainted
evidence.
Peru is bound as a member of the
Costa Rica-based court to follow
its ruling and a decision to
release Berenson could have had
explosive repercussions.
``It is undoubtedly a great
satisfaction and tranquility for
Peruvian justice and all
Peruvians,'' Toledo told
Radioprogramas radio when asked
about the ruling.
He said the Costa Rica-based
court had ``ratified the
sentence and I once again salute
the court members.''
The court will not officially
notify the two sides of its
decision until Friday, court
spokesman Arturo Monge said in
Costa Rica. ``The court cannot
control what people outside the
court say,'' he said in response
to Toledo's comments.
Jose Luis Sandoval, Berenson's
lawyer in Peru, told The
Associated Press that he also
had not received notification
from the court on Thursday.
But Berenson, in a telephone
interview from prison, confirmed
the ruling went against her.
Berenson, 35, a Massachusetts
Institute of Technology dropout,
has spent nine years in Peruvian
prisons. Her scheduled release
date is in 2015, just after her
46th birthday.
Berenson denies any wrongdoing
and maintains she is a political
prisoner whose concern for
social justice was distorted by
authorities to look like a
terrorist agenda.
She appealed to the
Inter-American court as a last
resort after military and
civilian trials in Peru ended in
convictions. The civilian court
conviction was upheld by the
country's supreme court.
Berenson was arrested in
November 1995 on charges of
being a leader of the Tupac
Amaru Revolutionary Movement and
plotting a thwarted attack on
Peru's Congress.
The civilian court that retried
her case in 2001 ruled that
Berenson aided the rebels by
renting the safe house and
posing as a journalist to
reconnoiter Congress alongside a
top rebel commander's wife, who
pretended to be a photographer.
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