Formal Charges Presented in
Parmenio Medina Murder
It's been a little over three
years and a score of accused,
including outspoken priest,
Father Minor Calvo, have been
lingering in preventive
detention, but finally yesterday
"formal charges" were presented
in the murder of journalist,
Parmenio Medina.
The charges were presented by
Fiscal (Prosecutor) Giselle
Rivera before the Heredia
Criminal Court judge, David
Hernández. The charges came
exactly 1.000 days following the
July 7, 2001 murder.
The Fiscal presented 20 volumes
and 20 boxes of files, that
include a 396 page detailed
assumption by the Ministerio
Público, that Medina's murder
was a hired hit.
Father Minor Calvo Aguilar and
businessman Omar Chaves Mora are
accused of being the masterminds
behind the crime.
John Gilberto Gutiérrez Ramírez,
Luis Alberto Aguirre Jaime, also
known as “el Indio”, Juan Ramón
Hernández, Juan Gabriel Carvajal,
Danny Smith, Jorge Castillo, and
Randall González are are being
accused of committing the crime.
The Prosecutor also presented
additional charges for fraud,
appropriation of capital, money
laundering and illegal
association against Calvo and
Chaves.
Judge Hernández now needs to
read the material presented
before his court and decide if
there is enough evidence against
those accused and set a
preliminary hearing to decide if
there will be a trial.
The preliminary hearing could
come as early as the middle of
January 2005, following the year
end holiday court recess.
Around 4pm on July 7 of 2001,
several shots rang out in the
quiet area of San Miguel de
Santo Domingo de Heredia, north
of San José. Parmenio Medina, an
outspoken radio journalist, had
been the target of a hitman's
bullet only feet away from his
home.
Most Publicized Murder Case
Medina, originally from
Colombia but had lived in Costa
Rica for more than 20 years, was
the director of the
controversial and scathing radio
news program "La Patada" - a
kick in the ass - was hit by
three bullets, dying from his
wounds shortly after reaching
the Calderón Guardia hospital.
Medina's murder came as no
surprise. The journalist had
received numerous death threats
prior to the attack, all due to
subjects presented on his radio
program.
One of his most popular attacks
was agaisnt "Radio Maria", a
radio station that was directed
by the father Minor Calvo, who
is being charged with being one
of the masterminds behind the
murder.
The prosecutor will argue that
Calvo, along with businessman
Omar Chaves, conspired to have
Medina killed following several
revelation of irregularities
going on at the Radio Maria
radio station, along with
accusation against the priest's
personal life.
Calvo had been for years a
fixture on local television
channels with his nightly
presentation of "a minute with
Father Calvo", where he offered
spiritual advice to viewers.
Radio Maria had been a source of
financial gain for both Calvo
and Chaves and Medina was
getting ready to bust their
bubble. The radio station failed
following the murder, mired in
controversy over finances and
who really held ownership, Calvo
and his partners or the Catholic
church.
It was a little over a year
following the murder that
investigators were able to piece
the clues and confirm that
Medina had been a hired murder.
The Organismo de Investigacio
Judicial (OIJ) made their first
arrest of Calvo and Chaves in a
restaurant in Liberia, some 4
hours north of San José and
minutes from the Nicaraguan
border.
A series of testimonies
following the arrest, including
statements by several of the
accused, led judicial officials
to determine that Calvo and
Chaves were the ones who ordered
the murder and pressure to
resovled the case, both from
politicials and the press, led
the Fiscalía to press hard.
Thousands have cellular
telephones but cannot use them,
following a week after the
Instituto Costarricense de
Electricidad (ICE) - state owned
telephone company - put on sale
to the public the last of the
GSM cellular lines.
More Than A Thousand Left
Without Cellular Service
Last Monday, thousands lined up
the offices of ICE all around
the country for what could be
last chance to obtain GSM
service for some time, while
others went directly to
authorized ICE agents to
purchase their telephone and get
connected to the network.
ICE has 400 authorized agents
who have access to the ICE
registration computers, who can
complete the purchase and
activation of a new cellular
service from their location.
Thousands opted for this, not
only to purchase their new
equipment but also to avoid the
long lines at the ICE offices.
However, from the beginning on
last Monday morning, the ICE
registration computers were slow
to respond to agents requests
and many worked into the small
hours of the morning to fulfill
their customer purchases.
But, more than a thousand who
purchased their telephone, paid
the required ¢12.500 deposit are
still without cellular service.
And out of luck.
They blame the authorized agents
- the vendors - while, the
vendors blame ICE for not being
able to handle the load of the
17.000 lines which were
activated in less than 36 hours.
ICE for now is offering some
customers the lines they were
promised and the rest option of
taking a line on the older TDMA
platform or a refund on their
deposit.
Currently, ICE has some 35.000
TDMA lines left and expects to
be completely sold out by the
end of January next year,
meaning that customers who want
new cellular service will go
back to the "old" days of
waiting months for a line to
become available.
For its part, ICE is not to
blame. ICE had signed a contract
for 600.000 GSM lines with the
Ericsson company last year, that
were to have been installed this
month. However, the Contraloria
(Comptroller's office) did not
approve the contract, claiming
irregularities with the awarding
of the multimillion dollar
contract and left the
Institution with no resources.
Complicating matters for ICE is
the scandal surrounding it's
awarding of the current GSM
network to the French
telecommunications firm ALCATEL
a couple of years back, where it
has been revealed that Alcatel
paid ICE board members and
functionaries millions of
dollars in payoffs.
The president of Alcatel Costa
Rica, Edgar Valverde, and former
president of Costa Rica, Miguel
Angel Rodríguez (1998-2002) are
in preventive detention with the
scandal, while a number of
others, including José Antonio
Lobo, a former ICE board member
and minister in the Rodríguez
administration are under house
arrest.
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1/3 of Costa Rican Roads OK
A recent study by the
Laboratorio Nacional de
Materiales y Modelos
Estructurales (Lanamme) and the
Universidad de Costa Rica, only
one third of the country's road
are in good condition.
The study says that of the 4.000
kilometers of national roads,
68% are in poor or
unsatisfactory condition, with a
great number of potholes. The
study was precise in saying that
1.386 kilometers are in poor
condition, 1.385 kilometres and
in "regular" condition and 1.308
kilometers are in good
condition.
"Regular" condition means that
the roads have drivable but not
in the best of conditions -
minor potholes, none to little
road markings, etc.
According to the study, Alajuela
is the province with the worst
road conditions, followed by the
province of Guanacaste and San
José. On the other hand,
Puntarenas has the best roads of
all the provinces.
Many ask what is being done with
the 15% additional tax on
gasoline that was supposed to be
for improvement the roads.
Critics say that the government
has wasted some ¢130 billion
colones (us$28.000.000 dollars)
in filling potholes and
patchwork repairs.
The Ministerio de Obras Públicas
y Transportes (MOPT) engineers
say that the government has to
make a heavy financial
investment to improve the road
network.
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