Taxi Driver Shoots Man in Bin
Laden Mask
Osama bin Laden take
note: You wouldn't be safe in
Costa Rica!
A 50 year old man who had a
little too much to drink decided
to play with drivers along the
road in the Carrillos Bajos de
Poás, Alajuela that runs near
his house and wound up been shot
in the stomach by a passing
driver who didn't get the joke.
Leonel Arias Agüero, in his
drunken state put on a mask of
terrorist Osam bin Laden and
with a shotgun in arms began to
pretend to attack drivers as
they sped by.
Agüero was well known in the
area and well known for his
practical jokes, so most of the
drivers ignored him, however, a
resident who had little time
living in the area, took out his
gun and fired at the jokester,
hitting him twice.
Juan Pablo Arce Sandoval, 24
years of age, shot Agüero around
9pm as he was coming home from
work. Scared and fearing an
assault he used the .25 calibre
gun he habitually carried in his
car, he used to "taxiar" -
working as an taxi driver in San
José.
Sandoval told police he never
would have imagined that the man
was pulling a prank. "I saw the
man in the mask, pointing a
weapon and I defended myself. I
feel bad for shooting the man,
but I really thought he was
going to attack me", he told
police on the scene.
Agüero was taken to nearby
Hospital San Rafael de Alajuela
where he is stable condition and
is expected to survive his
injury.
Police declined to detain
Sandoval, saying he had believed
he was acting in self-defense.
No Children in the Bull Rings,
PANI asks
If
PANI - the child welfare agency
- has it's way, in less than 10
days, the favourite sport of "Toros
a la Tica" at the annual Zapote
fair will see no children
running onto the bullring in
front of the bulls.
PANI has made the request at the
Ministerio de Salud to prohibit
minors from participating in the
running of the bulls at all
fairs around the country, the
most popular being the one in
Zapote (east of San José) that
kicks off on Christmas day.
Each year the 'bulls' are a
tradition at most of the fairs
and festivals in small town
across Costa Rica. And each year
a number of children are takin
to the Hospital Nacional de
Niños - Children's Hospital - in
San José with head injuries and
other body parts.
PANI Minister, Rosalaía Gil and
the director of trauma unit at
Children's Hospital, Marco
Vargas, hope to be able to avoid
these kinds of injuries this
year and are confident that
their request will get the
approval by the Health Minister.
La Defensoría de la Niñez is
worried about the growing number
of marriages of girls who are
minors and are asking
Legislative Deputies to reform
the current laws, says a report
in the daily Spanish language
newspaper Al Día.
Changes in the Law With Respect
to Minors
According to the report, Mario
Víquez, Defensor de la Niñez,
tells the story of a 13 year old
girl who entered a common law
relationship with her sixth
grade school teacher and later
married with the consent of the
parents of the minor.
Víquez said the case is in the
hands of the Patronato Nacional
de la Infancia (PANI) - the
child welfare agency and
Ministerio de Educación Pública
- MEP (Ministry of Education)
who are investigating.
The Defensor added that "the
couple thought that it would be
a crime to register the
marriage, however, did so when
they learned that it wasn't,
leaving a door wide open for men
to freely marry with minors."
According to Víquez, they are
investigating this case since
the year 2000 and have
discovered 47 more such
marriages since.
According to figures released by
the Registro Civil (registry
office), there are currently 165
marriages registered where the
girl is only 15 years of age and
234 with 16 year olds and 417
with 17 year old girls, for a
total of 816.
The proposal by PANI is to make
15 years the minimum age for
marriage.
The Comisión de Asuntos Sociales
de la Asamblea Legislativa has
been studying a proposal since
July of 2003 that would reform
articles 14 and 15 of the Family
Code.
The reformed law would punish
from six months to three years
in prison any person marrying a
minor. At present, the Código
Penal (Penal Code), punishes a
person who has sexual relations
with a person under the age of
15 and deems it to be rape if
the minor is 12 or under.
The age of majority in Costa
Rica is 18, however, under the
current laws, a person between
the age of 15 and 17 can enter
into marriage with the consent
of their parents or legal
guardians.
British
Businessman Murdered
A British businessman, Thomas
Purvis, 45, from Durham, was
discovered stabbed to death at
his home in Sabana Sur, west of
San José Monday.
He had been stabbed 11 times,
according to the police
report.
“It’s possible that the cause of
death was revenge because there
are no indications of robbery,”
said police spokesman Francisco
Ruiz.
Purvis, a 45-year-old British
national, was thought to have
been in Costa Rica selling
security equipment.
According to local media, he had
been selling microchips which
can be implanted in the skin as
a security measure.
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Calls Through to Nicaragua
Blocked
Calls to cellular phones in
neighbouring Nicaragua have been
blocked since last Friday. Each
month more than 1.2 million
calls to cellular phones in
Nicaragua for a total billing of
us$462.000 dollars.
However, a dispute between the
Instituto Costarricense de
Electricidad (ICE) and Enitel,
it's Nicaraguan counterpart,
where Enitel is asking for an
additional us$0.12 per minute on
all calls to mobile phones, has
cut service entirely between the
two telephone companies.
Enitel is the state owned
Nicaraguan phone company that
operates 200.000 GSM cellular
lines. The other three cellular
service carriers in Nicaragua
are not affected by the dispute
and continue to provide service
between the two countries.
Presently a call to Nicaragua
from Costa Rica costs us$0.40
cents per minute during 7am and
7ma and us$0.28 cents per minute
at all other times, plus taxes.
Officials at both telephone
companies say they are
negotiating the cellular phone
rates but refused to give any
details.
Officials at ICE also say that
they hope to have it all
resovled by the end of this
week, allowing people to call
home to family and friends.
Nicaragua is the number two in
destination for calls from Costa
Rica.
To resolve the problem, the
Regulating Authorities of both
countries (ARESEP in Costa Rica
and TELCOR in Nicaragua) and the
Comisión de Telecomunicaciones
de Centroamérica (COMTELCA) have
been brought in to mediate.
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