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Nicaragua Asks for an
Explanation of the La Carpio Police Operation
The Nicaraguan Chancellery is asking it's Costa Rican counterpart for an
explanation of the police operative in La Carpio last Friday.
More than 300 police officers, accompanied by immgration officials, took the
neighbourhood by surprise in the early hours of the morning. Police checked
documents and identification of some 600 persons and detained 22 Nicaraguans
who will be deported Tuesday.
The Nicaraguan Chancellery is concerned about violations of their human
righrts of those detained and do not discard the possibility of presenting a
writ of habeas corpus in favor of those detained.
Costa Rican police officials have save that they are prepared to offer all
explanations to their Nicarguan counterparts.
They're History!
Starting today all paper colones paper notes from ¢5 to ¢500
colones and all silver coins will be removed from circulation, closing a
long history on this emission of national currency.
The ¢500 colones bill is replaced by the newly released
¢500 coin, and all the silver coins are replaced by the gold coloured
coins in circulation for some time.
The bills and coins can be exchanged at any local bank for the new coins
or they can become an item in your collection. |
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As of March 1, all bills and coins can only be exchanged at the Central Bank
- Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR).
It's Time for the Beach
As the school year begins Monday the 9th, thousands continue to
take to the beach to enjoy the last remaining years of summer vacations.
Jaco Beach, Playa Bonita, and Esterillos Oeste are some of the favourite
spots for Costa Ricans. Travelling in cars, buses and motorcycles, most
Josefinos make their way for sun and sand.
Bus companies have added more buses to their routes. Beach hotels are asking
that people make reservations ahead of time due to the high demand on hotel
rooms over the coming week.
Transit Police to Closely Monitor School Buses
Transit police are making it clear that they will be out in full
force come next Monday the 9th with at least 150 officers in the
Metropolitan area and another 250 in the rest of the country to ensure the
safery of school children as they begin the new school year.
Starting in the early hours of next Monday morning, Transit police will be
stopping all vans, mini buses and buses that are carrying school children,
to ensure that the vehicles are in a good state of repair and that seat
belts are properly installed on all seats.
Ignacio Sánchez, director of the Transit police, said that the operation is
part of an intensive campaign that will last during the first weeks of the
school year.
Sánchez also said, that though their plan is not to leave any school
children stranded, they will confiscate plates of any vehicles that are
found to be not safe or place the children at risk.
The Transit director said that bus operators will have no excuse as they
have a week to ensure that all their vehicles are in good running order and
comply with all safety regulations. They won't tolerate negligence on the
part of the owners of these vehicles.
Some of the requirements that the Transit authorities will be ensuring of
all vehicles that carry school children will be that they have a necessary
permits to operate a school bus, insurance policy up to date, a signed
contract with the school, proper signage to indicate that it is operating as
a "school bus" and that all seats have seat belts installed and are in good
working order.
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Violence: A Growing
Public Health Problem
Violence has become one of the
leading causes of death and a growing public health problem in the Americas
and other regions of the world, according to a publication of the Pan
American Health Organization (PAHO).
However, public health advocates argue that violence is in large part a
preventable problem.
Violence, which now claims the lives of more than a million people every
year around the globe, is the subject of the cover story of the latest
edition of Perspective in Health, the magazine of the Pan American Health
Organization (PAHO). The article analyzes the violence pandemic and how it
affects the people and countries of the Americas.
Globally, the article states, nearly 4,400 people died every day because of
violence in 2002. Moreover, this rate of violence appears to be increasing
in many places where it is high.
To rally a growing public health response to violence, a group of experts
from around the world drafted the World Report on Violence and Health in
2002 - the first such global survey of its kind.
The articles makes clear that the panorama of global health presented in the
report is at odds with some commonly held assumptions. Nearly half of the
violent deaths recorded in 2002 were suicides. Less than one-third were
homicides and only one-fifth were directly linked to wars.
"This is quite different from the picture we get from the media, where the
focus is on organized forms of violence," says Etienne Krug, director of the
violence and injury prevention program at the World Health Organization
(WHO).
The global report mentioned in the Perspectives in Health cover story shows
that patterns of violence vary across regions and countries. The vast
majority of violent deaths take place in low- to middle-income countries,
with rates per 100,000 double those of high-income countries.
In most of WHO's regions around the world, suicides outnumber homicides --
in Europe, for example, by more than 2 to 1 and in the Western Pacific by as
much as 7 to 1. By contrast, in both Africa and the Americas there are
nearly three homicides for every suicide.
There are multiple public health responses. Among the most successful ones
are the efforts to promote anger management, such as pre-school enrichment
programs that teach young children that violence is not the only response to
stress. It also includes programs that work with children who are victims of
family violence and try to help prevent those children from becoming adults
who themselves perpetrate violence.
The report makes nine recommendations for effective action to reduce
violence:
- Develop, implement and monitor national action plans for violence
prevention.
Improve data collection on violence.
- Support research on the causes, impact and prevention of violence.
- Promote primary prevention responses.
- Strengthen responses for victims of violence.
- Integrate prevention into social and educational policies; promote gender
and social equality.
- Increase collaboration and information exchange on violence prevention.
- Promote and monitor compliance with international human rights laws and
treaties.
- Seek international responses to the global arms and drug trades.
PAHO was established in 1902 and is the world's oldest public health
organization. PAHO works with all the countries of the Americas to improve
the health and the quality of life of people of the Americas. It serves as
the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization (WHO).
PAHO Member States today include all 35 countries in the Americas. France,
the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland are Participating States. Portugal and Spain are Observer
States, and Puerto Rico is an Associate Member.
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