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Pacheco Set to
Travel Abroad
President, Abel Pacheco, is set to start tomorrow his tour of
Colombia, Mexico, U.S and Spain and is scheduled to return on March 6.
Pacheco's first stop on his multi nation tour is Colombia, where he will
meet with Colombian president Álvaro Uribe, returning the visit by Uribe to
Costa Rica last June.
Pacheco will first stop in Catagena de Indias where he will declared
"adopted son of the city". On Monday he will travel to Bogotá to meet with
Uribe. The two men, among their discussions, will sketch out a plan for a
the "Grupo de Alto Nivel de Seguridad y Justicia" which they created in
2003.
Monday night Pacheco will leave Colombia heading for Mexico where he will
officially invite Mexican president Vicente Fox to Costa Rica.
On Wednesday, Pacheco will be in New York, U.S.A., where he will be awarded
the Kolbe Peace Prize by the Instituto de Derechos Humanos y de la Familia
Católica, of the Unit Nations.
Three days later, Pacheco is schedule to travel to Miami, Florida, for a few
days when he will then fly to Madrid, Spain, for a meeting of the members of
Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica (BCIE).
ICE and RACSA Compete for Internet Customers
News is that the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) and
Radiográfica Costarricense (RACSA) are going to openly compete for internet
customers, even though RACSA is an entity owned by ICE.
For it's part RACSA has already reduced it's internet rates by 65% and is
planning on announcing more reductions in the coming weeks.
ICE on it's side is planning to offer it's "Internet Avanzada" to the first
3.000 customers. The price being set by ICE is between $22 and $290 per
month, depending on the connection speed.
To give an idea of the prices now being applied on a 128/56 Kbps connection,
RACSA has reduced it's rates from $40 to $35 per month. The same service at
ICE will cost only $22. RACSA is planning to lower it's cost to $20 sometime
in the future.
In this price war the consumer will be winner. For years, RACSA was the only
source of internet connection for the residential customer and with it's
lousy to not-so lousy service for costly services of up to $1 per hour of
connection, consumers muddled through the information highway.
ICE manager, Álvaro Retana, is applauding the better rates and services that
are a result of competition. According to Retana, ICE and RACSA are not
competing, rather they are complementing each other. He continued that both
entities are working together to eliminate duplication and offer better
connection.
Retana added that in the future RACSA will possible stop offering dial-up
internet service and concentrate more on cable and satellite services.
Farm
Trade Nations to Meet in Costa Rica
The 17-nation Cairns Group of agricultural
exporters meets in Costa Rica next week to discuss ways to kick-start the
stalled Doha round of global trade liberalization negotiations, Australia
said Friday.
Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile said the three days of talks starting
Monday in San Jose come at a "crucial time" for rescuing the World Trade
Organization (WTO) negotiations.
"Unless there is meaningful progress on agriculture over the next few
months, the Doha round will go nowhere in 2004," Vaile said in a statement.
"Everyone will lose if WTO members lose sight of the main game - genuine,
long-term reform and liberalization," he said in a statement.
WTO members are preparing to resume the so-called Doha round of multilateral
trade negotiations following the failure of a September ministerial
conference in Cancun, Mexico, that collapsed largely over the issue of
agricultural subsidies in the European Union and the United States.
The Cairns group, comprising Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada,
Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand,
Paraguay, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Uruguay, has been leading
the battle to eliminate farm subsidies.
"As a leading voice for agricultural reform since its formation in 1986, the
Cairns Group has a central role to play in getting the agriculture
negotiations back on track to deliver a strong outcome that meets the
ambitious reform objectives set out in the Doha Declaration which launched
WTO negotiations in 2001," Vaile said.
The Cancun meeting fell apart amid disagreements on trade-distorting farm
subsidies in the EU and US and because poor countries refused to be
pressured to widen Doha's agenda to include four so-called Singapore Issues:
transparency in government procurement, competition policy, red tape in
trade and cross border investment regulations.
"Agriculture is the key to unblocking the entire Doha agenda," Vaile said.
He said the San Jose meeting would discuss strategies to accelerate progress
on agriculture and would examine ways "to keep maximum pressure on all sides
- especially the major users of agricultural subsidies".
The Cairns group is notably seeking substantial improvements in market
access for its farm products, big cuts in subsidies to US and EU farmers and
the phasing out of export subsidies.
"There have been some promising signs from the United States and the
European Union on their commitment to moving forward in the agriculture
negotiations and we must ensure that they deliver on this commitment," Vaile
said.
The San Jose conference will also include meetings among Cairns group
members and WTO Director General Supachai, US Trade representative Bob
Zoellick and Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Derbez.
Lack of Steel Affects Construction
The price of the rods used in construction has
increased by 54 percent since January, as a result of the world shortage of
steel resulting from the fact that China is buying inordinate amounts for
some of its mammoth construction projects.
Local distributors fear that the situation will grow worse with the passing
of time, therefore the effects will be more evident in the shape of
constructions halted, unemployment, and ever growing construction costs.
Control on
Adoptions
Costa Rica is enforcing new regulations aimed at
the integral evaluation and control of direct adoptions of Costa Rican
children by foreigners, which attorneys handle through the courts.
Now all such procedures are concentrated at the Children and Adolescents
Court - of the First Judiciary Circuit - in San Jose, according to a
decision from the Supreme Court.
A source pointed out that the protection of a child is the outmost goal of
the courts, therefore the improved controls on adoptions.
The 33 year old constructed a brilliant four under par 67 as wild,
gusting winds literally blew away the majority of the co-sanctioned European
Challenge Tour/Tour de Las Americas field – with only eight out of 144
players breaking par, and nine shooting 80 or over.
Such has been the severity of the gusts that have been
punishing the South West of Costa Rica, Challenge Tour and Tour de Las
Americas Officials decided on Wednesday that the greens at the Valle del
Sol Golf Club would be cut just once, and well watered to stop balls
moving by the force of the wind.
The conditions may not be ideal, but the consensus among the players is
that they are fair, and – as Quevedo demonstrated so beautifully –
anything is possible when a highly talented professional golfer hits the
top of his form. |
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Venezuelan Fugitive Coup Leader Warned by Costa Rica for Anti-Chavez
Statements
By: Edgar Hernandez - Venezuelanalysis.com
Costa Rica's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Culture, Mr. Roberto Tovar Faja,
sent an official communiqué on Monday Feb. 16, to Venezuelan opposition
fugitive Carlos Ortega, who lives in Costa Rica under political asylum,
asking him once again to exercise restrain when making political comments
that could violate his asylum conditions.
As president of the corrupt Confederation of Venezuela Workers (CTV), Ortega
teamed up with the national Chamber of Commerce FEDECAMARAS in the Dec. 2002
lock-out, illegal strike and sabotage of the oil industry, in order to
topple President Hugo Chavez. Ortega's actions caused losses of more than 10
billion dollars to the Venezuelan economy. On March of last year, Ortega was
charged with several crimes in connection with his actions during the
illegal strike. He eluded authorities and requested political asylum at the
Embassy of Costa Rica in Caracas.
Ortega was also among the leaders of the April 2002 coup d'etat, but was not
charged at the time.
Last week, Ortega was interviewed by a Venezuelan anti-government radio
station, where he said that President Hugo Chavez was planning to stage a
self coup d'etat in order to derail a potential recall referendum against
him. Ortega made several anti-Chavez comments during the interview.
The Costa Rican government reminded Ortega to use the freedom of expression
that he enjoys in that country in a responsible manner, and to abstain from
making alarming and unfounded statements about the government of Venezuela.
Costa Rica has warned Ortega in the past for making other public political
statements against the government of Venezuela while under asylum.
The letter, signed by the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs and Culture of
Costa Rica, Marco Vinicio Vargas Pereira, indicates the following:
"Mr. Carlos Ortega
Dear Sir:
Following instructions of the Roberto Tovar Faja, Minister of Foreign
Affairs and Culture, I am sending you this letter in relation to your
statements given on the 10th of February of 2004 to "Union Radio Net" and
reproduced by various media outlets in Venezuela and the international
press.
As a matter of your knowledge, Costa Rica has a long and solid tradition in
the matter of asylums and in repeated opportunities has defended the right
of those in asylum status in our territory to freely express their political
opinions, for as much that these opinions could be bothersome for the
country where they are from. Nevertheless, the right of asylum is neither
unlimited nor unrestricted, since it involves also for the person receiving
the asylum status a series of obligations that you know well, and that this
Ministry has reminded you of previously, just for the purpose of maintaining
your legal status in Costa Rica.
In the referred statements, you said that the Government of Venezuela was
planning to stage a coup d'etat to itself which would be carried out between
Feb. 11 and Feb.13 of this year, in order to prevent that the recall
referendum requested by the opposition could take place. Moreover, you
described a series of measures that the Venezuelan Government would most
likely take as part of the self-coup.
It is the opinion of the Government of Costa Rica that these statements are
worrisome, in relation to the spirit of the rights to an asylum, and the
behavior that people with asylum status must observe in our national
territory.
Likewise, our legislation establishes that those under asylum status should
be respectful of the internal legal code and of the good relations among two
governments, as Costa Rica and Venezuela in this case. In consideration of
the above, the Government of Costa Rica by this letter reiterates, one more
time, a vehement request so that you make use of your freedom of expression
in a responsible manner, and that especially your arguments to the press,
you abstain from making unfounded statements.
Costa Rica and its authorities have always been in the best disposition to
maintain and to defend the condition of those under asylum status and their
right to express freely their opinions. Nevertheless, the Costa Rican
Government also expects you to be respectful of the international
obligations of this country and of the relations this country maintains with
other states. Having said this, if you think that it is impossible for you
to accept an adequate line of conduct and to correspond properly to the
asylum status that Costa Rica has given you, the Government of this Republic
judges opportune that you consider the possibility of transferring your
residence to another country".
See also:
Opposition Leaders Prepare "Civil Rebellion" With
Media Support. Seek 15 Years of Post-Chavez Dictatorship
U.N.: Cuban
Dissidents Held in 'Alarming' Conditions
A U.N. human rights envoy said Monday dozens of Cuban dissidents
were being held in alarming conditions following their imprisonment in a
crackdown early last year.
French magistrate Christine Chanet, appointed by the U.N. High Commissioner
for Human Rights to probe alleged Cuban abuses, also said her appeals to
President Fidel Castro to pardon the dissidents had gone unanswered.
"The personal representative of the High Commissioner has received
particularly alarming information about the conditions of detention of these
people," Chanet said in her first report on the situation in the Caribbean
island state.
According to the reports, prisoners were being frequently transferred from
one prison to another, often far from their families, which made visits
difficult, Chanet said.
They were being placed in "trying" physical and psychological conditions,
whether it be in isolation cells or crammed together with "common
criminals," she added.
Cuba triggered a storm of international protest last April when it sentenced
some 75 dissidents, some of them over 60 years old, to between six and 28
years in jail on charges of conspiring with the United States to overthrow
the Communist-run government.
But Chanet, named to her job in January last year but who has not yet
received permission to visit Cuba, also hit out at the United States for its
40-year economic blockade.
"One cannot ignore the disastrous and persistent effects of the embargo...
economically and socially, as well as with regard to civil and political
rights," Chanet wrote.
The report, which will be presented to the annual session of the
Geneva-based U.N. Commission on Human Rights next month, called on Castro's
government to grant fundamental freedoms such as that of expression and
assembly, and the right to leave the country.
The U.N. commission last year urged Cuba to accept a visit from the envoy in
a motion brought by four Latin American countries -- Peru, Nicaragua, Costa
Rica and Uruguay.
But Cuba accused them of being "disgusting lackeys" and said the commission
would do better to focus its attention on conditions in Guantanamo, the U.S.
naval base on the island where suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners are
held.
Latin
American Countries Take Measures to Prevent Bird Flu
Chile and other Latin American countries have worked out plans to prevent
the outbreak of bird flu and its transmission to human beings, a WHO
official said Thursday.
Preventive measures have been adopted among American countries, which
include the timely access to human resources, hospital beds and medicines in
the event of a possible outbreak, Marlo Lebel, adviser to the World Health
Organization (WHO) of Latin America, said on radio in Chile.
Lebel stressed that the number of human infections with bird flu is limited
until now, so the risk of spreading in the region is low, because the
disease "only transmits from animal to person."
Chile operates a system of avian flu vigilance in humans, including sample
collections of sick people, the specialist said.
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