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Summer Rain!
The Instituto Meteorológico Nacional (IMN) - the national weatherman - was
on target for yesterday's rain and is calling for it to continue until
Thursday.
According to the weatherman, it will rain mainly in the Central Valley,
Central and South Pacific and the Caribbean coasts. There is only a slight
chance of rain in the Guanacaste region, in the Northwest part of the
country.
Yesterday afternoon, the skies in San José turned dark that followed with a
heavy downpour that tapered off to a light rain well into the early part of
the evening. Most were caught off guard as from the summer rain, not
carrying an umbrella or properly dressed for the cold winds.
The temperature in Guanacaste reached a high of 35C, while in San José it
barely made it to 26C, cooling off to a chilly 18C at night. This according
to official records maintained by the meteorological institute.
A call by Insidecostarica.com to various parts of the country - Tamarindo,
Grecia, Jacó, Quepos, and Limon - confirmed that the rains were only
affecting the Central Valley.
According to a the weatherman, the summer rain is a possible consequence of
global warming and El Niño that could be a major force by the end of this
year.
New Plan to
Curb the Sexual Exploitation of Minors
Costa Rica and the Central American Isthmus will greatly benefit from a
police force that is trained to combat the prostitution of minors by way of
the internet and is prepared to follow to anywhere in the world when
children are stolen.
This new type of police force will soon be a reality in Costa Rica dur to a
plan announced yesterday.
Members of Costa Rica's O.I.J. (the judicial investigative police), la
Fuerza Publica, INTERPOL and various police agencies from other Central
American countries and members of PANI - Costa Rica's child welfare agency -
began a training program led by forensic experts the United States
International Center for Lost and Exploited Children.
The plan calls, among other things, to set up an office for the institution
and install a cybernetic police force in Costa Rica. The office would be a
coordinating centre for the different countries that are equally affected by
sexual crimes that involve minors.
Experts agree that there is no doubt that this type of investigation is very
complicated and time consuming and requires experts in computers and the
internet to bring cases to light. Microsoft, the computer giant is being
made part of the plan.
Initially, the plan calls for the training of Costa Rican police officials
on how to investigate Internet crimes, the prevention of the sexual
exploitation of minors and to identify patterns in sex crimes, that would
lead police to making arrests.
WTO
Chief Sees Window of Opportunity to Seal Free-Trade Agenda
World Trade Organization director general Supachai Panitchpakdi said he sees
a window of opportunity to allow the stalled Doha Round of free-trade
negotiations to be concluded this year.
The WTO chief was speaking in the Costa Rican capital on the sidelines of
the Cairns Group's 26th ministerial meeting seeking a solution to the
impasse on farm subsidies that led to the collapse of talks on a broad
free-trade plan last year.
The 17-nation group is seeking an end to farm subsidies.
"This meeting comes at a crucial time, because we are trying to put the
negotiation round back on track and we hope the Cairns Group meeting in San
José will send the right signals to motivate countries to get into real
negotiations and to make the negotiations as successful as possible within
the first half of this year," Panitchpakdi told reporters.
The Cairns Group is meeting in Costa Rica this week with the United States
in a bid to revive stalled WTO negotiations on global trade talks which
began in Doha in 2001.
The WTO chief voiced concern about the proliferation of bilateral and
multilateral free-trade pacts, saying some 270 had been signed and over 60
were under negotiation, that had not been inked in the right forums
guaranteeing they met WTO standards.
"One of the disadvantages of the original trade arrangement would be the
lack of agreements in key areas of agriculture," Panitchpakdi said.
He said industrialized nations were unlikely to agree to a process of
eliminating subsidies outside the negotiating forums of a world body like
the WTO, and stressed the United States had already formulated such a
proposal, in the area of export subsidies.
Panitchpakdi expects the thorny issue of agricultural subsidies to feature
prominently in resumed free-trade talks.
In a Sunday newspaper interview, Panitchpakdi said wealthy nations set aside
about 1.0 billion dollars daily to subsidize their agricultural sectors, and
that this constitutes a "grave obstacle" to free-trade, and competitive and
efficient markets.
Trade talks, begun in Doha, fell apart in Cancun after developing nations
criticised US and EU farm subsidies. The round of negotiations is scheduled
to finish by year's end, but rifts between the US, the EU and developing
nations remain to be healed.
Aside from agricultural, divisions also appeared at Cancun over the
so-called Singapore agenda, whereby states open their investment and
services sectors to foreign competition.
"I could say that post-Cancun we have come to better understanding of the
way to deal with the so called Singapore issues," the WTO chief said.
Panitchpakdi urged the Cairns Group to approve a date with other nations and
groups of countries, like the European Union, to establish a revival of
free-trade negotiations, particularly in the area of agricultural trade.
The principal objective of the Cairns Group meeting is to define new
strategies for continuing the agricutural talks backed by the WTO, according
to Costa Rican trade minister, Alberto Trejos, who participated in the press
conference.
The meeting opened in San José Monday and runs to Wednesday when it will be
concluded with a joint communique.
The group, founded in 1986, includes Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil,
Canada, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, New
Zealand, Paraguay, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Uruguay.
Some observers have said the meeting could yield mixed results since
Australia recently signed a trade pact with the United States.
Man's $20 Million
Lawsuit Accuses Priest of Abuse
A $20 million lawsuit has been brought against the Oblate Fathers and Father
Alfredo Prado, the fugitive Oblate who fled his order and joined a doomsday
cult in Costa Rica.
Ricardo Salinas, a former San Antonio, Texas, resident who said Prado
sexually molested him in 1967, filed the suit in state court in California.
Salinas, 50, a former parishioner of Prado's at St. Timothy's Catholic
Church in San Antonio, said the attack occurred when he was 14 and had
approached Prado for counseling about problems with his father.
"He got me drunk and raped me," Salinas said. "When I tried to tell my
mother, she wouldn't believe me."
Salinas' complaint was never reported. Prado, 73, was later stripped of his
priestly authority by the Oblates over undisclosed actions and ordered into
a church psychiatric treatment facility.
He fled the order last year and appeared in Costa Rica, where he has become
the chief priest for the "Reina y Señora de Todo lo Creado", a cult whose
name translates loosely to "The Queen and Lady of All Creation."
The group, often referred to as "the virgin cult," is led by Juan Pablo
Delgado, a self-styled visionary who claims to receive messages from the
Virgin Mary. The cult reportedly is violent and has been accused of
brainwashing adolescent boys who join it.
Justin Schwartz, an Oakland, Calif., attorney who represents Salinas, said
he filed the suit in late December under a California law that lifted the
statute of limitations on civil suits over child molestation.
Schwartz said the Oblates were served notice of the suit Friday. Prado, who
remains in Costa Rica, has not been served.
"It was a matter of squeezing in the door," said Schwartz, who explained
that the law lifting the statute of limitations had a sunset clause and
expired at the end of December.
The suit alleges that the Oblates either knew or should have known Prado was
a pedophile and failed to protect Salinas and others from him.
Drug Bust at Airport Nets 14 Arrests
Following a sting operation, 14 workers at Miami International Airport were
indicted Monday on charges of smuggling cocaine and heroin from Latin
America to the United States, federal officials said.
Thirteen current or former airport workers were charged with drug conspiracy
after a four-year investigation spanning at least three foreign countries
and three U.S. cities.
Authorities arrested a 14th man, but he may have been a victim of mistaken
identity, officials said. They were trying to determine how the mistake
occurred.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Mulvihill said undercover agents were able
to enlist the defendants to help smuggle drug shipments of up to 200 pounds
that authorities planted on planes in Costa Rica, Panama and Venezuela.
The defendants, all U.S. citizens, sometimes arranged to load the drugs onto
planes. Once the shipments arrived in Miami, they allegedly unloaded them
and helped send the drugs to undercover agents in Baltimore, Dallas,
Nashville, Tenn., and San Juan, Puerto Rico, Mulvihill said.
Thomas Raffanello, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement
Administration's Miami office, said he did not know the total size or value
of the shipments in the sting, dubbed "Operation Return Flight."
He noted that drug smuggling has been a problem for decades at the airport.
"We can't guarantee security," he said. "You can't stop or counteract the
greed of people."
The defendants were scheduled to make court appearances Tuesday, when they
likely would be assigned lawyers, said a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's
Office in Miami.
If convicted, they face from five years to life in prison.
American Airlines assisted in the investigation. Among those indicted were
11 current or former American cargo workers.
"The vast majority of American's people in Miami and elsewhere have
demonstrated over the years their complete commitment to the company's
anti-drug program," the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier said in a statement.
The sting was similar to an investigation that led to the arrests of 58
airport workers in 1999. That case, in which undercover agents used fake
cocaine to catch those arrested, mostly involved workers at American
Airlines and catering company Sky Chef. Most of the workers pleaded guilty
or were convicted.
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Rio de Janeiro carnival to boost local economy
The organizer of the world famous Rio de Janeiro carnival said
the event would revive the local economy with the injection of 267 million
US dollars, the local press reported on Monday.
The income people earn directly or indirectly from the show would amount to
80 million dollars, the organizer said, noting that the service and tourism
sectors would be the top beneficiaries.
The annual carnival attracts thousands of local and foreign tourists every
year. This year it kicked off last Friday and is scheduled to conclude on
Wednesday. It is said to have created 108jobs, half of which are for the
unemployed.
Some 18,000 people participated in the preparation of the outfit for the
samba school's parade.
Rio de Janeiro's Hotel Association said all the rooms are booked up while
each tourist is estimated to spend 500 dollars a day on the average, putting
the sector's income to 15 million dollars.
Venezuela donates 1 million US dollars to Haiti
The Venezuelan government would donate 1 million US dollars to
Haiti to help the Haitian people who are suffering from political chaos,
Foreign Minister Jesus Perez said in a statement Monday.
Perez said fuel, food and medicine would also be sent to Haiti once all the
procedures have started.
The minister said Venezuela shares the position of the Organization of
American States (OAS) in insisting on the constitutional steps to find a
"peaceful and democratic" way to defuse the political crisis in Haiti.
He voiced his concern over a possible escalation of the violence in Haiti,
noting that dialogues should be held to resolve the crisis.
The three-week-long insurgency in Haiti intensified on Monday as the
opposition rejected a plan of the international community to negotiate a
solution under which President Jean-Bertrand Aristide would share power with
his opponents.
On Sunday, armed rebels captured Cap-Haitien, the country's second largest
city, and threatened to move on to the capital, complicating the
international efforts to end the crisis.
The rebellion against President Aristide began in the country's fourth
largest city of Gonaives early this month and has so far claimed nearly 70
lives.
Bomb attack destroys gas pipeline in Colombia
A bomb destroyed a gas pipeline in Colombia Sunday night, leaving
thousands of residents in six cities in the country's northern Bolivar
department without fuel, police said on Monday.
Police blamed the attack on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the
oldest and largest guerrilla group with 17,000 members in the country.
The blast destroyed a portion of a gas pipeline in Bolivar's El Carmen, 900
km north of the country's capital Bogota and cut off gas supply to the
cities of El Carmen, Cordoba, Maria La Baja, Ovejas, San Jacinto and San
Juan Nepomuceno.
Authorities declined to say exactly when the supply would resume.
Government forces, leftist guerrillas and far-right paramilitaries of
Colombia have been fighting one another for more than 40 years, killing
about 3,500 people, mostly civilians, every year.
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