Cell
Phones in Prison A Problem
In the last several days penitentiary
officials have been able to confiscate dozens of
cellular telephones, brought in to the prison
system, and used by prisoners to threaten and/or
extort people on the outside.
Several prisoners have been found to make
threatening phone calls to persons on the outside,
demanding a sum of money or their family would be
hurt.
With accomplices on the outside to claim the payment, usually a
deposit made at a local bank into an account given by the caller,
prisoners are able to reach out from their cells to to commit more
crimes.
One recluse who is again behind bars after been given conditional
liberty is Father Minor Calvo, who is accused of being the principal
author in the murder of journalist Parmenio Medina. Calvo had been
released on conditions of not impeding the ongoing investigation,
was returned to the holding cells when an accomplice was found to
have used a cellular phone brought into the jail to threaten
witnesses in the case.
In another case, a journalist with the Spanish daily newspaper
Diario Extra, was arrested in front of his office and colleagues,
and held overnight, accused of leaving behind a cellular telephone
in a jail cell following an interview, the cellular telephone was
then later found to have been used by an prisoner to make
threatening phone calls.
Working with ICE - the Instituto Costrarricense de Electricidad -
provider of telephone services in the country, prison officials have
a solution to the problem. With respect to pay phones, at least.
Prisoners wanting to make a phone call in one of the many pay phones
located in the prison system, will need to use a PIN code, which is
issued individually to the prisoner, to make a call, which then can
be traced back to the prisoner and be accountable for any
threatening or malicious calls.
Cellular phones, however, is much more complicated. Prison
officials have found cellular phones being smuggled into the prisons
hidden areas of the body that are not being searched.
Smuggling a cellular telephone into a prison is not a crime, nor is
possession of cellular telephone by a prisoner. However, rules don't
allow for a prisoner to possess a cellular telephone or any other
type of communications device, and prison officials will confiscate
any cellular telephone found.
Officials say they are working on the problem in the hope of finding
a solution in the coming months. In the meantime, prison officials
are stepping up searches in the hopes of eliminating or reducing the
possession of cell phones by inmates.
Confusion on the Whereabouts of Venezuelan Political Refugee Carlos
Ortega
Fernando Berrocal, lawyer for Venezuelan union leader
Carlos Ortega, exiled in Costa Rica, denied reports by the Caracas
newspaper El Nacional, that his client is in Venezuela.
According to Berrocal, he spoke to his client on Friday and was to
meet him over the weekend. Berrocal confirmed that Ortega is in fact
in Costa Rica.
A report had been circulating that Ortega had left his exile and
returned to Venezuela to "defend Venezuela". However, the newspaper
did not make clear when they had spoken to Ortega or from where.
The Venezuelan union leader is accused in his country for various
crimes related to the 63 day general strike in December 2002 and
January 2003 to bring down president Hugo Chavez.
The Costa Rican Chancellery asked Ortega to leave Costa Rica on
"two" occasions following declarations by Ortega while in Miami, of
his plans to return to Venezuela to continue his fight against
Chavez.
According to Berrocal, his client's asylum status is conforming to
international norms.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Public Security, Rogelio Ramos, formed a
special group at Immigration to study the Ortega case and to make
clear if Ortega has violated any norms of his political refugee.
Progress in
Human Development
Costa Rica climbed just one bit in the Human
Development Index of the United Nations Program for
Development, as compared to the one disclosed last
year, but kept her steady upward trend since the
Index was first published in 1990.
The assessment is
based on data from two years before and the grades
range from 0 to 1 when Costa Rica was graded 0.834 in
2004, as compared to 0.832 in 2003.
The variables
considered for the Index include life expectancy,
access to education, and income.
In Latin America,
only Argentina and Chile did better than Costa Rica,
which is 45th among 177 nations. According to the
figures, Costa Rica is among the "countries with
high human development," since it is among the top
55 nations in the Index.
World Leader
With an advanced optic identification system, Costa
Rican firm Xeltron has made inroads in the color
selection of seeds and grains and has become the
world leader in the exports of that type of
equipment.
After 30 years in the market, Xeltron
developed a new model of the Genius series which is
able to select large volumes of grains: up to 7 tons
per hour in the case of rice - for example - and some
9 tons in medium size grains such as coffee,
macadamia, and peanuts.
As per the model, each
selector can have from 3 to 156 channels for the
process of grains and seeds. Each three channels do
the job of 30 to 40 people if the selection were
manual, according to Xeltron general manager Carlos
Rojas.
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