Tense Calm in La Carpio
Only some years back, la Ciudadela La Carpio, was only a landfill site.

Now, it has public lighting, telephones, a community centre, schools, sewers and sidewalks. According to the former Health Minister, Rogelio Pardo, those are some of the promises fulfilled by the government for the area.

Police maintain a vigilant watch on La Carpio after calm was restored following Monday's violence. More than 200 police officers, in riot gear and armed with tear gas, stand by in case of any further violence. Today's Stories: • Tense Calm in La Carpio • Zamora - `TV Intoxication' Killer Arrives Today • Figueres Address Seattle Leaders • Scoreless Draw Sends U.S., Costa Rica to Semifinals • Argentina makes new offer on debt • Over 30 Found Dead In Brazilian Prison

On Monday, a small group of 'delinquents' interrupted with violence a peaceful demonstration by community organizers to ensure that the government completes the rest of it's promises for the community.

One of the main issues on the table is title for their properties. Community leaders have been pressing the government on the issue of giving them property titles for the homes they have built on the land and the community they have developed.

Johnny Araya, Mayor of San José, is seeking a solution, however, government officials say that they cannot give residents title, as the current laws don't permit such to occur.

Araya added that the Municipality agreed only to pave the main roads and not the internal roads and the the public lighting is provided by the Municipality free of charge, as well as garbage collection and the cleaning of the streets.

Monday seven people - six policemen and one resident - when a group turned the peaceful demonstration into violence with rock throwing and finally gunshots.

A majority of the residents of La Carpio are Nicaraguans. Government officials were quick to point out yesterday that Ticos were also involved in the violence, that of the twelve arrested, four were Cost Ricans.

The government of Nicaragua has said it will investigate the disturbances. Nicaraguan Ambassador to Costa Rica, Francisco Fiallos, said they received numerous calls from Nicaraguan nationals of mistreatment by Costa Rican authorities and that has them worried.

Fiallos is waiting on a complete report that will be send to Nicaraguan Chancellor Norman Caldera, who will visit Costa Rica this week to meet with Costa Rican officials.

Roberto Tovar, Minister for the Presidency, said he will gladly receive any Nicaraguan delegation, but this is a Costa Rican matter on Costa Rican soil and it has nothing to do with the Nicaraguan government and there is nothing to negotiate.

The majority of the residents of La Carpio are Nicaraguans. Tovar expressed his opinion that most are hard working and honorable people, save for a few who have committed these acts of violence.

La Carpio is located in La Uruca, west of San José, west of the amusement park "Parque de la Diversiones".

Zamora - `TV Intoxication' Killer Arrives Today
Ronny Zamora,  the man whose lawyer unsuccessfully argued that violent TV shows like "Kojak" led him to murder a neighbor in 1977 who as a boy was sentenced to life for killing an elderly neighbor, traded his prison blues Tuesday for another government-issued uniform.

After completing 27 years in prison, Zamora will spend his last days in the United States locked up by immigration officials until they can deport him to his native Costa Rica.

President  Pacheco met with  Zamora in a Florida prison last December.

Zamora is to arrive in San Jose today. In an unusual agreement between the two countries, Zamora will spend the rest of his life on parole in Costa Rica for a crime he committed in Florida. Ronny Zamora, now 42, was 15 when he shot 83-year-old Elinor Haggart at her Miami Beach home in a robbery.

Attorney Ellis Rubin claimed "TV intoxication" at his trial. The defense also attempted unsuccessfully to subpoena "Kojak" star Telly Savalas and experts who had studied the effect of television on young minds.

The sensational trial was one of the first to be televised after cameras were allowed into Florida courtrooms.

In an appeal, Zamora turned against his lawyer and claimed the TV intoxication argument made a mockery of his defense. A federal appeals court upheld the conviction.

Zamora was sentenced to life in prison and was released after completing the 25-year minimum. He said in a prison interview that he wants to find someone to start a family with when he gets to Costa Rica.

Under the conditions of his release, Zamora will never be able to have a drink, set foot in a bar or leave the country without permission from a parole officer in San Jose. He won't be able to move or change jobs without permission.

Zamora also will have to submit to random drug testing and pay $2,349 in restitution to his victim's family.

In Costa Rica, Zamora will work as a messenger for a law firm and help the country's minister of justice set up rehabilitative prison programs similar to the ones he attended while incarcerated.

Roxana Pacheco Arce, consul general of Costa Rica in Miami, visited Zamora at the detention center, presenting him with the travel documents he needs to return to his homeland.

Pacheco Arce, the niece of Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco, secured the unusual parole arrangement by which Zamora was released.

She said Zamora was eager to return to San Jose, where his parents and siblings await him.  "He was very emotional," she said. "He doesn't feel completely free yet, but he feels very different. It will be a total life change for him."

Before the Florida state's Parole Commission voted May 12 to release Zamora, prosecutors argued that he could not be properly supervised in another country. Haggart's family also opposed Zamora's release.

Under federal law, convicted murderers who are not U.S. citizens are usually deported.

Although Zamora signed an extradition waiver saying he will not fight deportation back to the United States if he violates his parole, the government of Costa Rica does not extradite its citizens. Pacheco Arce said she doubts that would become an issue with Zamora.

Figueres Address Seattle Leaders
Former Costa Rican president Jose Maria Figueres Olsen, now chief executive of the World Economic, will address Seattle's business, civic, and political leaders on "Environment, Trade and Development."

The meeting comes a week before the G-8 Summit in Sea Island, Georgia, where a key agenda item is private-sector-led growth and poverty alleviation. Seattle and Washington State gets more of its income from international trade than any other North American city or state.

A crucial challenge facing the developed world today is how to accommodate the legitimate economic and social desires of  more than half of the world's population who live on less than $2 a day, while sustaining the world's natural resource
base for future generations.

Studies by WRI indicate that poverty is at the root of major challenges facing the environment -- from global warming to the accelerating loss of biodiversity.

Figueres, a WRI board member, has been tackling  this issue for most of his professional life. As head of the World Economic Forum, he brings together the world's political, business, and civil society leaders for an annual  meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

When he was president of Costa Rica, Figueres made information technology an integral part of the country's economic development strategy, successfully attracting high-tech companies and manufacturing, while also bringing computers and smart cards to rural areas.

Scoreless Draw Sends U.S.,  Costa Rica to Semifinals
With both nations having already advanced to the all-important semifinals, the United States and Costa Rica played a 0-0 draw to close Group B play in the CONCACAF Under-19 Final Qualifying Tournament before 100 who braved a drizzle at Montreal's Molson Stadium Tuesday night.

Both the U.S. and Costa Rica finished 2-0-1 with seven points, but the Americans placed first with a plus-24 goal differential to plus-14 for the Ticas.

In Friday's semifinals, the U.S. faces Mexico (2-1, 6), the Group A runnerup, at 5:30 p.m. (ET) at Molson Stadium, while Costa Rica takes on Canada (3-0, 9), the Group A winner, at 8 p.m. Canada defeated Mexico 3-0 tonight in Ottawa.

The semifinal victors will go to the second under-19 women's world championship tournament November 10-27 in Thailand as the two representatives from CONCACAF, the federation of North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

Neither the U.S. or Costa Rica demonstrated much motivation. After scoring 25 goals in their first two outings, the Americans put just three shots on goal against the Ticas. Costa Rica, which found net 15 times in its opening two victories, put only two shots on frame. Overall, the U.S. outshot Costa Rica 10-2.

"I give Costa Rica a lot of credit as they were very organized in their defending and got a lot of numbers behind the ball," U.S. coach Mark Krikorian said. "We certainly had our chances, but we weren't quite precise enough with our finishing or with the final pass, so it became a bit of a stalemate. But, in the end, we got the result that allowed us to win our group and now we're just looking ahead to Mexico."

The U.S. under-19 women had won all 11 prior matches in the 2002 CONCACAF Qualifying Tournament, the 2002 inaugural world championship tournament, which the Americans won, and this event. The U.S. captured the first U-19 world title by defeating Canada 1-0 on Lindsay Tarpley's sudden-death before 47,784 in Edmonton on September 1, 2002.

A steady, heavy rain started early in the morning and didn't let up until the beginning of the second half. Drainage problems caused patches of standing water to form on the field, making it hard for the game to develop any flow.
 

Over 30 Found Dead In Brazilian Prison
Authorities entering a Brazilian prison following a three-day rebellion found the bodies of at least 38 inmates, some of them mutilated, police said Tuesday.

Police were still securing the Benfica detention center and feared they could find more bodies, said Raphael Martins, a Rio police spokesman.

The revolt started Saturday and ended Monday night after police gave in to a demand by inmates to separate prisoners belonging to different gangs.

Rio state legislator Geraldo Moreira said he counted 28 bodies before giving up when he entered the prison with police.

"I saw severed heads. I saw body parts thrown on the ground and in the garbage," Moreira told the Jovem Pan radio station. "It turned my stomach and after a while I had to walk out."

A prison guard who had been held hostage was shot dead by inmates Sunday as he tried to escape the prison in the northern Rio district of Leopoldina.

Rescue workers were going from cell to cell in the sprawling facility to try to determine exactly how many inmates had been killed, said Claudia Moraes, a police spokeswoman.

"It could take all day to get a final body count," she said.

Investigators suspect the carnage happened when rival gangs used the rebellion as an opportunity to settle disputes.

The Rio revolt came slightly more than a month after prisoners at an overcrowded prison in the Amazon state of Rondonia killed 14 fellow prisoners.

The Rio prison uprising started early Saturday, when detainees attempting to escape broke through the main gate of the detention center. When police intervened, prisoners attacked officers, grabbed their guns and took 26 guards and prison staffers hostage.

At least 14 of the 900 inmates managed to escape; three were recaptured by police.

Inmates had freed some hostages during the negotiations — two on Saturday, two on Sunday and three on Monday.

But they shot at a 42-year-old prison guard as he tried to escape on Sunday, and he died on the way to the hospital.

Relatives of inmates camped outside the detention center claimed the guard had been killed by police who mistook him for a fleeing prisoner.

Four policemen and five inmates were wounded in an initial shootout on Saturday, officials said. The five injured prisoners were taken to a hospital. None of the injuries were considered life-threatening.

Rebellions and jailbreaks are common in Brazilian prisons, which are often criticized by human rights groups for overcrowding and abuses.

Amnesty International last week issued a report condemning "cruel, inhuman or degrading conditions" in Brazil's prisons and youth detention centers, where 285,000 inmates are held in a system built for 180,000.

"Overcrowding, poor sanitation, limited access to health services, persistent use of torture, riots and prisoner-on-prisoner violence were regularly reported" to human rights authorities in 2003, the report said.

Moreira said the uprisings in Rio and Rondonia are evidence that Brazil's prison system needs a complete overhaul.

"The system, as it is today, is nothing more than a machine to destroy human lives," he said.

On Monday, in Sao Paulo, 250 miles south of Rio de Janeiro, six heavily armed men marched into a detention center and ordered the five guards to release the center's 188 prisoners, police said in a statement.

Police said 145 prisoners escaped, but 43 chose to remain at the center. Police later recaptured 67 of the escapees.