Magnate or scam artist? Pécora, the 39 year old Canadian who is promising to finance a paradise in Paquera, says he doesn't have to prove if has the money or not.  Foto: David Vargas/LA NACIÓN Today's Stories: • Canadian Offers to Develop Paquera • Canada Strict on Costa Rican Visitors • International Police Academy Nixed • Taiwan on Alert After Threats • Late Dictator's Son Wins Panama Presidential Race • Peru recalls ambassador to Cuba • Chile may send more troops to Haiti • Gender parity in education improves Panama's President-elect Martin Torrijos waves after winning the elections in Panama City, Panama, Sunday.

Pécora is promising to finance a paradise: a new port, an airport, a university, a hospital, hotels and casinos.

To date, Pécora offered ADIP $134.2 Million Dolloars (¢57.840 Million Colones) with showing if he really has the money or where it's origin.

Members of the ADIP board of directors of ADIP believe Pécora and gave him the keys to the treasury, while the community is divided.

Pécora has been manager of ADIP since December and is spending the organization's money. To date he has passed cheques for about $12.000 dollars and has billed ADIP for room and board.

However, the ferries that were promised as part of Pécora's financial plan have yet to arrive and nor has the documentation backing Pécora financial promises or has be handed over any money to the community.

Pécora and his partner, Costa Rican Ileana Romero Bermúdez, say they represent the Euro Capital Group, which is supposedly a multi million dollar international investment group housed in the United States.

However, a check on the internet reveals no such group and neither are they listed with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission.

"Bill Gates has nothing compared to Euro Capital. For us, two billion dollars is nothing", Pécora told the daily Spanish newspaper La Nacion this past week, when asked by that paper to explain the roots of the company.

"I don't have to prove anything. I will do so when I am ready", Pécora emphasized during the interview.

One thing is for sure, Grupo Euro Capital F.I. S. A. is a registered company in Costa Rica, with Romero as it's treasurer and Pécora as president, with it's office located in Hatillo Centre, with ¢100.000 Colones or $230. in capital.

Is this a total scam?

ADIP has more than 300 affiliates with more than 30 years, serving as the main thrust for progress in the area. In the last five years alone it brought more than ¢350 Million colones to the area.

ADIP's principal activity is the ferry transport between Puntarenas and Paquera, carrying daily vehicles and passengers, generating more than ¢600 Million Colones per year.

In March, the general directorate of ADIP asked Pécora and the board of directors to produce certificates and other documents and titles to back his claim. However, Alvin Jiménez, president of the association only produced a key which is supposed to open a safety deposit box where the documents and titles are being kept.

To complicate matters, the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT) just last week awarded the ferry Tambor - competitor to the ferry operated by ADIP - a 10 year concession and exclusive rights to run two ferries between Puntaranas and Paquera.

To date, the route was divided between the two ferries, one owned by Tambor and the other by ADIP.

The Dirección Nacional de Desarrollo Comunal (Dinadeco) is investigating the business between Pécora and ADIP.
 

Canada Strict on Costa Rican Visitors
The increase in Costa Rican going to Canada has prompted Canadian immigration officials to take a closer look at all Costa Ricans entering Canada.

Costa Rican consul general in Canada, Lina Ajoy, says that each week about 14 Costa Rican are detained by immigration officials.

Costa Ricans are using the fact that Canada does not require a visa to enter as tourists and then stay, working illegally and in some cases, crossing illegally over any one of the border crossing points into the U.S.

Most of the detained are returned back to Costa Rica within hours of being denied entry. Others, who do not voluntarily accept deportation are being held in immigration detention centres awaiting a hearing.

This is the reason why immigration officials are being stricter on Costa Ricans as they try to enter the country. Their documents are closely reviewed and each is interviewed as to their intention of their visit.

Marco Badilla, director of immigration in Costa Rica, tells that Canada has an internal alert, however, there has been no immigration policy change with regard to Costa Ricans.

Costa Ricans who want to visit Canada must meet the following criteria: provide immigration officials with proof of where they are going to stay - a confirmed hotel reservation or the name or a friend or family member where they will be staying and demonstrate sufficient financial resources for the duration of their intended stay.
 

International Police Academy Nixed
A series of modifications to the original accord, made by the International Relations Commission of the Legislative Assembly, led the United States to decide against installing the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in Costa Rica.

The United States Embassy in Costa Rica rejected the modifications in a press release.  It set an April 30 deadline to withdraw the amendments, or it would consider the project unviable.

One of the amendments prohibits the participation of military officers as instructors, administrative personnel or students, as established by Costa Rican law, said deputy Rodrigo Alberto Carazo of the Citizen Action Party.

"Arguing reasons of sovereignty on the issue of nations’ internal security, the US maintains its interest in incorporating military officers in the academy’s work," Carazo said.

Another amendment is related to respect for international human rights treaties. The US maintains that all training should be carried out in agreement with the international treaties of which it forms a part.

Nevertheless, Carazo said this affirmation is particularly serious, because the United States has not ratified the majority of international treaties on human rights.
 

Taiwan on Alert After Threats
Taiwanese authorities have stepped up security for foreign embassies after threats were made against diplomatic staff planning to attend President Chen Shui-bian's inauguration, officials said today.

The National Police Agency (NPA) confirmed that the embassies of Panama, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador had received threatening phone calls.

Taiwan's foreign ministry said presidents from 11 countries had planned to attend Chen's inauguration on May 20.

Twenty-six countries recognise Taiwan, which China regards as part of its territory waiting to be reunified, by force if necessary.

The NPA said it had ordered beefed-up security around the embassies after the threats.

Chen's Democratic Progressive Party plans to invite at least 200,000 people to witness his inauguration, despite threats of a mass opposition protest.

Two grand evening galas will also be staged, with one scheduled for May 19 in the southern city of Kaohsiung and another for May 20 outside the capital Taipei.
 

Late Dictator's Son Wins Panama Presidential Race
Martin Torrijos, the son of a former dictator, won Panama’s first presidential elections since the handover of the Panama Canal and withdrawal of US troops in December 1999, electoral authorities said.

Ex-president Guillermo Endara, his main rival, conceded defeat to Torrijos, whose father was the late dictator General Omar Torrijos who ruled Panama from 1968 until his death in 1981.

During the campaign, both candidates had vowed not to revive the nation’s authoritarian past, but in his victory speech Mr Torrijos said: “If my father were here, he would be proud of what we accomplished today.

“I invite everyone to join in a new social pact against poverty, corruption and despair,” he continued. “It will be a social pact of solidarity, social justice, opportunity and prosperity.”

Campaign officials said the US-educated Mr. Torrijos would focus on tax and spending reform, negotiating a free trade agreement with Washington, and improving the canal.

Mr Torrijos won around 47% of the vote, to around 29% for Mr Endara, with about one-quarter of votes counted. In his concession speech, Mr Endara said: “I am happy, because our democracy emerged from this untouched.”

Third-place candidate Jose Miguel Aleman, of President Mireya Moscoso’s ruling Arnulfista Party, conceded defeat after winning around 19%, saying, “the people have spoken loudly and clearly, and Martin Torrijos is the president of all Panamanians”.

Voter turnout in the nation of 2.8 million reached nearly 80%, despite the fact that both leading candidates were heavily associated with the country’s troubled past. “Our people have liked democracy so much, they don’t want to lose it,” quipped Mr Endara, whose 1989 election was overturned by the military. He was sworn into office later that year, when US troops invaded Panama and overthrew dictator General Manuel Noriega, and served until 1994.

After rejecting his father’s authoritarian style, Mr Torrijos paid a visit to his father’s crypt before voting yesterday. Later in the day, he said: “I hope that people vote thinking of the future, about their families and the needs of the country.”

Despite his authoritarian rule, some have fond memories of Mr Torrijos’ father. He was liked for his folksy style, land reform and public works, and for signing the treaty that resulted in the handover of the formerly US-run canal to Panama.

But the younger Torrijos has reformed the party, easing out most of the old guard, and Panama abolished its armed forces in 1992.

Peru recalls ambassador to Cuba
Peru has recalled its ambassador to Cuba to protest "offensive" remarks by Cuban leader Fidel Castro, the government said late Sunday in a communique.

The communique said Cuban leader Fidel Castro slammed Peru and other Latin American countries in a May Day Speech for their vote at a UN human rights body in Geneva to demand Cuba's cooperation with international organizations in the protection of human rights.

The Peruvian government rejects the "offensive" remarks made bythe Cuban leader, the communique said.
 

Chile may send more troops to Haiti
Chilean President Ricardo Lagos said Saturday that his country may increase the number of Chilean troops deployed in Haiti on a peacekeeping mission.

The decision would be made after he discussed the issue with Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and received a nod from Chile's Senate, Lagos told local press.

Lagos, who is now in Singapore for an official visit, confirmed Friday that the United Nations Security Council had decided to replace the current 3,600-member contingent of US-led troops with UN peacekeepers from June 1 for an initial period of six months.

The troops from the United States, Canada, Chile and France have been on patrol since the ouster in February of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected president.

Lagos said the United Nations' decision "is important because it proposes the withdrawal of certain troops and the council wishes Chilean troops to stay."

"We must carry out an evaluation and we also want to establish contact on this issue with President Lula and the Chilean ambassador to the UN," he said.

Lagos said the cost of the presence of Chilean soldiers in the peacekeeping force was one of the issues to be considered, but he branded as "demagogic" domestic criticism on the issue.
 

LATIN AMERICA: Gender parity in education improves
A recent report of the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) said that the region had achieved an adequate level of gender parity in education in the last decade, although girls still suffer some level of discrimination in gaining access to schooling.

The Follow-up Report on Education for Everyone 2003-2004 focuses on educational parity between boys and girls, the first of six goals set by 164 governments that met in the World Education Forum held in Dakar, Senegal in 2000.

In some countries like Mexico and Colombia, the parity favors girls because there are a considerable number of boys who do not finish secondary school.

Koichiro Matsuura, director general of UNESCO, said the good results obtained by most of the Latin American countries does not mean that they do not have other serious educational problems to resolve, such as improving the quality of teaching.