The Scandal
Get Worse:
Pacheco Says Taiwan Pays His Daughter
Despite Taiwan's foreign ministry dismissing the
report as a "groundless rumor," President Abel
Pacheco admitted on Tuesday that Taiwan's money had
paid for a government job for his daughter.
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The Red Cross announced this
week that beginning June 1,
it will stop the transfer of
patients between hospitals,
in an effort to reduce costs
due to a the failure of the
Caja Costarricense del
Seguro Social (CCSS) to pay
for the services.
In addition, the Red Cross
will discontinue 24 hour
service in the following
areas of Ipís en San
José; Corralillo de Cartago;
San Mateo de Alajuela, San
Pablo, San Isidro and Barva
de Heredia; Siquirres and
Limón; and Golfito and
Laurel y Ciudad Neily |
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Nine importers, 11 customs
agencies and 15 employees of the
Customs offices in Limon,
Caldera, Santamaria and Paso
Canoas will be charged for
irregularities in the
importation of frozen French
Fries coming from Canada. Some
¢422.358.789 Colones in duties
was not paid to the government. |
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Pacheco said that his daughter,
Elsa Pacheco, who works at the Costa Rican embassy
in Mexico, was being paid US$1,500 a month from
funds Taiwan gave to the foreign ministry.
Pacheco also told reporters that his daughter had
worked at the embassy as a volunteer but could no
longer afford to continue for free, so he found a
way for her to receive a salary.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Roberto Tovar said Maria
Jose Toledo, sister of the president's chief of
staff and an employee of a foreign ministry program,
is paid out of the same private foundation.
The daily Spanish newspaper, La Nación, reported
that the foundation has handled, with no oversight,
a total of US$4.8 million in donations from the
government of Taiwan, which was used to pay foreign
ministry officials salaries or bonuses.
Speaking to reporters after the weekly Cabinet
meeting, Taiwan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark
Chen admitted yesterday that his ministry had doled
out US$250,000 in aid to its diplomatic ally, Costa
Rica, but that it had no idea what the Costa Rican
government did with the money.
"There is nothing we can do about the money we gave
them, even if the Costa Rican government used it for
purposes different from what they originally told
us," Chen told reporters yesterday morning after
attending the first weekly meeting of the new
Cabinet.
According to Chen, the foreign ministry paid its
Latin American ally US$250,000 last year as promised
after the Costa Rican government said it would use
the money to promote tourism and execute economic
initiatives.
The daily Spanish newspaper, La Nación, quoted Costa
Rican Foreign Minister Roberto Tovar as saying on
Monday that the Taiwanese government had paid some
US$22,000 per month to the Costa Rican Ministry of
Foreign Affairs to cover the salaries of employees.
The payments had been made via a private group, the
Association for the Development of Foreign Policy of
Costa Rica.
La Nación also reported that the foundation has
handled, with no apparent supervision, a total of
US$4.8 million in donations from Taiwan's
government, which was used to pay salaries or
bonuses to foreign ministry officials.
Many Costa Rican lawmakers were outraged that
foreign funds were allegedly being handled by a
private foundation with no government supervision.
"We might as well be playing house when we discuss
the budget (in the legislature) because the money is
coming from elsewhere," conservative lawmaker
Federico Malavassi of the Libertarian Movement said.
Tovar said the practice of establishing private
foundations connected to the foreign ministry dated
back to 1986. He acknowledged that some kind of
oversight would be in order.
Twenty-six countries, 13 of them in Latin America,
recognize Taiwan as sovereign and usually receive
development and other assistance
Court Upholds Sentences for Shannon Martin Murder
An appeals court has
upheld the convictions of two people in the slaying
of University of Kansas student Shannon Martin, the
court announced on Wednesday.
Kattia Cruz and Luis Alberto Castro were found
guilty last November of killing Martin on May 13,
2001. Each was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
A third defendant, Rafael Zumbado Quesada, 48, was
found innocent of all charges by the trial court.
The student's mother, Jeanette Stauffer, said the
first group of students from an English-language
education center named for her daughter were
graduating on Friday.
The center was created with money from a foundation
established in Shannon Martin's name.
Stauffer said certificates were being given to 19
coast guard personnel and 28 people from the town of
Golfito, where the slaying took place.
Teachers and Students Will be Sanctioned
The Ministry of Education (MEP) announced yesterday
that it will sanction teachers and students who
participate in march against the Free Trade
Agreement, organized by the various unions to
paralyze the country this coming Monday May 31.
Education Minister, Manuel Antonio Bolaños, says
that the Ministry has a good relationship with the
teachers and that the education of the students
comes first, in as such, there is suspension of
classes for Monday and expects all teachers to be in
their classrooms.
However, for those who decided not to attend to
their classes, their salaries will be reduced for
the days missed and to the students, in accordance
with the Ministry's rules, students will be recorded
as absent, which will reduce their overall grade
points.
APSE announced this week a call to it's membership
to join with other unions to take to the streets to
demonstrate against the Free Trade Agreement that is
scheduled to be signed tomorrow in Washington
between the U.S. and the Central American countries.
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Death toll rises in Dominican, Haiti floods
The floods caused by rainstorms in Haiti and the Dominican
Republic have killed more than 660 people on Wednesday as rescue workers
recovered more bodies buried under mud and rubble.
According to reports from the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo, 300
people were confirmed dead, most of whom were killed in the devastated
town of Jimani near the border with Haiti.
The Dominican government has declared Jimani, 280 km southwest of Santo
Domingo, a "disaster area and territory of public calamity."
Rescue workers were working hard to find bodies and rebury themin common
graves. But mud and landslides prevented rescue teams from reaching some
areas.
The death toll in Haiti stood at 360, including the 300 found in Mapou,
a poor rural town in the southeast part of the country.
Other bodies have been recovered in Fonds Verettes, about 56 kms
outheast of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.
Last week, a fierce tropical storm lashed the Caribbean island of
Hispaniola shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The Soleil river
originating from Haiti overflowed after days of heavy rains.
Some 400 people were still listed missing in the Dominican Republic and
hundreds were unaccounted for in Haiti. The death toll is expected to
reach 2,000 as more bodies were recovered in Mapou, said the Civil
Defense authorities in Haiti.
Aid has been provided to the flood-hit areas by the US-led multinational
force in Haiti, which was sent there to restore order after an armed
revolt against ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in
February.
A team of United Nations humanitarian agencies and non-governmental
organizations was carrying aid to Fonds Verettes, one of the Haitian
towns worst hit by the floods, said the UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Wednesday,
Meanwhile, the Spanish International Cooperation Agency (AECI) and the
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) coordinated the distribution
of relief supplies to victims in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Carlos Cabanillas, the AECI's general coordinator in the Dominican
Republic, said on Wednesday that he met with Nicky Fabiancic, UNDP's
local director, to discuss the distribution of aid to the two countries.
The Spanish Red Cross has offered 36,000 euros (43,200 US dollars) in
emergency fund and sent two experts to both countries to assess the
short- and middle-term assistance required.
Japan announced on Wednesday to offer 100,000 US dollars in equipment
and materials to the victims of the floods that isolated the Dominican
Republic's border town of Jimani.
A Japanese official said the aid, including tents, water tanks,
mattresses, blankets and cardboard boxes, will reach the Dominican
capital of Santo Domingo Thursday.
The United States on Wednesday also promised to provided 50,000dollars
in aid to the Caribbean nation.
The European Union was preparing a package worth 2 million euros (2.43
million dollars) for flood victims, the European Commission said in
Brussels.
Panama
believes al-Qaida member in Latin America
The Panamanian government warned Wednesday that Adnan El Shukrijumah of
Saudi Arabia, an alleged member of the terror organization al-Qaida,
might be in Latin America.
The Panamanian authorities said in a communique that five months before
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States,El Shukrijumah
entered Panama as a tourist. The suspect could be organizing possible
terrorist attacks from countries in the Latin American and Caribbean
region, the communique said.
The Justice Ministry said that the whereabouts of the suspect remained
unknown and the country has been searching for this alleged terrorist.
Ramiro Jarvis, chief of the Panamanian National Security Council, said
it was necessary to find out what this wanted man was doing when he
stayed in Panama.
According to the communique, El Shukrijumah was born on Aug. 4,1975, in
Saudi Arabia, has a US residence permit and speaks several languages,
including Spanish.
The US Justice Department on Wednesday included El Shukrijumah on a list
of people wanted for questioning about possible planned terror attacks.
US officials said El Shukrijumah used to live in South Florida and was
believed to be a possible terrorism cell leader or organizer similar to
Mohamed Atta, a top planner of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Explosives seized in central Colombia
A ton of explosives was seized on Wednesday by the Colombian
army in a rural area in the Pajarito municipality of the country, a
senior military officer said.
The explosives, including 875 kg of super anfo, 63 kg of indugel and 75
kg of TNT, were allegedly to be used by the rebel Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC) to attack army posts and Boyaca's economic
infrastructure, army commander Luis Antonio Coronado said.
The FARC had planned to carry out on Thursday, the day of the
organization's 40th anniversary, "terror attempts against the economic
infrastructure, military bases and police posts, and were apparently
going to obstruct some roads," he said.
The authorities seized the explosives after being tipped by members of
the civil networks that cooperate with the army at Boyaca, according to
Coronado.
On Wednesday, the Military Forces and the Colombian Police were placed
on maximum alert to prevent possible attacks by the 17,000-strong FARC,
the country's largest guerrilla group.
Armed Forces Commander Carlos Alberto Ospina said that more than 250,000
troops of the army, the navy, the air force and the police would conduct
an operation to guarantee public order throughout the country.
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