Jailed Ex-Presidents Unhappy With Their Current Living Arrangements
Former president, Rafael Angel Calderón, did not like his current living arrangements. He made his appeal to the courts for a change, asking to be placed under house arrest, in exchange for a jail cell in La Reforma prison, for the next 8 1/2 months.

Today's Stories: Jailed Ex-Presidents Unhappy With Their Current Living Arrangements President Pacheco's Rating Up Unions To Show Their Discontent With Corruption Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico to Serve on U.N. Economic Council Alcatel Faces Informal SEC Inquiry Daniel Oduber Airport Getting Relief

The La Reforma prison is getting overcrowded with former politicians. Yesterday, former Labour Minister, Farid Ayales, joined former presidents Calderón and Rodríguez in the largest prison in Costa Rica. Ayales, a minister in the Figueres Olsen administration, was convicted in 2000 for fraud and given 8 years in prison. In 2003 an appeals court lowered the sentence to 4 years and given house arrest following three years in prison. However, he broke that condition and yesterday judicial officials waited for him when he returned home to take him back to prison.

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Calderón made his appeal before a judge and then was taken to the Clínica Católica, in Goicoechea, suffering from high blood pressure and an increase in his heart rate, according to the doctors.

Doctors at the hospital say the former president is stable, arriving at the hospital a little after 5pm yesterday.

Calderón has now completed 13 days of his nine months of preventive detention and is appealing the decision by judge Carmen María Peraza, set on October 22.

Across the hallway in the La Reforma cell block is former president Miguel Angel Rodríguez, who is also unhappy with is living arrangements.

Rodríguez was ordered under house arrest following his return to Costa Rica last October 15. The Fiscalía appealed the judge's ordered and a Superior Court overturned the decision and ordered Rodríguez to preventive detention in La Reforma for six months.

Rodríguez cannot appeal the latest decision, and must wait for the mandatory three months before a review, so he has taken to the media to express his feelings.

By way of his lawyer, Rafael Gairaud, Rodríguez issued a statement that said he has been victim of a lynching since his return to Costa Rica.

In the statement he criticized the media for having access to restricted areas of the airport and filming his arrest, being led off the arriving airplane in handcuffs by judicial agents.

He questioned the "right to be heard". He said "he has been condemned and sent to prison".

Rodríguez also criticized the Fiscalía for leaking reports and information to the press. He said that there exists in Costa Rica regulations that prohibit the publication of information in files, however, in his case, moments after any decision, the information was in the news.

Rodríguez also questioned the flip-flop of last Friday afternoon. What happened between 2pm and 4pm? when the media was telling that the house arrest would certainly be continued, then by the end of the day, the judge made the ruling for preventive detention.

Rodríguez, in the statement written in his own hand writing, asked several questions: "Is it the Fiscalía and the press that now convict in Costa Rica? Are we going to put aside the courts and replace them with lynching? Where are we going?"

Rodríguez concluded his statement with "the answer is with each of us, just remember what history has taught us, today me, tomorrow you."

President Pacheco's Rating Up
President Abel Pacheco is regaining public backing, according to a poll by CID-Gallup published in the Spanish language daily,  La República.

49 per cent of respondents say the president’s performance has been good, a 12 per cent increase since December 2003.

Pacheco, of the Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC) was elected in a run-off in April 2002 with 58 per cent of the vote.

Issues such as alleged contributions by foreign entities into his campaign fund, as well as his moral support for the war in Iraq, had affected his approval rating.

The poll results reveal that the corruption allegations linking former presidents Rafael Angel Calderón (1990-1994) and Miguel Angel Rodríguez (1998 to 2002), who are both from the PUSC party and both in La Reform prison in preventive detention has helped Pacheco in his popularity.

The Costa Rican congress opted to bring back presidential re-election last year. Óscar Arias Sánchez of the National Liberation Party (PLN)—who headed the government from 1986 to 1990, and is still regarded for his democratic proposals and actions on how to deal with violence in Central America—is considered the frontrunner in the race to replace Pacheco. The election is scheduled for April 2006.

Unions To Show Their Discontent With Corruption
Members of the Movimiento Cívico Nacional and the ANEP will travel today in a caravan that will include automobiles, buses and trucks, from San Ramón through downtown San José to presidential house in Zapote to present Minister for the Presidency, Lineth Saborio, a letter stating their unhappiness with corruption in Costa Rica, the Riteve and the TLC (Free Trade Agreement) situation that everyone seems to have forgotten over the scandals of late.

Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico to Serve on U.N. Economic Council
Brazil, Costa Rica and Mexico are three of 18 countries recently elected as new members of the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), a panel that coordinates development work for the world body.

In an October 29 statement, the U.N. said the Latin American nations will begin three-year terms on the council on January 1, 2005.

The United Nations said that every year its General Assembly elects a third of ECOSOC's 54-nation roster of members, choosing candidates according to a pre-arranged formula of geographic distribution. At any one time, 14 members must be from Africa, 11 from Asia, six from Eastern Europe, 10 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 13 from the category called "Western Europe and other States."

The United States, Belize, Canada, Colombia and Panama are some of the nations that will complete their three-year terms on the council at the end of 2006, the United Nations said.

ECOSOC is responsible for promoting higher standards of living, full employment and economic and social progress; identifying solutions to international economic, social and health problems; helping in international cultural and educational cooperation; and encouraging universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. ECOSOC's purview extends to over 70 percent of the human and financial resources of the entire U.N. system.

The United Nations said ECOSOC also is regularly given additional tasks, including supervising and promoting the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, which are a set of eight time-bound targets that include the halving of extreme poverty in the world by 2015.

Alcatel Faces Informal SEC Inquiry
Alcatel's troubles in Costa Rica could lead to a United States Security Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation, according to documents filed with the Commission.

For now, the SEC is only launching an "informal inquiry," according to a form F-3 filed by Alcatel on Wednesday. The form also says Alcatel has told the SEC and the U.S. Department of Justice that it would cooperate with any investigation, although it's unclear whether either organization will formally look into the matter.

The troubles stem from a bribery scandal where payments were allegedly made to "various state and local officials in Costa Rica," two political parties in Costa Rica, and representatives of Grupo ICE, the state-owned telephone company, on behalf of Alcatel, according to the SEC filing.

The accusations led Alcatel to launch an internal investigation.

An Oct. 27 press release from Alcatel noted the termination of "two senior employees" and an intent to pursue criminal charges. One of the officials apparently was Edgar Valverde, president of Alcatel's Costa Rican operations, who was detained by officials last month. The other employee is described by the filing as "a vice president-Latin America of a French subsidiary."

Alcatel is terminating its contracts with the local consultants involved in the scandal and is "in the process of pursuing criminal actions" against them as well.

Costa Rican officials have investigations of their own going on, and the F-3 form notes that if they find Alcatel violated the law, it's possible the company could be barred from bidding for contracts for a time.

This would be a public relations blow to the company but would have relatively little financial impact. Alcatel was expecting $26 million from Costa Rican contracts in 2004, according to the filing.

Daniel Oduber Airport Getting Relief
The Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT) has announced a plan, that will include more personnel and added security and efficiency at the Daniel Oduber airport in Liberia, where more than 180.000 visitors are expected to arrive for the season starting next month.

The Cámara Nacional de Turismo (Canatur) and the Cámara de Turismo de Guanacaste, had asked the ICT for help following a report last September that the airport would not be able to handle the increased traffic this summer season.

The Daniel Oduber airport has grown exponentially over the last nine years. From a small airport that handled only regional flights, now will be handling 14 flights a week, with addition of the newest flights by TACA from San José, Air Canada that will be flying directly from Toronto and US Airways who will add a third flight a week in February.

A commission that was set up to study and make recommendations to deal with the increased traffic at the airport recommended that the airport increase it's hours of operation, that will now be from 6am to 8pm, add more immigration and security personnel.

The announcement also said that "Eco Desarrollo Papagayo" is donating two quadracycles and an automobile to add security to the airport surroundings.

The airport, unlike the Juan Santamaria airport in San José, lays dormant between flights. It springs to life as a flight is about to arrive and goes back to sleep after it leaves. The airport is minutes from the town of Liberia, but more important, within less than one hour of most of the Guancaste beaches, including Papagayo, Tamarindo and Flamingo.

In the past, visitors had to land in San José and then either make a connecting flight on a regional airline or make the 4-5 hour bus or car ride and the additional cost.

With flights now coming directly into the Daniel Oduber airport, visitors can now be on the beach in less than an hour from the airplane touching down.

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