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Caza Alianza Closes in Costa
Rica
The U.S.-based children's rights
organization, Casa Alizana, said
Friday it will close its Costa
Rica office, in the wake of
thesex scandal involving its
former director, Bruce Harris.
Harris, the Central America director of Casa
Alianza, a branch of Covenant House in New York, was fired in
September after the group said he admitted to paying for sex with a
19-year-old Honduran who had once been a resident at one of the
group's shelters.
The organization said in a news release that it decided to close the
office as of November 15, and use funds that went into it to help
children in crisis shelters throughout Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras
and Nicaragua.
Casa Alianza in Costa Rica was the administrative headquarters of
Casa Alianza (Covenant House) Latin America.
The Regional Office, with funding from the European Union, had
published training modules based on the Covenant House methodology.
Each module focused on one of the programmatic stages of Casa
Alianza, designed to be a guide for agencies working with street
children.
Employees in Central America and Mexico will deal directly with
offices in New York from now on, the release said.
The organization's mission is to help street children and denounce
cases of sexual abuse against minors.
Bruce Harris, admitted to his "15-minute
mistake". He announced the day
before the Covenant House announcement that he had been fired, that
he was going to retire to spend more time with his family.
Harris, was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2000 for his
work protecting homeless children in Central America, left Costa
Rica a week later following reports that authorities would be
investigating his past.
The Casa Alianza Costa Rica office opened in 1993.
PUSC Asks
Pacheco to Force Figueres to Return
The Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC) is asking president Abel
Pacheco for the United Nations help in getting former president José
María Figueres Olsen back to Costa Rica to to give explanations why
he received us$900.000 from Alcatel for consulting work.
Figueres is expected at a meeting at the United Nations on the 19th
and 20th of December with a techonology group that is being chaired
by the United Nations Secretary General.
Federico Vargas, the boss at the PUSC, told the press that the party
has sent a letter to president Pacheco to apply pressure to get
Figueres back to Costa Rica.
A legislative commission investigating corruption is insisting also
that Figueres' presence in Costa Rica is essential.
Figueres Olsen, resigned last month as chief Executive Officer of
the World Economic Forum on the basis that he had clearly breached
the rules of the World Economic Forum by not declaring that he was
being retained as a consultant when he took the post and whilst he
was working at the Forum.
Figueres admitted that he received more than
$900,000 for consulting services to the French telecommunications
company Alcatel.
The payments to Figueres were first reported by Costa Rica's Channel
7 "Telenoticias". The station
said they were related to some us$2.7 million that Alcatel allegedly
spent in negotiating contracts with the Instituto Costarricense de
Electricidad (ICE) which also operates the monopoly on
telecommunications and electrical energy in the country.
It said that Alcatel had offered to pay about $900,000 each to
Figueres, to his former adviser Roberto Hidalgo and to Carmen
Valverde, until recently the secretary of the Partido Liberacion
Nacional (PLN) or "Green Party".
Valverde was deputy in the Legislative Assembly during the Figueres
administration and also an important figure in Figueres' post
presidential work, is the also the sister of Alcatel's former
president in Costa Rica, Edgar Valverde, who was dismissed after
local news media said he was involved in payments to local political
figures and is now in preventive detention in the San Sebastian jail
while the Fiscalía (prosecutor's office) investigated.
Figueres served as Costa Rican president from 1994 to 1998,
following Calderón and before Rodríguez, who are now both in
preventive detention in La Reforma prison.
Calderón Under Heavy Security
While in Hospital
Former
president Rafael Angel Calderón
is still in hospital following
heart problems he suffered
during a hearing requesting that
he be transferred to house
arrest instead of remaining in
preventive detention in La
Reforma prison for the next 8
1/2 months.
Authorities are not taking any
chances with the former
president. Four heavily armed
policemen are posted outside his
room number 331 at the Clinica
Católica, that include machine
guns as part of their armed
arsenal.
Gonzalo Castellón, Calderón's
lawyer, told the press that the
"police are armed to their
teeth".
Patricia Vega, Ministra de
Justicia, said "like it or not,
we have a responsibility to
fulfill to guard anyone prisoner
who is hospitalized".
Castellón is claiming that
"someone" is putting ideas in
the Minister's head that the
Calderón will escape. Minister
Vega on the other hand simply
says that they are following
protocol as with any prisoner.
In the meantime, Calderón is
only allowed visits form his
wife and daughters, as well as
his lawyer.
Fugitive American Arrested
Following three years
of hiding out in Costa Rica,
INTERPOL finally got their man.
Wanted in the U.S. for
physically abusing his step
children, Mark Patrick will be
returned to the face justice in
Georgia.
Partick has been wanted since
2001, when he was charged with
six counts of cruelty against
minors. According to court
records, Patrick hit his step
children with baseball bat,
throwing them against the wall
and burning them with hot milk.
Patrick was to have been in
court on November 12, 2001, but
fled to Costa Rica, skipping
bail.
Patrick was located in Bello
Horizonte, Escazú, where
INTERPOL detained the man with
the assistance of the Fuerza
Publica.
Heredia Mall Opens
El Paseo de las
Flores, located on the main
througway into Heredia opened
this past Wednesday.
With 169 stores, parking for
thousands of cars, six
restaurants, cinemas, a
supermarket and two department
store, the mall is the newest
entry into the retail market in
the Central Valley.
The mall is open Monday to
Saturday 10:30am to 9:00pm and
Sundays 11:00am to 8:00pm.
Prices Skyrocket
The costs of housing - including
utilities -, transportation, and
food are delivering the heaviest
blows to the pockets of Costa
Ricans, who are suffering a
general skyrocketing of prices,
resulting in recent months from
the non-stop rise in the cost of
oil, even though also influenced
by other domestic factors.
The increase in the cost of
housing in the last year was 20
percent, transportation went 17
percent up, and food -to which
poor families dedicate most of
their income- has gone 14.5
percent up.
The data surfaced in the
consumer price index disclosed
by the National Statistics and
Census Bureau and which covered
the last 12 months ending in
October. Moreover, the chairman
of the Central Bank Francisco
Gutierrez admitted that he has
lost hope of containing
inflation at 11 percent for
2004, as had been expected by
the Government. |
