Pacheco Asks Figueres to
Return
In a letter,
President Abel Pacheco is asking
former president José María
Figueres Olsen not to delay his
return to Costa Rica and give
full explanations of the
accusations against him.
Pacheco is asking that Figueres
present himself as soon as
possible before the "Comisión de
Control y Gasto Público", for
his role in receiving us$900.000
from Alcatel, by way of his
former governmental advisor,
Roberto Hidalgo.
Figueres admitted receiving the
money, saying it was a
legitimate fee earned for
consulting services he provided
after leaving the presidency.
Hidalgo and Carmen Valverde,
sister of former Alcatel
president Edgar Valverde, also
received us$900.000 each, for
consulting work.
Critics denounce that the high
fee is not normal, ten times
what would normally be paid for
the work that Figueres alleges
he was contracted for.
Figueres resigned as chief of
the World Economic Fourm (WEF)
based in Geneva, Switzerland,
from pressure within after the
news broke of the scandal and
that he never reported to the
WEF the money while being
employed there.
President Pacheco assures that
the corruption scandals that has
seen a score of public officials
and businessmen and two former
presidents in jail, should not
make Costa Ricans feel shame,
but rather pride. That is what
his fellow leaders at the Grupo
Rio summit in Brazil last week
expressed to him, he told the
press.
Pacheco said that he received
praise for his government's
handling of the crisis and for
the unrelenting fight against
corruption. He praised the press
for their role, their bold
journalism,
"Costa Rica today enjoys more
prestige than ever before. We
can be content and satisfied...
The government, the press, the
people of Costa Rica, like the
prosecutor and the judicial
system, as well as the
government have been applauded
by world", Pacheco said in a
statement.
Little Kattia's Murderer on
Trial
A little over one
year ago (July 2003) police,
after a close inspection of the
interior of the house of Jorge
Sánchez, found the body of eight
year old Kattia Vanessa González,
who had been reported missing a
week earlier.
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The murder trial
against Sánchez began Monday,
where is accused of murdering
the little girl and then hiding
her under the floor boards of
the house, which was only
several blocks from where the
little girl lived.
Yesterday, in the second day of
trial, testimony surrounded over
the macabre findings in open
court, after which the courtroom
was closed off to allow several
neighbourhood children to
testify against the man.
Witnesses say Sánchez gained the
little girl's trust to lure into
his home and then murdered her.
According to initial police
reports,
the
little girl died the day of her
disappearance and the body was
buried under a floor board in
the house were the two accused
lived, shortly after killing
her.
There appeared no signs of a sexual attack,
leading us to believe that the little girl was
choked to avoid being discovered by neigbours.
PriceSmart Announces Expansion
in Costa Rica
PriceSmart, Inc. announced that
for the month of October 2004,
net sales increased 10.5% to
$52.2 million from $47.2 million
a year earlier. For the two
months ended October 31, 2004,
net sales increased 7.9% to
$99.6 million from $92.4 million
last year. The Company had 26
warehouse clubs in operation at
the end of October 2004
(excluding 3 unconsolidated
warehouse clubs in Mexico that
are owned through a 50/50 joint
venture).
The Company also announced that
it has acquired land in San
José, for the planned
construction of a fourth
warehouse club in the country.
"Costa Rica is a very successful
market for PriceSmart," said
Jose Luis Laparte, PriceSmart's
President. "A fourth location
will provide us with geographic
coverage in an area of the city
that is not well served by our
other three locations."
The new warehouse club will
likely be open sometime in the
second half of 2005.
PriceSmart, headquartered in San
Diego, owns and operates
U.S.-style membership shopping
warehouse clubs in Central
America, the Caribbean, and
Asia, selling high quality
merchandise at low prices to
PriceSmart members.
PriceSmart now operates 26
warehouse clubs in 12 countries
and one U.S. territory (four
each in Panama and the
Philippines; three in Costa
Rica; two each in Dominican
Republic, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras, and
Trinidad; and one each in Aruba,
Barbados, Jamaica, Nicaragua and
the United States Virgin
Islands).
PriceSmart also licenses 11
warehouses in China and one in
Saipan, Micronesia and has an
additional three warehouse clubs
in Mexico as part of a 50/50
joint venture with Grupo Gigante,
S.A. de C.V. |
