Constitutional Court Rejects Rodríguez Motion of Habeas Corpus
While former president Rafael Angel Calderón got good news yesterday, his cellblock mate did not fare so well with the judges.

Miguel Angel Rodríguez who was ordered in preventive detention for six months after two weeks of house arrest, had made an application of Habeas Corpus before the Constitutional Court or Sala IV as it is commonly referred, that his jailing was unwarranted.

The Sala IV rejected the motion. Rodríguez will stay put for now.

Rodríguez was ordered under house arrest following his return to Costa Rica on October 15 after stepping down as Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), implicated in the ICE-Alcatel deal for receiving monies from Alcatel, as well as receiving money from the government of Taiwan while he was in office.

The Fiscalía appealed the lower court decision. The Superior (Appeals) court overturned the decision and ordered Rodríguez to the La Reforma prison, where is he is being housed in the same cell block as Calderón.

The Sala IV said in it's decision, that the preventive detention order against the former president is warranted, believing there is sufficient evidence tying him to the charges and that the order is fulfills the legal requirements as established.

Rodríguez will now have to wait three months before his first mandatory review on the preventive detention order.

Vargas Leaves Prison
Eliseo Vargas, former president of the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), was ordered to leave jail yesterday, where he has been in preventive detention since September 8.

His release is conditional on Vargas signing in at the Fiscalía every two weeks, barred from leaving the country and not having any contact with any of the witnesses of accused in the Fischel-CCSS case, that includes, Corporación Fischel president, Walter Reiche Fischel and former president of Costa Rica, Rafael Angel Calderón, who are both in preventive detention.

Second Circuit Court judge Rafael Gullock Vargas made the decision for the release.

Eliseo Vargas was the key witness that resulted in the detention of Calderón, after spending several weeks in detention and seeing his daughter implicated, Vargas decided to tell prosecutors more about the Fischel-CCSS case.

He told prosecutors of how Calderón was the key player behind the commission paid to the the Fischel corporation and who got what and how much. Vargas told prosecutors that he got double of the others, since he had been a legislator at the time of the approval of the loan and the president of the CCSS when the us $39 million dollar loan was paid by the government of Finland for the purchase of medical equipment by the Caja.

Vargas was rumoured to have struck a deal with prosecutors, getting charges dropped against his daughter and a release from preventive detention following his testimony. Calderón was detained on October 22 and Vargas remained in detention.

However, yesterday, it seems the rumours were well founded.

Union Wants Karen Olsen Questioned
Union leaders of the Hospital San Juan de Dios have made a request to the Ministerio Público, to make arrangements for the return of Karen Olsen, former legislative deputy and mother of former president José María Figueres Olsen.

Union leaders want the Ministerio Público to investigate her role in the "Credito Español" (Spanish Credit), a  loan that was given to Costa Rica by the government of Spain in 1997. Union leaders say that are too many unanswered questions.

According to judicial sources, the Fiscalía (prosecutor's office) has the files on the Spanish Credit sealed. The loan was for us$40 million dollars.

Doctor and medical staff that comprise the Union, say the equipment bought with the Spanish Credit money was of poor quality and in some cases, overpaid.

Some examples given by Union leaders is the purchase of 75 ambulances at more than us$46.000 each. Questions were raised by officials at the time, but the purchase was completed and many of the ambulances have had problems from day one, some constantly in the repair shop.

Icuatro S.A. appears as the major supplier of the equipment purchased with the Spanish Credit. Critics at the time complained that the prices offered by Icuatro was much higher than what could be paid elsewhere.

The list of equipment purchased from Icuatro is long and so are the complaints that the equipment has been faulty, not working properly or at all, and that the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) was ripped off.

Figueres Olsen was president at the time of the Spanish Credit and it is believed that Karen Olsen was a major player in the negotiations in arranging the loan and the provider of the medical equipment.

Karen Olsen left costa Rica several days following the news that her son had received us$900.000 dollars from Alcatel, by way of his former government advisor, Roberto Hidalgo, for consulting work.

Karen Olsen's departure was unannounced and is not known clearly why she left and if she will return to Costa Rica voluntarily.

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Naranjo With the Best Coffee
Looking for the best coffee? You don't have to look too far.

It wasn't difficult for the coffee tasters to make their choice. The best non brand coffee is from the coffee plantation Herbazu in Naranjo and the best brand name coffee is the Don Quijote, also from Naranjo.

The coffee tasters had to make their decision based on taste and smell. The best taster award was given to Swiss, Carlos Alvez.

The awards were given at the end of the eight Semana Internacional del Café, an annual event, that saw more than 500 coffee producers and buyers in attendance in San José.

More Tourists Expected This Year
Tourism Minister, Rodrigo Castro, told is audience in Madrid, Spain, that Costa Rica will have received about 1.5 million visitors this year, which is an increase of 300.000 more visitors than in 2003, leaving behind some us$1.5 billion dollars in the local economy.

Castro attributed the increase to the "maturity" of the tourism industry and the county's campaigns to promote tourism abroad.

Notwithstanding the minister's comments, the tourism industry in Costa Rica is worried about the possible lack of accommodations, poor treatment tourists get and the potential back logs at the Juan Santamaria airport in San José due to the the increase in traffic.

According to tourism officials, 1.2 million or 60% of the tourists last year came from the United States, Canada and Mexico. 200.000 Europeans visited Costa Rica last year, which an expected increase to 250.000 for this season, which commences within the next few weeks.

Charter flights have already started arriving in Liberia, where tourists can be on the beach with an hour of landing.
 

The candidates for the finals of the Miss Teen International that will be held at Planet Mall Friday November 12.