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ICE Opens Internal Investigation
on Alcatel
La Nación, the Spanish daily
newspaper, reports that the
Instituto Costarricense de
Electricidad (ICE) has opened an
internal investigation against
the French telecommunications
company, Alcatel, with the
objective to bar the firm from
any future bids on ICE
contracts.
If
the measure is adopted, it would
be based on article 100 of the
Ley de contratación
administrativa, which would
not allow Alcatel to provide
services, directly or
indirectly, for a period of up
to five years.
Meanwhile, the Fiscalía General
de la República (prosecutor's
office) is investigating the
payment of us$3.600.000 to
public functionaries, José
Antonio Lobo y Joaquín Alberto
Fernández, by Alcatel.
The ICE commission who is
charged with analyzing possible
sanctions against Alcatel is
made up of Geovanni Bonilla
Goldoni, Waldemar Núñez and
Jorge Luis Tapia.
Alcatel was successful in
obtaining us$258.000.000 in
contracts from ICE over the past
three years, of which Alcalel
installed 400.000 GSM cellular
lines in a contract worth
us$150.000.000.
If sanctions are applied against
Alcatel, it would mean the end
of the possibility of ICE
expanding the contract with
Alcatel to provide up to 50%
more GSM lines following the
Contraloria's killing of the
deal ICE had with the Ericsson
company.
Geovanny Bonilla said that the
commission will work together
with Fiscalía to gather
evidence.
To date ICE functionaries are
keeping quiet on what happened
with the Alcatel deal. The only
person to talk so far has been
José Antonio Lobo, who said that
former Costa Rican president
Miguel Angel Rodríguez received
payment from him from a payment
received by his wife from
Alcatel.
More on
ICE-Alcatel
Scandal
Kanev Trial:
First Day!
Arthur Kanev, the
first U.S. citizen to be
extradited to Costa Rica on
charges providing drugs to
minors, corruption of minors and
having sexual relations with
willing children under the age
of 15, began his first day of
trial without entering a plea.
Kanev suspect was first arrested
in Quepos in 1999 for allegedly
possessing homemade photographs
of nude, provocatively posed
girls between the ages of 11 and
16. He was released on bail, and
later fled the country.
In December 2000, Kanev was
featured on the U.S. TV-news
magazine show “20/20” when the
program ran an exposé about the
sexual exploitation of minors in
Costa Rica.
Kanev told an ABC reporter that
he “had no qualms” about what he
did here. The report made him
internationally infamous.
Ten girls, who were minors at
the time, are expected to be
called as witnesses against
Kanev during the trial.
Some of the witnesses to be
called already testified against
Kanev's friend, Joe Curtis, who
was sentenced to 24 years in
prison.
The young girls at the Curtis
trial testified that the two men
(Curtis and Kanev) took them to
their home where they were given
drugs and money in exchange for
sexual favours.
The men, according to the
testimony of the girls, took
fotos of them naked. Authorities
found some 700 such fotos in a
search of the the men's home at
the time of the arrest.
Hugo Leví Mena, Kanev's lawyer,
insists on his clients innocence
and the charges are unfounded.
The trial is expected to
conclude on October 22.
This Summer to be Hotter and
Dryer
The Instituto Meteorológico
Nacional (IMN) - the weatherman
- is predicting that this summer
or "green season" that begins in
December will be hotter than
normal and will last longer past
May of next year, the official
month for the change of season.
El Niño is being blamed
for the dryer weather conditions
that will affect Costa Rica as
the phenomenon is expected
to hang over the Pacific ocean
until the middle of next year.
El Niño is a disruption
of the ocean-atmosphere system
in the Tropical Pacific having
important consequences for
weather and climate around the
globe. In a narrow sense, it's a
giant puddle of heated water
that sloshes across the Pacific
Ocean.
The weatherman say the season
will be dry and at least one
centigrade hotter that usual.
The rainy season, again
according to the weatherman, is
expected to end in the first
week of November for the
Guanacaste (northwest) region,
the middle to the end of
November for the Central Valley
(San José) and by the end of
December for the Central and
South Pacific regions (Quepos &
Golfito).
The Caribbean and northeast
zones don't have a defined
rainy/dry season. The weather in
that region stays pretty well
constant with even temperatures
all year round and rainy periods
all year round.
Click
here to learn more about El
Niño.
Delta Air Lines Limits Passenger
Baggage to Select Latin American
Cities
Delta Air Lines has
announced its annual baggage
policy for flights to select
Latin American>
cities during the holiday travel
season.
From Nov. 15, 2004, through Jan.
15, 2005, Delta is limiting the
total number of both checked and
carry-on items,
as well as the size and weight
parameters for these items.
During this embargo period,
Delta will allow a maximum of
two checked bags
and one carry-on bag item (plus
one personal item such as a
purse or
briefcase) on all flights to San
José and many other Latin
countries, including Panama,
Mexico and Colombia.
Delta recommends that passengers
traveling to these Latin
American cities>
make arrangements with FedEx,
United Parcel Service or the
United States
Postal Service to ship any items
that exceed the number, size and
weight
restrictions.
Delta Air Lines is the world's
second largest airline in terms
of passengers carried and the
leading U.S. carrier across the
Atlantic, offering daily flights
to 493 destinations in 87
countries on Delta, Song, Delta
Shuttle, the Delta Connection
carriers and its worldwide
partners.
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