|
Banco ELCA To Be Liquidated
The Consejo Nacional de
Supervisión del Sistema
Financiero (CONASSIF) who
intervened Banco ELCA's
operations on June 29, 2004
made the decision public on
Friday.
The decision came
on the recommendation of the head of the Superintendencia General de
Entidades Financieras (SUGEF),
Óscar Rodríguez, saying the
bank is not a viable
operation and it is best to
liquidate it completely.
A visit to the main offices of
Banco ELCA saw a quiet and
somber mood as the remaining
employees had learned of the
news of the decision from
customers who made a visit to
learn more on the fate of their
savings.
The Asociación Bancaria
Costarricense (ABC),
is fulfilling it's promise to
make good on small deposits up
to ¢4.500.000 colones or
us$10.000 dollars.
Last month the ABC was only
accepting claims from those
depositors with less than
¢500.000 at the bank.
Last week the ABC expanded it's
decision and is paying
depositors who have a total
amount of deposits - bank
accounts, bonds, notes, etc -
less than Us$10.000.
Depositors are asked to visit
the main branch located in La
Sabana, 200 meters east of the
Gimansio Nacional, to make a
written claim, which will be
paid eight days following.
The payment is only available to
individuals and not corporate
entities.
The president of Banco ELCA,
Carlos Alvarado Moya, along
with former manager, Hernán
González Peña, and advisor
Javier Filloy Esna, are
still in jail on three
month's preventive
detention.
Conservation International
Calling for Costa Rica to
Control Foreign Shark Finning
Vessels
A letter from Conservation
International’s CEO, Peter
Seligmann and Executive Director
of Marine Programs Division,
Sylvia Earle, calls on the
President of Costa Rica to stop
allowing foreign shark finning
vessels to land at private docks
until those docks are authorized
by law, and to mandate all
sharks to be landed with fins
attached.
With this move, Conservation
International joins a list of
global organizations, including
the Shark Specialist Group of
the IUCN, WildAid, the Shark
Trust, The Shark Research
Institute, International Fund
for Animal Welfare, and the
World Society for the Protection
of Animals, that have made the
same call to President Abel
Pacheco.
Costa Rica is a country that has
held a reputation for supporting
nature conservation; however,
there has been serious
controversy surrounding Costa
Rica’s management of sharks, due
to the fact that its government
has for years facilitated
landing shark fins by
international flag vessels, in
particular Taiwanese, by
knowingly allowing those vessels
to land at docks that are not
authorized by law. Furthermore,
Costa Rica’s main shark finning
regulation ignores the best
available science, and thus is
considered unreliable.
All the while, Costa Rica has
claimed that it does not permit
shark finning.
This discrepancy between what
the government claims and the
policies it implements has
conservation groups around the
world questioning the Costa
Rican government’s true
commitment to conservation.
The letter from Conservation
International urges unauthorized
docks to be closed until they
are in compliance with the law,
and calls on the President to
mandate all sharks to be landed
with fins attached, as Costa
Rica’s current policy “seriously
threatens the survival of shark
species.”
“What Conservation International
is pointing out is that the
Costa Rican government is not
living up to its conservationist
image,” says Randall Arauz. “For
some reason, entities within the
government want these shark fin
landings by foreign fleets,
notoriously Taiwanese vessels,
to continue unchecked. That
policy cannot continue if Costa
Rica wants to support marine
conservation. The government
needs to decide whether it
supports shark finning or
supports marine conservation,
but it can’t do both at the same
time.”
Shark finning not only wipes out
sharks, but the millions of
hooks used to capture sharks for
their fins incidentally catch
other species such as dolphins,
rays and the critically
endangered leatherback sea
turtle, making this operation
one of the most harmful to the
world’s oceans.
PRETOMA is a Costa Rican
non-profit, non-governmental,
marine conservation organization
that works to promote
responsible fisheries and
protect sea turtles, sharks and
marine biodiversity.
Contact
[email protected],
www.tortugamarina.org.
Progress in
Spite of the
Environment
Costa Rican companies stand out
at the global because of the
sophistication of their
operations and strategies, in
spite of the many obstacles they
face to operate.
“They do all they can; in spite
of the environment,” asserted
Arturo Condo, associate director
of the Latin American
Competitiveness Center of the
Central American Business
Administration Institute. He did
so upon disclosing the finding
of the Global Competitiveness
Report 2004-2005, published by
the World Economic Forum.
The analysis involves
inefficient bureaucracy,
improper infrastructure, access
to financing, taxes, inflation,
fiscal regulations, unstable
policies, corruption,
restrictive labor regulations,
and crime. In the overall
ratings, Costa Rica placed 50th
among 104 nations regarding
growth potential, 35th among 103
as the operations and strategies
of companies, and 50th in the
quality of the business
environment.
|
