Sex Education Coming to the Classrooms
According to the Hospital Psiquiátrico Infantil (Children's Psychiatric Hospital), three of out of every ten Costa Rican children suffer for sexual abuse.

While this is happening, in the hallways of schools and colleges, children are exchanging information about sex, contraceptives and venereal diseases, because sex education is not part of the school material.

The Ministerio de Educación Publica (MEP) is attempting to include sex education in next year's school program at all school levels.

Wilfrido Blanco, Vice Minister of Education, the program is now in 10 regions as a pilot program but only on a superficial level. It won't be until the coming year that the school program will include sex education as an integral part of the educational program for the children.

For the time being the Asociación Nacional de Educadores (ANDE) - teacher's union - has given it's members a guide that will orientate teachers towards sex education and be used as support manual.

The MEP is faced with the politics that obligates the ministry to get approval of any teaching material by the Consejo Superior de Educación at least eight months before it is presented in the classroom. The Consejo is currently studying a sex education program proposal by the Catholic Church.

In 2001 the Consejo approved a sex education program that was to go into effect in the 2003 school year, but never did, due to "technical" problems in the program.

According to Blanco, children should be taught about the use contraceptives, venereal diseases and the prevention of AIDS and teenage pregnancy. Young girls should be taught to avoid getting pregnant.

Interpol Nabs Another Fugitive
Following several months of investigations and pusuit, the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) and Interpol were able to capture American, Robert Thomas Ondilla, who was wanted in the state of Georgia for drug trafficking.

Ondilla was arrested in the Sabana, west of San José, where he had been living for a short time.

Yesterday's arrest bring to 27 the total number of wanted fugitives caught in Costa Rica this yea.

Ondilla came to Costa Rica on May 27, entering the northen border point with Nicaragua at Peñas Blancas, according to immigration records.

The man had been in several other Central American countries and Mexico, before entering Costa Rican soil. According to the investigation, Ondilla had planned leaving Costa Rican in the coming days, heading for Jamaica.

Ondilla is now in the hands of the San José Tribunals and will face an extradition request by the United States. He can accept the extradition, which will see US agents in Costa Rica next to pick him up or he can fight the extradition order and spend at least the next 90 days waiting for a hearing.

Ondilla was first arrested in December of 2003 by narcotics agents in the District of Columbia, when he was found carrying an undisclosed amount of drugs in his car on Interstate 20.

Police Officer Involved in Murder of Italian Businessman
A member of the Fuerza Publica, a 23 year old man identified only by his last name, Valerio, was arrested by the Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ) as one of four suspected in the murder of Italian businessman, Gugliemo Proietti.

Proietti was the the victim of a robbery attempt, when he was ambushed by several men near the Hipermas in Heredia, on his way home from the bank after making a $50.000 withdrawl.

Valerio, who had worked for Italian as a bodyguard on his off duty hours, was arrested by OIJ at the downtown police station known as Delta 1. Investigators in the Proietti murder had discovered the relationship between the police officer and the victim and who provided the other groups in the gang information on Proietti's movements.

The OIJ also arrested another three men identified only by their last names; 21 year old Luna Fallas and 24 year old, Alvarez in la Concepción de Alajuelita and a 39 year old Castro, i Belén, who police believe was the leader of the gang. In San Francisco de Heredia, police also arrested a 28 year old woman who is a girlfriend of one of the men and is suspected of taking a role in the murder.

According to the police report and witnesses, on the evening of June 3, Proietti was intercepted by two men on a motorcycle and shot by the man riding on the back (Aguero). Proietti, with a bullet in his chest, managed to ram the motorcycle and knocking the men down.

One of the men fled. He then got of out the vehicle to uncover the face of the man who had just shot him, Aguero shot the Italian man again. Proietti, in a rage, wrestled the gun from the man's hand and shot him twice, killing him. Proietti died in hospital hours later.
 

100 More Names Added to List of Child Murders; Casa Alianza Tells
Continuing violence against Central America’s children and youth under the age of 23 years old left another 100 murdered during the month of July.

In Guatemala City alone there were 54 young victims; in Honduras 36; Nicaragua 8 and Costa Rica 2.  Casa Alianza does not have a presence in El Salvador and so numbers of child murders there are unavailable.

Children and young people in Central America are being killed on a daily basis due to the high levels of generalized violence, the presence of organized groups of murderers as well as through intolerance and indifference. The authorities are unable and/or unwilling to stop the killings.

Fifty percent of the murders in the region during July 2004 were of youth between 18 and up to 23 years of age and 27% were boys under 18. Young women and girls accounted for 17 victims (17%) of the regional total: seven of the victims were girls under 18 and ten female victims between 18 and up to 23 years old.

Once again, the majority of the murders in the region were in Guatemala with 54 murders in one month (54% of the regional total) – an extremely high number considering the statistics for Guatemala only cover the capital city. The total number of murders of children and youth under 23 in Guatemala City surpasses the total numbers of murders in the same age group in the countries of Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

Of the 54 murders of children and youth in Guatemala City, 51 cases (94%) were with firearms; two cases (4%) with knives and one by strangulation. Firearms are the principal cause of death in the murders of children in Central America – in 81% of the incidents. In second place the weapons used are knives, in 11% of the murders.

In Nicaragua, the beating to death of children occurred in four cases of murder in July – one half of the eight cases registered in that country - and 4% of the murders regionally. In Nicaragua, the perpetrators of six of the murders of children were family members of the victims.

Nicaragua was also the only country where babies were killed. A three-month-old baby was beaten to death by his father and the death of a baby girl is being investigated.

Honduras accounted for 36% of the murders of children and youth under 23 in the region: two girls (6% of the Honduras murders); 13 boys (36% of the Honduras murders); one young woman and 20 young men between 18 and under 23 (56% of the murders in Honduras).

So far as the perpetrators of the murders in Honduras, 61% are still unidentified (22 cases); in 10 cases (28%) the suspected author of the crime is a gang member; in three cases (8%) the suspects were in the “infamous grey car” and a 10 year old school girl was shot to death by a security guard.

The majority of the murders in Honduras, 21 cases (58%), took place in Tegucigalpa, the capital, followed by San Pedro Sula with eight young murders (22%). In the main San Pedro Sula jail, a 19-year-old prisoner was murdered, reportedly by a gang member.

The murders of young people under 23 in Honduras’ jails continues in clear violation of international law which holds the State 100% responsible for the security of prisoners under their care. In just March of this year, five youth murders took place in the country’s jails: three in San Pedro Sula; one in the Tela jail and one in the main prison center in Tamara.

With the most recent San Pedro Sula jail murder, 60 young people under the age of 23 have been murdered in Honduras’ prisons during President Maduro’s administration. Of these, 41 are attributed to prison guards, the police and military.

“In light of this repugnant and growing list of shame, Casa Alianza – an organization that defends the rights of children – demands that governments in the region stop the continuing slaying of the region’s children and youth. It is the State’s responsibility to protect the life of their citizens and they are not fulfilling their responsibility”, stated Bruce Harris, Casa Alianza’s Regional Director for Latin American Programs. “In simple terms, we demand a stop to the killing of the countries’ present and future – its children”.

Price of Rice to Decrease 50%
Good news, the price of rice is dropping The Asociación de Consumidores Libres (ACL) has asked the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Comercio (MEIC) for a 50% decrease in the price of rice at the consumer level.

The news comes from a report by the Comptroller's office where it was protectionist practices were found to be used in the market place to sustain a higher level consumer price for the grain.

In the final price of rice were subsidies that were to have protected the small producers. However, the ACL found that more than one half of the subsidies were going to large producers at the cost of the small companies.

It was also discovered the Connaroz sold processors imported grain at the protected price level and supported by the MEIC. The imported grain did not have the cost of storage and processing was on the supermarket shelves almost immediately, providing 'winfell' profits.

The price reduction is a temporary measure to compensate consumers who have been overcharged at the supermarket, until market prices stabilize.