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Protest misses mark
over Harken payment By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Some 15 to 20 protestors were joined by about the same number of reporters and cameramen Thursday outside the Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía. But the object of their efforts had left. The protesters, from at least four organizations, were there to confront Robert Toricelli, the former U.S. senator who was here to negotiate on behalf of Harken Energy Inc. But Toricelli did not see the protestors. Later, the ministry announced that the question of compensating Harken would be turned over to the Asamblea Nacional. Harken wants payment because the government of Miguel Angel Rodríguez canceled its concession to drill an exploratory well off the Caribbean coast. At one point late last year Harken said it wanted $57 billion. That number got the immediate attention of Costa Rica, which agreed to enter into negotiations. The ministry has floated numbers ranging from $3 million to $12 million, but Harken has the option to renew a bid for international arbitration. Government officials contend that Harken did not complete its obligations and therefore should not be paid anything. That was the theme the protesters adopted. Ministry officials say, instead, they are prepared to pay Harken reasonable expenses. Woman’s body found
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Police found the body of a woman in a palm grove on the road to Playa Bandera near Jacó Thursday. Nearby were brass shells from a firearm, and the skull contained a hole above the right eye. So police are handling the case as a murder. The woman had been dead about eight days, according to the Judicial Investigating Organization. They seek help in making an identification. The woman was about 5 feet, two inches tall with black hair. The age is undetermined. She wore a necklace of silver with a cross pendant that was decorated with pearls, agents said. On her hand was a ring of yellow pearls. Bloody riots hit
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — President Hipolito Mejia is appealing for calm in the wake of deadly street clashes which have erupted on the second day of a two-day general strike. President Mejia issued the appeal Thursday here, saying, "we all lose with a strike." He made his remarks as five people died of gunshot wounds in clashes with police around the capital and other areas. At least 35 people also were injured. Police have fanned out across many cities, firing warning shots and tear gas at protesters who built flaming barricades in the streets. Citizens groups and labor unions called the 48-hour stoppage, which has kept schools and businesses closed and buses off the streets. They are protesting the country's worst economic crisis in decades. The country's financial troubles have led to a sharp devaluation of the peso, soaring inflation, as well as persistent power outages that sometimes last as long as 20 hours. Also, the stagnating economy has prompted scores of Dominicans to try to reach the United States by boat. President Mejia has said repeatedly that the country will soon reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund to inject badly-needed money into the economy. More than a dozen
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services CIUDAD JUAREZ, México — Some 13 Mexican state police officers have been arrested in connection with the killings of 11 men found in a mass grave in this northern border city. The arrested police officers have been flown to Mexico City, where they are being questioned by senior officials. But the attorney general, Rafael Macedo de la Concha, is already conceding that four other officers, including State Police Commander Miguel Angel Loya, are fugitives from justice. Loya failed to show up for work on Monday, and has not been seen since. Mexican authorities estimate the killings happened about a year ago, and say they are directly connected to the notorious Vicente Carillo Drug Cartel, which operates throughout this region. They say a bloody internal power struggle is raging, following the arrest of a number of senior drug cartel operatives. The mass grave was discovered near a house last weekend. A man who rented the house, who was caught trying to flee to the United States, has admitted to murdering some of the men and burying them, on orders from the cartel. He has also implicated some state police officers, and explained that there are more bodies to be found. Agents of the Attorney General's Office are searching other locations for more mass graves. Local families have indicated that more than 90 people have been reported missing. Colombian fighters
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services CARACAS, Venezuela — National guard troops have clashed with suspected Colombian leftist rebels who crossed into Venezuelan territory and opened fire. Venezuelan military officials say 30 soldiers were searching for kidnap victims Thursday when they encountered the armed fighters. Officials also say the soldiers fired on the suspected guerrillas and radioed for reinforcements. Venezuelan warplanes were sent to the area to drive back the column of armed Colombians. None of the soldiers was hurt, and it was not clear if any of the guerrillas suffered casualties. There was no immediate reaction from the government in Bogota. Leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has angrily denied allegations he allows Colombian rebels to use his country as a springboard for attacks in Colombia. Chavez also has accused Colombia of not doing enough to stop its four-decade-old civil war from spilling over the border. Colombia's long-running conflict pits leftist rebels, rightist paramilitaries and the government against each other. The war leaves several thousand people dead each year.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — One of the Western Hemisphere's most important financial lending institutions, the Inter-American Development Bank, has welcomed Costa Rica's entry into a new free-trade agreement with the United States. In a statement, the development bank offered its support to help Costa Ricans "maximize the benefits of the new accord," known as the Central America Free Trade Agreement. The development bank said the free-trade nations now face the "challenge of implementing policies that will allow them to benefit fully from the advantages of free trade" and to "distribute the fruits equitably and protect groups affected by changing economic conditions." Since the start of the free trade negotiations, the development bank said it has helped the Central American nations identify trade-related capacity-building needs and provide financial and technical resources to strengthen their trade policy management and trade agreement implementation. El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua completed their negotiations with the United States in December to establish the pact. Costa Rica took part in the same rounds, but did not finish its negotiations with the United States until Sunday. |
That same day, U.S. Trade Representative
Robert Zoellick and Alberto Trejos, Costa Rica’s minister of Comercio Exterior,
announced Costa Rica's approval of the trade pact. Zoellick said the Central
American nation "needed a little more time to complete its participation
in the CAFTA, and we're very pleased it has joined" its neighbors in the
region "in this cutting-edge, modern FTA [free-trade agreement] designed
to expand trade between friends and neighbors."
Meanwhile, Zoellick's Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has released a draft text in English of the the treaty. The preamble to the agreement says the United States and the five nations in trade agreement will create new employment opportunities and improve working conditions and living standards in their respective states. In addition, the preamble says the free trade agreement will be implemented in a "manner consistent with environmental protection and conservation," and will "promote sustainable development, and strengthen" cooperation on environmental matters. The preamble says further that the pact will "provide an impetus toward the establishment" of the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, which aims to create a free-trade zone stretching from Canada to Argentina. The draft agreement is available on the trade representative's Web site at: www.ustr.gov. |
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Participants at a conference here Thursday examined prospects for re-starting the stalled global negotiations on trade liberalization. Those talks stalled last September during a session in Cancun, Mexico. While there is some optimism, participants are under no illusion that the task will be easy. Earlier this month U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick notified trade officials from over 140 countries that the United States wants to get the talks back on track. Nearly four months after the failure at Cancun, Mr. Zoellick's proposal has been positively received. In February, the U.S. official will travel to several developing countries to better understand their priorities. The curtailed negotiations, known as the Doha Round, were launched in Qatar in 2001. Chris Padilla, an assistant to Zoellick, says as at Cancun, the United States is willing to consider a complete end to the agricultural subsidies, something demanded by key developing nations. "In fact, they [an end to subsidies] were on the table [at Cancun], sitting there waiting to be cut," he said. "We had spent two years doing domestic spade-work with the Congress and the farm community to be able to get to the point of offering to eliminate all agricultural export subsidies and substantially reduce domestic supports." |
But Rubens Barbosa, Brazil's ambassador
to Washington and a key player in the trade talks, is skeptical about U.S.
intentions. He told the conference that a Brazilian organized bloc of developing
countries, the Group of 20, blamed by many for wrecking the Cancun meeting,
remains suspicious that the United States and European Union are trying
to work out their own deal on agriculture.
"It will be very difficult to go ahead without reaching for the G-20 and looking into our perspective," Barbosa said. "It will be impossible because in the G-20 you have Brazil, China, India, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina, the big agricultural producers [among developing countries] in the world." Padilla and his American colleagues in turn are skeptical about the G-20, believing that they seek one-way concessions from rich countries. That obstinance, he says, was on full display in Cancun. "The principal cause of the collapse [at Cancun] was that some major developing economies wanted to pocket our bold offers on goods and services without offering to open their own markets in return," he said. But overall, participants are cautiously optimistic about a resumption of the trade talks. However, few believe that given the differences between rich and poor countries, the deadline for completing the Doha round by the end of this year can be met. |
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