Cricket may shine again on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast, thanks to the combined efforts of two young Englishmen and Límón players of yesteryear.

Originally brought to Costa Rica in the late 1800s by Jamaican immigrants who came to construct the railroads, cricket has gradually lost its interest to the descendants of the game’s pioneers here.

The hardened old locals who still champion the game have had little luck keeping it alive. There are few players left on the Caribbean, the traditional home of cricket in Costa Rica.

But with the burning desire of Englishman Andrew Redfern and help from his friend, Adrian Hall, that could be about to change. They have spent the last six weeks or so visiting towns from Límón to Playa Manzanillo on the Caribbean in an attempt to ignite interest in cricket among the youth.

The fruit of their labors was the sight Sunday at the Polideportivo stadium in Límon, where the largely ex-pat team from San José traveled to face a team of locals.

The sun was scorching by the time San José assembled to take on a Límón team struggling to even muster an even number of players. But the game proceeded, with Redfern and Hall competing for the locals, colorfully interspersed between Caribbean old-timers — those few older Afro-Caribbean men still carrying the torch for the game on the coast — and a couple of younger players recently introduced to cricket in the course of the Englishmen’s efforts.

An interesting game commenced with a good display from newcomer Tony Dixon from Manzanillo — a product of Redfern and Hall’s campaign. Dixon is a former professional soccer player and only three weeks ago knew next to nothing about cricket, Redfern said.

Redfern himself provided a few early glimpses of his batting ability, scoring an impressive six-pointer around 20 minutes into the game. That means he batted the ball out of the park. The first half ended with Límon scoring 119 runs for 9, which left San José needing 120 runs in the second half to win.

The game continued in much the same fashion during the second period and proved nail biting to the finish. It was a close game in the end, San José ultimately triumphing (120 runs for 7). The second period had its highlights, too, arguably the best of which was a stunning catch by Morgan Power, 15, playing for Limón, from a high-looping bat by Richard Illingworth, president of the Costa Rican Cricket Association, putting him out of the game.

But the game was about youth and raising awareness and interest in the game again on the 

Redfern, a recent graduate of Edinburgh University in Scotland, talks optimistically about what he hopes to achieve with his project. He said when he arrived there was next to nothing in awareness among the youth. Many of the kids he was encouraging to take up cricket didn’t even know it existed, he said.

"Who would have thought these kids would have got on a two-and-a-half-hour bus ride to come here?" said Redfern, pointing to a group of kids playing with plastic cricket stumps and bat, just to the side of the men’s game.

He said the old-timers still playing cricket, perhaps disillusioned by years of flailing interest and with little resources to buck the trend, doubted from the outset that he would be able to get youngsters showing any sort of interest in the game again.

Some completely dismissed the notion, said Redfern. He said he was cautious to say to the men that cricket was theirs, part of their Afro-Caribbean culture, conscious that it could be turned full circle on him. Cricket is an English colonial sport, originally left behind by the British Empire in the West Indies.

However, one of the old-timers, William Ewin, 66, remembers the old days all too well. He is passionate about the sport, eagerly anticipating its return as a serious sport on the Caribbean. 

Ewin, described by some as the self-appointed guardian of cricket on the Caribbean, calls the potential return of cricket "gold" — at a level where the sport is respected again. "I won’t stop until I find it . . . I will find it, I will find it," he said.

Redfern pointed to the group of children from Manzanillo again who came to watch the game: "The old guys came and seen this . . . We’ve proved them wrong." This was part of Redfern’s plan, the culmination of six weeks of canvassing, he said. 

He will now leave the country content he has achieved the first part of his plan. He has planted a seed, he says, and he hopes it will grow. With the help of people like Dixon, the 27-year-old new recruit, he hopes that youths will pick up the game through continued canvassing. 

Redfern hopes to return to Costa Rica — in around 6 months, he estimates — with significant funding so that proper roots for the game can be planted. One idea is a stadium with facilities that could attract tourists, hence regular cash flow.

Redfern, with his own and a few others’ money, has left behind equipment and training manuals. But as he said to a couple of old-timers straddling the spectator’s bench during the game: "You guys need to train people like him [pointing to Dixon] to teach the kids."

A U.S. tourist helped police grab a man they said was a car burglar who preyed on tourists and their rental cars in Liberia for the last three months.

The tourist, whose name was not given, called police when his vehicle fell victim to a burglar about noon Thursday in the center of Liberia. Police already suspected a man later identified as Douglas Viales, 43, as the author of a string of such break-ins of rental vehicles.

Investigators said that over the last three months vehicles that had been rented by Swiss, Italians, Spanish, French and North Americans were rifled. Someone forced the locks and took, among other things, photographic and video cameras, money, travelers checks, documents and credit cards.

In a patio investigators said they found a fireplace where various articles has been burned partially. The suspect was not home during the 6 p.m. raid, but investigators staked out the property until about 1 a.m. Friday when the man arrived.

Investigators said they found on the man documents belonging to the U.S. citizen who filed the latest complaint as well as money and tools for forcing the locks of cars. A judge put the man in jail for a three month predetention. 

A burglary suspect tried to scale the bars around a mechanic’s shop in Santa Ana Friday morning but a neighbor blasted him with a shotgun as he was atop the fence.

The man, wounded in the legs and groin, fell onto the pointed verticle bars and later died at Hospital San Juan de Dios.

Investigators indentified him as Yunen Agüero Castro, 33. A spokesman for the Judicial Investigating Organization said that the man was surprised about 1:46 a.m. and died about 4 a.m.

Two fires destroy
stores and houses

Fires Saturday broke out in Escazú and in San Felipe de Alajuelita.

The midday blaze in the center of Escazú heavily damaged the supermarket La Violeta and destroyed the meat store La Centra, said investigators.

The blaze in Alajuelita, near the Escuela de Tajercillos, happened about 4 p.m. and destroyed four homes occupied by the families of María del Carmen Cortés, Marco Antonio Fernández Marín, Xiomara Iraeta Rivas and María Largaespada, according to police.

Peasants assume control
of U.S.-owned ranch

MEXICO CITY, Mexico — A group of peasants has taken over an American-owned ranch in the southern state of Chiapas.

Dozens of Zapatista rebel supporters peacefully seized the Rancho Esmeralda hotel and ranch on Friday as a protest against foreign land ownership in the region. The peasants had blockaded the roads leading to the ranch since December, prompting the American owners to move to a nearby town and leave two caretakers in charge.

News reports said the police had been called, but they declined to confront the invaders.

Four weeks ago, the U.S. State Department urged U.S. citizens to avoid Chiapas state because of threats against foreigners.

Zapatista rebels in the south took up arms against the government in 1994.

Castro adds Japan
to Asian itinerary

TOKYO, Japan — Cuban President Fidel Castro is in the country — his second official visit here. 

The Cuban leader's plane touched down at Haneda Airport Saturday. He is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi as well as other officials during his three-day visit. 

On Monday, he plans to travel to Hiroshima to visit the atomic bomb memorial before heading home. 

Japan is the last stop on an 11-day Asian tour that also took Castro to Vietnam, Malaysia and China. 

Jamaica criticized for
police killings

KINGSTON, Jamaica — A U.N. investigator says the government here is not doing enough to combat extra-judicial killings or punish police officers involved in them. 

U.N. lawyer Asma Jahangir made the charge after conducting a 10-day fact-finding mission to the island. Ms. Jahangir is to present her findings to the U.N. Human Rights Commission. 

Human rights group Amnesty International reports that the police here killed 133 people in the country last year.

Make hay, not war . . . 
protesters march naked

SANTIAGO, Chile — About 300 demonstrators have stripped naked here to promote peace, not war, in Iraq.

The protesters, both men and women, held a rally at a downtown park and then marched to the presidential palace demanding peace.

The organizer, Francisco Elgueta, said the group is calling on society to protest the idea of war with Iraq by stripping off uniforms, ideologies and other dividers between people. Police used water cannons to disperse the crowd.

Chile is one of the rotating members of the U.N. Security Council that will vote on a draft resolution backed by the United States and Britain authorizing military action against Iraq.

Yougsters die in water mishaps

A 20-month-old child, Nicolle Vásquez Castro, fell into a swimming pool in Urbanización Monte Real in Barrio Fátima in Atenas Saturday about 4 p.m. and was pronounced dead 20 minutes later at the Hospital San Rafael de Alajuela, said a spokesman for the Fuerza Pública.

On Friday, an 18-month old, Frander Reyes Aragón, died when he fell into the Río Venado in Guatuso about 1:30 p.m.

Three held in cemetery thefts

Police detained three men early Saturday when they encountered the trio walking on the public road carrying a religious image and a cross. Fuerza Pública officers said that the objects came from a local cemetery in Moravia where the arrests took place. The men were identified by their last names and ages of Chacón Baltotano, 21, Murillo Ortiz, 21, and Salazar Zumbado, 18.

Smashing arrest made

A man with a hammer went to work on windows in the commercial center Collados about 4 a.m. Saturday in Lourdes de Montes de Oca. Smashed were windows in Vídeo Extra, a dental clinic and an architect’s office there. Police arrrested a suspect, identified by the last names Cordero Ramírez, while he was walking nearby and carrying two video cassets and a video recorder.
 

Telephone service spotty

Telephone service will be spotty in San Marcos de Terrazú this morning from 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. while equipment is changed in the local central telephone, according to the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, which also is the phone company.  Officials warned of some cuts in service during that time.

Former El Salvador premier dies

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Former president, Fidel Sanchez Hernandez, has died of a heart attack. He was 85.

Hernandez was taken to San Salvador's military hospital for treatment on Friday but he died overnight.  He served as the country’s president from 1967 to1972, and was most famous for overseeing a 1969 territorial dispute with Honduras known as the 100-hour war.
 

MEXICO CITY, Mexico — There is growing concern here over job losses in manufacturing, blamed in part on plants moving to China and other cheap labor markets. Spokesmen for the so-called Maquiladora sector are crying out for help.

For more than 30 years, the country's maquiladoras served as the primary engine for growth in manufacturing. These plants operate under special rules by which parts are imported temporarily from the United States, assembled into products here and then shipped back over the border with preferential treatment.

The expansion of maquiladoras fed the growth of border cities like Tijuana and Juarez. In the past few decades Juarez, which is just over the border from El Paso, Texas, grew its population from a few 100,000 to well over a million people. But now, the main engine of growth has stalled.

Mario Mora, director of the Juarez Maquiladora Association, says jobs are disappearing. He says that in the past two years Juarez has lost 90,000 maquiladora jobs. He says this is a huge loss, especially when you take into consideration that each job in an assembly plant generates two or three jobs outside. He says even some small restaurants and shops have had to close because of the reduction in maquiladora employment.

Mora says his organization and the National Maquiladora Association are asking for help from all levels of government. He says the government needs to develop stimulus measures for the industry because of the strong competition from China, Honduras and other low wage countries. He says even the poor states of the southern region are competing with Juarez for maquiladora jobs.

Economists say Mexico cannot compete for low-end factories where labor costs are the principle consideration. However, many economists agree that Mexico needs to rethink its strategy.

They say streamlined regulations, reduced taxes and labor reform measures would help the country retain some of the more advanced, high wage maquiladora plants and thus provide a better future for manufacturing in general.
 

Casino theft discovered

Some millions of colons are missing from the Casino Adriático of the Hotel Beach Resort Yadran on the Paseo de los Turistas in Puntarenas. The money was missing when employees opened up the operation Sunday, but it was unclear if the safe was cracked or the money simply vanished. The  Judicial Investigating Organization is in charge of the probe.
 

Professional Directory A.M. Costa Rica's professional directory is where business people who wish to reach the English-speaking community may invite responses. If you are interested in being represented here, please contact the editor. Psychiatrists Dr. Luis Carlos Sancho Torres   bilingual psychiatrist (UCR) • consulting • depression  • schizophrenia  • psychiatric disability VA Affairs • evaluations for gun permits   • bipolar disorders • addictions  • methadone Available 24-hour a day children and adults office: 233-7782 beeper: 233-3333 lucasancho@yahoo.com Lawyers INVESTMENT RECOVERY CENTER Learn how to best protect your interests in the Villalobos case. Explore your options at http://www.irccr.net Also, we invite you to join one of the most active discussion groups on the case.  Find out what people who care are saying. Join at irccr-subscribe@yahoogroups.com 232-8/16/03 Lic. Arcelio Alberto Hernández Mussio Attorney at Law, Notary Public Official Translator Corporate, Criminal, Constitutional, Family Practice. Property title searches and transfers. Official English/Spanish translation & interpretation We also offer the following services in association with Morning Star Investments CRI, S.A.: *Real Estate Investment opportunities *Money Management *Accounting Services e-mail: legalxpt@racsa.co.cr           Web: www.forovial.com Cell: 365-3088  132-5/29/ KEARNEY-LAWSON & Asoc.       Lic. Gregory Kearney Lawson, attorney at law Villalobos and Savings Unlimited Collections *Investments  *Corporations  *Real Estate Sales in Costa Rica *Tax Shelters  *Immigration *Intellectual Property     *Business procedures *Family and Labor Law     *Locate People *Private Investigations        Ph/Fax: 221-9462, 394-7007 gkearney_lawson@hotmail.com attorneykearney@yahoo.com Real estate agents MARGARET SOHN  of Carico 15 years Costa Rican real estate experience Member of the Costa Rican Real Estate Association, Lic. #1000  Member, Costa Rican-American Chamber of Commerce margaret@caricohenderson.com www.realtorcostarica.com (506) 232-5016 home   (506) 233-8057 office  (506) 382-7399 cell  229-8/9/03 Investments Investigators Empresa de Investigadores Internacionales S.A. Telephone (506) 280-5217  FAX (506) 280-5120 P.O. Box 297-2100 Costa Rica Cédula Juridica #3-101-097681-32 investigators@prodigy.net johnniechaverri@policeone.com 112-5/18/03 Web Design Personalized Web Design •Hosting •Promotion •Logo Design Prices so reasonable they will astound you Call for a quote:  220-4602 www.alegria-webdesign.com We have over 12 years international experience 214-7/14/03

The issue of intellectual property, frequently overlooked in Costa Rica, is getting a champion.

The Registro Nacional said it will open an office today dedicated to helping authors and others understand and defend their rights.

Intellectual property is usually abstract and includes written material, images of photos, paintings, computer software and even trademarks.

The office at the registry is designed to help lawyers, authors, interpreters, and others in getting answers to their problems. The office, the Dirección Nacional de Drechos de Autor, is located at the Registro Nacional in Zapote.

The opening of the office is in recognition that intellectual property rights generally are ignored in Costa Rica. Software is copied and used. A study two years ago found many pirated versions of popular software in use at the Poder Judicial, the courts.

The subject also is one that is treated extensively in international treaties, including the proposed Central American-U.S. free trade pact. Countries generally have to bring their laws into accord with international standards. These standards recognize existing copyrights and trademarks.

Police agencies here have been cracking down on counterfeit trademarks. A series of raids two weeks ago targeted clothing carrying phony trademarks of popular brands. Counterfeit musical CDs also have been the target of raids.

The Internet also provides easy access to 
copyrighted material that some uninformed or 

A number of articles, including photos, from A.M. Costa Rica have been used in other publications. Those who use them generally claim confusion about the rights to use the material. Several publications have apologized to A.M. Costa Rica, which retains the copyright to all the material it publishes. Typically, A.M. Costa Rica will grant one-time publication rights without charge to promote Costa Rican tourism.

Generally it is illegal to copy material from the Internet when the material is copyrighted. Those who without permission send entire news stories to friends violate the law. The legal method is to briefly summarize the content of the news article and provide an Internet link to the appropriate material. Individuals can copy entire articles for their own files.

Confusion exists even among lawyers and judges. For that reason, the Escuela Judicial of the Poder Judicial has planned a four-session seminar on intellectual property. The first session is Friday.

The free sessions are open to lawyers, judicial employees and anyone else interested in the topic. The session Friday will host Gloria Navas of the Business Software Alliance.

Presenting March 14 will be Alfonso Jiménez Meza of the Cámera Textil Costarricense, who will discuss the economic and social impact of intellectual property. He also will present a discussion of possible reforms in the law March 21. Ms. Navas will return April 4 to discuss pirate practices in Costa Rica and their historical implications.

All sessions, which are in Spanish, are at 2 p.m. in the auditorium in the Plaza de Justicia, which is in the center of the three judicial buildings.

This newspaper seeks the prompt return of two men who ran high-interest investment operations that have gone out of business.

Luis Enrique Villalobos Camacho, 62, was associated with Ofinter S.A., a money exchange house, and with his own private investment business that had about $1 billion in other people’s money on the books.

Villalobos closed his business Oct. 14 and vanished.

Louis Milanes operated Savings Unlimited and several casinos in San José. He left the country with other members of his firm the weekend of Nov. 23. He may have as much as $260 million in his possession. Both operations catered to North Americans.

Villalobos and Milanes are the subjects of international arrest warrants.  Associates of both men have been jailed.

A.M. Costa Rica has posted a $500 reward for information leading to the detention of either man with the hopes that others will make similar pledges. The newspaper believes that investors only will see some of their money when the two men are in custody.

Milanes has few supporters in San José. On the other hand, as the letters frequently on this page show, Villalobos still has supporters who believe that he will reappear and settle his debts. They believe he is in hiding because of a predatory Costa Rican government.