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Canadians notice error
in offshore article

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

Your article in Monday's edition about Canadians investing in offshore companies makes an erroneous statement:

"Canada, unlike the United States and Costa Rica, does not have a global tax system. Canadian citizens, therefore, are able to collect foreign income without having to pay taxes on it." 

Canadians pay income tax on their worldwide income and have for a number of years. We have to declare any income from investments over $100,000 CDN that we have placed abroad, and we are taxed on that income.

There is more than one reason why Canadians come to live in Costa Rica.

He pays taxes on rents here

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

I am just responding to your article re: foreign investment.

Generally in Canada, if a citizen spends 183 or more days in Canada a year, that person is required to declare any foreign income on the Canadian tax return, and pay taxes accordingly. As a house owner in Costa Rica and a citizen of Canada, I have to declare the rent here on my tax return (what little there is of it)

EDITOR’S NOTE: The letterwriters are correct and we meant to refer to Canadians living abroad in our news story. We updated the article at midday, thanks to the comments from these and other alert Canadians.
 

Tico from L.A. backing
the unvarnished truth

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

I was born in Costa Rica. I live in California, and I travel to Costa Rica as often as I can. I have been seeing a change in Costa Rica over the last few years. There are more crimes being committed, violent as well as petty. I thought that it was important that the English-speaking  foreigners should know exactly what is going on in the country they are planning on living in or visiting. 

This information should be exactly the way it is, both the good and the bad. I believe you, at A.M. Costa Rica are  doing an excellent job. La  Nación, the Spanish newspaper, does the same thing. You let the English-speaking visitors and residents of Costa Rica have a very good idea of what is going on. . . . To look for those places that are great to visit as well as where to avoid going to. 

You let us know what the thieves are doing in San José so we can be on our toes, and you also tell us what great things are happening just in case we want to be a part of it. 

Paper is not cheerleader

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

Pardon my bluntness, but readers Mario Rodríguez and Juan Carlos need to have their priorities readjusted. 

Both Rodríguez and Carlos stated that A.M. Costa Rica should try to focus on the positives more often. I'm sorry but I never knew it was a paper’s job to be a cheerleader. 

Both readers state that Costa Rica should be viewed in a more positive light, that since we are in the tropics, periodicos should be cheery. 

With a student missing in Tamarindo, drug busts occuring around the clock, enough corruption to make ENRON officials blush, and three ex-presidents on the political hot-plate it would seem that Costa Rica isn't the paradise Gringos want it to be. 

And maybe that is the problem. Gringos move down here to escape those cesspools in New York. After all, why spoil a good vacation with grim reality? 

At some point, however, they need to realize that the cheap health care is only cheap because of the American retirement funds they carry around, and that Costa Rica is still a developing nation. 

Trickle of cell telephones
being offered March 28

The telephone company says that even though cellular telephones are in high demand, some 10,000 users gave up their lines because they did not pay their bills.

So the telephone company, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, says it will offer these lines for sale March 28.

Half the lines offered are the newer GSM and half are TDMA, the company said. The company did not explain how exactly 5,000 users of each service defaulted on their payments.

The company, known as ICE, ran out of cellular lines last December, but some 600,000 GM lines are expected to be in service by fall, thanks to a new, $130 million contract with Ericcson. Even though the contract is under investigation for irregularities by the company, the Contraloria Genera de la República, the financial watchdog, still authorized the agreement.

In order to secure a cell phone, a purchaser must present his or her cellular telephone device along with a receipt showing it has been purchased here. The would-be purchaser must pay 12,500 colons (about $27) and also provide photocopies of a cédula de identidad and a utility bill to document the home address. Corporate purchasers must also show a personaria juridica documenting the power of a corporate officer to act on behalf of the firm.

The last time ICE released a trickle of cellular telephones, long lines were encountered at issuing offices.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States is working with the global community to help the countries of the Caribbean rid that region of the crime of trafficking in persons, says U.S. State Department official Kelly Ryan.

Ms. Ryan is the State Department's deputy assistant secretary within its Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.

Ms. Ryan, in a talk last week, pointed to the case of a 16-year-old trafficking victim to explain why the State Department is so involved in the issue. Ms. Ryan said the victim went to a South American nation with the promise of work as a domestic helper. Once there, she was locked in an apartment and forced into prostitution. She had no contact with anyone except her enslavers and her prostitution customers, the state Department official said. She had no money and feared her plight would never change, Ms. Ryan added.

"We are here for people like this girl," said Ms. Ryan "We are here to help prevent anyone from falling prey to traffickers."

The State Department said in its June 2004 "Trafficking in Persons Report" that each year an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders, with those numbers growing. Those figures are in addition to a far larger, yet indeterminate, number of people trafficked within countries.

Some 75 officials and experts gathered at a seminar, focusing on human trafficking in the Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, the Netherlands Antilles, Saint Lucia and Suriname. The Organization of American States sponsored the event last week.

HAVANA, Cuba — More than 150 supporters of Fidel Castro interrupted a silent protest Sunday in Havana by wives of political prisoners arrested in the 2003 crackdown on dissidents.

Known as the Ladies in White, the dissidents' wives left church Sunday walking silently in single file and carrying flowers. They were stopped by the Castro 

Their husbands were among 75 people arrested in 2003 on charges of working with U.S. diplomats to undermine Cuba's government. 

Washington and the activists have denied the charges.