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| A.M. Costa Rica Second newspage |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, April 12, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 72 | |||||||||
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 Ericka Castro, 7, beams at Juan Santamaría airport where she returned after getting a new left leg at Shriners Orthopedic Hospital for Children in Shreveport, Louisiana. The girl, who suffered from a birth defect, traveled under the auspices of the Shriners Club de Costa Rica. With her is Frank Siaca, who accompanied the girl and her mother. Her story appeared HERE. Law to protect women faces another Sala IV legal review By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The proposed law that is supposed to protect women from their mates probably will go to the Sala IV constitutional court again. Members of the Movimiento Libertario are collecting signatures from legislators to do exactly that. The law passed 43-7 Monday, but some lawmakers have having second thoughts. The measure sets a penalty of 35 years in prison for a man who kills his mate. In addition there are criminal penalties for insulting a wife. The law only applies to crimes against wives or common law wives. Some lawyers consider the law discriminatory. Arcelio Hernandez Mussio, a lawyer with offices in Jacó, said in a letter to A.M. Costa Rica that is is an insult to say that the murder of a woman is a social problem but the murder of a man is not. He said he considered the law anti-Christian and the product of radical feminism. The law languished in the legislature for six years until the Arias administration elevated it to No. 1 position for the first of two votes. During times when the executive branch calls the legislature to meet, the president can determine the measures that will be considered. Costa Rican law provides for advisory opinions by the constitutional court on proposed laws. Libertarians will have to get 10 signatures. The proposed law already has been to the high court six times. In each case, the court asked for changes. Some legislative deputies who have concerns about the law still voted for it and have refrained from making comments because they hope the Sala IV will find the measure to be discriminatory. But the deputies do not want to anger the feminist lobby group. The Arias administration moved the measure into first place after a flurry of murders in which men killed their companions. Some 30 women died as a result of domestic violence in 2006, officials said. The legislature was planning to take a final vote on the proposal today, but that vote probably will be put off to await the Sala IV decision, if the Libertarians get enough signatures. European Union demanding tests of shrimp and tilapia By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Costa Rica is working to meet the requirements of the European Union, which has cut off shipments of cultivated shrimp and tilapia. The Ministerio de Producción (formerly Agricultura) said that one holdup is that the laboratory facilities needed to meet EU requirements do not exist in this Central Americas. The Europeans want analyses of hormones, heavy metals and antibiotics, said the ministry. There also needs to be a revamping of processing facilities and more controls on quality, said the ministry. Officials are trying to find an international lab that would do the analyses of residues or lack of residues in the food products that the EU requires.
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| A.M. Costa Rica third newspage |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, April 12, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 72 | |||||||||
| Whales won Whale lovers were at the Embassy of Nicaragua Wednesday to urge officials to vote against Japan in the International Whaling Commission. Japan wants to hunt 1,000 more whales, supposedly for scientific reasons. The protest was carried on at other embassies, and seemed to have an effect in that Nicaragua said later in the day that it would vote against lethal scientific research. The Nicaraguan government noted the value of whales to tourism. |
 A.M. Costa Rica/José Pablo Ramírez Vindas
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| Arias admininstration puts weight behind Alajuela university |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
President Óscar Arias Sánchez gave a push to a proposed Universidad Técnica de Alajuela Wednesday when he and his cabinet met in that province. The nation's public higher education institutions oppose the creation of a new university, but they also have taken strong stands against the proposed free trade treaty with the United States, which Arias supports. So Arias no only came out in favor of the new university, his finance minister said that there is land available and money for the proposed institution. The meeting was in the Teatro Municipal de Alajuela. The meeting there is a traditional even each year because Wednesday was Juan Santamaría day, a celebration of the heroic action of the Alajuela native in 1856 at the Battle of Rivas in which he sacrificed his life. There was the |
traditional parade and even another protest against the
trade treaty. Guillermo Zúñiga, minister of Hacienda, said that some 2 billion colons (about $3.8 million) would be earmarked for the new university and that the land would be ready whenever the university was ready to accept it. The creation of a new public university requires a vote of the Asamblea Legislativa. Costa Rica has the Universidad de Costa Rica, which is in San Pedro but maintains a branch in Alajuela, among others. There is the Universidad Nacional in Heredia and the Instituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica in Cartago. Also in the public arena is the Universidad Estatal a Distancia, a correspondence institution. An agricultural technical school in Atenas is seeking university status, and there are about 30 private universities. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, April 12, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 72 | |||||||||
| Emphasis on ethanol changes agricultural fundamentals |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The leaders of Cuba and Venezuela are criticizing President Geroge Bush's call to increase biofuel production, because of what they say is the potential impact on food supplies beyond U.S. borders. The drive for biofuels is changing agriculture in several countries that have embraced the trend, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. In a pair of editorials in the Cuban state-run newspaper, ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro lashed out at the United States for threatening global food supplies. The writings were his first since he withdrew from his leadership duties in July, as he underwent surgery, and they suggest he may be returning to his political duties. In the editorial, Castro complained that U.S. policies are driving up the price of food staples like corn. Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, also has criticized U.S. plans to increase ethanol production, saying it will take away food from the poor to, in his words, fuel "rich people's cars." His country is a major petroleum suppier. U.S. officials have not responded to the claims from Chavez or Castro, who are frequent critics of U.S. policy. But Jorge Pinon, the former president of Amoco Oil's Latin American operations, says the attacks are entirely political. "I think people are just making more of this issue than there really is," he explained. "It's politically motivated, because in no way is it going to take food out of the mouths of the world's poor." Instead, Pinon says sugar-producing countries like Cuba should embrace the trend, and begin producing more sugar for the regional ethanol market. In Brazil, ethanol made from sugar cane is now widely available for automobiles, while corn is the basis of the U.S. program. Around the region, farmers are hoping to take advantage of the increasing demand for crops used to make ethanol, and they are starting to see higher prices for their goods, says Sarah Ladislaw, a fellow in the energy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. |
"Is
ethanol demand in the United States right now putting an upward
pressure on corn prices? I think it is," he said. "But what
you're seeing in turn, is that corn farmers are planning on producing a
lot more corn in the next few years to keep up with that demand." This year, U.S. farmers are expected to increase land used to raise corn by 15 percent, says Ford Runge, director of the Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy at the University of Minnesota. The result is that vegetable sellers are beginning to have trouble finding farmers to grow sweet corn, beans and other foods. "They can't get anybody to grow those things this year, because everyone wants to grow corn for ethanol," he noted. "So, that's going to drive the prices of those products up, as well." Runge says the rising prices of corn and other foods will hurt American consumers, but the impact on global prices will be even more serious for people in poor nations. Already, higher prices of corn for the corn-based staple, tortillas, have sparked protests in Mexico. U.S. officials say crop-based ethanol is only one part of the current plan to expand alternative energy sources aimed at lowering the nation's dependence on imported oil. President Bush has also called for more research into producing cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass and other products that are not part of the food supply. Ford Runge says the technology behind cellulosic ethanol is still a few years away. "Although cellulosic alternatives are important, and potentially feasible in the next five, or more likely 10 years, they really don't respond to the immediate crisis being created by the corn and soybean-based craze," he explained. Runge and other experts say one important way to reduce pressure on crop prices is to cut government subsidies to millions of U.S. farmers. The Bush administration is backing a current bill in Congress that would end payments to some farmers. But lawmakers are expected to resist any efforts to make broad cuts to farm subsidy programs. |
| Some movement reported in efforts to restart world trade discussions |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Senior trade officials from the United States, the European Union, Brazil and India met Wednesday in New Delhi, India, to break the deadlock over global trade talks. Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told reporters that the differences are slowly narrowing. The Doha Round of World Trade Organization talks is stalled over demands for rich nations to cut agricultural subsidies that make it difficult for farm products from poor nations to compete. Rich nations want poor nations to |
boost access to their markets for goods from developed nations. The talks include some of the largest developed nations and some of the largest developing countries. Getting an agreement among these trading powers is a key step toward crafting an agreement acceptable to the rest of the World Trade Organization's 150 members. Today officials will meet for the first talks between all four key members of the World Trade Organization since negotiations broke down last July over differences on farm subsidies. |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, April 12, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 72 | ||||||
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