The English blended with Costa Rica seamlessly Saturday as the British community put on its Queen’s Birthday benefit for Costa Rican schools.

The event also was the time Ambassador Georgina Butler chose to announce her marriage to Robert Kelly, a Canadian. The ambassador did that at the end of a speech in Spanish in which she also thanked Costa Rican officials for attending. She said she had been married last week in Miami. Her new husband later said that to do so required wrestling with a considerable amount of paperwork. They were to leave on a honeymoon after the event.

Ambassador Butler has distinguished herself as the most publicly active member of the foreign diplomatic corps and has SCUBA dived to place a plaque on a reef and has participated in a celebration of privateer Sir Frances Drake.

The event was at the sprawling ambassadorial residence with perhaps 500 persons showing up for games, food, raffles and folk dancing.  The weather cooperated with blue skies for most of the five-hour event.

MIAMI, Fla. — Preparations for this year's Latin Grammy Music Awards appear to be striking a sour note. Officials here have decided to withhold most forms of municipal support if artists from Cuba take part in the September event. 

The Latin Grammy Awards show brings together the biggest names in Latin American popular music.

But the much-anticipated event is in danger of becoming embroiled in the politics and the passions of Miami's large Cuban-exile community, many of whom oppose the inclusion of Cuban artists who work within the island's Communist system.

Amid strong pressure from exile groups, Miami's city commissioners have unanimously voted to provide only minimal police and fire protection for the Latin Grammys if Cuban nominees attend. Commissioner Tomas Regalado said the measure is entirely appropriate.

"It sends a message to Cuba and to the world that their [Cuban] representatives are not welcome here. Those who want to come, well, let it be. And those who want to protest, we have to protect them," Regalado said. 

Miami campaigned energetically to attract the awards show, which is estimated to bring about 
$30 million in revenues to the city. Initially, no 

But the atmosphere has changed in the wake of Cuba's recent crackdown on dissidents on the island. In March, the government of President Fidel Castro arrested scores of opponents and independent journalists and sentenced them to prison terms of up to 28 years. 

Cuban exiles say they cannot remain silent in the face of growing repression on the island, nor can they extend a welcome to musicians they regard as lackeys of Fidel Castro.

Artists and organizers of the Latin Grammys said they hope the controversy will not upstage what they hope will be an upbeat celebration of musical achievement. During a recent visit to Miami, recording artist Jon Secada said, "We live in a free country. This is a free country. Anybody who comes to this country is free to do what they want. I hope, and I would think, that all the artists who come to this country will be able to express themselves freely." 

Two years ago, Latin Grammy organizers moved the event from Miami to Los Angeles, after city commissioners granted Cuban-exiles permission to protest across the street from the arena where the festivities were to be held. 

This year, organizers say the event will go ahead as planned in Miami, with or without the city's full backing. 

Oscar Arias Sánchez was at Drexel University Saturday to participate in PeaceJam 2003.

The university is in Philadelphia, Pa., and PeaceJam is a program to bring students in contact with winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In a public talk, Arias expressed grave concern about the U.S. government’s impatience with diplomacy and said that he feared that the tendency to quickly resort to military force would lead to more anti-American feelings around the world, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper.

Arias has steadfastly opposed any U.S. use of force against terrorists and any military action in Iraq.

Agreement reached
in Caracas impasse

CARACAS, Venezuela — Negotiators for the government and opposition groups say they have reached a tentative agreement to hold a referendum on President Hugo Chavez's rule, although the government objects to international observers overseeing the vote.

Opposition members have been pushing for a referendum for some time. During talks in Caracas Thursday, government representatives said they would allow a referendum to go forward, but only if there would be no monitoring by international observers, on the grounds this would threaten Venezuelan sovereignty.

Government and opposition officials met separately Thursday with diplomats from the so-called Group of Friends of Venezuela — comprising Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the United States. 

Since January, the six-member diplomatic group has supported efforts to negotiate a peaceful solution to the long-running turmoil that triggered a brief military coup last year against President Chavez. The latest negotiations come three months after an opposition-led general strike failed to force Chavez to resign and call early elections.

Kirchner on move
to promote trade

SANTIAGO, Chile — Argentine presidential candidate Nestor Kirchner has met here with Chile's president to boost regional free trade and integration. 

Kirchner arrived early Friday at the presidential palace. At the meeting, he and President Ricardo Lagos voiced support for strengthening ties between the two countries and with the Mercosur South American trade bloc. Chile is an associate member of Mercosur, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. 

Kirchner was in Brazil Thursday, where he discussed trade issues with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Kirchner has been campaigning on the promise of strengthening regional integration ahead of the May 18 presidential run-off election. The latest opinion polls show the provincial governor is favored to beat former president Carlos Menem.

Three bombs explode
and three people die

CALI, Colombia — Police say suspected rebels have carried out a series of bomb attacks in southwestern Colombia, which left three people dead.

Officials said Friday an explosion occurred before dawn at a water treatment facility in this, the country's second largest city. The blast killed three security guards.

Meantime, an explosion damaged an electrical tower near the port town of Buenaventura late Thursday, leaving the city and several towns without power.

Police have not arrested any suspects, but rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia are active in the region.
 

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The Villalobos case reached Pittsburgh, Pa., Sunday. That’s the city of a lawyer who threatened President Abel Pacheco with negative publicity.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette interviewed the lawyer, Peter K. Blume. The lawyer told the newspaper he no longer was working on the Villalobos case on behalf of an investor who lost $8 million in the high-interest borrowing operation.

Blume, a lawyer with the Pittsburgh law firm of Thorp Reed & Armstrong, told the newspaper that he had turned the case over to José Miguel Villalobos Umaña, who is also the lawyer for the United Concerned Citizens & Residents of Costa Rica.

Blume threatened Pacheco with bad publicity for Costa Rica if he did not intercede in the criminal case against Luis Enrique Villalobos Camacho and his brother Oswaldo. He was going to do that with an article denigrating Costa Rica that would be distributed to major news media in the United States. 

Blume defends his actions as a necessary tactic in a country where the rules are different, the Pittsburgh newspaper said in a Sunday story titled: "Investment operation in Costa Rica took in hundreds of millions, then it all fell apart." The article was written by reporter Torsten Ove with assistance from Garett Sloane, a free-lance reporter in San José who completed an internship recently at A.M. Costa Rica.

"When you don't seem to be getting anywhere in court proceedings or getting a response from prosecutors, which we feel we have not, then you
try to appeal to whatever higher authority you can," the newspaper quoted Blume as saying. It added:

"From my standpoint, you try [to] get anybody's help and interest that you can down there. Certainly, I wouldn't write a letter like this if it were [in the United States.]. Certainly, you wouldn't expect a [local] politician to get
involved in a court case."

Blume was representing an institutional client Cornerstone Investment Circle LLC, which the newspaper said was a California money-management firm that gave the Brothers 

Blume never replied to an e-mail sent by A.M. Costa Rica after his letter became public last month.

The newspaper said that Blume said he was no longer handling the case and had turned it over to José Miguel Villalobos. However, the newspaper said that José Villalobos reported that he had never spoken with Blume and had no plans to handle Cornerstone. José Villalobos was listed as the local contact in the threatening letter sent March 19 by Blume.

The bulk of the news story is a summary of the developments in Costa Rica since the Villalobos borrowing operation was raided by police last July 4. Enrique Villalobos closed up his Mall San Pedro operation six months ago on Oct. 14 and vanished. His creditors, perhaps as many as 6,500 accounts, have been up in the air since.

In another development, José Villalobos, in his capacity as lawyer for the United Concerned Citizens, filed a brief Friday seeking to reverse a judge’s decision made last April 25,

Then a criminal court judge in San José decided that the Villalobos case, involving the fugitive financier and his brother as well as some 6,500 creditors was a complex case. The net result was to give prosecutors six more months to investigate.

José Villalobos, in a 13-page brief, contests this decision, said the ad hoc citizens and residents group that is collecting money to pay the lawyer’s $100,000 initial fee.

The citizens group basically wants the Costa Rican prosecutors to stop investigating the case so Enrique Villalobos can come back to Costa Rica and distribute an estimated $1 billion to creditors. 

To accomplish this, the lawyer Villalobos and the citizens group want some 600 creditors to withdraw their fraud charges they have filed against Villalobos, the businessman. Enrique Villalobos is a wanted man internationally, and the allegations are money laundering and fraud.

The Pittsburgh newspaper article is here:

http://www.post-gazette.com/localnews/
20030511thebrothers0511p5.asp

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States is "very impressed" with the sound economic policies adopted by new government leaders in Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia, says Randal Quarles, assistant secretary of the Treasury for international affairs.

Appearing Friday at a press briefing hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Quarles offered reporters a comprehensive overview of his recent trip to Latin America. He was a member of the U.S. delegation accompanying Treasury Secretary John Snow. 

The visit by Treasury officials to Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia "focused on highlighting the vital interests that the United States has, particularly in economic growth and in raising living standards in the region," Quarles explained. "We also hoped to underline our stakes in the success of three new presidents in our hemisphere."

Moreover, "the timing of the trip was especially appropriate," he said. "Markets in the region are stabilizing, market forces are favorable, so each of these countries now faces a window of opportunity." Of more significance, though, is the fact that "all three countries have elected new governments lately," Quarles added. "And all three of these governments are pursuing courageous policies — sound macroeconomic policies" combined with "an agenda of important social priorities."

Lula, Gutierrez and Uribe "are committed to delivering poverty-reduction and job-growth programs," the assistant secretary said. "All of them see a tremendous potential for economic integration in the region, and all have a positive assessment of the importance of trade for growth in each of their countries -- which is very encouraging, from our point of view."

The U.S. delegation headed by Secretary Snow "had a two-way exchange with each of these presidents," Quarles noted, "and this, in turn, gave [Snow] a chance to discuss the Bush Administration's jobs-and-growth package" with the three regional leaders. According to Quarles, "officials in each of these countries were extremely interested in learning what steps President Bush is taking to promote growth in the United States," because a healthy U.S. economy fuels growth.