Costa Rica has seen a reduction in the number of murders this year when compared to the first nine months of 2003. 

The Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública calculated the decline at about 17 percent.

There were 190 murders in Costa Rica during the first nine months of this year, said the ministry. In 2003 there were 227 murders in the same period. For all of 2003 300 murders were reported, and ministry officials said they were confident that the final toll this year would not be as high.

In San José there were 94 murders reported in the first nine months of 2004, eight less than during the same period in 2003.

In 2003, Costa Rica posted a murder rate of 7.14 per 100,000. The country has 4.2 million residents. That compares with a New York City murder rate of 7.38 per 100,000, according to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates and data from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Detroit has a staggering 44.7 murders per 100,000 residents, and Washington, the District of Columbia, had 45.8 per 100,000 residents.

New York City has posted a major decline in murders and other crimes due to aggressive policing, begun in the early 1990s under Mayor David Dinkins.
 

Two disasters planned
this week in San José

This week contains  International Disaster Reduction Day, so Costa Rican emergency workers are planning a few disasters, all simulated, of course.

The first is an earthquake and fire at the Escuela Unificada at Parque Morazán Tuesday at 9 a.m. Then there is a vertical rescue off the La Llacuna building and parking structure in downtown San José Wednesday at 9 a.m.

Both Wednesday and Thursday some 20 institutions associated with disaster response and rescue will have booths set up on the Plaza de la Cultura. The idea is to provide educational material to citizens.

Also Wednesday 53 members of local emergency committees will be honored in a 9:30 a.m. ceremony for their 10 years or more efforts.

The U.N.-designated Disaster Reduction Day is a way to focus educational efforts about natural disasters.
 

Nicaraguan quake felt
all over Costa Rica

An earthquake felt all over Costa Rica hit near Nicaragua’s pacific coast just before 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

The U.S. national earthquake Information Center said the location was 80 kms. (50 miles) west of Rivas. The magnitude was estimated at between 6.9 and 7.1.

The quake was some 60 kms. deep, some 37 miles.

The sensation in San José was of a gently rolling floor, although the quake lasted for nearly a minute.
 

Men with machinegun
spray trio in vehicle

Assailants with a machinegun sprayed a car containing three men in Desamparados and left them wounded in the Loto 2 area Saturday. One man died from the wounds.

Fuerza Pública officers said they found the three, all with bullet wounds to their bodies.

Police said it appeared the trio were intercepted by two gunmen who were carrying the illegal weapons,

One of the men, identified as a Panamanian named Rooper, was dead when police arrived.  He suffered multiple bullet wounds of the back and legs.  A man identified as Codero also suffered wounds to the leg, but the third man, identified as More, had a bullet in the head.

The car occupied by the trio had 20 bullet holes.
 
 
 
 
 

"To have more shell then a turtle" We employ this dicho when talking about people who seem to have no sense of shame. It’s an old expression, and some times it gets abbreviated to just que concha la tuya. Another expression that means the same thing is que cara de barro or "what a face of mud," meaning expressionless, or without cracking a smile.

When your neighbor back in the States borrows your lawn mower in August and never returns it but comes round asking to borrow your snow blower in January with nary a wink of his eye you might say of him ¡Ay, el tiene más concha que una tortuga! Or when a taxi driver picks you up in La Sabana and delivers you to el Teatro Nacional via Cartago and asks you for the 25,000-colon fare with a totally straight face, you might very well say of him — amongst other things — ¡Que cara de barro!  It pays to be on the lookout for those among us más concha que una tortuga. 

These expressions you can also mix and match with some of the other dichos we’ve already talked about like chavalo más cara de barro, or ese mae tiene más concha que una tortuga.

Something that happened to me in a restaurant in Heredia a few months back also illustrates the use of these expressions: I took my family for Sunday lunch at one of our favorite restaurants near the Universidad Nacional. We had a very pleasant, leisurely meal with some wine, espresso coffees, and lingered over our Sambuca liquor afterward. 

I paid the bill, and we started to leave. Up to that point it had been a very pleasant afternoon. One of the two waiters who had been serving us took the signed copy of my credit card receipt, and we said good-bye. 

Just when we were about to get into our car the other waiter came running out of the restaurant demanding to know what I had done with the credit card receipt. I said that his colleague

The way we say it By Daniel Soto

had picked it up. I followed him back into the restaurant amid the accusing stares of the patrons.

We found the other waiter who quickly confirmed that he had indeed picked up the receipt. Now, we’ve been going to this particular restaurant for quite some time, and I was a little shocked at the idea that anyone there would think I’d try to get away without paying. The waiter apologized profusely, and said it would never happen again. 

"You bet ya," I mumbled under my breath as we passed by our vacant table and I scooped up the generous tip I’d left a moment earlier, all the while thinking ¡más concha que una tortuga tiene! 

Some others who are más concha que una tortuga are all our wonderful politicians who, when they’re running for office, make us all the same promises over and over, but after they’re elected they conveniently forget all about the wonderful bridges, new roads, schools, and hospitals they’d been talking so much about before the election. 

Believe me, it isn’t Alzheimer’s. It’s just another case of más concha que una torguga delivered with a lot of cara de barro. 

The Sala IV constitutional court has sided with municipalities and has told the central government to hand over money budgeted for road repairs.

The court decision was announced Friday, the same day the court acted on an appeal for help from a group of municipalities. The court said that the government does not have the right to change the destination of funds generated by a specific tax.

The Ministerio de Hacienda, the budget and taxing authority, has violated the fundamental rights to those who live in the districts which had made the appeal, said the court.

They were the municipalities of the cantons of Hojancha, Nandayure and Nicoya. The defendants were the president, the minister of Obras Públicas y Transportes and the minister of Hacienda.

Also joined in the case were officials from Orotina, Puriscal, Aserrí San Mateo, Heredia Los Chiles and Montes de Oro.

Municipalities are specifically listed as recipients of the dedicated tax in a tax law. The government has been withholding the money because it says it does not have enough money to make the payments. Some feel the government is using the money as a lever to win approval of the proposed new tax package in the legislature.

San Carlos in the northern zone is ready to declare war, according to the mayor, Alfredo Cordoba. He was among those who met with ministry officials last week before the court decision was announced.

Maria Lorena Lopez, vice minister, said that the ministry would pay 547 million colons (about $1.2 million) in roads repair for those municipalities with more problems. Vice Minister Lopez has presented plans to solve problems in rural areas.

San Carlos will benefit with the repair of 40 kms., some 25 miles. Los Chiles will get a similar amount.

But Cordoba was not put off. He expressed his unhappiness with the lack of support from the central government and said: "I’m going back to San Carlos with a very negative and aggressive attitude, unsatisfied with the insufficient help the government announced for his municipalities."

He said he recognized that the tight budget problems were not the fault of the ministry. At the same time he said he considers it necessary to find a way and take those necessary measures to push the government to come up with the funds.

Cordoba said that the economy of the areas in the rural zones were at stake because of the impact that bad roads has on tourism.

WASHINGTON, D.C.  U.S. law enforcement authorities have deported one of Ecuador's most wanted fugitives from the United States to the Ecuadoran city of Guayaquil, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

The agency said it had worked with Ecuadoran authorities to deport Reinaldo Gustavo Zamora-Sandoya, an Ecuadoran citizen, on grounds that he was a criminal alien in the United States.

Zamora-Sandoya was wanted by police in Ecuador for allegedly killing two police officers in that South American nation while robbing a bank and then throwing money into the street in order to attract a crowd to help him make an escape. Following that crime, the immigration agency said he illegally entered the United States sometime in 1993.

Zamora-Sandoya was convicted of crimes in the United States under an assumed name, and he believed U.S. federal officials did not know his real identity, the agency said.

Zamora-Sandoya was arrested in New York in 1995 for grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, unauthorized use of a vehicle, resisting 

In 1998, he was again arrested in New York and was convicted for an armed robbery under the charge of conspiracy to obstruct via robbery. For this crime, a judge sentenced Zamora-Sandoya to 95 months' incarceration and ordered him to pay $1.35 million in restitution, the agency said.

Agency official Victor Cerda said a top priority is the deportation of foreign-citizen criminals.

Cerda, who heads the agency's Office of Detention and Removal, said: "Our officers and agents work very closely with international, federal, state, and local law enforcement and corrections personnel to identify those people whose crimes make them deportable. The individual in this case was trying to hide in the prison system under a fake name, but we determined his true identity. He's being returned to Ecuador for violation of immigration law and will have to answer for the crimes" he is accused of committing.

The office said that between March 1, 2003, and February 28, 2004, it removed from the United States more than 78,000 criminal aliens and an additional 68,000 non-criminal aliens.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States and Jamaica have reached an agreement to reduce Jamaica's debt to the United States in exchange for a program to restore and preserve the island nation's tropical rainforests. 

The U.S. State Department announced the agreement Friday. The plan calls for a reduction of almost $16 million in Jamaica's debt. The Jamaican government is to fund projects over the next 20 years designed to preserve the island's resources.

The agreement was reached in cooperation with the Nature Conservancy, which is contributing $1.3 million to the effort. 

The agreement was completed under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act of 1998. The U.S. law is designed to provide eligible developing countries opportunities to reduce their debt to the United States while generating funds for conservation efforts.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said he regrets that Miguel Ángel Rodríguez has had to resign because of corruption charges dating to his term as President of Costa Rica. Powell discussed the issue Friday with the President of El Salvador, Antonio Saca. 

The corruption scandal, centering on alleged payments to Mr. Rodriguez from the French telecommunications company Alcatel, had been brewing for several days and the former Costa Rican President's resignation Friday was not unexpected. He was secretary general of the Organization of American States.

At a joint press appearance after a meeting here, both Secretary Powell and Salvadoran President Saca expressed regret over the turn of events, with Powell calling Rodríguez a man of skill and determination who the United States had supported for the OAS post.

Actually the United States was a latecomer in supporting Rodríguez and only did so after it was clear that Rodríguez had sufficient votes from hemispheric nations to win the position.

The former Costa Rican president, who had held the OAS post for only two weeks after succeeding Colombia's Cesar Gaviria, will be replaced on an interim basis by the assistant secretary general, Luigi Einaudi of the United States.

President Saca said he would like to see Rodríguez succeeded by another Central American, and that those countries will be consulting together soon to come up with a candidate. 

"President Saca makes a good case that Central America is deserving of having a strong candidate who is selected to be the next secretary general," he said. "President Rodríguez was from Central America, but of course we all have to wait and see what other countries in the Hemisphere believe. And we have to see what candidates come forward. It's important that the OAS have the best-qualified candidate." 

Saca was in Washington for a meeting of Salvadoran expatriates, more than a million of whom are believed to be living in the United States and whose remittances of millions of dollars to El Salvador are a major component of the country's economy.

The Salvadoran leader said he appealed to Powell for an extension of the legal residency of some 240,000 Salvadorans holding temporary protected status, granted because of past natural disasters and political upheaval in El Salvador.

Powell said the State Department is considering the issue with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which now makes policy in that area.

At the same time, he praised El Salvador for its support for the United States in the war against terrorism and especially its efforts in Iraq. 

Powell said the 380-member Salvadoran contingent in the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq has conducted itself with great bravery and done a very good job.

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez said he is quitting his post as an international diplomat because he realizes that he was underestimating the time and effort his defense in Costa Rica will take. He said he was being persecuted by the courts and the media.

Rodríguez said this in his letter to the chairman of the Permanent council of the Organization of American States where he is secretary general.

Rodríquez admitted to no wrongdoing in his letter, which was written before it became known that Costa Rica has issued an international arrest warrant.

In his letter Rodríquez did not confront the allegations directly. First he said: "Last Thursday, I was informed of an investigation on payments made to different persons by suppliers of public entities in Costa Rica."

Then he said: "Consequently, I do not want to subject the organization to a cruel and protracted persecution of its secretary general, not only in the courts but also in the media.  Nor do I want to subject my beloved family to the cost of a long-distance defense."

Rodríguez said he would leave office this Friday, at which time he will lose diplomatic immunity.

The former Costa Rican president said that every nation except Costa Rica advised him to stay and 

that they "reminded me of the basic human rights rule that no one should be considered guilty being convicted in a court of justice, even less so when charges have not even been brought." Meanwhile more allegations keep surfacing about Rodríguez and how winners of public contracts would have to make secret payments.

A Costa Rican judge has issued an international arrest warrant for former president Miguel Ángel Rodriguez, alleging that he has conspired to commit corruption and receive illicit payoffs.

The order was issued by Isabel Porras of the Secundo Circuito Judicial and was announced about 6 p.m. Friday by Francisco Dall’Anese, the fiscal general, the country’s top prosecutor.

The action came just a few hours after Rodríguez resigned his post in Washington, D.C., as secretary general of the Organization of American States.

Dall’Anese said that a letter outlining the arrest warrant and the charges were delivered to U.S. Embassy officials here and that Costa Rica is seeking the help of the United States to bring Rodríguez back to Costa Rica.

This is the climax of a long series of scandals dating back to June. Rodríguez told officials at the OAS headquarters in Washington that he would be leaving Oct. 15. Dall’Anese said that he would like to

Others in the judicial system expressed fears that the former president would seek political asylum in another country.

Dall’Anese said that the judicial branch was handling the situation the same way it would for any other suspect who was in a foreign land.
Rodríguez, who was president here from 1998 to 2002, took over the OAS top spot just 15 days ago.

There was no word on any judicial activity involving the wife of Rodríguez, Lorena Clare Facio. Others involved in the scandal said she accepted money.

Rodríguez has been linked publicly to payoffs by the French telecommunication firm, Alcatel, that received a $460 million contract to improve cellular telephones. Just last week Dall’Anese said Rodríguez was a witness and not a suspect.

A judge prohibited Rafael Ángel Calderón, another former president, from leaving the country because of his apparent involvement in a $9 million payoff from a loan deal with Finland and the purchase of $39 million in medical equipment in 2002.

President Abel Pacheco said earlier Friday that he felt betrayed by Rodríguez and his alleged involvement in the scandals. He also said he hopes that Rodríguez is innocent.