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Allegro Papagayo faces
claims for gulf pollution By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The operator of the Allegro Papagayo was in environmental court Thursday seeking to reduce a claim for some $224,000 by the government because the hotel ran sewage into the Golfo de Papagayo. Lawyers for the owner, Hotel Occidental Playa Nacascolo S. A., are seeking to reduce the claim to about $50,000. The case was before the Tribunal Ambiental Administrativo of the Ministerio de Ambiente, Energía y Telecomunicaciones. The session lasted most of the day, and the hotel's lawyers have three days to submit more arguments. The tribunal has two months to make a determination. This is the case of the northern Pacific coast hotel that was closed down by the Ministerio de Salud because the sewer system was contaminating the gulf. That happened in February, and the hotel was allowed to reopen on a restricted schedule. Another claim came Thursday from representatives of the Laboratorio Nacional de Aguas del Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados. The claim noted that the hotel's operations cost Playa Manzanillo its blue flag status, a coveted environmental emblem. Lab inspectors noticed the problem in November 2007. A complaint came from the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo, which is in charge of the Papagayo project. The monetary value of the pollution was set by the Dirección de Gestión de la Calidad Ambiental of the ministry. The complaints also say the hotel has been operating without the appropriate permits issued by the health ministry. Defensoría, consejo head dispute water line value By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The president of the Consejo Civil de Carrillo has taken issue with the Defensoría de los Habitantes who said that the Sardinal water line to the Pacific coast should be canceled. Daniel Soley of the Defensoría made the comment Thursday, and Carlos Alberto Chanto Canales, president of the consejo, quickly issued a rebuttal. He said the community wants the water line built. The Sardinal-El Coco-Ocotal water line has been financed by Pacific coast developers for $8 million, and it is being constructed by contractors under the supervision of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, the national water company. Some in Sardinal have protested that the line would take water away from the community. Soley said that the project was illegal. But Chanto said that the Procuraduría, the nation's lawyer, has passed judgement on the financial agreement. Furthermore, said Chanto, Soley has adopted a position held by a small group of which many are not from the area. Some of the protests have been violent and involved students and others bused in from the Central Valley. Chanto defended development as something that would benefit the area and that Soley's call to cancel the project was taken without considering the long-term consequences. Among these consequences would be job loss, said Chanto. Development is a process of construction, not destruction, he said. Valley faces chilly weather with winds bringing clouds By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Central Valley is suffering through a cold spell. San José registered 16.5 C Thursday night. That's a nippy 62 degrees F. The wind from the north is making the outside air seem cooler. The same winds are putting abundant clouds above the Caribbean and the northern zone and generating partially cloudy skies elsewhere. The Instituto Meteorológical Nacional said that daily temperatures of from 30 to 22 C (86 to 72 F) during the day could yield to a low as 20 to 13 C (68 to 55.4 F) during the night. The higher temperatures are in the lower elevations and the beach communities while the chill is at higher elevations. Meanwhile, Costa Rican residents could warm up a bit knowing that in International Falls, Minnesota, the 1 a.m. temperature was minus 24 C or minus 11 degrees F and there was a winter storm watch in effect. Three died in electrical misphaps By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Three persons died in two separate incidents when they came in contact with high tension lines Thursday. A 9:30 a.m. mishap claimed the life of a man and his nephew in La Tigra de San Carlos when they touched a wire of the local Coopelesca while putting up an exterior television antenna. They were members of the Blanco family. Another death happened in Aserrí, also Thursday, according to preliminary reports.
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| A.M. Costa Rica third newspage |
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Two lawyers face allegations
of assisting drug smuggler
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Investigators continued their probe into drug gang infiltration in Costa Rica Thursday with raids on two properties in Zapote and one in Paso Ancho. The Poder Judicial confirmed the raids and said agents searched the home of a lawyer and the lawyer's office. The lawyer later was identified as former legislator Leonel Villalobos, who returned to his legal practice after serving six years of a 12-year sentence for involvement with cocaine. The other person was a female relative, also a lawyer. The allegations are not in the distribution and sale of drugs but that the pair were involved in creating fake paperwork to justify illegal income to a client. The Poder Judicial linked the case to Fernando Gainza Cano and others. Gainza was sentenced a year ago for international drug trafficking. The Poder Judicial said that the paperwork, in addition to justifying the possession of some property by Gainza, also tried to evade the confiscation of the property because of the drug conviction |
The general characterization of the
crimes alleged is money laundering
in turning tainted funds into money or goods that could be used in
commerce. That is a big problem for drug smugglers because the
international norms on banking and the transfer of funds continue to
tighten. Costa Rica has been linked to money laundering networks by the U.S. government. Anti-drug agents arrested Villalobos in possession of a kilo of cocaine in 1999. In Costa Rica a lawyer does not automatically lose his license upon conviction of a felony, so he resumed his practice when he left prison on early release. He has since become identified as a defense lawyer handling international drug cases and the case of Héctor Orlando Martínez Quinto, who was detained in Puntarenas Aug. 10, 2006. Martínez has been credited with organizing certain members of the Puntarenas fishing fleet to transport drugs and provide fuel for Colombian fastboats in the Pacific. Martínez was the Costa Rican logistics chief for the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, the drug smuggling terrorist rebels in that country. |
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Russian president expresses
interest in Nicaragua's canal plan
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev expressed interest in a Nicaraguan proposal to link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans with a new canal. The project could include the Río San Juan that runs along Costa Rica's northern border. Medvedev said Moscow will move to strengthen its ties with Nicaragua, as well as other Central and South American countries. Medvedev spoke Thursday as he hosted visiting Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in Moscow, where the two sides signed accords on agriculture, space, telecommunications and energy. The two presidents discussed a draft agreement on visa-free travel between their countries, and Medvedev mentioned the canal proposal. Nicaragua's interest in a new canal would pose a symbolic challenge to the U.S.-built Panama Canal, |
which cemented U.S. influence in
the region in the early 20th century. A Nicaraguan canal that uses the Río San Juan and Nicaragua's large lake, the Lago de Nicaragua, would require less digging than did the Panamá canal. The idea has existed in one form or another since the middle of the 19th century. Last week, three Russian warships visited Nicaragua and delivered about $200,000 worth of computers, medicines and other supplies. Panamá has just decided on a $5 billion canal expansion to accommodate increased shipping and larger ships. Costa Rica has the capacity for a so-called dry canal in which ships would unload their cargo at Limón on the Caribbean to be transported by train to Caldera on the Pacific and vice versa. However, the rail route over the central mountains is in disrepair. |
| The zoo enhances the appetite and musing about cages |
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| This
question is for those of you who are not enthusiastic about San
José. What does San José have in common with Paris
and New York City? And why am I asking this question now? Having read something about the Parque Bolívar, the one big park in the center of the city that I have not visited, I wanted to see it. This week my friend Jorge agreed to take me there. Parque Bolívar is deep inside Barrio Amón, an old part of the city with some elegant buildings that have been renovated and/or restored. It is once again a vital neighborhood with restaurants and small hotels and many interesting streets. In short, it has been regentrified. After retracing our way several times and asking directions, we found the entrance to the park in a cul de sac circle that also contains a restaurant and a bar. (On the way out I saw a building with a sign that read “Federal Mogul”?!) There is an entry fee because the park is also a zoo. For adults the usual fee is 1,800 colons ($3.25); for residents with ciudadanos de oro, it is 1,200 ($2.20), as it is for children. I have not heard much good about this city zoo, and I am not an enthusiast of zoos, but I did want to visit the park. A map of the park/zoo, we were told, is being done but is not yet ready. However we were assured that if we took the walkway up the small incline to the left past the veterinary building, we would not get lost. Nearly two hours later, much to my surprise, although Jorge seemed to know where we were, we emerged from the way we had come. We had walked along paved paths among much greenery surrounded by towering trees. It was not a park in the regular sense, but there were a number of park benches along the way. And it satisfied my love of mazes. We also saw quite a few animals of Costa Rica and a few not indigenous to the country (like the lion). There were lots of birds in cages, incredibly colorful exotic birds, and monkeys, not in cages but enclosures with walls too far for them to leap to. Most of the animals were docile, even listless. Even the crocodiles that we saw in a fenced pond seemed docile. We both gasped when we saw an attendant casually climb over the fence to within inches of three of the crocs. He was carrying food to the turtles on the other side of the pond, safely separated from their neighbors. We mentally gasped again when we saw what they were being tossed to eat: tiny baby chicks. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica fourth news page |
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New rules would outlaw unfair
and deceptive practices by credit card companies
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Relief is on the way for millions of Americans who are furious with their credit card companies. U.S. regulators — led by the Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank — Thursday approved new rules to ban what they call unfair or deceptive practices by banks and credit card companies. For years, consumers have complained banks have imposed unreasonable fees or have hiked their interest rates for no reason at all. Consumer groups say that while such practices were legal, they helped push cardholders deeper into debt. |
The new rules would protect
consumers from arbitrary rate hikes, and
require they be given a fair amount of time to pay down debts. Critics complain the changes will only make it more difficult for many consumers to get credit. One study estimates the rule changes could cost the banking industry more than $10 billion a year. The new rules are scheduled to take effect in July. Some U.S. lawmakers say they plan to look at passing legislation next year to aggressively target credit card lending abuses. |
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| A.M. Costa Rica fifth news page |
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of U.S., Cuban prisoners By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Cuban President Raúl Castro has proposed releasing Cuban political prisoners in exchange for five Cubans jailed in the United States on espionage convictions. Castro spoke in Brasilia, Brazil, Thursday after meeting with President Luiz Inacio da Silva. He told reporters he wants the release of the men, known as the "Cuban Five," who were convicted of spying in 2001 and sentenced in a Miami federal court to long terms in U.S. detention. They are heroes in Cuba. The U.S. State Department rejected the proposal, saying the two situations are independent of one another. A spokesperson said the five Cubans imprisoned in the United States had been tried and sentenced for crimes, whereas the Cuban prisoners were jailed simply for protesting peacefully. Separately, Castro repeated his government's willingness to discuss the long-standing U.S. embargo against Cuba with U.S. president-elect Barack Obama. Obama has said he would be willing to speak with Cuba's leaders but that he would maintain the nearly 50-year-old trade embargo as leverage to push for democratic change on the Communist-led island. Wednesday leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean wrapped up a regional summit in Brazil with a call for the U.S. to lift the embargo. Dynamic graphic here deleted on archived page.
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