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(506) 2223-1327        Published Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008,  in Vol. 8, No. 258       E-mail us
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2009 will be a year full of presidential politicking
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

In 2009 the attention of those expats interested in politics will turn to Costa Rica because national elections are the first Sunday in February 2010. That means the bulk of the campaigning will take place in 2009.

The Óscar Arias Sánchez government only has 16 months to go, and the positioning already has begun within the major parties.

Fernando Berrocal Soto, who seeks the Partido Liberación Nacional nomination, has a Web page and has posted a video on YouTube. He also has a Facebook group.

Laura Chinchilla Miranda quit as vice president so she, too, could seek the nomination.  She is busy lining up support, too. Another candidate is former San José mayor Johnny Araya Monge.

Liberación is the strongest faction in the Asamblea Legislativa. President Arias was its successful candidate in 2006. The part would seem to have the inside track for the 2010 voting.

But Liberación is a party split apart by the gap between socialism and capitalism. Arias with his support of the free trade treaty represents the later.

The party's 2002 presidential candidate, Rolando Araya Monge, the brother to the former mayor, has broken with the organization to associate with Frente Socialdemócrata Costarricense. He is a leading international Socialist.

The Frente now gathers in its organization many who fought hard against the free trade treaty, including Eugenio Trejos, the rector of the Cartago-based Instituto Tecnológico Costarricense, who might be a presidential candidate. The new Partido Humanista, formed in August, also opposes the treaty with the United States.

Liberación lost the 2002 election, in part, because Ottón Solís walked out to form his own Partido Acción Ciudadana. He carried some of the left wing spirit with him as well as their votes. That opened the door for the eventual victor, Abel Pacheco of the Partido Unidad Social Cristiana.

Solís has suffered decline in public opinion because of his decision not to battle the free trade treaty with the United States in public. But he still is the likely Acción Ciudadana presidential candidate. He was a close second to Arias in 2006.

Arias cannot run for a consecutive term, but Unidad Social Cristiana might field Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier, if he is not convicted in his current corruption trial involving a $9 million commission from government purchasing for hospitals. Unidad took a beating in the 2006 election, but Calderón, a former president and son of a Costa Rican legend, will pull a lot of
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Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones where election rules are enforced and votes are counted.

 votes. Even when he returned home March 23, 2005, to house arrest in Curridabat after spending more than five months in preventative detention, he drew an enthusiastic crowd of supporters.

Costa Rica has 14 enrolled national political parties, according to the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones. There are 15 provincial parties that compete for legislative seats. And there are 28 local parties usually centering on local issues.

Although presidential elections are 13 months away, the Partido Liberación Nacional will take the first steps Jan. 18 when it holds district elections. District assemblies will pick delegates to the canton level. They will pick 10 provincial delegates each who will nominate the party's presidential candidate.

Other parties plan similar processes. A confounding factor might be a proposed rewrite of the election law that is being considering in the legislature. Although many party members are focused on changes in the public financing of their organizations, there could be other changes that will jolt the election process. Insiders expect the bill to be approved in June or July. But the contents are subject to change.

Expats cannot vote and they cannot make political contributions. Many have Costa Rican relatives who do vote. The four years of any presidency has an impact on the country, so the race to Casa Presidencial certainly is worth watching.

Some candidates are expected to promote renegotiation of the free trade treaty with the United States. Solís has proposed this. The treaty itself allows nations to drop out with reasonable notice. However, when George Bush declared Costa Rica in compliance last week he also revoked the country's special export status under the Caribbean Basin Initiative. That means that if Costa Rica pulls out of the treaty, it will lose duty-free access to the United states for many of its products.

And with the world economy becoming tighter, any renegotiations will run into protectionist U.S. senators who would prefer that Intel Corp. make its computer chips in Ohio or Maine instead of San Antonio de Belén.


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San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008, Vol. 8, No. 258

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Police target drunk drivers
leaving Carrillo concert


By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Fuerza Pública officers detained 26 drivers under the new, stiff anti-drunk driving law after a weekend concert in Carrillo.

Persons whose blood alcohol level measured .75 grams or more per liter of blood face from three to 15 years in prison. Those with an alcohol level of .5 grams per liter face a fine of  227,000 colons, about $420.

Officers said two of the motorists were on motorcycles. Officers said they were waiting outside a venue where a "megaconcert" was held on the grounds of a hotel there. Carrillo is on the west shore of the Nicoya Peninsula near Sámara.

Police were careful to spell out that the new traffic law was published in the La Gaceta official newspaper Dec. 23. The anti-alcohol and anti-speeding provisions appear to have become active upon publication. Many other changes will not take effect for six to nine months, according to the law. An anti-drag racing provision also is active, police said.

There was some question if the law actually had been published because it was not found in the daily official newspaper or online. But the Fuerza Pública pointed out that it had been published as an addendum to the regular book-like La Gaceta.

The new law is 32,500 words and requires a copy of the present law to be intelligible.

Elsewhere, the Policía de Tránsito report that they have bagged 88 drunk driving suspects in the seven days the law has been in force.

Three persons are dead
due to water accidents


By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

At least three persons have died in water accidents over the holidays.

The Judicial Investigating Organization said that a woman with the last name of González died at Punta Cocles in Puerto Viejo de Limón Sunday. A man with the last name of Astúa died in the Río Sixaola further south.

Monday morning an unidentified woman believed to be a foreigner was found dead in a swimming pool at a Liberia hotel, the agency said.

Suspected robber killed
in Desamparados shootout


By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

A man believed to be a robber suffered a head wound in a shootout about 10 p.m. Sunday and has been declared neurologically dead.

The owner of the robbery target also suffered a bullet wound as did a customer.

The shootout involved three robbers in Jericó de Desamparados. The business was described as a lookout point that has been commercialized as a bar and resturant, a mirador in Spanish. The owner, identified by the last name of Cantillo, suffered a bullet wound in the stomach. The customer, identified by the last name of Piedra, took a bullet in the shoulder.


HIV infections increase
but are seen leveling off


Special to A.M. Costa Rica

Three million people were living with HIV in the Americas as of 2007 — the latest year for which data are available — up from 2.7 million in 2001. This represents a leveling off of the epidemic in the Western Hemisphere, a top Pan American Health Organization expert said.

"We do see progress in our region," said Gottfried Hirnschall, a physician and head of the Pan American Health Organization's regional HIV program. "But there is still an unacceptable number of new infections, and mortality has not decreased as expected."

Approximately 214,000 people contracted HIV in the region in 2007, Hirnschall said, or about 586 people per day. Some 100,000 died from the disease the same year. "That number should be lower, given the availability of treatment," he said.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, Pan American Health Organization estimates that 62 percent of people who need antiretroviral treatment are receiving it. Brazil comes close to having 100 percent coverage, and being a large country, its rate of coverage boosts the regionwide average. However, in many countries coverage is much lower than the regionwide average. Prenatal testing for HIV in pregnant women is about 50 percent regionwide, and in many countries, it is much lower. Only 36 percent of pregnant women living with HIV receive antiretroviral treatments, said Hirnschall, adding "This is really an unacceptable situation."

Compared with men, the proportion of women with HIV has increased over the years, but this trend also is leveling off, said Hirnschall. In the Caribbean, half of people with HIV are women. In Latin America, the proportion is one in four, he said.

"In Latin America and the Caribbean, we should speak of epidemics, not one epidemic," said Hirnschall. "In the vast majority of countries, there are concentrated epidemics in specific populations rather than a generalized epidemic." The most at-risk groups are men who have sex with men, transgender individuals, sex workers, injecting drug users, incarcerated populations, vulnerable children and youths, and ethnic minorities.


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San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008, Vol. 8, No. 258


Weather network by volunteers will cover entire country
By Dennis Rogers
Special to A.M. Costa Rica

A retired physics professor is creating a network of weather stations connected by Internet to cover all of Costa Rica. The plan is to complement the national meteorological institute’s limited coverage and to aid in disaster planning.

José Brenes, the retired professor, is coordinating the system of amateur climate buffs with interests in global warming and their local environment. The concept and international connections are with the Automatic Weather Map System based in Austria.

The small measuring station is made by Oregon Scientific and records temperature, wind strength and direction, rainfall, humidity, barometric pressure, and ultraviolet ray exposure. Software can then calculate dew point, evapotranspiration rates, wind chill, and wind gust rates.

The information is sent to a computer via a wireless connection and from there to the Internet with updates on local conditions every 10 minutes. The software displays a wide range of data including daily highs and lows in each category with graphs covering the last 24 or 72 hours. After that the information is archived on the computers of the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional. 

At present nine stations are operational in addition to the institute's 11 spread around the country with more to go on-line in the near future. At present emphasis is on the Central Valley but Brenes is interested in reaching the whole country. Most of Puntarenas, Limón, and Guanacaste provinces remain uncovered. He will travel to install the system. Schools are a special focus now with the aim of interesting future scientists, and sponsors are needed.

Prospective participants must have a full-time Internet connection with a computer on 24 hours. This need not be a modern computer. A Pentium 4 processor and some hard disk space will do. No monitor is needed, though some sort of battery backup helps maintain the system function. A shutdown due to a power lapse means a break in the data, as the system itself does not store data in a manner that allows it to be recovered.

Cost of the station and accompanying software is $250. Data archiving is $10/month. Information and displays of local weather conditions from the operational sites are HERE!
weather station
A weather station is set up at the Asociacion de Desarrollo Integral de La Fortuna, for use by the local tourist office, local technical students and others.


The web site is in Spanish but communication in English is welcome. Automatic Weather Map System sites worldwide can be seen on Google Earth using a link at the bottom of the page.


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San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008, Vol. 8, No. 258


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U.N. food agency says that world crisis needs more money
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services

The United Nations World Food Programme is appealing to governments to come up with the $5.2 billion it needs to feed 100 million hungry people next year. The agency said that amount is only a fraction of what governments are spending on their financial rescue packages. 

The U.N. World Food Programme warns it will run out of food by March without a quick injection of funds. Spokeswoman Emilia Casella says millions of people in Africa, Asia, Latin America and other global hunger hot spots will go hungry when the warehouse stocks run out.

"A mere one percent of the money that has been spent for financial bailout packages in recent weeks would completely fund the World Food Programme's 2009 budget. And, in addition, permit us to provide hot meals in school for 59 million children around the world, which is what we would aim for in our school feeding program," she said. "Our school feeding program now feeds about 19 million children around the world. But, it is about 59 million who need it." 

Ms. Casella says the agency would like to use some of the money for which it is appealing to set up a reserve fund for fast acquisition of food stocks for emergencies. 

The spokeswoman said money also is needed to boost the agricultural production of small farmers who can no longer afford to buy seeds and fertilizers. She says the price of
these commodities has more than doubled since 2006.

Ms. Casella notes at the beginning of 2008, the agency was expecting to feed around 69 million people around the world. But, more than 100 million actually need food aid, she said. 

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reports high food prices have pushed 40 million more people into hunger this year, bringing the total number of those going hungry to nearly one billion.

Ms. Casella says it takes about 90 days from the time a donation is made for the food to actually reach the people who need it.

"So, we are not being precipitous here with this call. It is something that is actually quite urgent. The countries that are at most risk right now in terms of either further food ration cuts or new ration cuts are Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, also Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti," said Ms. Casella. "As you all would know, these are all countries that are in an extremely fragile state to begin with. So, the idea of further cutting rations is kind of like adding insult to injury." 

The World Food Programme warns hunger can lead to civil unrest. Soaring food prices have led to riots in dozens of countries around the world. One of the worst situations was in Haiti where food riots caused the death of a number of people and drove the prime minister out of office.


Petroleum prices take a jump which is blamed on the fighting in Gaza
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services

Oil prices rose sharply Monday as Israel continued attacks in Gaza for a third day.

U.S. light sweet crude was up about $3 to more than $40 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent North Sea crude for February delivery jumped nearly $3 to more than $41 a barrel in late morning trade in London.

The price increase reverses the trend of recent months when the global economic downturn slashed world demand
Traders say prices rose as Israeli-Palestinian violence raised fears of wider tensions in the oil-rich Middle East.

The United Arab Emirates on Friday gave notice of output cuts in compliance with production cuts agreed earlier this month by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

The organization announced the cuts last week to stabilize oil prices that have plunged 76 percent from a record high of more than $147 a barrel in July.

Chakib Khelil, president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, has said the cartel could meet next month and cut production again, if needed.


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San José, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008, Vol. 8, No. 258


A.M. Costa Rica
users guide


This is a brief users guide to A.M. Costa Rica.

Old pages
Each day someone complains via e-mail that the newspages are from yesterday or the day before. A.M. Costa Rica staffers check every page and every link when the newspaper is made available at 2 a.m. each week day.

So the problem is with the browser in each reader's computer. Particularly when the connection with the  server is slow, a computer will look to the latest page in its internal memory and serve up that page.

Readers should refresh the page and, if necessary, dump the cache of their computer, if this problem persists. Readers in Costa Rica have this problem frequently because the local Internet provider has continual problems.

Searching
The A.M. Costa Rica search page has a list of all previous editions by date and a space to search for specific words and phrases. The search will return links to archived pages.

Newspages
A typical edition will consist of a front page and four other newspages. Each of these pages can be reached by links near the top and bottom of the pages.

Classifieds
Five classified pages are updated daily. Employment listings are free, as are listings for accommodations wanted, articles for sale and articles wanted. The tourism page and the real estate sales and real estate rentals are updated daily.

Advertising information
A summary of advertising rates and sizes are available for display and classifieds.

Statistics
A.M. Costa Rica makes its monthly statistics available to advertisers and readers. It is HERE! 

Contacting us
Both the main telephone number and the editor's e-mail address are listed on the front page near the date.

Visiting us
Directions to our office and other data, like bank account numbers are on the about us page.


Hundreds of Cubans want
to become Spanish citizens

By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services

Hundreds of Cubans lined up outside the Spanish Embassy in Havana Monday, hoping to apply for citizenship based on their Spanish ancestry.

A law now in effect in Spain offers citizenship to the descendants of Spaniards who fled the country for political reasons. The measure targets families who emigrated during and after the Spanish Civil War and the ensuing dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco.

Those accepted do not have to renounce their current citizenship. But citizens of Communist Cuba must get permission from the Havana government to travel to Spain if they are accepted for Spanish citizenship.

Officials estimate that some 500,000 people living in Latin American countries such as Cuba, Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela, Chile and Uruguay are eligible for citizenship. Argentina alone is expected to have some 300,000 eligible beneficiaries.


Shining Path implicated
in killing of soldier in Perú


By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services

An official in Perú says Shining Path rebels have killed one soldier and injured two others in an attack on a helicopter in a jungle area southeast of the capital, Lima.

Defense Minister Antero Flores said Monday that the rebels carried out the attack a day earlier in the region of Vizcatan.  He said rebels opened fire on the supply helicopter, killing one of the soldiers defending it.

In November, suspected Shining Path rebels killed at least four policemen in a jungle attack.  In October, the rebels staged one of their deadliest attacks in recent years when they killed 19 people, including seven civilians, in an ambush in the southern Huancavelica province.

The Maoist Shining Path started its brutal insurgency in 1980, eventually killing tens of thousands of people. Violence declined sharply after the capture and conviction of their leader in 1992, but the rebels continue to carry out smaller attacks. The attacks occur primarily in remote areas used to produce coca, the raw material in cocaine.

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