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BetonSports Shutting
Down Operations in Costa Rica
By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff
aroberson@ticotimes.net
Approximately 1,200 employees at the sports betting call center BetonSports are out of a job after the company Thursday decided to close down its office at the San Pedro Mall, east of San José, according to Francisco Conejo, an attorney for BoS Costa Rica, the Costa Rican branch of the London-based BetonSports PLC internet sports gambling enterprise.
A recent order from a court in the U.S. state of Missouri ordered BetonSports to stop accepting bets from U.S. gamblers, all of whom were routed via phone and e-mail to the San Pedro call center, Conejo said.
In light of this order, the company decided it was impossible to keep the expansive San Pedro office open and was forced to lay off about 1,200 employees Thursday, Conejo said. Additionally, approximately 2,000 employees were laid off from the company's operation in Antigua, though BetonSports offices in the Far East and other Latin American countries remain open, he said.
The decision to shut down BetonSports' Costa Rican and Antiguan operations follows the arrest of the company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) David Carruthers, a citizen of the United Kingdom, in the Dallas, Texas airport July 16. Carruthers, along with 10 other people working for the enterprise, is being charged with racketeering, conspiracy and fraud, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice (TT, July 21).
“This is the saddest moment in the company's history,” Conejo told The Tico Times. “The directors are very sad that they've been forced to make this decision.”
A few employees lingered around the BetonSports office on the 9 th floor of the mall Friday collecting their belongings as reporters and cameramen waited to speak with Conejo, who, along with a receptionist, was stationed in the lobby.
Some employees are still working in the office to close it down and carry out final financial transactions, including paying money owed to U.S. betters, Conejo said.
“I'm looking for any opportunity for work,” said assistant manager Ivan Alonso. “I've been working here for six years; now I've got 20 days left to work.”
The company is looking to get out of its lease with the San Pedro Mall and plans to move out of the space within 90 days, Conejo said.
See Friday's print or pdf edition of The Tico Times for more on this story.
Caldera Begins Operating Under Private Concession
The Pacific port of Caldera Friday became the first Costa Rican port to operate based on a model of private concessions for public works.
Sociedad Portuaria de Caldera, a Colombian-Costa Rican company, Friday assumed administration of the port for a 20-year period. Historically, Caldera has been run by the Pacific Port Authority (INCOP).
Sociedad Portuaria de Caldera plans to invest $35 million in renovation projects during the next three years, according to a statement from Casa Presidencial.
These improvements will allow the port to operate 24 hours, the statement said, hopefully reducing notoriously long waits for ships to be loaded and unloaded (TT, Sept. 23, 2005)
A ceremony at Caldera Friday to inaugurate the port's new administration was attended by First Vice-President Laura Chinchilla, Public Works and Transport Minister Karla González, Tourism Minister Carlos Ricardo Benavides, Sociedad Portuaria de Caldera president Oscar Isaza and INCOP president Paul Zúñiga.
Chinchilla spoke on the various benefits the concession offers, according to the statement.
“It benefits the worker to have an efficient and competitive port that will allow for the attraction of greater investment and more jobs,” Chinchilla said. “It also benefits the consumer in general because he will enjoy lower prices on imported goods.”
-Tico Times and ACAN-EFE
Paniamor Creates Database to
Combat Child Sexual Exploitation
The non-profit organization Paniamor has created a database to help combat child sexual exploitation, the organization announced Friday.
Paniamor president Milena Grillo said the database will allow for better crime investigation and help to determine which legal modifications are necessary in Costa Rica to fight child sexual exploitation.
The database contains profiles and criminal histories of all criminals convicted of sex crimes registered in the judicial system as well as a profiles of victims and the areas of the country where the most child sexual exploitation occurs.
The database also calculates the average time required for investigations into child sex crimes to be completed, the average time the judicial process takes in these cases and the average prison sentence for child sexual exploitation offenders.
Paniamor hopes to use this information to fill “holes” in the legal process of protecting children who have been sexually exploited, Grillo said.
According to statistics gathered by the organization, sexual tourism in Costa Rica proliferates the commercial sexual exploitation of children, most of whom are girls who are first exploited at the average age of 12.
The project is financed by the U.N. Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), the Italian Embassy and Costa Rican judicial and government authorities.
-ACAN-EFE
849 Kilos of Cocaine Seized From Truck Carrying Scrap Metal
Hidden among eight barrels of scrap metal in a truck headed to Guatemala, 849 kilograms of cocaine were seized by Costa Rican police from a truck Friday near the city of Liberia, in the northwestern Guanacaste province, according to Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ).
Police stopped the truck after receiving information that it was carrying drugs, and two Costa Ricans identified by the last names Sibaja, 33, and Mora, 29 were arrested.
This confiscation was the second largest police seizure of drugs on land in Costa Rican history; 1.3 tons of cocaine were seized along the Panama border in 1997.
-ACAN-EFE
Ginger Has It All: Attractive Foliage, Exotic Flowers and Delicious Roots
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Those of you who enjoy the hot, spicy tang of ginger as a seasoning will find growing it in the home garden easy and practically care-free. Recently a reader sent me an e-mail and asked how she could grow ginger. This article gives you all the tips you need to harvest ginger at home.
First, you'll have to shop around for some ginger. Most supermarkets sell the Asian variety, which is plump and succulent and most desired for kitchen use. However, local markets often carry Jamaican ginger, which is smaller but very pungent.
Select roots (rhizomes, actually) that look healthy and are not wrinkled from dehydration. I'd suggest planting six palm-sized roots for a large family. Once you have acquired your ginger, you can prepare a space for them in the garden. I recommend planting ginger in areas around the main garden; the plants become permanent stands and can get in the way of annual garden vegetable production. Ginger plants make nice ornamentals, blooming August through October in most regions of Costa Rica.
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Exotic Blooms: Ginger flowers bloom August to October in Costa Rica. |
For each rhizome, prepare an area 50 centimeters in diameter, well dug to 50 cm deep. Add a shovel full of aged compost and mix it well with the soil. Then plant one ginger rhizome very superficially in the center of your prepared circle. Cover with soil in such a way that you can see several of the buds protruding from the soil. Sunlight will activate the rhizome to produce new roots and leaves.
Now comes the time to be patient. It will be at least nine months before you can begin harvesting from your ginger plants. Meanwhile, keep the stands of ginger weed-free and cultivated. Ginger plants like to have soil tilled up around the base of the plant, which stimulates more production of rhizomes.
If new leaves look pale green, try foliar-spraying your plants, preferably with organic fertilizers such as compost tea or seaweed extract. Adding more compost around the base of the plant helps improve growth and production.
Ginger dedicates its first stage of growth to roots and vegetation, followed by production of new rhizomes. At this time, you can start treasure hunting in your ginger patch. Since new rhizomes grow close to the surface of the soil, you can lightly brush away the soil to uncover them. A sharp kitchen knife is useful for separating a new clone from the mother plant. That's right; each root is an identical genetic copy of the mother rhizome you planted.
If you leave about half of the new growth on each mother plant, you'll have a bumper crop for the following year, and will be able to harvest fresh ginger all year long.
For more info on home gardening in the tropics, visit www.thenewdawncenter.org or e-mail the newdawncenter@yahoo.com.
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