DECEMBER 21, 2006

PROTECTING Tourists: The first 122 Tourism Police officers graduated yesterday during a ceremony at the Public Security Ministry headquarters in San José. They will be stationed around the country and have been trained to work with foreigners to combat crime.

SAVE the Trees: Residents of the La Sabana area, on the western edge of San José, and representatives from environmental organizations including the Costa Rican Federation for Environmental Conservation (FECON) and the Institute of Tropical Architecture yesterday protested the government's plans to cut down almost 200 trees to expand the highway running along the La Sabana park's south side. These Jacaranda trees beautify the city, house birds and produce oxygen, they said.

Standing proudly beside their new bicycles and motorcycles yesterday outside the Public Security Ministry, 122 Tourism Police became the first officers of their kind.

President Oscar Arias announced an unusual New Year's resolution this week: starting in January 2007, he's going to put his money where his mouth is by donating his entire salary each month to the poor.

The Promotion Ministry of Spain has flown more than 4,000 passengers from Spain back to their destinations in Latin America in what has been some sign of relief after Spanish airline Air Madrid suspended all flights last week, leaving thousands stranded.

The Central Bank Tuesday released what it called Costa Rica's most important economic achievements this year: gross domestic product (GDP) growth of approximately 7% to more than $22 billion and a reduction of inflation by 9.5%.

New Tourism Police Force Graduates 122 Officers

By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff | aroberson@ticotimes.net

Standing proudly beside their new bicycles and motorcycles yesterday outside the Public Security Ministry, 122 Tourism Police became the first officers of their kind.

The creation of the Tourism Police is an initiative to crack down on crime in areas heavily visited by tourists by providing a specialized police force trained to work with foreigners and handle the crimes they are all-too-often victims of, explained Public Security Minister Fernando Berrocal.

“If we don't work hard in the field of security, we are going to lose the battle for economic development,” Berrocal said, explaining a philosophy later echoed by President Oscar Arias that bringing more tourists and their cash to Costa Rica requires making them feel safe here.

The 122 officials who graduated yesterday will work in San José, the north-central area surrounding San Carlos, the northwestern Guanacaste province, the Caribbean province of Limón and Alajuela, northwest of San José. During their intensive training, they learned about criminal analysis, organized crime bands, falsification of documents and customer service, according to a statement from the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT), which partnered with the Public Security Ministry and provided funds to make this new specialized police force possible.

The private sector also contributed to the effort. A group of business owners on the northern Pacific coast called the Association of Concessionaires of the Papagayo Golf Tourism Project (ASOPAPAGAYO) donated plans for the construction of two stations for Tourism Police in Playa Panamá, Guanacaste and at the Daniel Oduber Intern ational Airport in that province's capital city of Liberia.

Additionally, the Southern Zone Development Board (JUDESUR) donated ¢265 million ($514,563) to build new police stations or improve existing stations for Tourism Police in the cantons of Osa, Buenos Aires, Golfito, Corredores and Coto Brus.

Yesterday's ceremony marked the beginning of an initiative the ministry hopes will expand next year, Berrocal said.

See this Friday's print or electronic edition of The Tico Times for more on this story.

President to Donate Salary to Poor

By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff | kstanley@ticotimes.net

President Oscar Arias announced an unusual New Year's resolution this week: starting in January 2007, he's going to put his money where his mouth is by donating his entire salary each month to the poor.

Arias made the announcement Tuesday during a Christmas party held at a sports complex in Rincón Grande de Pavas, in western San José, according to a statement from Casa Presidencial.

“The truth is, I'm not going to live better or worse with my salary,” Arias said. “I'm going to give it to some senior citizens' homes that need help, and… associations that have to do with kids, with the sick, with the disabled, with schools.”

Before taking office May 8 for his second term – Arias was also President from 1986-1990 – he received a government pension for his previous service, but the law required the suspension of that pension when he returned to the presidency, Casa Presidencial spokesman Esteban Arrieta told The Tico Times yesterday.

The President told The Tico Times earlier this year that he voluntarily gave up the “exclusive dedication” bonus he is eligible to receive in his current post (TT, Sept. 8), though Casa Presidencial clarified this week that Arias donates the funds to various charities. These include the Palliative Care Foundation, the Costa Rican Cystic Fibrosis Association, the Orphans' Hospice, the Works of the Holy Spirit Association and the Social-Productive Workshop for the Disabled, the statement said.

Arrieta said he does not have the exact amount of Arias' salary but that it is “more than ¢4 million (approximately $7,767).”

At the Rincón Grande event, Arias handed out 15 government housing grants, or bonos, nine checks for low-income families with kids in high school and two wheelchairs.

Air Madrid Passengers Still Stranded

By Blake Schmidt
Tico Times Staff | bschmidt@ticotimes.net

The Promotion Ministry of Spain has flown more than 4,000 passengers from Spain back to their destinations in Latin America in what has been some sign of relief after Spanish airline Air Madrid suspended all flights last week, leaving thousands stranded.

In Costa Rica, there are an estimated 500 Europeans still stranded after their flights were cancelled, while some 250 stranded Central Americans - 100 of them Costa Ricans – remain in Europe, according to Air Madrid's director in Costa Rica Mario Socatelli.

The airline, which uses San José as its Central American hub, suspended operations in protest Dec. 15 after the Spanish Promotion Ministry threatened to revoke the company's aviation license because of motor problems and failed inspections, reported the Spanish daily El País.

The falling out between the Spanish government and the airline, which brings about 25,000 visitors to Costa Rica per year, has caused holiday travel chaos for thousands of passengers and resulted in thousands more cancelled flights for the next month at least.

See this Friday's print or electronic edition of The Tico Times for more on this story.

2006 Sees Increased Economic
Development, Reduction in Inflation

The Central Bank Tuesday released what it called Costa Rica's most important economic achievements this year: gross domestic product (GDP) growth of approximately 7% to more than $22 billion and a reduction of inflation by 9.5%.

2006 has been a good year economically, with investment reaching a record $1.4 billion, or 6.4% of the GDP, said Central Bank president Francisco de Paula Gutiérrez.

Other economic indicators in the country are also looking favorable; exports of goods and services this year reached $11 billion, although the commercial balance remains negative since imports registered $13 billion. Inflation also dropped this year from 14% to about 9.5%, Gutiérrez said. Additionally, international monetary reserves have reached a record $3 billion.

However, these statistics don't mean Costa Rica doesn't have a lot of work ahead, Gutiérrez said, adding that 20.2% of the population still lives in poverty and wealth is unevenly distributed.

-ACAN-EFE

Sometimes the news on TV or radio is so perplexing it leaves us wondering if we heard it right. Even more surprising is that the reporters deliver such news with straight faces. Here are some examples:

A man from Alajuela, northwest of San José, had an enormous marijuana plant growing in his yard. He explained to the police that he didn't know it was marijuana and he was saving it for a Christmas tree. (Just wait till they burn the Yule log – holy smoke!)

A woman was electrocuted when she plugged in the washer and they took the husband to the hospital in shock. (Is that right?)

A man went to a phone booth to make a call at two in the morning wearing only his underpants, and he was held up. (What on earth did he have to steal?)

Because here they use decimal points instead of commas to denote thousands, this item has a potentially huge margin of error. An economic report stated that the annual per-capita income in Estonia is $14 million. (Adios, Costa Rica. Hello, Estonia !)

The skeleton of a mermaid turned out to be a hoax. (No fooling.)

An Alajuela man accused his wife of spousal abuse for farting at him. The judge threw out the case, saying that it is not a crime to fart. (Prison conditions are bad enough without adding farters.)

The nude body of a man in an advanced state of putrefaction was discovered in a dam in Santa Ana, southwest of the capital, but remained unidentified because there were no reports of missing persons matching the description. (If you knew anyone like that, would you claim him?)

A headline in the sensational daily Diario Extra read “Woman Strangled by Brassiere.” (Why didn't she get a larger size?)

“Informe Once” news program reported that someone in the northwestern province of Guanacaste found a mushroom in the shape of the Virgin. (No comment.)

In the daily La Nación's Sunday magazine Proa, an article on the Minute Men, U.S. vigilantes who dress in military fatigues, carry rifles and station themselves along the Mexican border to stop illegal immigrants from crossing over, quoted one of the men as saying, “What did Mexico ever give us?” (Tacos, burritos, tortillas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California …)

A commercial for a casa de empeño (pawn shop) claimed it had parking for 40 cars. (What does that say for the state of the economy?)

Thieves stole 1,000 full sheets of El Gordo, the Christmas lottery, but the door opened on the getaway truck and they all fell out. (Next time, take a minute to buckle your seat belt.) Eight hundred sheets were recovered, but 200 were still missing. It seems a taxi driver found them but didn't know what they were. He never buys lottery tickets because gambling is a vice. (You bet.)

In Spanish, a jack is called a gata, the same word as a female feline. A want ad for a hydraulic jack came out in the pets column. (The Capital Times of Madison, Wisconsin, once ran an ad in the boating section for a wench with good teeth.)

Channel 42 is Diario Extra's TV station, and the evening news always starts out with sucesos: crime, shootings, traffic accidents and drownings. One night, the big news was that nothing bad had happened that day and there were no sucesos.

Bewildering news happens. This strange statement was in a U.S. magazine: “The black rhinoceros is distinguished from the white rhinoceros by the size of its snout.” (In case you're color blind.)

And, alas, even The Nica Times can confound. In the Oct. 20 issue, just before Halloween, there was a report of a new “boo store” in Managua. (Boo who?)