JANUARY 11, 2007

JAPAN Bound: Paulo Wanchope yesterday met with Japanese Ambassador Yoshihiko Sumi who congratulated him on signing on for two years with the Japanese team FC Tokyo. Wanchope, a Costa Rican soccer legend, left for Japan today, accompanied by his wife Brenda Carballo and their daughter Pamela, 4.

BACK IN POWER: After 16 years out of office, Daniel Ortega (left) received the presidential sash from Rene Nuñez, president of the National Assembly, while former President Enrique Bolaños looked on yesterday afternoon in Managua. Later in the evening, flanked by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales, Ortega addressed the multitudes and called for revolutionary change and reconciliation.

Legislators from the Citizen Action Party (PAC) yesterday presented a 530-page document explaining their opposition to the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).

Famous soccer player and heartthrob Paulo Wanchope yesterday sat down to chat with Japanese Ambassador Yoshihiko Sumi about Japan, where Wanchope is heading today to play for the soccer team FC Tokyo for two years.

Good news at the pump for drivers: the price of super and regular gasoline dropped yesterday, and another reduction is expected in the next few days, once a reduction approved Tuesday by the Public Services Regulatory Authority (ARESEP) is printed in the official government daily La Gaceta.

Opposition Party Presents
Massive Critique of CAFTA

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

Legislators from the Citizen Action Party (PAC) yesterday presented a 530-page document explaining their opposition to the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).

The bottom line: the party, which, with 17 seats in the legislature, is second only to the National Liberation Party (PLN) in congressional heft, says Costa Rica should scrap the existing agreement and negotiate a new one that better protects the country's identity and public institutions.

Legislator Ronald Solís said CAFTA should be cast aside entirely and negotiation should begin afresh.

The United States is “always going to be interested,” he said at a press conference held at the assembly just before Solís, faction head Elizabeth Fonseca and Francisco Molina, all PAC lawmakers and members of the International Relations Commission, presented the document to the legislature's secretariat across the hall. Its position statement will join the pro-CAFTA arguments of Liberation, the Libertarian Movement and the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) as the basis for discussion of the pact on the legislative floor, expected to begin later this month.

The International Relations Commission voted to send CAFTA to the assembly floor in December.

PAC's presentation marks the last step, aside from the publication of the position statements and republication of CAFTA itself in the official government daily La Gaceta, before the full assembly can begin debating the controversial agreement. Its proponents, including President Oscar Arias, say the pact would improve Costa Rica's access to the U.S. market and create new opportunities for the country, while PAC members and other critics say the country ceded too much – namely, the opening of its state-owned telecommunications and insurance monopolies to private competition – in the negotiation process, conducted in 2003-2004.

“This process has been incredible, because it's been a school – we have so much knowledge now that we didn't have when we started (negotiations),” Solís said as he argued that CAFTA should be shelved and new talks begun. “Now we're more prepared… Today we have a culture of treaty negotiation.”

The full text of the document will be released to the press Friday.

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

Wanchope Meets with Japanese Ambassador

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

Famous soccer player and heartthrob Paulo Wanchope yesterday sat down to chat with Japanese Ambassador Yoshihiko Sumi about Japan, where Wanchope is heading today to play for the soccer team FC Tokyo for two years.

Sumi congratulated Wanchope on his soccer accomplishments, marveling that he is “not just a national star, but an international star” and gave him some practical tips such as how to say “thank you” in Japanese.

Additionally, the embassy gave Wanchope, who was accompanied by his wife Brenda Carballo, a copy of a booklet entitled “Introduction to Japanese Culture” published by the embassy.

The soccer star, who chose a sophisticated black suit for yesterday's off-the-field attire, remarked that playing for FC Tokyo isn't the only new challenge he's looking forward to in Japan.

He got to know the country a bit when he played in the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea for the La Selección Costa Rican national team and knows it's a “beautiful country with friendly people.”

His and Carballo's daughter Pamela, 4, will move with them to Tokyo and attend an international school there.

Wanchope said he hopes his two years with Tokyo FC will open doors for other Tico players to play abroad.

“I know that how I represent myself on and off the court could help get other Costa Ricans ahead,” he said.

Wanchope has played on teams in England, Spain and Argentina. He said his stint in Japan will most likely be his last abroad and that he is considering training to be a coach afterward.

Gas Prices Drop

Good news at the pump for drivers: the price of super and regular gasoline dropped yesterday, and another reduction is expected in the next few days, once a reduction approved Tuesday by the Public Services Regulatory Authority (ARESEP) is printed in the official government daily La Gaceta.

Yesterday's reduction was thanks to the elimination of a subsidy for diesel fuel that raised the price of one liter of diesel ¢17 ($0.03), while one liter of super gas dropped ¢28 ($0.05) to ¢488 ($0.95) and regular gas dropped ¢36 ($0.05) per liter to ¢486 ($0.89).

Meanwhile, ARESEP Tuesday sent another approved fuel price reduction to the National Printer for publication in La Gaceta. This reduction will bring one liter of super gas down to ¢475 ($0.92) and one liter of regular gas to ¢447 ($0.87). The price of diesel will also be lowered from ¢364 ($0.71) per liter to ¢349 per liter ($0.67).

-Tico Times

School Patrol Program
Trains Kids in Crime Prevention

Kids in schools around the country will be learning how to avoid being the victims of crimes thanks to a School Patrol program the Public Security Ministry is carrying out, according to a statement from the ministry.

The program, which began during the 1980s but lost steam and started up again in May, seeks to “teach children and adolescents about the value of police labor and protect themselves from the evils they are exposed to,” the statement said.

Children at 80 schools will be trained by officials from the National Police Academy in personal defense, drug awareness, domestic violence, natural disasters and other general safety measures.

The idea is that when they finish the training, they will have “the defense and cunning necessary to confront critical situations,” the statement said.

The School Patrol program does not have its own budget, and the National Police Academy has proposed creating a committee of officials, parents and other community members to seek additional funding to help it grow.

If you want to know what it feels like to be small, take a dive in Costa Rica's Pacific Ocean. Really, the Pacific is where the wild things are. Big wild things such as sharks and rays and other fish that weigh more than you do. While Costa Rica is perhaps most famous for its biodiversity, the big-school-and- predator productivity of the Pacific is just as impressive.

True, there are not as many species in Costa Rica's Pacific as in other places in the world, but the sheer numbers of some groups of the same species are just as awe-inspiring. Fish schools that number in the thousands seem to support a few predators of very large proportions. But schools, or shoals, of fish that number in the millions support many large predators. And many large predators, from plankton eaters to meat eaters, swim with divers in Costa Rica's Pacific waters. Rays provide some classic examples.

Size Matters on the Pacific: a diver keeps a safe distance from a stingray.

Photos by Shawn Larkin | Tico Times

Manta rays feed in the open water on tiny animals known as plankton that drift with the currents. The giant manta grows to be among the largest of Costa Rica's fish – just one would probably fill any room in your house.

Mantas in Costa Rica school in enormous numbers. The flapping groups can seem to be the size of a small island. When they school in groups, they also leap from the water in what could be a sort of mating dance. Often, several at a time will fly like popcorn from the water, flapping like huge bats, before splashing back down into the water. Maybe, with a few million years of evolution, they will learn to fly!

On the sandy bottoms of the Pacific coast, large numbers of stingrays gather at certain times of the year. Stingrays do not swim through the open water like manta rays, but rather hunt along the bottom for fresh fish, eel and crab. Divers need to take care not to swim too close over them, as they can live up to their name. Their famous stingers can be longer than your hand and covered with slimy, nasty bacteria. To avoid the stingray's scorpion-like tail-sting response, shuffle your feet at the beach. If you avoid getting over them, they are unlikely to cause problems. Sometimes the sand can seem covered with these strange beasts.

Orcas make regular stops along the Pacific coast to feed on big prey such as stingrays and manta rays.

Photos by Shawn Larkin | Tico Times

Rays, in turn, are preyed upon by even bigger predators such as hammerhead sharks and orcas. Both stingrays and manta rays appear to be favorites with these large, toothy hunters. Ray congregations may even be the main reason orcas make regulars stops along Costa Rica's Pacific coast.

Pacific diving has been excellent recently by all reports. Sadly for divers, Caribbean diving has all but shut down during the past two months of big surf. With El Niño in effect, the Caribbean will probably remain a surfing paradise until March or April.

For info on diving or to contribute to this report, call 835-6041, e- mail shawn@costacetacea.com or visit www.costacetacea.com.