JANUARY 29, 2007

CIRCULO de Montevideo: President Oscar Arias shares a laugh with former Uruguayan President Julio María Sanguinetti Friday in San José at the opening of a two-day meeting of the Montevideo Circle, a group founded by Sanguinetti to allow Latin American leaders to discuss the challenges facing their region.

LIGHTING in Memory: Joel Zango, 8, watched as six candles were lit at a ceremony in San José Friday to remember those who died in the Holocaust. The Union of Jewish Congregations of Latin America and the Caribbean organized the memorial in honor of Holocaust Memorial Day Saturday.

One by one, six large white candles were lit. Each flame that flickered brightly Friday during a ceremony to commemorate victims of the Holocaust represented one million Jewish men, women and children killed.

Police at a checkpoint in the Caribbean town of Matina de Limón Thursday discovered 10,500 bullets for an AK-47 automatic rifle inside a truck and arrested its driver, identified by the name Javier Marín, Nicaraguan, who is believed to be an ex-guerilla, said Public Security Ministry spokesman Humberto Ballestero.

The European Union Friday passed a resolution to support a U.N. international arms trade treaty aimed at preventing weapons from reaching conflict zones and developing countries. The treaty was presented by President Oscar Arias before the U.N. General Assembly in September 2006 and approved by the General Assembly the following month, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

Memorial Ceremony
Commemorates Holocaust Victims

By Tyler Pearce
Tico Times Staff | editorial@ticotimes.net

One by one, six large white candles were lit. Each flame that flickered brightly Friday during a ceremony to commemorate victims of the Holocaust represented one million Jewish men, women and children killed.

The event, held at Hotel Barceló San José Palacio, was organized to honor the six million people who lost their lives throughout Europe from 1933-1945, according to Jack Davidson, president of the Union of Jewish Congregations of Latin America and the Caribbean (UJCL).

UJCL, which has members from 13 nations, organized the memorial in conjunction with its annual meeting, which began Friday and concludes today, according to the online Jewish international news service JTA.

A few minutes of silence followed the lighting of candles and singing of the Israeli and Costa Rican national anthems, giving the nearly 100 attendees a chance to reflect.

A group of dignitaries including Israeli Ambassador Ehud Eitam, Costa Rican Second Vice-President Kevin Casas, U.N. representative Josef Merkx and Holocaust survivor Sara Rovinski were present to share their words of commemoration as well as give hope to the Costa Rican Jewish community.

“Problems persist all over the world; we must listen to the voices of our friends suffering,” Merkx said.

Jan. 27 was declared Holocaust Memorial Day by the U.N. General Assembly in November 2005 “to instill the memory of the tragedy in future generations and to prevent genocide from occurring again,” according to the U.N. Web site. This day marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, where an estimated one million Jews were slain, according to JTA.

Rovinski gracefully closed the event with a few words of hope.

“We have to live with our eyes open and our minds free so we don't repeat this in the future,” Rovinski said. “This is the work for all to do.”

Police Arrest Driver of Truck Carrying Ammunition

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

Police at a checkpoint in the Caribbean town of Matina de Limón Thursday discovered 10,500 bullets for an AK-47 automatic rifle inside a truck and arrested its driver, identified by the name Javier Marín, Nicaraguan, who is believed to be an ex-guerilla, said Public Security Ministry spokesman Humberto Ballestero.

The truck, which left from Nicaragua and bore a license plate from that country, was carrying three boxes of ammunition contained in five sacks, according to a statement from the Public Security Ministry.

Marín told police he was taking this cargo to Limón to sell, according to the daily La Nación.

He faces charges before the Limón Prosecutor's Office, where the truck and its contents were taken. The case is being investigated by the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ), Ballestero said.

Police told La Nación they believe Marín, who made frequent trips between Nicaragua and Costa Rica transporting bananas, was very active in the Nicaraguan counterrevolution during the 1980s.

European Union Supports U.N. Arms Trade Treaty

The European Union Friday passed a resolution to support a U.N. international arms trade treaty aimed at preventing weapons from reaching conflict zones and developing countries. The treaty was presented by President Oscar Arias before the U.N. General Assembly in September 2006 and approved by the General Assembly the following month, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

“Costa Rica appreciates the European Union's decision to support this proposal, which represents a significant advance in work... to create international norms on the import, export and transfer of conventional arms,” said Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno, according to the statement.

The E.U. resolution calls for Germany, the acting E.U. president, as well as other member states to make concrete efforts toward the implementation of the arms trade treaty.

The treaty gives the Secretary General one year to produce a report on how to introduce international arms-trade norms (TT, Nov. 3, 2006).

Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his role in the Central American Peace Plan, addressed the General Assembly last September, urging members to support arms-control measures.

Leaders Emphasize Free-Trade,
Development At Montevideo Circle Meeting

Leaders from Spain, South America and Costa Rica concluded a meeting of the Montevideo Circle Saturday in San José by recapping the topics of education, development and free-trade discussed during their two-day encounter.

“Promoting education to improve access to knowledge and build Latin America as more competitive in the global market” was the theme of the meeting, attended by prominent democratic leaders including Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and the ex-Presidents of Spain, Felipe González; Uruguay, Julio María Sanguinetti; Colombia, Belisario Betancourt; Brazil, Enrique Cardoso; and Chile, Ricardo Lagos; among other Latin American political figures, according to a statement from Casa Presidencial.

Latin America has a great challenge of both taking advantage of the global “revolution” and providing its citizens better education, González said.

Arias agreed countries must not neglect social areas when working toward economic development, which he called “the most effective of any other method of eradicating poverty,” the statement said.

“Only if we open ourselves up can we achieve the fundamental challenge of Latin American democracies: bearing fruit for our citizens, improving the quality of life for individuals and producing results in the daily lives of our populations,” Arias said during the meeting's opening Friday.

Improving the distribution of wealth to help disenfranchised sectors was another challenge the leaders discussed, mentioning job creation, infrastructure improvements and investment in technology as ways to achieve this goal.

The Montevideo Circle was created by Sanguinetti in 1996 to unite politicians, intellectuals and international leaders from Latin America to talk about the challenges facing the region, according to the wire service ACAN-EFE.

Asian fetishists, gun control zealots and people with opinions about the Mexican-U.S. border will find some fodder in acclaimed Mexican director Alejandro González Iñarritu's “ Babel.” But don't let the trailer fool you; it's not about international terrorism and doesn't have much scope or philosophical relevance beyond the lives of its three casts of characters.

González Iñarritu, the director who brought us the heavy-hitting films “Amores Perros” and “21 Grams,” teamed again with writer Guillermo Arriaga and brought a bigger budget than ever (but, at an estimated $25 million, still paltry compared to what Hollywood bankrolls) to bear on a movie that aspires to deal with communication.

Not a Cartoon, at Least: Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett star in Alejandro González Iñarritu's “Babel,” set to open today in Costa Rica.

Photo courtesy of United International Pictures

The film is told in three dramas that occur simultaneously in four countries and are linked by a Winchester 270 rifle. The plot is thin enough that a brief summary can't avoid being a spoiler, but here goes: a U.S. couple is traveling in Morocco when the woman (Cate Blanchett) is accidentally shot. She writhes in pain while the couple's nanny takes their kids across the Mexican border to a wedding and a deaf and mute Japanese girl undresses in a misguided bid for acceptance.

The cast is flecked with superstars such as Blanchett, Brad Pitt and Gael García Bernal, and their prowess, commendably, is shored up or sometimes eclipsed by that of the no-names often given center stage.

The dream-team cast, writer and director and fascinating on-site filming in Morocco, the Mexican border and Japan were a potentially potent formula that fizzed – it's the story, man; it's mediocre. González Iñarritu claims it's about communication breakdowns in many forms – linguistic, physical, cultural, etc. – but such a broad theme alone does not justify corralling three plots into the same fold. The philosophical component is flimsy enough that it will spawn only conversations that end before you've wiped the last kernel of caramel popcorn from your shirt as you stand during the credits.

It is not surprising that the U.S. couple (Blanchett and a baggy-eyed Pitt looking his age) who argued bitterly in the opening scenes becomes closer while Blanchett is bleeding and pissing herself. Nothing brings people closer than a gunshot wound – after all, only a real bastard would keep an argument going while his spouse is dying in his arms. Likewise, the abuses Mexicans suffer at the U.S. border are not interesting enough to stand alone as a plotline. García Bernal shines as a blithe and smiley wedding goer but his wealth of talent is frittered away in a relatively minor supporting role. The Japan storyline is the most provocative, one of isolation and the pathetic attempt to escape it; and it ends with a peek at redemption. That third might be enough to justify the rest of it.

But maybe you should see this movie not for what it is, but because it's not a cartoon. It's also not “Eragon” or the worst Ben Stiller flick ever, which is sort of like a cartoon, but more depressing. Of the eight movies offered in Costa Rica at the time of this writing, three were cartoons, one was “Eragon,” and another was the worst Stiller flick ever, which makes “ Babel ” pretty attractive.