FEBRUARY 01, 2007

AN ENCOUNTER of Ombudsmen: Defenders of human rights, or ombudsmen, from 17 Central American and Caribbean countries yesterday concluded a regional meeting in San José. Here, Costa Rican Ombudswoman Lisbeth Quesada, Caribbean Ombudsman Association president Paul Rodríguez and Central American Council of Ombudsmen president Sergio Morales speak to the press.

HANGING MUSIC: This piece, “ Vibraciones de Colores ” (“Vibrations of Colors”) is one of 20 works by artist Erika Stanley that incorporate real musical instruments on display at “Hanging Music,” an exhibit at Galería Valanti's new location in Los Sueños Marina Village in Playa Herradura, on the central Pacific coast. The exhibit runs through Feb. 26.

Defenders of human rights, or ombudsmen, from 17 countries in Central America and the Caribbean concluded a three-day conference in San José yesterday by announcing a new alliance they have formed to tackle problems facing their countries.

Isla San Lucas, a natural reserve and former prison island in the Pacific coast Gulf of Nicoya, is soon to be site of a movie filmed by Costa Rican director Douglas Martin.

Representatives from the Spanish company Actividades de Construcción y Servicios (ACS) are in Costa Rica to discuss the possibility of setting up projects and investing here, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

Central American and Caribbean Ombudsmen Forge New Alliance

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

Defenders of human rights, or ombudsmen, from 17 countries in Central America and the Caribbean concluded a three-day conference in San José yesterday by announcing a new alliance they have formed to tackle problems facing their countries.

“Human rights cannot be defended in an isolated manner because we share common problems, and we should also share common solutions,” said Costa Rican Ombudswoman Lisbeth Quesada, explaining that poverty, the environment, health and governmental practices are among areas on which the ombudsmen will collectively focus, in addition to social exclusion, HIV/AIDS and immigration.

Visiting ombudsmen came from countries including Haiti, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Honduras, Panama and El Salvador. They belong to two umbrella organizations: the Central American Council of Ombudsmen (CCPDH) and the Caribbean Ombudsman Association (CAROA). During the conference, these human rights defenders signed a resolution to merge the two groups, forming the Joint Forum of Members of CCPDH and CAROA.

Paul Rodríguez, CAROA president and Ombudsman for Belize, said this new alliance will be an instrument to “protect world peace and fight violence and racial discrimination, or any form of discrimination.”

“This new union will put our region on the map of the world as an area where people can push for the defense of their human rights,” Rodríguez said.

The group plans to convene again next year in Curacao. After yesterday's press conference, they met with President Oscar Arias at Casa Presidencial to inform him of their work.

Tico Director to Film Movie on Isla San Lucas

Isla San Lucas, a natural reserve and former prison island in the Pacific coast Gulf of Nicoya, is soon to be site of a movie filmed by Costa Rican director Douglas Martin.

Martin recently told the daily Al Día he plans to film a movie based on the book “ La Isla de los Hombres Solos ” (“The Island of Lone Men”) by Costa Rican author José León Sánchez, which tells his story as a prisoner who was later proven innocent.

The company Yacaman Producciones, owned by U.S., Honduran and Costa Rican investors, is producing the movie and will begin filming in December, Al Día reported.

“We're not basing the movie just on the literary work, but also on the life of José León Sánchez, who remained in San Lucas until his innocence was proven,” said Martin, a five-time winner of the National Prize for Literature who was given an honorary doctorate by the Autonomous University of Mexico.

Sánchez returned recently to the island where he was incarcerated and called the experience “painful” but said he had to “confront what I have lived so that new generations don't experience the horrors that were experienced there,” including torture.

Sánchez was sentenced to jail in 1950 for committing murder while robbing jewels from the Los Angeles Basilica in Cartago, east of San José. He got out of prison in 1969 but was not declared innocent by the Penal Branch of the Supreme Court (Sala III) until 1999.

-Tico Times

Spanish Construction Company
Looking to Work in Costa Rica

Representatives from the Spanish company Actividades de Construcción y Servicios (ACS) are in Costa Rica to discuss the possibility of setting up projects and investing here, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

The company, one of the biggest of its kind in Europe, works in energy production; petroleum processing; development and maintenance of urban water, gas and electricity networks; telecommunications and waste management.

In Costa Rica, ACS is particularly interested in developing bioethanol or diodiesel biofuel plants. Costa Rica is suitable for the production of these fuels because of its agricultural production and its government's interest in promoting alternative energy, the statement said.

Representatives from the company, who arrived Tuesday and are leaving today, have met with members of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT), National Oil Refinery (RECOPE), Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) and National Water and Sewer Institute (AyA).

After initial meetings, ACS representatives expressed enthusiasm in setting up projects and establishing a regional office here.

-Tico Times

Magazine Awards Costa Rica
Best Latin American Destination

Costa Rica was named best Latin American destination yesterday by the U.S. magazine Travel Weekly at the International Tourism Fair (FITUR) in Madrid, Spain, according to a statement from the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT).

“Costa Rica's many attractions and opportunities for tourists” made it stand out and merit this honor, Tourism Minister Carlos Benavides said from Madrid, where he is attending the fair this week.

The award was voted on by 140,000 Travel Weekly readers, many of whom are travel industry insiders. The publication calls itself “the national newspaper of the travel industry,” according to its Web site.

“This shows that Costa Rica continues to be perceived well in the United States and other markets,” Benavides said.

Costa Rica competed with countries including Panama, Chile, Peru, Argentina and Brazil for the award.

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.