February 6, 2008

No fin soup: An international mix of demonstrators – 145 total, according to organizers – gathered Saturday outside Restaurante Lotus in barrio La Paco of Escazú, southwest of San José, to protest one of the eatery's dishes, shark fin soup. Organized by students of the Country Day School and members of the environmental groups including Friends of Isla del Coco Foundation and MarViva, the protest was the latest push in a longtime struggle for Costa Rica to pass a nationwide ban on the sale of shark fins.

Photo courtesy of Enrique Uribe

Hotel democracy: Democrats Abroad organizers, from left, Ruth Dixon, Paul Kloes and Warren Kinsman hold down the fort at the Hotel Aurola Holiday Inn on Parque Morazán while Americans come in to vote on Super Tuesday in San José. It was the first global primary ever held for U.S. citizens living abroad. Ballots were not kept secret and voters spoke openly about whom they thought was the better candidate. “It's more like a caucus,” Kloes said.

Harmony Reforma | Tico Times

By Nick Wilkinson
Tico Times Staff | nwilkinson@ticotimes.net

U.S. ex-pats trickled into a hotel room on Parque Morazán yesterday to vote in a historic global primary to help decide the Democratic Party's 2008 nominee for U.S. president.

“I voted for (Barack) Obama,” said voter David Randolph, originally of Thousand Oaks, California. “I think he's an inspiration and we need someone like that. The last eight years have been a disaster.”

U.S. citizens have always been able to vote absentee from abroad in the general election, organizers said, but this was the first time primary voting was allowed.

“In the past, overseas voting could be a complicated affair," said Christine Schon Marques, the international chair of Democrats Abroad, the group that organized the primary. “We intend to change all that and make sure that Democrats all over the world have a clear say in who our candidate will be.”

With no admirers of President Bush in the cramped hotel room at the Hotel Aurola Holiday Inn, conversation focused on the choice between Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, the last two Democratic candidates standing after a long, sometimes mind-numbing litany of debates that began in February 2007.

Some voters agonized over their decision.

“It was very difficult because I like both candidates,” said Anna Hoover, a Los Angeles native. “I just feel like the country is in such desperate shape, we need some real change.”

Democrats Abroad member Warren Kinsman agreed Obama was the candidate of change, saying the candidate reminded him of former President John F. Kennedy.

“Originally, I was for Clinton,” he said. “I changed after watching the debates. I thought he captured more of a sense of urgency of what needs to be done and I think he'll be more determined to get troops out of Iraq.”

The campaign for first-term Sen. Obama uses the slogan, ‘Change We Can Believe In,' while the Clinton team emphasizes the experience of the third-term senator.

The local Democrats Abroad chapter organized the San José voting, which allowed registered voters to cast ballots online, in-person, by fax or by absentee form.

Paul Kloes, the chairman of Democrats Abroad of Costa Rica, said voting was steady but not overwhelming.

“All votes will count,” he said. “Democrats Abroad International has the same status as a state in the Democratic Party.”

Ballots were not kept secret and participants were required to join Democrats Abroad.

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

Not more than a month after Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega publicly slammed the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as “corrupt,” he met with U.S. drug officials this week to increase cooperation in the drug war.

“This is an issue we have to work on,” Ortega told DEA Chief of Operations Michael Braun.

Ortega and top U.S. law enforcement officials sat down at the Sandinista headquarters in Managua in an attempt to reestablish a dialogue after Ortega's recent harsh comments.

“We were hoping to establish with this meeting a new stage in the relationship between the Nicaraguan and U.S. governments in the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime,” Ortega said.

The meeting comes as the U.S. Congress is debating a $550 million aid initiative to beef up anti-narcotics efforts in Mexico and Central America.

In Ortega's January state of the nation speech, he publicly accused the DEA of having Nicaraguan cops on its payroll, adding that the DEA is “very dangerous.” The U.S. State Department denied the allegation. Ortega is a close ally to Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, a staunch U.S. foe who has banned DEA agents from Venezuelan soil.

Despite the verbal riff, Nicaragua, a key thoroughfare for drugs smuggled from South America to North America, has been making record drug seizures since the Ortega administration took over last year. Nicaraguan cops seized a record 20 tons of cocaine last year.

Christy McCampbell, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for counter-narcotics, thanked Ortega's efforts of “keeping drugs off the streets.”

Ortega said Nicaragua's poorest region, the Caribbean coast, could use help for social programs that would prevent Nicaraguan youth from falling into drug use and smuggling.

Costa Rica took a bold step into the tumultuous Mideast politics yesterday, announcing it recognizes Palestinian statehood and announces a bilateral accord with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to “strengthen” the governments' diplomatic relationship.

The arrival of a Palestinian ambassador is imminent, the statement said.

“The government of Costa Rica and the State of Palestine, in the hopes of promoting and strengthening their existing friendship and cooperation, have decided to establish diplomatic relations,” said the press release from the Foreign Ministry, quoting a joint communiqué issued by both Palestinian and Costa Rican administrations.

“The government of Costa and the State of Palestine” – the statement repeated – “reaffirm their mutual support of and commitment to the principles and proposals of the United Nations Charter and the norms of international law, particularly in the promotion of peace and international security, the respect for sovereignty and independence of states and the non-intervention in their internal affairs.”

Costa Rica's fresh relations with the PNA is the latest step in the Central American nation's charm offensive in the Arab world, which has seen new Costa Rican embassies in countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon and Yemen. These form part of the 15 new ties grown during the administration of President Oscar Arias since May 2006.

The decision “deepens our gradual normalization of diplomatic relations with the Arab and Islamic world, as part of a foreign policy of opening borders, geographically and mentally, which reinforces an intelligent insertion of Costa Rica in the world,” said Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno, according to the release.

The agreement took place yesterday morning at Costa Rica's Permanent Mission to the U.N. office in New York, with signatories Jorge Urbina, this country's permanent representative to the U.N., and Riyad Mansour, of the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine of the United Nations.

By Nick Wilkinson
Tico Times Staff | nwilkinson@ticotimes.net

While keeping your passport on you at all times puts you at risk of theft, not keeping it puts you at risk of arrest by the police. Of course, having crack rocks or marijuana on you might lead to an extended sojourn in this land of volcanoes.

During sweeps in Tamarindo, Guanacaste province last weekend, police apprehended 40 foreigners without their passports and confiscated crack rocks and marijuana.

Immigration Police Chief Francisco Castaing said it is important for tourist businesses to inform their customers of the passport requirement. He also said keeping a copy, including the page with a valid entry stamp, is an acceptable compromise.

The 40 foreigners included Israelis, Germans, Brazilians, U.S. citizens, Nicaraguans, Panamanians, Koreans and Colombians. Immigration police kept four foreigners in custody but did not identify their nationalities.