February 18, 2008

Old soldier: Sylvester Stallone is back as John Rambo, in cinemas now.

Photo courtesy of Lionsgate Entertainment

Panama people power: This police vehicle was battered in a clash last week between construction workers and police in Panama City. Protestors hurled rocks at police, demanding safer work conditions and better wages, and justice for a union leader who was killed last Tuesday by a police officer's bullet in the back during a protest in the Caribbean city of Colón. Panama's president passed a decree to improve conditions for builders.

Alejandro Bolívar | EFE

Pressed by violent street protests, the Panamanian government has approved a bylaw that promises to improve health and safety conditions for workers in the country's burgeoning construction industry, the newswire EFE reports.

The new bylaw answers one item of a list of demands of members of the builders' union, SUNTRACS, who clashed with police last week. Protests grew fiercer with the shooting death of union leader Al Iromi Smith last Tuesday and ended in hundreds of arrests through the week.

President Martín Torrijos and Labor Minister Edwin Salamín signed a presidential decree late Friday, according to a state press release, ordering the new piece of legislation to take effect within 30 days.

The bylaw “is aimed at regulating and promoting security, health and hygiene in construction work, through the application and development of measures and actions needed to prevent risk factors on construction sites, whether public or private,” the statement said.

The measure also obliges construction companies to create committees to oversee the implementation of such health and safety measures.

Though the bylaw responds to workers' demands, its swift approval might not quell further protests or strikes, according to reports by Panamanian media including the daily La Prensa and Pa-Digital.com.pa.

SUNTRACS leaders are calling for demonstrations to continue until the government meets the union's initial list of demands. These include the resignation of the minister of justice and the head of the National Police force, whom labor organizers charge with what they call the “assassination” of Smith, as well as the murders in 2007 of Osvaldo Lorenzo and Luigi Argüelles.

The government said it is investigating Smith's death.

Also high on the list of demands are better wages, a lower cost of living and a freeze on the price of basic groceries, EFE reported.

Today SUNTRACS leaders are expected to be at the ombudsman's office, according to Pa-Digital.com.pa, to push forward their nine-item list.

Some residents, however, are hoping the protests will have already ended. Mario Fonseca, whose office overlooks one of the streets that was in the fray last week, said the demonstrations are a nuisance for Panama, bringing much of the capital to a halt.

Protestors set piles of tires on fire along busy roads and highways across the city, the newswire Reuters reported. Some union workers hurled rocks at the police, who, in turn, launched tear gas at the angry mob.

But Fonseca said what began as an ordinary rally, “hardly any different from the one last year,” turned unnecessarily violent when Smith was killed.

“The killing was the trigger,” Fonseca told The Tico Times over the phone from his office in Panama City's banking district.

“It was unfortunate, but the workers took it as an excuse to throw rocks, break windows… Not a protest, more an act of vandalism.”

He continued, “We are normally a very quiet and peaceful people.”

As the U.S. presidential race heats up back home, many expats here are wondering how they can make their vote count in the Nov. 4 election. Next week some U.S. citizens abroad in Costa Rica will be better informed.

The U.S. Embassy has scheduled a training session “to reach as many Americans as possible to educate them about the process for registering and voting,” according to Vice Consul and Voting Officer Carol Vargas.

The embassy said it will host a voting workshop on Feb. 22 “for individuals who are in a position to assist American citizens living overseas with registering, requesting absentee ballots, and providing other assistance in voting in primaries and the November election.”

Leading the workshop will be Paul Mendez of the U.S. Defense Department.

There will be one workshop from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. and another starting at 2 p.m.

Anyone interested in attending should contact Vargas at (506) 519-2449.

By Gillian Gillers
Tico Times Staff | ggillers@ticotimes.net

Costa Rica can enter a free-trade agreement with the United States now, then spend up to three months passing laws that put the country in compliance with the treaty, the Government Attorney's Office said Friday.

Two government advisers confirmed President Oscar Arias' thesis that March 1 is the deadline for entering the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).

But, contrary to what Arias has said, Costa Rica can enter the treaty now – before passing laws to implement it – by notifying the Organization of American States (OAS), according to the Government Attorney's advisers. CAFTA was approved here by referendum in October.

The Arias administration put together a package of 11 bills that would implement CAFTA, and various ministries are working on a 12th. Two of the bills have been passed, while the others face filibuster tactics by the Citizen Action Party (PAC), which opposes the treaty.

Because the treaty takes effect in Costa Rica 90 days after the country notifies the OAS, lawmakers would have to act before May 30 to shield the country from costly lawsuits, the advisers said.

Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias, the president's brother, said he accepts the nonbinding opinion by the Government Attorney's Office. But because lawmakers cannot pass all the implementing laws by May 30, he said, Costa Rica will seek an extension of the March 1 deadline for entering the treaty.

Foreign Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz will travel to Washington, D.C., in late February to formally ask for an extension from the U.S. Trade Office representative. Ruiz said he has already spoken with other CAFTA signers – the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic – and is confident they will agree to grant Costa Rica more time.

Rodrigo Arias said Costa Rica might ask for four or five more months to enter the treaty. Then another 90 days would elapse before CAFTA takes effect here, unless the Legislative Assembly approves an amendment allowing it to take effect immediately.

As Kosovar residents yesterday paraded down the streets of the capital, Pristina – some wrapped in the new double-headed eagle flag and others wearing T-shirts that read “Independence Is Better Than Sex” and chanting “We are free at last!” – governments around the world also weighed in on the historic moment.

With the point-blank exceptions of Serbia and Russia, most countries, including Costa Rica, came out in favor.

The Foreign Ministry congratulated Kosovo for “the successful achievement” of gaining independence democratically and peacefully. Costa Rica, it said in an official statement issued yesterday, “declares itself in favor of the independence of the Republic of Kosovo,” according to the newswire EFE.

The government added that it is “understandable” that Kosovo's authorities, led by Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, would decide to part ways with Serbia, due to “the crimes against humanity” perpetrated by President Slobodan Milosevic's regime.

In the weeks leading up to Kosovo's bid for independence, Costa Rica, which holds a seat on the United Nations Security Council, expressed doubts, saying such a move would weaken the world body. Independence, Costa Rican Ambassador to the U.N. Jorge Urbina told The Tico Times last week, “is not appropriate.”

A province of Serbia, with an ethnic Albanian majority, Kosovo is counting on the support of the United States and key European powers to make its secession stick.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica vowed that his nation would never recognize the “false state,” calling Kosovo's declaration of independence a “humiliation” for the European Union.