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Woman to woman: A photograph by Adela Marín, appears along with the work of 15 other female artists today at the National Museum in San José, an early celebration of the March 8 International Women's Day. |
Courtesy of Galería Amón |
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| Nicaragua breaks ties with Colombia |
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announced his country is breaking diplomatic relations with Colombia, intensifying a Latin American rift over the Colombian government's attack against Colombian rebels on Ecuadorian soil. |
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| 15 artists explore women's world at Costa Rica's National Museum |
The National Museum is displaying the work of 15 female artists today, getting an early start on tomorrow's International Women's Day celebrations. |
| See More... |
| Alleged Costa Rican baby traffickers released |
The 14 people held earlier this week for alleged involvement in an illegal adoption scheme have been released. |
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| Costa Rica's inflation continues to soar |
February inflation was the third highest in at least the last 14 months, spiking 1.11%. The increase puts inflation for the last 12-month period at 11.4%, considerably higher than the 8.62% registered during the previous 12-month period. |
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| Violence claims more than one Panamanian per day in '07 |
PANAMA CITY – More than one Panamanian per day died violently in 2007, according to National Police figures. |
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| Intrigues Abound 'Even in Eden' |
If a writer self-publishes a novel, there is usually a reason: It's a bad read.
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Nicaragua breaks ties with Colombia |
By Blake Schmidt
Nica Times Staff | bschmidt@ticotimes.net |
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announced his country is breaking diplomatic relations with Colombia, intensifying a Latin American rift over the Colombian government's attack against Colombian rebels on Ecuadorian soil.
“We're breaking with the terrorist policy that Alvaro Uribe's government is practicing,” Ortega told reporters.
Ortega announced the decision yesterday during a visit in Managua by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, who is on a whirlwind tour around the region to shore up leftist leaders to pressure Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to apologize for the attack. Latin leaders are expected to seek a diplomatic resolution to the conflict at a regional summit in the Dominican Republic this week.
Correa said instead of apologizing to Ecuador for the assault, Uribe accused Ecuador of “sheltering” rebels of the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Correa denied the allegations and said he would only accept a resolution from the Organization of American States condemning the Colombian violation of Ecuador's sovereignty as a crime.
Nicaragua followed suit after Venezuala and Ecuador both broke ties with Colombia after the attack in northern Ecuador at a rebel camp 2 kilometers from the Colombian border, which took the lives of more than 20 FARC guerillas including the force's No. 2 leader, Raúl Reyes.
“It's time to make decisions and recognize this isn't just a bilateral problem,” Correa said. “There's nothing to negotiate. There's an aggressor and a victim.”
The Colombian assault on Ecuadorian soil came as Nicaragua has been engaged in an ongoing territorial dispute with Colombia over maritime boundaries.
It also occurred as Ortega's closest ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, was taking fire from Uribe for allegedly supporting FARC– which the Colombian government and the United States consider a terrorist organization – and for negotiating with the rebel group to have hostages released. Colombia says FARC, the country's oldest and strongest rebel force, finances itself with profits from drug trafficking and kidnapping.
Not long after the meeting, back in Colombia, FARC blew up a pipeline owned by state oil company Ecopetrol S.A., Bloomberg reported, quoting analysts who said this was the beginning of the rebel group's reprisals against the Colombian government. |
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15 artists explore women's world
at Costa Rica's National Museum |
By Alex Leff
Tico Times Staff | aleff@ticotimes.net |
The National Museum is displaying the work of 15 female artists today, getting an early start on tomorrow's International Women's Day celebrations.
In conjunction with the National Institute for Women (INAMU), the Barrio Amón-based Gallería Amón has collected 30 works, including photographs, paintings and sculptures, which it will show at the National Museum for one day, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“INAMU called on the gallery to do this event in commemoration of Women's Day,” according to the gallery's director Claudia Mandel.
Mandel, curator of the exhibit, said she wanted to use two works per artist “to give a more complete idea of the themes they explore.”
The works were not created expressly for the event, she said, and some of them have already showcased in Mandel's gallery. Adela Marín, Roxana Nagygeller, Rebeca Alpízar and Sussy Vargas are four photographers whose pictures formed an exhibition last year at Amón entitled Miradas Intimas (Intimate Looks), also sponsored by INAMU.
“These artists focus inward at the private world of women,” said Mandel.
The event opens with videos and talks organized by the women's institute. Later, starting at 2:30 p.m., artist Mariela Richmond will lead an outdoor painting class on the pedestrian-only street beside the museum, which is free and open to the public.
For the curator, there's certainly a need for such a celebration as Women's Day.
“Evidently, in Latin American countries it's very important to dedicate a bit of the calendar to reflect on women's issues,” said Mandel. “It's something we have to continue working on.”
The National Museum is located at Calle 17 between Avenida Central and Avenida Segunda. The exhibit closes at 3 p.m. |
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| Alleged Costa Rican baby traffickers released |
The 14 people held earlier this week for alleged involvement in an illegal adoption scheme have been released.
Costa Rican police believe the detainees – including a family court judge, a lawyer and two social workers – had arranged to have mothers paid up to $10,000 to give up their babies.
“This trafficking is prohibited by law,” said Jorge Rojas, chief of Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ).
The 14 were released after a judge declined to accept a prosecutor's motion to keep them in preventive prison.
The judge and two social workers were suspended for six months, pending the results of a prosecutor's investigation.
Police said their investigation into the adoption scheme began early in June 2006 and at least three babies have been adopted through the scheme.
None of those suspected of buying babies is a foreigner, police said. |
-Tico Times |
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| Costa Rica's inflation continues to soar |
February inflation was the third highest in at least the last 14 months, spiking 1.11%. The increase puts inflation for the last 12-month period at 11.4%, considerably higher than the 8.62% registered during the previous 12-month period.
Pushing up the cost of goods were international prices of food and oil, both of which have been soaring to record levels in the last few months.
The Central Bank in January put its inflationary goal for 2008 at 8%, plus or minus a point. Inflation for 2007 came in at more than 10%, despite a similar inflationary goal. |
- Tico Times |
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Violence claims more than
one Panamanian per day in '07 |
PANAMA CITY – More than one Panamanian per day died violently in 2007, according to National Police figures.
A total of 417 homicides, or 1.1 per day, were committed with different types of weapons in this nation of 3.2 million people last year.
Of the total, 300 homicides were committed with firearms, 91 with knives, 23 with blunt objects and three by strangulation.
The National Police said 2,363 illegal firearms were seized last year.
The 2007 homicide figures were released in the wake of President Martín Torrijos' announcement over the weekend that he planned to add 2,000 officers to the force to fight crime.
Last year, the government increased the maximum prison term for involuntary manslaughter to 20 years and murder to 30 years, with 35-year terms possible if other crimes are committed, and it introduced prison terms of seven to 12 years for minors who break the law.
Some political and community groups have called for even tougher sentences for minors committing murders because many organized crime groups use youths to carry out killings due to the light sentences they face.
Youth services officials, however, note that less than 2% of the crimes in this Central American nation are committed by minors. |
-EFE |
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Intrigues Abound 'Even in Eden' |
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If a writer self-publishes a novel, there is usually a reason: It's a bad read.
The rule, of course, has exceptions. For example, you may be a writer living in Costa Rica, where finding a publisher, especially one for an English-language book, is about as easy as finding a luge instructor.
Such was the dilemma for Albert A. Correia, a Californian transplant to San José. Unable to find a buyer, Correia forked up his own cash and published “Even in Eden” himself.
The book is a delightful tale of greed, power, sex, drugs, betrayal, revenge, murder and goodness, all set against the backdrop of this beautiful, peaceful yet deceptively sweet country we have come to love.
The book tells the fictional story of Gerardo Granados, a recent medical school grad, and his father, Faustino, a nationally beloved physician. Their dream is to build a network of low- or no-cost clinics across the country.
They lack financing, however. That's where José Sánchez, a powerful member of the Legislative Assembly, and his ambitious but corrupt son, Orlando, come into the picture.
Orlando – who holds a nasty grudge against Gerardo for a betrayal that dates back to their high school years – wants nothing to do with the Granados family. That is, until he realizes this could be the chance he has been waiting for to exact revenge.
Hence, the book's title has a double entendre: “Even in Eden,” as in bad things happen even in nice places; and getting “Even in Eden.”
Like many a Costa Rican adventure, Correia's tale begins in the Gran Hotel Costa Rica, where Gerardo is grabbing a quick cup of coffee.
At an adjacent table, unnoticed by Gerardo, are the Sánchezes, who are discussing Orlando's political future. At another table we meet two sisters, the worldly Yessenia, just back from California, and Yenori, the innocent, whom Yessenia is trying to recruit into the get-rich-quick world of “Club Fun,” patterned not so loosely after one of San José's better-known hooker hangouts.
As those stories unfold, taking us from the central Pacific party town of Jacó to the Caribbean port of Limón, a wide cast of characters enters the stage, including a sort-of-good Gringo and a really evil Gringo, some good Ticos and some bad Ticos, some Colombians – most bad – and a narrator named the Grand Tico.
Yessenia, a sadomasochistic drug addict, eventually enters a sordid relationship with the bad Gringo but marries Gerardo, who later unwittingly becomes implicated in her lover's mysterious overdose death.
The finale is satisfying, though less dramatic than anticipated by the buildup of the many overlapping stories.
Which is where the book drags. While Correia is an able storyteller and skilled at plot twists and character development, the volume of characters (Grand Tico included) and their chatter detract from the storylines.
The book also suffers from typo, spelling and grammatical errors – no fewer than 26 over one 100-page stretch. Many of them were brought on by the computer and language barriers between Correia, who speaks rudimentary Spanish, and his Costa Rican printing contractor, who speaks rudimentary English.
Still, the shortcomings in “Even in Eden ” are nothing a good editor and publisher couldn't overcome. They should give “Even in Eden ” – or at least its sequel, which Correia has already started writing – a chance.
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