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North and south: Behind George W. Bush, from left, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, Chile's Michelle Bachelet, Dominican Republic's Leonel Fernández and Colombia's Alvaro Uribe listen yesterday to the U.S. president's speech at Pathways to Prosperity in the Americas summit in New York City, not long before another televised presidential address about the financial crisis. |
Courtesy of EFE |
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| Gunslingers open fire on 10 police in Guanacaste |
A group of unidentified armed assailants opened fire on 10 National Police officers yesterday while the officers were responding to a 911 emergency call in Tilarán, Guanacaste, in north-central Costa Rica, the Public Security Ministry said. |
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| U.S. ambassador in Managua recommits to working with Nicaragua |
| MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Nearly a month after presenting his credentials as U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua, Robert J. Callahan told The Nica Times this week that the relationship between the United States and Nicaragua is “fraught with difficulty,” but that there's no “reason for undo concern.” |
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| Costa Rica president attends free-trade summit with Bush |
President Oscar Arias attended a forum on free trade yesterday with U.S. President George Bush, weeks after a Supreme Court decision threatened Costa Rica's entry into the Central American Free-Trade Agreement (CAFTA). |
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| Monetary reserves fall as trade deficit grows |
More ominous economic news appeared on the horizon this week for Costa Rica after the Central Bank announced the nation's trade deficit is worsening, further depleting the bank's reserves. |
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| Envoys arrive from Netherlands, Malta |
New ambassadors from the Netherlands and Malta this week presented their credentials in Costa Rica – a formality that marks the beginning of their terms. |
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When the Saints Go
Marching in San Ramón |
A colorful parade of saints lined up along the aisle of the church in San Ramón during the last weekend of August as the city celebrated its patron saint's day with an old Spanish custom: la entrada de los santos, or the parade of the saints. |
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| Gunslingers open fire on 10 police in Guanacaste |
By Alex Leff
Tico Times Staff | aleff@ticotimes.net |
A group of unidentified armed assailants opened fire on 10 National Police officers yesterday while the officers were responding to a 911 emergency call in Tilarán, Guanacaste, in north-central Costa Rica, the Public Security Ministry said.
Ministry press officer Carlos Hidalgo told The Tico Times none of the officers was hurt in the assault. Police were still in pursuit in the afternoon and had not informed headquarters of any further details.
Tilirán Delegation Commissioner Luis Antonio Mendoza could not be reached yesterday.
The daily La Nación reported local residents claim spotting the assailants carrying large firearms, including an AK-47 assault rifle, but the law-enforcement authorities could not confirm this. |
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U.S. ambassador in Managua
recommits to working with Nicaragua |
By Tim Rogers
Nica Times Staff | trogers@ticotimes.net |
MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Nearly a month after presenting his credentials as U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua, Robert J. Callahan told The Nica Times this week that the relationship between the United States and Nicaragua is “fraught with difficulty,” but that there's no “reason for undo concern.”
“I can't sit here and say we don't have problems. We do. And probably more problems than we have with certain other countries, certainly in the region,” Callahan told The Nica Times in his first exclusive sit-down interview in Nicaragua.
Still, Callahan said, the U.S. government maintains a high level of interest in Nicaragua and a commitment to work with the government of President Daniel Ortega.
“There are clearly disagreements in how we look at the world, and how we choose our friends and allies, and how we choose to speak to each other, but it's something that we are perfectly aware of. It's one of the things that I am down here to improve, if possible,” he said.
Don't miss tomorrow's Nica Times, an eight-page publication of The Tico Times, for the full exclusive interview. |
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Costa Rica president attends
free-trade summit with Bush |
By Gillian Gillers
Tico Times Staff | ggillers@ticotimes.net |
President Oscar Arias attended a forum on free trade yesterday with U.S. President George Bush, weeks after a Supreme Court decision threatened Costa Rica's entry into the Central American Free-Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
The White House convened the meeting for leaders from 11 countries in the Western Hemisphere that either have a free-trade agreement with the United States or are in the process of entering one.
In a joint statement, the leaders agreed to promote “trade liberalization and open markets” in the region and “exchange best practices on labor and environmental standards.”
Arias told his counterparts about Costa Rica's pickle: the country signed CAFTA in May 2004 and approved the pact in a national referendum last October, but it still hasn't joined the club.
Costa Rica will miss its Oct. 1 deadline for entering CAFTA because the Supreme Court has questioned a bill required to put the country in compliance with the pact. Lawmakers must now amend the bill and pass it again in a process that could take up to three months.
The Foreign Trade Ministry (COMEX) is now in talks with the U.S. Trade Representative and trade offices in other CAFTA countries to negotiate an extension of the deadline.
“We applaud Costa Rica's effort to complete the steps necessary for entry into force of (CAFTA) … as soon as possible,” the forum's guests said in their joint statement.
Of the countries represented at the forum, only four – Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Peru – had not yet entered their free-trade agreements with the United States.
Presidents and representatives from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico, Chile, Canada and the Dominican Republic also attended the forum. Nicaragua, whose relationship with the United States has deteriorated, was the only CAFTA country not represented. |
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| Monetary reserves fall as trade deficit grows |
By Leland Baxter-Neal
Tico Times Staff | lbaxter@ticotimes.net |
More ominous economic news appeared on the horizon this week for Costa Rica after the Central Bank announced the nation's trade deficit is worsening, further depleting the bank's reserves.
With imports rapidly outpacing exports, the trade deficit grew by 91.2 percent over the 12 months ending in August, the financial advising firm Aldesa wrote this week in a daily markets analysis.
The deficit totaled nearly $3.9 billion in August, Aldesa said. While exports last month were up 5.6 percent compared to August 2007, imports had risen 26.7 percent.
With more money leaving the country than entering, the Central Bank's international monetary reserves have continued to fall as it fights to keep Costa Rica's colon-to-dollar exchange rate within guidelines it set earlier this year.
Those reserves fell by $48.5 million last week, and have now dipped to their lowest level in nearly a year: $3.865 billion.
Based on the average monthly cost of imports from the first eight months of the year, the bank's reserves cover less than three months' worth of imports. Covering three months is considered to be a minimum indicator for a stable financial system, according to Aldesa. |
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| Envoys arrive from Netherlands, Malta |
New ambassadors from the Netherlands and Malta this week presented their credentials in Costa Rica – a formality that marks the beginning of their terms.
Antonio Nicola Lombardi is the new ambassador from Malta, a tiny, densely populated island in the Mediterranean Sea.
Johannes Hendrik Van Bonzel will represent the Netherlands here. |
-Tico Times |
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When the Saints Go Marching in San Ramón |
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A colorful parade of saints lined up along the aisle of the church in San Ramón during the last weekend of August as the city celebrated its patron saint's day with an old Spanish custom: la entrada de los santos, or the parade of the saints.
This year, 53 venerable statues of saints came from surrounding parishes and organizations in this western Central Valley coffee canton. The statues, some old and valuable, were borne on platforms decorated with flowers, carried on the shoulders of men and women from the parishes or groups. Each saint was accompanied by a band playing music, some traditional, some religious.
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| Saints Alive! The parade of the saints is an annual tradition at the San Ramón church. |
Joan Bougie | Tico Times |
This was a festival, nothing grim about it. There was St. John the Baptist carrying his long staff, the Virgin of El Carmen, the Virgin of Ujarrás and the Virgin of the Angels, a replica of the national shrine in the basilica in Cartago, east of the capital. St. Barbara, the patron saint of firefighters, was accompanied by a fire truck. The Holy Family came along with saints Gabriel and Raphael, the archangels. The images will remain in the church for nine days, or a novena, with daily Masses dedicated to the different parishes, explained Daniel Vargas, San Ramón's young and energetic pastor.
The principal saint of this event, of course, is San Ramón Nonato, and his statue, dressed in the red cloaks of a church official, had a special platform in front of the altar decorated with streamers in red and white.
San Ramón is the patron saint of pregnant women and newborn babies, Vargas said. He was born in the 1200s in Spain. His mother died giving birth to him, and he was delivered and adopted by a man named Ramón Cardona, who gave him the name Nonato, or “no birth.” At the age of 19, young Ramón joined the Fathers of Mercy, an order of priests dedicated to buying slaves to save them, and he went to Algeria, where slavery flourished. When funds ran out to buy more slaves, Ramón offered himself in place of a slave until more funds were available.
Pope Gregory IX wanted to honor the young priest by making him a cardinal, but with his health compromised during the episode of slavery, Ramón died on the way to Rome, at the age of 36.
The annual celebrations attract visitors from all over Costa Rica, because los ramonenses provide a week full of civic, religious and cultural activities. This year's included a zoo full of farm animals so that young city dwellers could get to know them. There were oxcart parades, folk dances, a sculpture contest, a band parade, theater and the reopening of the regional museum, displays of organic products and plants, and lots of traditional food under a thatch-roofed pavilion that spanned the entire street. A city that works together can produce a first class party.
“This is a family event to bring people together,” Vargas said. “With thousands of people filling the streets of San Ramón, no car thefts, assaults or vandalism were reported. And no alcohol was sold.”
San Ramón was first settled by the Maleku indigenous group. During the colonial years, the area was considered to be “the interior,” and prisoners and undesirables were sent here as punishment. In the early 1800s, expansion from Palmares, another western town, brought settlers into the area. Early residents Ramón Solís and Ramón Rodríguez placed the new town under the protection of San Ramón, and in August 1854 it officially became a city.
San Ramón became known as a literary and cultural center in the 19th century, after a priest of that era published an epic poem that scandalized citizens for not giving full support to the church, and which was read across the nation. This literary effort drew other poets and writers to San Ramón, giving it a reputation for arts and letters.
Leading statesman and founder of modern Costa Rica, José “Pepe” Figueres, was born in San Ramón in 1906. His home across from the church is now a cultural center. A branch of the University of Costa Rica is located here, and its professors and students add to the cultural life of the city.
And every year, during the last week of August, the whole community comes together to celebrate their patron saint's day, Aug. 31.
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