Following through on another campaign promise before he leaves office in May 2010, President Oscar Arias signed a contract to build a new airport terminal in Liberia, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste.

The $35 million terminal is expected to serve a daily traffic of 1,500 passengers in a multi-level, 23,000-square-meter facility.

“With an increased capacity in tourism…this can be an exit from the economic crisis that grips our country,” said Karla González, minister of public works and transport (MOPT), who signed the contract along with Arias on Wednesday.

The project is being placed on an accelerated schedule so that Arias can inaugurate the new building before leaving office. The next five months will be dedicated to the completion of design documents and the following six months to construction. According to the contract, the state will oversee operation and maintenance of the terminal for the first 20 years.

MOPT has already invested about ¢3.8 billion, or nearly $6.7 million, in the expansion of the hangar (to include 11 planes, not just four) and a storage unit.

Liberia's Daniel Oduber International Airport receives several international flights, including ones from Atlanta, Miami and Houston, among others (as well as multiple domestic flights a day), totalling 454,693 passengers in 2008.

The Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR) is preparing to unroll a new series of bills in the coming year, including the first-ever denominations in 20,000 and 50,000 colones.

The last time the bank issued new bills was in 1998 and officials stressed the need to keep pace with anti-counterfeiting measures and to make the money accessible to people with visual impairments.

“We want to improve the security of our money,” said Marvin Alvarado, director of the Treasury Department. “At this moment, we are not taking advantage of the technology that exists today in the production of currency. Right now, counterfeiters can reproduce (our money) with ease.”

The other reason, Alvarado said, is to make the bills more distinguishable from one another through differing markings and sizes, in order to prevent confusion.

The new ¢20,000 and ¢50,000 bills – about $35 and $88, respectively – will be introduced as soon as late March 2010, with the other bills following suit.

With many pulperías (corner stores) and taxis denying ¢10,000 bills and asking for smaller change, some wonder how often the larger denominations would even be used.

“We don't expect a high circulation with the 20 and 50 thousand bills,” Alvarado said. “But there are certain sectors of the economy where these sizes are very important. A ¢50,000 bill is less than $100.”

BCCR officials are considering using the plastic material Nicaragua introduced in May (NT, May 29) to replace some of Costa Rica's paper bills.

The bills will feature six important figures in Costa Rica history including former President José Figueres Ferrer, public education advocate Mauro Fernández and writer María Carvajal (Carmen Lyra). The other side will be decorated with nature scenes including rain forests, coral reefs and wetlands.

The existing currency will be phased out as the new currency is introduced next year. But for those tourists who unintentionally collect colones when they head home, Alvarado said not to worry. The old currency can be exchanged at the Central Bank “indefinitely.”

BILWI, PUERTO CABEZAS, Nicaragua – A political showdown between indigenous separatists and the Sandinista government appears to be steaming toward a larger-scale confrontation in this sultry Caribbean port town, following several weeks of mounting tensions and spats of violence, including unconfirmed reports of six people being shot.

The Sandinista-run mayor's office is accusing separatist leaders of working with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to agitate a labor dispute between lobster divers and fishing companies in attempts to destabilize the regional government.

The separatists, however, argue the government is using the strike as an excuse to squelch their historic claim to the Communitarian Nation of the Moskitia, which announced its rebirth April 19 (NT, May 1).

Both sides say tensions are heating quickly.

“Patience is running out and we can't continue to allow this,” Puerto Cabezas Mayor Guillermo Espinoza told The Nica Times.

Espinoza said the government of Daniel Ortega, which has not responded to the Moskitia's independence claim, has been too lenient with the separatists, thinking the issue would go away on its own.

However, the mayor said, the movement has gained momentum and become increasingly disruptive.

Now, he says, the Moskitia movement “has to be stopped.”

Espinoza said the municipal government is organizing protests against the separatists and collecting signatures to demand its leaders be brought to justice.

Independence leaders, meanwhile, say it's the municipal government that's violating the law by limiting indigenous people's rights to self-determination. Independence leader Rev. Héctor Williams, known as the Wihta-Tara, or “Great Judge,” of the Moskitia Nation, says his movement is still committed to a peaceful transition to power.

The separatists have given the municipal government six months – until October – to hand over the state machinery.

However, he warned, if push comes to shove, the separatists have got the numbers to run the Sandinistas authorities out of town whenever they want.

See the June 26 edition of The Nica Times for more on this story.

GUATEMALA CITY – Violent crime continues to plague this country, claiming 1,584 lives in the first five months of 2009, which is 450 more than the same period in 2008, a new report says.

Presented Monday by the humanitarian organization Mutual Support Group (GAM in its Spanish spelling), the report criticizes as “insufficient” the measures taken by the Guatemalan government to crack down on violence.

Among this year's victims are 196 women and 22 children, the report says. January saw the height of violence so far, totaling 358 killings.

“Women are the ones who are most vulnerable, not just because they constitute a perfect target for all kinds of aggression, but also because these cases of violent death in Guatemala are highly difficult to investigate and prosecute,” the report reads.

As many as 98 percent of violent acts go unpunished because of weaknesses in Guatemala's judicial system, according to the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala.

Guatemala averages 16 killings a day, making it one of the most violent nations in Latin America.

“Violations of human rights, especially of the right to one's life, continue instilling in citizens feelings of fear, frustration and repudiation because of the lack of immediate responses to the wave of crime that affects this country,” the GAM report says.