Costa Rica will celebrate its independence from Spain Tuesday with festivals and parades.

A torch relay that began on Monday in the northwestern province of Guanacaste ended in Cartago, the old capital east of San José, with the singing of the national anthem.

Early evening Monday, children flooded the streets of areas like the eastern San José neighborhood of San Pedro with candlelit lanterns, a Costa Rican tradition.

On Tuesday, parade participants and enthusiasts are set to fill Avenida Segunda and Avenida Central in downtown San José, as well as cities and towns throughout the country, with marching bands and marchers in traditional dress to commemorate the 188th anniversary of Costa Rican independence. Major roads leading into the capital and other towns will be blocked for the event.

The raising of the flag and the singing of the national anthem will take place at 10 a.m. Tuesday at San José's Parque Nacional.

“I think it's important to remember this day in our history,” said Diana Mora, 28, of Cartago. “We're a small country, but we have accomplished a lot in 188 years. We've established a democracy on our own and developed great systems for education, social security and health care and I think we should be proud of that.”

Costa Rica gained its independence in 1821 from Spain. At the time, Spain and Central America's rule was in the hands of King Ferdinand VII.

After a series of rebellions between 1811 and 1814, the Congress of Central America declared the isthmus independent from Spanish rule on Sept. 15, 1821.

Most of the seven nations that make up Central America consider Sept. 15 their independence day.

Central American countries commemorate Sept. 15 with a passing of the torch from one country to the next. The torch arrived in Costa Rica on Sunday morning at 11 a.m.

In light of the debacle in Honduras (see separate story), the torch did not pass through that country. Instead, ousted Honduran President Manual Zelaya carried it through Nicaragua.

Waiting for Honduras: U.S. State Department representative Craig Kelly, left, sits Monday with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias at a news conference to announce details about the visit of four Honduran presidential candidates to San José on Wednesday.

Keely Kernan | Tico Times

President Oscar Arias will meet Wednesday with four Honduran presidential candidates to deliver a chilling message: Their country – which now borders on the poorest in the Western Hemisphere – will tip further into poverty and isolation if the San José Agreement remains unsigned.

Cut off from the rest of the world and losing much of the foreign aid it generally receives, Honduras was blacklisted by the international community after its president was removed from office at gunpoint on June 28.

Now, nearly three months after the coup, deposed President Manuel Zelaya is still waiting on the outskirts of his country as the San José Agreement (which would restore him to power) goes unsigned.

“The situation will be precarious for the winner of the (November) elections if the San José Agreement is not signed,” Arias told reporters Monday at a press conference announcing the candidates' visit. Backed by the United States and other regional powers, Arias warned that Honduras will remain isolated if no action to restore Zelaya is taken. “It's in their interest that the situation returns to normal.”

Craig Kelly, a top official within the U.S. State Department, joined Arias in the announcement.

“We support Arias' effort to reunite them,” he said, adding that the United States, which recently slashed aid to Honduras, backs any diplomatic effort to “realize the points of the San José Agreement.”

The U.S. government has said it will not recognize the results of Honduras' elections as long as the accord drafted by Arias isn't met.

Elvin Santos of the Liberal Party, Porfirio Lobo of the National Party, Felícito Avila of the Christian Democracy Party, and Bernand Martínez of the Innovation and Unity Party have been invited to Casa Presidencial on Wednesday. The Honduran elections are scheduled for Nov. 29, with the victor expected to take office in January.

Fourteen months after he was hired to coach the Costa Rican national team, head coach Rodrigo Kenton was fired Monday by the Costa Rica Soccer Association (FEDEFUTBOL).

Murmurs of Kenton's firing began last week, after Costa Rica dropped its third consecutive World Cup qualifying match, 1-0, to El Salvador. The Ticos, who won four of their first five games in World Cup qualifying, have lost their last three matches by a combined score of 8-0, including a 4-0 dismantling by Honduras in August and a 3-0 home loss to Mexico on Sept. 5.   

At a press conference at FEDEFUTBOL Monday in Santa Ana, west of San José, Kenton sat with Costa Rican Soccer Association President Eduardo Li, who explained the reasoning for the coach's release.

"I would like to take the opportunity to thank Mr. Kenton for all of the work he has done," Li said. "But results are important, and we have not got the right ones over the course of our last three matches."

Prior to the match with Honduras on Aug. 12, Costa Rica was in first place in the CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) region, though, with losses in their last three games, the Ticos have fallen to fourth place. The top three teams from CONCACAF will advance to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Currently the U.S., Mexico and Honduras hold the top three spots in the region. The fourth place team in the region plays a two-game playoff series against the fifth place team from the South American qualifying group, CONMEBOL. Perennial world soccer power Argentina is in fifth place in that group.

La Sele, the nickname for the Costa Rican team, has two games remaining in World Cup qualification. The Ticos will play Trinidad and Tobago, who is in last place in the group, on Oct. 10. They will play the group leader, the U.S., on Oct. 14. If they are to earn a top-three position, Costa Rica will most likely need to win both games and have some of the teams ahead of them lose their games.

Kenton won his first nine games as manager of La Sele and led the Ticos to a 15-2-3 record in his first 20 games. Kenton, who served two stints as an assistant coach prior to being appointed to the head coach job in June 2008, finishes with an overall record of 15-5-4.  

PANAMA CITY – Panamanians could soon be surfing the net for free, thanks to a government-backed plan to provide wireless Internet service to the public at no charge.

Eduardo Jaén, secretary of governmental innovation, told newswire EFE that the “national Internet access network” project was approved last month and was sent Sept. 2 to the wireless technologies company Liberty Technologies Corp. for review.

The funding for this endeavor will come out of a 1 percent income tax that telecommunications companies pay into state coffers, an agreement that came about with the sector's privatization in the late 1990s.

The government expects the network to start Oct. 10 at 200 wireless access points in 10 cities, in a first phase that would potentially connect 1.5 million Panamanians to the Internet for free.

Other companies were considered for the project, Jaén said, adding that Liberty Technologies' proposal appeared more attractive, particularly because it consists of 405 connections, including in indigenous areas.

Once the plan is complete, the government expects the Internet to reach as many as 2.3 million people – or about 70 percent – of the country of 3.3 million.

The access points will be placed in schools, hospitals and clinics, parks, libraries, sports centers and training centers, to name a few. The connection speed will start at 256 kilobits per second (kbps) in the initial phase and is set to reach 512kbps.

“This is a project that's really aimed at the layer (of people) with the least economic possibilities in the country, to give them access to the world of cyberspace and to reduce the digital gap that exists, especially within urban centers and rural sectors of the country,” said Jaén.

The innovation secretary added that Panama's wireless grid works the same way as the U.S. city of Baltimore.

Jaén boasted, “No other Central American country has announced a project of this magnitude, and we will be the first in Latin America to have a system like this on a nationwide level.”