Four of the five leading presidential candidates in Honduras are unwilling to accept the San José Agreement to restore their deposed president to power.

In a meeting with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias on Wednesday, they refused to support Manuel Zelaya's return to carry out his term, which ends in January.

Zelaya, who was ejected from his country by the military on June 28 after allegations that he violated the constitution, has been passing time in Nicaragua, waiting for an opportune time to return home.

But support for him is absent on the campaign trail, as the candidates – even that of his own Liberal Party – look to distance themselves from him and the San José agreement.

“We ask that our election process be independent from what happened on June 28,” said Elvin Ernesto Santos, who represents the Liberal Party. “We'd like to maintain our separation from the agreement, but we'd like to indicate our respect for it.”

Arias, who mediated between the feuding parties during an intensive four-day process in July, invited the five politicians to San José with a warning.

If Zelaya were not reinstated as president, the elections on Nov. 29 would not be recognized by the international community and Honduras would remain cut off from the rest of the world, he said.

Since the coup at the end of June, the Central American Integration System suspended Honduras' participation, the United States cut off $30 million in aid and the European Union is withholding another $95 million.

With a full understanding of how isolation could tear at their country, the candidates came to Costa Rica on Wednesday in the hopes of negotiating with international players.

“We are in an economically precarious position, which will directly affect our people,” said Santos. “We want a harmonious exit to this situation and that is why we are here.”

Though they could not come to an agreement over Arias' draft accord, they did sign a statement indicating their support for some of the ideas behind the document.

César Ham, candidate with the Democratic Unification Party, was the lone voice in support of the agreement, which was drafted in July as a proposed solution to the conflict.

Identifying himself as a representative of a “leftist party,” he said “We think we need to reinstate the democratically elected President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales. The rest of the candidates do not agree … They say the San José Agreement is insufficient … Yet, if there is no resolution on the San José Agreement, the election will not be recognized.”

In an effort to display his continued commitment to the crackdown on the sale of pirated goods on city streets, San José Mayor Johnny Araya unveiled a pile of 35,000 pirated CDs and DVDs Wednesday.

The municipality claimed that the discs had been confiscated over the course of the past six months by the Municipal Police. The city said the goods, with an estimated value of ¢ 3 5 million (about $60,000), were seized from approximately 350 illegal vendors.

The confiscated DVDs and CDs were piled on the corner of Avenida 4 and Calle 3, near the Finance Ministry, an area known as a hotbed for sales of pirated goods.

The San José Municipality announced plans to incinerate the confiscated merchandise, ensuring that they would not be redistributed. This is the second time this year the Municipality and Municipal Police have organized a ritual demolition of pirated goods. In February, 15,000 pirated DVDs and CDs were destroyed.

According to the municipality, the discs will be incinerated by Geocycle Environmental Services and the Holcim Group in a cement furnace. Estimated to reach temperatures of up to 2,000 degrees Celsius, the environmentally-friendly furnace is said to prevent the production of secondary residues and gases almost entirely.

After the success of last year's “Yoga For Everyone” festival, organizers from the Costa Rican Association of Yoga Teachers (ASOYOGACR) are making it an annual event. Coinciding with World Peace Day Sept. 21, this second festival's message is: “No path leads to peace; the path itself is peace.”

“Yoga is a powerful tool for cultivating a deep sense of peace in every person. It has been scientifically proven to reduce stress and create inner calm,” says ASOYOGACR President Gerardo Chávez.

A variety of activities will be held at the National Culture Center (CENAC) in downtown San José tomorrow and Sunday from 10 a.m. onwards, including yoga sessions for all ages and skill levels, meditation and exhibition classes of tai chi, dance and aerial acrobatics. Stalls selling healthy food, eco-friendly products and yoga equipment will be set up in the main hall. The festival will conclude Sunday afternoon with a concert featuring national and international artists.

Free yoga classes will be offered today at Kapoli, Multispa, Estudio Namasté, Krama, Kasasana, Casa Lamat, Danza Abierta and Red GFU centers in San José; at Lung Ta in Heredia, north of the capital; at Gimnasio Grecia, in the western Central Valley; and at Ser Om Shanti in Tamarindo, on the northern Pacific coast.

For more information, go to www.asoyogacr.org or call Oscar Ortiz at 8866-5739.

Two high court judges visited northern Costa Rica's controversial open-pit gold mine in Las Crucitas last weekend, but instead of offering conclusions, the court only left room for speculation.

“It was a visit,” said Sonia Villegas, press officer for the Supreme Court's Constitutional Chamber (Sala IV). “A visit is a visit. If they found anything, we will have to wait to see.”

The Sala IV is supposed to be working toward a resolution of the latest complaint filed by environmentalists against the mine in October 2008. The judges' weekend retreat to the northern zone near the Nicaraguan border was the first of its kind and was intended to expedite the court's decision, but Villegas said the visit was just one more step in the process.

There is no date for a resolution or the release of any information about the trip, Villegas said.

The Crucitas open-pit gold mine is no stranger to the Sala IV. Since Dec. 18, 1999, environmentalists have presented four complaints against the mine before Costa Rica's highest court.

The latest of these, filed Oct. 19, 2008, claims that logging 192 hectares (474.4 acres) of forest to complete the project would critically harm the feeding grounds of the great green macaw, a protected and highly endangered species of bird found only between Nicaragua and Ecuador.

Industrias Infinito S.A. and Infinito Gold LTD, the Costa Rican and Canadian companies that are teaming up to operate the gold mine, claim that the project would employ 500 people and provide Costa Rica with more than $329.6 million of income if it is allowed to continue.

The National Secretariat to the Environment Ministry (SETENA) declared the project environmentally viable in February 2008, although environmentalists disagree with SETENA's decision. The logging in the area is partially completed and several mining facilities have already been built, but construction cannot continue unless the Sala IV rules in favor of the mine.