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Hit-and-run: Angelo Sequeira, 7, receives treatment for injuries after he was run over by a quadricycle on the northern Pacific beach on Brasilito during a fishing outing this week. See the print or digital edition of The Tico Times for more on this story. |
Keely Kernan | Tico Times |
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Domestic focus: “El ojo en la casa” (Eye at Home), a collective exhibit by photographers Jan Adamski, Adrián Arias, Néstor Baltodano, Mariana Saez, Leonardo Goyenaga and Priscilla Mora is showing at TEOR/ética, an art gallery in San José's historic Barrio Amón. |
Keely Kernan | Tico Times |
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| Obama names new U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica |
| United States President Barack Obama announced Thursday his intent to nominate an environmental consultant to head the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica. |
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| PAC reignites anti-corruption crusade |
The left-leaning opposition Citizen Action Party (PAC) came out Wednesday with a scathing statement against the current administration and the ruling party, in a move that forcefully returned the PAC to its role as government watchdog. |
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| Tax exemption to increase cash flow for rural water systems |
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias signed into law a tax exemption for the Administrative Associations of Rural Aqueducts (ASADAS) on Wednesday in hopes of freeing up infrastructure money for rural aqueducts. |
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| Street vendors play cat and mouse |
On a gloomy Wednesday afternoon in downtown San José, dozens of roaming street vendors crept out of the alleyways and small crevices between buildings along Avenida Central. They took a careful look around, and then opened large, black garbage bags filled with everything from shoelaces to DVDs. |
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Sor María Romero, a
Costa Rican Saint in the Making |
It's common to say of those who are generous with their hearts and purses that “He's a saint,” or “She's a saint.” Sor María Romero, who was known far and wide for her kindness and spirituality, is about to become Costa Rica's first saint, and many of her friends and admirers are still around praising her. She died in 1977. |
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| Obama names new U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica |
By Chrissie Long
Tico Times Staff | clong@ticotimes.net |
United States President Barack Obama announced Thursday his intent to nominate an environmental consultant to head the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica.
The embassy has been without an ambassador since June, when Peter Cianchette, a Maine businessman and former Republican gubernatorial candidate, left the post to return to his home state.
Obama's chosen replacement, Anne Slaughter Andrew, currently serves as a principal to the Washington, D.C.-based company New Energy Nexus, where she advises companies and entrepreneurs on energy-related investments.
According to a White House statement issued Thursday, Andrew has been actively engaged with conservation and environmental organizations, including The Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy and the Indiana Natural Resources Foundation, and she is experienced in creating and managing public policy initiatives in the environmental and clean-energy arena.
Previously, she served as co-chair of the Environment/Energy Team at Baker & Daniels, and as a partner at the Washington, D.C.-based law firm of Patton & Boggs. In addition, Andrew co-founded a medical bio-tech consulting company, Anson Group LLC, where she served as an owner and director from 2004 to 2007.
She is a graduate of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and she received a law degree from the Indiana School of Law in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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| PAC reignites anti-corruption crusade |
By Chrissie Long
Tico Times Staff | clong@ticotimes.net |
The left-leaning opposition Citizen Action Party (PAC) came out Wednesday with a scathing statement against the current administration and the ruling party, in a move that forcefully returned the PAC to its role as government watchdog.
The PAC cited a series of incidents in which President Oscar Arias' National Liberation Party (PLN) used public resources for personal benefit, including those involving a former housing minister, environment minister and National Emergency Commission chief, each of whom stepped down amid harsh allegations.
“The abuse of public resources has become a trend for the PLN and (the PLN-run) government,” the statement read.
The week began with the news that Maureen Ballestero (PLN), vice president of the Legislative Assembly, used a government-owned plane to fly from San José to a PLN campaign event in Liberia, in the northwest Guanacaste province. The trip occurred four days after the Supreme Elections Tribunal reminded political parties not to use public resources for campaigns. Ballestero apologized and said the urgent trip was necessary to pick up a passport for travel to Mexico.
On Tuesday, public prosecutors formally accused Costa Rican Electricity Institute Executive President Pedro Pablo Quirós of embezzlement and misuse of funds by making two helicopter trips in January and March during which he attended a wedding and visited friends' homes as well as a PLN event.
“It's a fact that Pedro Pablo Quirós lied and took advantage of Costa Ricans' resources,” legislator Alberto Salom, a PAC party leader, said in a statement.
“Quirós said he diverted for a moment to go to a wedding,” he said. “It is very common these days to hear this kind of excuse from those who are being investigated by public prosecutors.”
The PAC estimates that two trips taken by Quirós in January and March cost Costa Ricans $6,900.
In Ballestero's case, presidential frontrunner Laura Chinchilla (PLN) asked for a thorough “investigation regarding the events involving Ballestero” and “whether it's a violation of our laws.”
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Tax exemption to increase
cash flow for rural water systems |
By Mike McDonald
Tico Times Staff | mmcdonald@ticotimes.net
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Costa Rican President Oscar Arias signed into law a tax exemption for the Administrative Associations of Rural Aqueducts (ASADAS) on Wednesday in hopes of freeing up infrastructure money for rural aqueducts.
Representatives of the ASADAS said the exoneration will free up ¢78 million (over $133,000) per month.
The money accounts for about 13 percent of the funds the ASADAS have historically spent on purchases and repairs. Operators will use the extra income to buy tubes, meters, pumps, concrete and other accessories.
There are approximately 1,850 ASADAS that supply water to about 1.2 million people in Cost Rica. Most of the nation's rural areas are supplied by these small associations.
At a press conference Wednesday, rural aqueduct operators said they have been squeezed lately with maintaining tubes that span from one house to the next. In some rural areas, supply lines can stretch up to two kilometers between houses over steep terrain.
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| Street vendors play cat and mouse |
By Mike McDonald
Tico Times Staff | mmcdonald@ticotimes.net
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On a gloomy Wednesday afternoon in downtown San José, dozens of roaming street vendors crept out of the alleyways and small crevices between buildings along Avenida Central. They took a careful look around, and then opened large, black garbage bags filled with everything from shoelaces to DVDs.
Most had taken a few hours off after a fierce October downpour, but amidst the evening pedestrian rush, shouts of “ películas, música, juguetes ” returned to the walkway.
These sights and sounds are familiar to anyone who has walked along the pedestrian mall in the capital city's center. But if the municipality of San José has its way, these scenes won't be the rule much longer.
San José Mayor Johnny Araya announced a week ago that the city will launch a “comprehensive operation” to remove an estimated 500 illegal hucksters from the downtown promenade.
“It's like a movie out here some days,” said Liliana Chacón, a waitress at Casa del Toro on Avenida Central. “They sell and sell and sell. Then the police arrive and they scream ‘ ojo ojo ojo' (watch out) and grab their things and run. Then they come back and sell and sell and sell. It's a part of downtown San José.”
See the Oct. 16 print or digital edition of The Tico Times for more on this story.
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Sor María Romero, a Costa Rican Saint in the Making |
It's common to say of those who are generous with their hearts and purses that “He's a saint,” or “She's a saint.” Sor María Romero, who was known far and wide for her kindness and spirituality, is about to become Costa Rica's first saint, and many of her friends and admirers are still around praising her. She died in 1977.
Casa Sor María Romero, the home she built for her religious community and their works of charity, is in San José on Calle 32, between Avenidas 2 and 4. It's open every day to anyone who comes to pray in the chapel, meditate in the garden, shop in the bazaar or just take a break from a hectic day. Others come to donate food or used items in good condition for the bazaar. And still others come because they need help, spiritually, medically or to feed their families.
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| Saintly: A portrait of Sor María Romero watches over the home she built in San José for her works of charity. |
| Mitzi Stark | Tico Times |
A group of about 40 young women lives here while they learn job and homemaking skills and receive spiritual strength to make it in their difficult lives. And the latest addition is an emergency home for women and children who need shelter. Add to this the 20 or so nuns of the Salesian order Hijas de María Auxiliadora, or Daughters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and you have a houseful. A happy houseful.
Sor María Romero was born in Nicaragua in 1902. Her concern for the poor was such that as a child she gave away her good dresses to little girls who had none. At 18, she joined the Salesian order and eventually came to Costa Rica in 1931 to teach at the María Auxiliadora high school, which stands across the street from the home. As a teacher, Sor María became popular for her kindness and spirituality. She organized student missions to rekindle faith among lagging Catholics, and with her prayers and intercessions helped many people through emotional and spiritual crises.
But she was always aware of the physical needs of the poor, and so began the medical consultations, food packages, blankets and clothes and safe lodgings. According to those who knew her, her prayers reunited families and marriages and helped build housing projects, and also provided the home now named after her.
“Her prayers were powerful,” says Sor Angelina Chávez, who remembers Sor María. “The poor box was always full.” There were always donations and always people who needed help.
A visit to the neighborhood is a lesson in itself. Barrio Don Bosco, on San Jose's west side, was named for the priest who founded the Salesian order of priests, nuns and brothers to teach and practice the works of mercy. There are Don Bosco high schools for boys and María Auxiliadora high schools for girls all over the world, with several here in Costa Rica, staffed and run by Salesians, to combine education with spiritual growth, Sor Angelina explains.
Stories of Sor María's miracles began while she was still alive. Cures for illness, family stability, reunited marriages and help finding jobs or financial security were credited to her prayers and her caring.
Sor María died in her native Nicaragua on July 7, 1977, or 7-7-77, as Sor Angelina points out. She was buried there, but because of the war at the time her body was brought to San José to the general cemetery. In 1981, her body, still intact – a sign of a saint – was moved to a mausoleum in the rose garden she planted, where it is said the roses would bow down when she walked by.
Sainthood requires miracles, and Sor María occasioned many, starting with the mother who brought her small child to Sor María's grave to ask the good nun to straighten his twisted legs so he could walk. Even as she prayed, the child began to run around among the tombs, his body healed.
Determining sainthood is a lengthy process. Nineteen boxes of “testimonies” written on special paper were sent to the Vatican, Sor Angelina says. In April 2002, Sor María Romero was beatified by Pope John Paul II. Now it's a matter of waiting. Only a few of the many candidates for sainthood make it each year, but Sor María Romero is waiting her turn.
Casa Sor María Romero is open every day. Masses are at 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. daily, 10 a.m. on Sundays. The bazaar is open every other week from 1 to 3 p.m. Donations for the food bank or the bazaar can be left at the front desk. For information, call 2222-1271.
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