Those roadside orange juice carts and empanada street vendors may soon be a thing of the past.

After a University of Costa Rica study determined many are contaminated with fecal matter, city officials have set about confiscating the carts and destroying them. 

“We will be doing confiscations every day,” said Teo Dinarte, spokesman for the San José Municipality.

Dinarte explained that street vendors are not held to the same standards as those who sell food from a storefront and that food can become contaminated in the process of moving from the kitchen, through the streets and to the consumer.

“From a sampling of a large group of (carts), the fact that countless were contaminated called the attention of health authorities to the danger they represent to the population,” read a press release from the San José Municipality.

The municipality received authorization from the Health Ministry to undertake the confiscations. Previously, such street vendors were issued fines between 2,000 and 5,000 colones.

Marcelo Solano, municipal police coordinator, estimates as many as 500 street vendors will be affected.

The United States is pushing forward in support of elections in Honduras, despite a failed peace accord and without the restitution of President Manual Zelaya.

In an apparent shift from its previous policy – in which it refused to recognize the eventual results of the Nov. 29 election unless a peace agreement were fulfilled – the United States sent a top-level official to Tegucigalpa this week to “move the process forward towards a free and fair election.”

Craig Kelly, principal deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. State Department, arrived in Honduras Tuesday with plans to stay two days in order to move the situation toward a fair election.

“We recognize that the only path out of this is through an electoral process where the people of Honduras get to speak,” State Department Spokesman Philip J. Crowley said in a daily press briefing on Wednesday. “(Then) you have a new government that can go about the work of serving the needs of its people.”

His words seemed to confirm a statement from U.S. Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, just days earlier in which he predicted a reversal in U.S. policy.

“I am happy to report the (U.S. President Barak) Obama Administration has finally reversed its misguided Honduran policy and will fully recognize the Nov. 29 elections,” he said in a statement. “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Assistant Secretary Thomas Shannon have assured me that the U.S. will recognize the outcome of the Honduran elections regardless of whether Manuel Zelaya is reinstated (as president of Honduras).”

Only two weeks ago, the U.S. moved from its spot as a bystander in the Honduran crisis to a major player, when a handful of senior officials landed in Honduras on Oct. 27. They did in two days what other international negotiators couldn't do in four months: they saw the signing of a peace agreement.

But Zelaya, who was ousted in June and accused of violating the constitution, renounced the agreement days later, saying the resulting unification government was assembled without his input.

“The negotiations have come to an end. We have declared that there is no possibility of recognizing that accord,” he said, according to The Associated Press.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly expressed “disappointment with both sides” for the abrupt failure of the accord, which senior State Department officials worked to broker last month. However, without naming the interim president, Kelly implicitly pointed the blame at Roberto Micheletti. “It was a unilaterally decided government. And a unilaterally decided government is not a government of unity,” Kelly said during a press briefing in Washington, D.C., on Friday.

For his part, Micheletti is urging the international community to remain neutral on the matter and to stop accusing his administration of sabotaging the Tegucigalpa-San José Accord – named after the Honduran and Costa Rican capitals where the terms of the pact had been negotiated.

“Our country should not be punished because one of the parties unilaterally declared (the agreement) a failure,” said a statement issued Sunday afternoon by the Micheletti administration. “Mr. Zelaya is trying to act like the ‘victim,' when in reality his leading role has been (the pact's) ‘executioner,' with the erratic behavior that characterizes him.”

The statement goes on to make a plea to Zelaya camp to rejoin Micheletti in carrying out the terms of “the government of unity and national reconciliation, without looking for pretexts with which to break an agreement whose content they're having doubts about after having signed it.”

The trans-Atlantic international boat race known as Transat Jacques Vabre 2009 is on its way to Costa Rica.

The race left the port of Le Havre in northern France on Sunday, and the sailors are currently about a quarter of the way across the Atlantic. The race will conclude at the Caribbean port of Limón. The boats are expected to arrive in the next week to 10 days.

Currently in the water are 13 IMOCA vessels, which have a traditional single-hull body style, and three Multi50-style sailboats, which have three hulls, with two smaller hulls on either side of the main hull at the end of wing-like extensions.

The IMOCA ( International Monohull Open Class Association ) race began with 14 ships, but the ship BritAir was forced to turn around and dock on Wednesday after being hit by a storm off the coast of northern France. The Multi50 class has lost three of the original six ships due to strong winds and chilly, inclement conditions.

As of Thursday, Safran was leading the IMOCA class, and Crepes Whaou was leading the Multi50 class. All ships have made their way south after passing Spain and the Iberian Peninsula. Several ships have continued south while some have elected a more westerly course. The different navigation strategies of the sailors should be interesting to monitor as the race continues.

For more information on the race, visit http://www.jacques-vabre.com. The Web site also includes a live tracking device that allows a person to follow the progress of the ships on their way to Limón.

A bridge replacing the one that collapsed into the Tárcoles is now open to pedestrians and small vehicles, three weeks since the accident that resulted in the death of five people.

The Bailey-style bridge opened Wednesday afternoon, and replaced the 100-year-old, hammock-style bridge that collapsed under the weight of a bus carrying 38 people last month.

Although the bridge now reconnects the small community of Turrubares with the town of Orotina, enabling villagers to access banks, gas stations and pharmacies without having to make a two-hour roundtrip, some fear that the replacement bridge was a rush job.

“We feel a little deceived, especially as we haven't been consulted with or told about anything,” Guillermo Saborio, chairman of Tu Ru Bari Adventure Park in Turubares said.

“If they were going to replace the bridge, why didn't they do a proper job and make one that can support all vehicles? We will end up having the same problem as last time.”

See the Nov. 13 print or digital edition of The Tico Times for an interview with Costa Rica's new public works and transport minister.