The Tico Times Online Daily Page

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DRUG BIRD: Helicopters flown off the decks of U.S. Coast Guard patrol ships help spy Colombian 'go-fasts' passing through Tico waters.
TT/Photo Julio Laínez

Drug Patrol Gets High off Cocaine Bust
The three-year-old joint drug patrol between the U.S. and Costa Rica hit pay dirt last weekend, when the Coast Guard busted 12-meter-long "go-fast" boat pregnant with as much as 4,000 kilograms of cocaine.
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Caribbean Music
Everyone is invited to dance to the Caribbean tunes of local calypso bands
"Ashanty" from Cahuita and "The Carpenters"
from Puerto Viejo. At 6 p.m., Casa de la Cultura, in Limon. Info:
207-4271.

Conference and Recital
Spanish master Adolf Pla from Barcelona is talking about the "Music for
Piano of Frederic Mompou." At 4 p.m., room 107, of the Music School of the
University of Costa Rica Campus in San Pedro. Free entrance.

National Choir Festival
Liceo UNESCO, Colegio Metodista, Mozart Chamber Singers, Mozart Chorale and
Universidad de Guayaquil are performing tonight in the festival that
started yesterday and will finish with six more groups on Sunday. Today's
presentation starts at 4 p.m., at the National Auditorium, in the Children's
Museum, west end Ca. 4. Info: 258-4929.

BUSTED: Colombian 'go-fast' stopped by Coast Guard
photo/Ministry of Public Security

According to a Ministry of Public Security press release, the speedboat was detected 240 miles off the Osa Peninsula by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter patrolling the Pacific waters from the deck of the "U.S.S. John L. Hall."

When the helicopter spotted the "go-fast", its five-member crew reportedly started to throw the drugs overboard, and attempted to sink their boat.
By the time the joint-patrol arrived on the scene, only 200 kilos of cocaine were still on board. The Coast Guard searched for the drugs thrown overboard, but could not say how much remains floating in the water, perhaps to soon wash up somewhere on Tico beaches.

Public Security Minister Rogelio Ramos called last weekend's drug bust a "significant advance" in the joint patrol, but others the effectiveness of the drug war remains unclear.

"The quantity of the drugs smuggled from South America to the U.S. has not changed in the last 10 years," former Costa Rican Coast Guard Commander Claudio Pacheco told The Tico Times last August (TT, Aug. 16).

Dengue Diagnoses Drop Dramatically
By Fabián Borges
Tico Times Staff

Health Vice-Minister Eduardo Lopéz yesterday presented new statistics showing a considerable drop in the number of dengue cases reported during recent weeks. The decline, he said, is attributed to the wide-scale prevention effort organized by Social Security (Caja) and the Public Health Ministry.

"Three months ago we were getting about 1,000 cases of dengue a week," Lopéz explained. "Last week we had only 150."

Lopéz stressed that Costa Rica's health-care system once again proved itself by effectively deterring what could have been a widespread epidemic.

"We owe a great deal of our success to the media and to all the people who participated," he said.

However, Lopéz warned, Ticos should not yet let down their guard. "There's still a month and half to go before the end of the rainy season," he said.

President Abel Pacheco applauded the success of the public-awareness campaign, and pledged Costa Rica will continue to provide assistance fighting the disease in neighboring Nicaragua and Honduras.

"Hemorrhagic dengue has caused many deaths in neighboring countries," he explained. "Thanks to the joint effort by the Caja and the Health Ministry, we were able to stop it in time, and it's now up to us to help our neighbors."

C.R. Trade Center Plans Move Forward
An ad-hoc government commission formed yesterday by President Abel Pacheco will meet this morning in the Casa Presidencial with a government delegation from Taiwan to discuss and iron out the two countries' plans to build a massive convention and trade center in Costa Rica.

"We need to define how far we are going to go with this project," said Tourism Minister Rubén Pacheco. "We need to decide if this is just going to be a convention center, or if we are going to include an exposition center, build a hotel, or open new offices in a trade center. There is private business interests we need to consider."

Talk of a constructing a trade center here with Taiwanese capital started last month, when Pacheco went on an eight-day trip to Taiwan. The two governments claim constructing a massive trade/convention center here would convert Costa Rica into the "convention tourism" center of the Americas.

President Pacheco noted that attracting conventions is important to tourism, because businesspeople get a taste of the country while here on business, then come back later to vacation with their families.

"We need to do this project very professionally because then we can promote Costa Rica to the rest of the world as a convention center," the Tourism Minister stressed. "[After all], Costa Rica is located right in the middle of the Americas."

The Taiwanese government has promised $25 million for the first stage of the project -- defining the plans and construction site. The area being eyed for the convention center is located near the mall Real Cariari, next to the General Cañas Highway.