The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, November 05, 2002

SONGS OF SPRING: The return of parrots to San José is a noisy reminder the rainy season is about to end.
TT/Photo

November 05

Artwork for Children
Damas Voluntarias of the Asociacion de Bienestar Social in Escazú are selling cards and paintings to support the Cen Cinai Day Care Center, which looks after 100 children of low-income working families. Products are on sale in front of the Red Cross, Escazú (down from the main cemetery). Call 228-0279

Casa y Oficina Expo
Exhibit of architecture, furniture and construction and design materials for houses and offices. Opens today and runs through Dec. 15, 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Tues.-Sun., 25 m. south of Automercado, Los Yoses. Info: 283-8891.

Return To Top Of Page

Fraud Investigation of Two IRS Agents Launched
By Tim Rogers
Tico Times Staff

The Judicial Prosecutors Office confirmed yesterday it is investigating criminal allegations filed against two agents of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), who entered Costa Rica in 2000 to pursue an undercover probe of Anderson's Ark & Associates -- an alleged tax shelter run by now-incarcerated Iowa native Keith Anderson.

While in Costa Rica investigating Anderson and his organization, IRS agents James Dowling and Diane Taggart allegedly used fake identifications to open local bank accounts under the fictitious names "James Mitchell" and "Diane Target."

After opening the accounts, Dowling and Taggart reportedly tried to infiltrate Anderson's Ark and made numerous secret recordings of conversations they had with Anderson. The recordings were then used in court in Sacramento, California, as trial evidence against Anderson's brother Wayne and fellow Ark member Richard Marks, who were convicted last May 31 on money-laundering and conspiracy charges.

The secret tapes are also one of the pillars on which Anderson's extradition request to the U.S. is based.

However, when the undercover recordings of Anderson were made in late 2000 and early 2001, Costa Rican law only provided for phone taps in cases of official investigations into narco-trafficking (the law has been expanded since). All other secret recordings are illegal, and inadmissible in court.

Anderson's defense lawyer, Moíses Vincenzi, therefore believes that Dowling and Taggart broke two laws here: opening bank accounts with false U.S. driver's license, and conducting illegal and unauthorized wire taps.

If the Financial Crimes Prosecutor investigating the charges concludes that the IRS agents did break Costa Rican law, an arrest warrant could be issued for them here.

However, Costa Rican law authorities cannot request the extradition of Dowling and Taggart because the U.S. cannot extradite its own citizens. Ironically, the same argument is being used in Anderson's defense, following the Civil Registry's controversial decision last August to grant the 62-year-old tax rebel Costa Rican citizenship (TT, Aug. 16).

The Civil Registry immediately tried to revoke its decision when it learned Anderson had been in prison for six months, but Vincenzi claimed the government agency cannot revoke citizenship without due process (TT, Aug. 23).

Vincenzi is currently appealing the court's decision to extradite Anderson, claiming Costa Rica cannot extradite its own. The case is currently in the Second Circuit Appeals court, where a three-judge panel continues to deliberate (TT Daily Page, Sept. 13).

Return To Top Of Page

C.R. AIDS Activist Takes Message
To Inter-American Press Association

To help raise awareness about HIV/AIDS issues in Latin American, local activist Richard Stern, director of the Costa Rica-based Agua Buena Human Rights Association, next month will address a special meeting of the Inter-American Press Association on ways to better report the health crises affecting the hemisphere.

Entitled "AIDS, Present and Future of the Epidemic: Is Enough Being Done to Fight HIV/AIDS in the Americas," Stern and other panelists will travel to Washington, DC to lead a workshop of more than 50 Latin American journalists on the media's role in reporting the issues.

"The workshop presents an opportunity to inform journalists from throughout Latin America of the challenges of overcoming the terrible discrimination which people living with the HIV/AIDS still face," Stern said in a press release. "For seven years, almost all people with AIDS in Europe and the United States have been receiving anti-retroviral medications, yet 75% of people in Latin America still do not receive these medications.

"The Latin American press can play an important role in presenting critical issues to civil society as well as helping to improve the situation of people with AIDS," he added.

Last month, Casa Agua Buena and several other rights organizations presented the Inter-American Human Rights Commission with a special report on the human-rights violations against people living with AIDS in the Americas. The report stressed the importance of governments providing HIV/AIDS patients with anti-retroviral medicines as a basic human right.

Agua Buena was founded here by Stern in 1998 and currently works in 12 countries, focusing its programs on access to treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS.

The organization's Assistant Director, Guillermo Murillo, was the first AIDS patient in Costa Rica to speak out publicly and was one of four plaintiffs in a 1997 lawsuit resulting in a decision by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) to order Costa Rican Social Security System (Caja) to provide anti-retroviral medications to all Ticos who need them.

Return To Top Of Page

New Alliance Formed Against
Sexual Exploitation of Minors

Leaders and representatives of Costa Rica's private and public tourism sector met yesterday to sign a new accord aimed at cracking down on the sexual exploitation of minors by training tourism operators to take a more active role in the crusade.

Bringing together members of the Justice Ministry, the Child Welfare Office (PANI) and the Costa Rican Association of Tourism Professionals, the new accord will require all educational institutions that teach courses in tourism to give a mandatory class on the sexual exploitation of minors.

Signatories of the accord recognized that the development of tourism, voluntarily or involuntarily, facilitates the development of networks dedicated to the exploitation of children.

Immigration Director Marco Badilla, meanwhile, continued last week to promote the Costa Rican initiative to develop regional information networks to detect the movement of foreigners with a history of sexually exploiting children.

The regional network idea, which Badilla proposed last month during an Immigration summit in Nicaragua, was discussed and fine-tuned last week in Guatemala, during a follow up working meeting between Immigration directors from Central America, North America and the Caribbean.

The regional accord is expected to be ratified by January 2003.

Badilla said his office, with the help of regional child advocacy group Casa Alianza, has already started to compile a list of sex offenders. Immigration will continue to gather names from the International Police (INTERPOL) and other non-governmental groups before distributing the list to all Costa Rica's Immigration entry points.

Return To Top Of Page