Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, February 04,  2003

A CRY FOR HELP: Colombian refugees occupy Inter-American Rights Court. TT/ Annel Sancho

Colombians Occupy
Inter-American Rights Court
Afraid for their lives and desperate for protection, 40 Colombian refugees stormed the Inter-American Human Rights Court yesterday afternoon, asking to be put in a protection program and relocated to another country.
(Click for more)

New Mayors Swear In
The 81 mayors elected in Costa Rica's first-ever municipal elections
 held last December and February
swore into office yesterday with as
much fanfare as the elections themselves,
 which drew a record-low 20% of voters (TT Dec. 6, Feb. 17)
(Click for more)

Police Name Suspect in U.S. Man's Murder
Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ) are searching for a 24-year-old Costa Rican man they say is the key suspect in the brutal murder and robbery of 58-year-old U.S. citizen David Brian Kane last month (TT, Jan 10).
(Click for more)

A Bit of Chinese Culture
The Costa Rican-Chinese Cultural Center announces its classes in Chinese cooking, cooking for newly weds; painting with oils, watercolors; as well as Tai chi, Chinese Embroidering, ping pong, language classes, crafts for senior citizens, and bamboo art. Registration is today and tomorrow, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Info: 290-1247, 232-5038.

Visiting San José's Main Theaters
Melico Salazar Theater, guided tour includes an art exhibit in the hall, stage, dressing rooms, and lighting systems. Reservations at 221-4952.

Compañía Nacional de Teatro, for a maximum of 35 people, shows the dressing rooms, stage, scenery background workshops and more according to the play on stage. Reserve at 257-8304.

National Theater, receives groups of students, tourists, call 233-1272, 221-1329.

Sex Seminar
M.D. Dr. David Reuben, is dictating the seminar "All You Wanted to Know about Sex But Were Afraid to Ask," Wed., Feb. 5, 2:30 p.m., Ambar Salon, San José Palacio Hotel, 220-2034, ext. 658, 682.

Colombians Occupy
Inter-American Rights Court
By Tim Rogers
trogers@ticotimes.net

Afraid for their lives and desperate for protection, 40 Colombian refugees stormed the Inter-American Human Rights Court yesterday afternoon, asking to be put in a protection program and relocated to another country.

After two months of camping in tents outside the Court's gates in the eastern San José suburb of Los Yoses, the Colombians decided to take more drastic steps yesterday, claiming the violence and death threats they fled from in their native country have followed them to Costa Rica.

Waiting for the guards to open the gate at 5 p.m. to allow the last Court employee to leave in his car, one of the Colombian men grabbed the gate and held it open while the rest of the men, women and children ran through into the courtyard.

The group, calling itself the Colombian Refugee Human Rights Association, was met with mild resistance from the baffled and resentful security guards, who called for police backup.

The refugees -- some of the younger ones in tears -- tried to calm the guards, explaining that they were entering the court's grounds out of fear for their safety, and that it had nothing to do with them.

"I am ready to stay here with my family until we can be offered some protection," a determined 66-year-old mother told The Tico Times. "We continue to have our lives threatened here; my son has been followed and we have had cars sitting outside our house."

"We left Colombia out of fear for our safety; but here we found the same situation here," said 40-year-old José Rafael, who claims he was kidnapped by guerrillas two years ago during a road ambush before being let go to deliver a message to the other side. "I have received three or four telephone death threats at my apartment here."

The testimonies of the other Colombian refugees were similar. All spoke of death threats coming from splinter paramilitary groups that have sent contract killers to Costa Rica to eliminate witnesses, former policemen, or family members of "enemies."

"Pablo," a former state intelligence worker who spent several years investigating a paramilitary leader suspected of leading a 1999 massacre of 12 campesinos in a town called Castillo, was forced to leave Colombia with his wife and four kids last October, following an attempt on his life. Four of the nine police officers under his command were killed in car-bomb explosions in Colombia, he said.

Pablo was not in the country more than a month when he saw the same paramilitary leader he had been investigating in Colombia on the downtown street of Jacó Beach, on the Central Pacific. The telephone death threats started several hours later, warning him: "We have found you; you can't escape from us."

Pablo and his family have changed homes three times in the last four months, and now want to get out of Costa Rica.

"I came here today to send my wife and kids inside the court, where they will be safe," he told The Tico Times. "I have got to sell the car and everything else so we can leave as soon as possible. We need to start over again."

When the police arrived, however, the Colombian refugees were instructed that they were "disrespecting Costa Rica's laws," and told they had three minutes to leave the premises or be forced off.

Reluctantly, the Colombians -- who were originally hoping for several hundred refugees to show up -- left the court grounds peacefully.

Read Friday's TT print edition for more on refugees and paramilitary groups.

New Mayors Swear In
By Amanda Schoenberg
aschoenberg@ticotimes.net

Araya swears in. TT/ Amanda Schoenberg

The 81 mayors elected in Costa Rica's first-ever municipal elections held last December and February swore into office yesterday with as much fanfare as the elections themselves, which drew a record-low 20% of voters (TT Dec. 6, Feb. 17)

Perennial San José Mayor Johnny Araya took the reins of the capital once again, during a swearing-in ceremony held in the Parque Nacional that featured the participation of mayors from Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Spain. Vice-mayors, municipal trustees and district council members were also sworn during yesterday's event.

In his inauguration speech, Araya spelled out his priorities for the next four years, emphasizing improving citizen security by increasing the number of police and expanding coverage, and helping to prevent youth drug addiction by increasing sports programs.
Araya also promised to fix the city's transit problems, calling the disastrous situation one of San José's "most serious problems."

"Transit in Central San José has practically collapsed," he said.

The Mayor said he hopes to work together with the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT) to improve traffic, modernize traffic signals and work on developing an electric railway. He also said he wants to prevent street vendors from operating in the city center, to give more room to automobiles.

Araya called for citizen support to create a cleaner and more orderly city, stressing that volunteers will be an important element of neighborhood-improvement programs.

Araya served as San José's Mayor for almost 10 years before resigning his post in 2000 to help lead his brother Rolando Araya's failed Presidential bid. This is the first time he was elected to the post by popular vote.

Archbishop Monsignor Hugo Barrantes and other Catholic officials also participated in the event and lead participants in prayer.

The Youth Symphony played the national anthem and elementary students wearing "superheroes ambientales" ("environmental superheroes") T-shirts picked up trash at the event and helped hold the Costa Rican flag steady.

Miguel Pastor, Mayor of Tegucigalpa, Honduras called Araya's plans "dynamic," and said he hopes all sectors of the San José population will support the mayor.

"The plans are very good and Johnny has the kind of personality that will make these things happen," said Polo Riverón, an urban investment consultant who attended the ceremony.

Several ceremony observers, however, criticized Araya's past mayoral terms during the event.

"This municipality is not transparent nor efficient; it don't even have a photocopier for the public," said Manuel Sanchez, a representative of the Democracy in Action Foundation, a civil organization requesting government transparency.

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Police Name Suspect in U.S. Man's Murder
By David Boddiger
dboddiger@ticotimes.net

Harold Steven Hernández Photo/OIJ

Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ) are searching for a 24-year-old Costa Rican man they say is

 the key suspect in the brutal murder and robbery of 58-year-old U.S. citizen David Brian Kane last month (TT, Jan 10).

OIJ officials said yesterday that Harold Steven Hernández is wanted in connection with the double crime, after witnesses placed him at Kane's house the morning of Jan. 4.

Kane, a retired telecommunications executive, lived alone in his luxury home in La Granja, San Pedro, east of San José.

The Joint Prosecutor for San José's Second Circuit Court on Jan. 29 issued an arrest warrant for Hernández, who police say has been missing since the day of the murder.

OIJ officials urge anyone with information on Hernández's whereabouts to call 295-3311, 295-3639, 295-3640, or 295-3372. Caller information will be held in confidentiality.

Read Friday's TT print edition for full story.

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