The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, February 18, 2003

CAUGHT RED HANDED. Drug-Control Police find 223 grams of compressed cocaine in the secret compartment of a suitcase on Friday. The owner of the suitcase, a 25-year-old Jamaican citizen last-named Buckeridge will likely be tried on international drug trafficking charges and could face up to 20 years in prison.
Photo/Public Security Ministry

February 18

Free Concert
National Symphony Orchestra is offering a free concert at 7:30 p.m., at Santísima Trinidad Church in Barrio Mexico. Info: 221-2154.

Candle Night
Jazz Café, located across from Banco Popular in San Pedro, will have a concert with singer Miriam Jarquín and Blues Latino band at 9:30 p.m. Info: 253-8933.

Egyptian Belly Dance Workshop
An intermediate level Egyptian belly dancing workshop directed by Asmira, creator of Asmira Dance Theatre y Asmira's School of Belly Dance, in Vancouver, Canadá and organized by ProDanza. Edificion Tisa at the Pavas Industrial Zone, 50 meters west of Pizza Hut Main Offices. Info: 290-2271, or visit: www.prodanza.com

Return To Top Of Page

Government, ICE and Unions
Reach A Compromise

After two weeks of negotiations, amid threats of a workers' strike, the government, the Costa Rican Electricity and Telecom Institute's (ICE) management and its labor unions were able to reach an agreement on the institution's 2003 budget at around 1 a.m. Sunday morning.

Earlier in the year, President Abel Pacheco ordered all government institutions to limit their spending growth to 5.9% in 2003 and requested they apply a series of austerity measures aimed at controlling the spiraling fiscal deficit.

However, ICE had made big plans for 2003, budgeting $1.4 billion - 64% more than was spent in 2002 for various projects. The government opposed the spending increase, considering it a dangerous move at a time when every government institution had to do its part to control the deficit and avoid a potential economic crisis similar to the one the country faced during the 1980s (TT Daily Page, Feb. 14).

ICE Management argued the spending constraints would delay vital projects and would jeopardize the country's development. Union leaders accused Pacheco of attempting to weaken ICE to later privatize it.

Pacheco repeatedly denied intending to sell ICE and has promised that none of the institution's employees would lose their jobs as a result of the austerity measures. (TT Daily Page, Jan. 22, 30)

As part of the agreement, ICE agreed to postpone various investments totaling $226 million until 2004.

In exchange for this concession, the government agreed to speed up the approval of two loans ICE had requested from the Central American Economic Integration Bank (BCEI) and Credit Suisse First Boston. The government also gave ICE the green light to issue a series of bonds that would be used to finance future investments.

The Executive Branch agreed to submit to Congress a bill aimed at strengthening the ICE and protecting it from privatization. A special commission that would include all sectors of society would also be appointed to discuss the proposal.

ICE officials were pleased with the agreement, considering it would allow the country to solve its fiscal problems without jeopardizing important development projects such as the Pirrís hydroelectric project, broadband Internet (DSL) and the next-generation GSM cell-phone system.

-AFP

Return To Top Of Page

Two Jamaicans Caught in Separate
Drug-Trafficking Incidents on Friday

On Friday, members of the Public Security Ministry's Drug Control Police arrested two Jamaican citizens in two separate drug-trafficking incidents, one in the eastern province of Limón and the other at Juan Santamaría International Airport in Alajuela.

The first arrest took place at 3:45 p.m. in the city of Limón after drug police checked a cruise ship that had recently arrived from Mexico. During the search, police discovered several grams of cocaine in the insoles of a Jamaican waiter's shoes.

The waiter, a 26-year-old last-named Richard, was part of the ship's crew. A later inspection of his quarters revealed two additional insoles containing cocaine. In all, police found 134 grams of the drug.

Four and a half hours later, at approximately 8:15 p.m., drug control police at Juan Santamaría International Airport detained a 25-year-old Jamaican male last-named Buckeridge who was carrying 223 grams of compressed marijuana in a secret compartment in his suitcase.

Buckeridge had just arrived in the country from Panama and was scheduled to fly back on Saturday, catching connecting flights to Port Au Prince, Haiti and then to Kingston, Jamaica.

If found guilty, both men could face prison sentences of up to 20 years.

Return To Top Of Page

New Costa Rican Ambassador to Nicaragua
Optimistic about Relations Between Countries

Newly appointed Costa Rican Ambassador to Nicaragua, Rodrigo Carreras, on Thursday stated his desire to eliminate the fee Nicaraguan citizens are charged for Costa Rican visas.

Before being named ambassador last week, Carreras, 55, served as director of the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry's diplomatic institute.

"We have to create flexible mechanisms that will motivate Nicaraguans to enter the country through the front door and not through the back window," Carreras said last Thursday, referring to the illegal immigration of thousands of Nicaraguans to Costa Rica.

Carreras believes that eliminating the fee would be a "very positive step" towards controlling and legalizing the flow of immigrants.

"When people try to come in through the window, it's because they find the front door locked," he explained. "Either way, they will find a way into the country."

Carreras is also confident both countries will soon be able to find a diplomatic solution to their dispute over the San Juan River. He predicts the problem will vanish as cooperation and integration in the countries' border region increases in the coming years.

"I hope that by 2005 there will be so many investments in border area development projects, so many sources of jobs on both sides of the border and so many sources of wealth and integration that there will be no need for a conflict," Carreras declared.

Problems over the Río San Juan began in 1998, when former Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Alemán (1997-2002) prohibited Costa Rican police from patrolling the river with guns.

According to the 1858 Cañas-Jerez Treaty, which delineates the border between the two countries, the San Juan belongs to Nicaragua, but Costa Rica is allowed free navigation rights for commercial reasons.

The situation heated up in mid-2002 after Nicaragua began charging Costa Rican fishermen and tour guides a toll to navigate the river. Costa Rica repeatedly threatened to take the matter to the International Justice Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

In September, officials from both countries agreed to find a diplomatic solution to the dispute and have since been negotiating.

Return To Top Of Page