Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, April 29,  2003

Potential SARS Case Investigated in San José
A 39-year-old Costa Rican who returned from Canada earlier this month is suspected of being infected with the potentially fatal Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus, officials at San José's Hospital México announced yesterday.
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Farmers Demand Transparency in CAFTA Talks
Demanding government transparency in the remaining negotiation rounds of the Central American free-trade agreement with the United States (CAFTA), some 5,000 farmers marched through San José to the Casa Presidencial yesterday to present President Abel Pacheco with a petition asking for participation in the talks.
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Pacheco's War Stance Still Under Fire
Blasting President Abel Pacheco's support for the U.S. war on Iraq as a legitimization of "organized terrorism," local economist and political consultant Francisco Cordero yesterday criticized the President for putting everything Costa Rica stands for "in jeopardy with one phone call."
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Anatradanza
Dance show, at 8 p.m., National Theater, Av. 2, Ca. 3/5. Info: 221-1329.

Holocaust Photo Show
Sponsored by the Polish Embassy; opens today at the National Gallery in the Children’s Museum. Info: 234-7411.

Math Workshop for Primary Teachers
Tonight at 7 p.m., Juan Santamaría Museum, Alajuela. Info: 441-4775.

Potential SARS Case Investigated in San José
By Amanda Schoenberg
aschoenberg@ticotimes.net

A 39-year-old Costa Rican who returned from Canada earlier this month is suspected of being infected with the potentially fatal Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus, officials at San José's Hospital México announced yesterday.

According to Dr. Eduardo Sánchez, the patient was transferred from San Juan de Dios Hospital after five days of being treated for "pulmonary distress and flu-like symptoms." The patient -- quarantined on the fifth floor of the hospital -- is on a respirator and in "delicate condition," the doctor said

All hospital staff on the floor are required to use protective masks and clothing while treating the patient, who Sánchez said is being treated with an "expensive battery of medications."

Information about the patient's place of residence or measures taken to quarantine family members and other people the patient has come in contact with was not made immediately available.

Results from hospital laboratory tests were sent yesterday to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia for a complete analysis. Sánchez said the final diagnosis would return within the next eight days.

The case, if confirmed, would be the first reported SARS case in Costa Rica and in Central America. Two suspected cases were recently reported in Brazil - the only other Latin American country to report patients suspected of having SARS - according to the World Health Organization's (WHO) Web site.

As of yesterday, 5,050 cases have been identified in 26 countries throughout the world, and 321 people have died from the illness. The WHO reported yesterday that Vietnam is the first country to successfully control the outbreak of the virus, with no new cases reported within the last two weeks (the incubation period for the virus).

Farmers Demand Transparency in CAFTA Talks

Demanding government transparency in the remaining negotiation rounds of the Central American free-trade agreement with the United States (CAFTA), some 5,000 farmers marched through San José to the Casa Presidencial yesterday to present President Abel Pacheco with a petition asking for participation in the talks.

"There is no transparency (in CAFTA negotiations)," charged Lorenzo Cambronero, secretary general of the National Chamber of Small and Medium Agricultural Producers; "we need clear and concrete information so we can defend the farmers."

The farmers asked the government to allow a special agricultural consultant commission to participate in the trade talks, and insisted that the U.S. eliminate its agricultural subsidies before entering into a trade pact with Central America.

"Free-trade negotiation that don't deal with the subject of the U.S. subsidies is unacceptable," stressed former congressman and sector leader Guido Vargas, adding that yesterday's march was just the first of many protests to come. "We can't just receive summaries of the trade talks, we need to see the actual documents that are being negotiated."

President Abel Pacheco, Foreign Trade Minister Alberto Trejos and Agriculture Minister Rodolfo Coto yesterday received several leaders of the farming sector to hear their demands. Afterwards, the government released a statement promising transparency in the remaining trade talks, which are scheduled for completion by the end of the year.

"We are entering into a free-trade agreement to help Costa Rican farmers," Pacheco told the group. "I am doing this for Costa Ricans and I am going to defend your interests."

Meanwhile, trade delegates from the five Central American countries participating in the negotiation rounds met in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, yesterday to begin a week-long preparatory meeting to discuss the U.S.' trade proposal, presented during the third round of talks last month in El Salvador.

The fourth round of negotiations will begin mid May in Guatemala City.
-AFP

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Pacheco's War Stance Still Under Fire
By Tim Rogers
trogers@ticotimes.net

Francisco Cordero TT/Scott Brennan

Blasting President Abel Pacheco's support for the U.S. war on Iraq as a legitimization of "organized terrorism," local economist and political consultant Francisco Cordero yesterday criticized the President for putting everything Costa Rica stands for "in jeopardy with one phone call."

The fateful call Cordero was referring to is the one in which Pacheco allegedly gave the U.S. government permission to include Costa Rica on the "coalition of the willing" -- the 46 countries that backed the U.S. war in Iraq. The President never signed any formal document stating Costa Rica's position -- a criticism shared by Ombudsman José Manuel Echandi, who last week filed a motion with the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV), claiming Costa Rica's inclusion on the coalition list was unconstitutional (TT, April 25).

Speaking at the monthly luncheon of the U.S. Democrats Abroad, Cordero, a close advisor to leaders of the opposition National Liberation Party, warned that Costa Rica's support for the war sets a dangerous precedent for justifying a new world order established by the U.S. military machine.

Even though Pacheco announced earlier this month that it no longer made sense to remove Costa Rica from the coalition because the "war is over," Cordero insisted that the war is not over because there is still no ceasefire in Iraq.

"The war will not be over until the occupational army pulls out," he stressed, adding that it is ludicrous to think that an "occupational army can establish a democratic government in Iraq."

Cordero claimed that it is imperative for the United Nations to reassert its role as the world's keeper of the peace. But he noted that it will be a difficult task: "How can the UN keep peace if its member nations do not abide by the rules to keeping the peace?"

Despite the difficult work of peace, Cordero warned that the alternative to trying is a "new world order where one government says what other governments are legitimately elected and entitled to govern other countries."

Cordero stressed that Costa Rica needs to reassert its previous positions of demilitarization and peace, and hopes that the United States, "in its benevolence," agrees to allow Costa Rica to maintain its traditional position for peace.

The international economist warned that Costa Rica's next great challenge will be negotiate a free-trade agreement with the U.S. in which the industrial-military complex plays no role.

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