The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, May 13, 2003

A SHOW OF FORCE: Thousands of ICE workers from across the country marched on San José yesterday to demand the release of promised bonds.
TT/Julio Lainez

ICE Workers Protest Money Woes
An estimated 8,000 workers of the Costa Rican Electricity and Telecom Institute (ICE) marched through downtown San José to the Central Bank yesterday to protest the government's failure to comply with its promise to emit ¢38 billion ($97 million) in bonds to help provide the state monopoly with needed capital.
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May 13

Music Night
Don’t miss the "Martes por la Noche" (Tuesday Night) program of the School of Music of the University of Costa Rica tonight. The Costa Rica Brass in concert, 7 p.m. Enjoy this free recital. Info: 207-5565.

C.R. Music
A look to Costa Rica through rock, discussed by the rock bands Inconsciente Colectivo and El Guato, at 7 p.m., at the Spanish Cultural Center, Av. 13, Ca. 31. Info: 257- 2919.

Hiking in the San Lucas Island
Register today to this tour. It includes transportation, lunch, branch, guide, Sat., May 17, 232-9070.

Celebration of Our Lady of Fátima Day
Check with your town Church and attend the masses in honor of the Fatima Virgin.

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ICE Workers Protest Money Woes
By Tim Rogers
trogers@ticotimes.net

Release the bonds!
TT/Julio Lainez

An estimated 8,000 workers of the Costa Rican Electricity and Telecom Institute (ICE) marched through downtown San José to the Central Bank yesterday to protest the government's failure to comply with its promise to emit ¢38 billion ($97 million) in bonds to help provide the state monopoly with needed capital.

If the government does not authorize the bonds this week, ICE workers are prepared to declare a general strike Friday, May 16, warned Fabio Chaves, former director of ICE's Labor Federation (FIT).

"The point of the march was to show the government our strength and to let them know we are not willing to negotiate," Chaves told The Tico Times yesterday. "We are done negotiating; we did that last February."

Yesterday's march came three months after some 7,000 ICE workers took to the street Jan. 29 -- a demonstration dubbed "Combo Two" -- to protest a proposed $476 million budget cut for the institution, and to remind President Abel Pacheco that the state-run company is not for sale (TT, Jan. 31).

The protest and previous threat of a one-day strike scheduled for Feb. 18, brought the government to the negotiating table and resulted in the proposed spending cut being slashed in half and the promise of $97 million in Central Bank bonds (TT, Feb. 21).

However, three months later, neither President Pacheco, Congress nor Finance Minister Jorge Walter Bolaños have authorized the bonds, resulting in serious liquidity problems for ICE, according to Chaves.

ICE workers also are protesting the Public Service Regulatory Agency's (Aresep) failure to increase electricity prices despite the electric company's request last month.

Don't miss Friday's TT print edition for full coverage.

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Japan Interested in Financing Border Development

Japanese Ambassador to Costa Rica, Tadanori Inomata, last weekend visited the border region between Costa Rica and Nicaragua to learn about different development efforts in the area and express his country's interest in helping to finance the projects, according to a Foreign Ministry press release.

"Japan has shown an enormous interest in the joint Costa Rican-Nicaraguan initiative to develop the border region as a way of supporting peace," said the Ministry's Carlos Manuel Echeverría.

The Japanese ambassador's trip to the northern frontier was his second this year. During a similar border visit last January, Inomata promised his government would send a group of experts to the area to study the various development projects and determine which ones Japan help finance.

Neither Costa Rica nor Japan has indentified which development projects the Japanese government will back, but Foreign Minister Roberto Tovar is already thanking Japan for its support.

"We are pleased with the extraordinary vision of Japan, which sees this project not just as another development project, but as an effort to promote cooperation, fraternity, peace and better understanding between Costa Rica and Nicaragua," Tovar said.

The Frontier Development Fund, an initiative focusing on social-and economic-development projects on the border, was announced March 12, following a meeting between Tovar and his Nicaraguan counterpart, Norman Caldera. The plan offers Nicaragua an alternative way to repay its $600 million debt to Costa Rica (TT Daily Page, March 13).

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C.A. and EU Take First Step
Toward Free Trade

PANAMA CITY (AFP) -- As Central American and U.S. trade-negotiation teams met in Guatemala City yesterday to begin the fourth round of talks leading to the eventual free-trade agreement (CAFTA), Central American Foreign Ministers meet with representatives of the European Union to take the first steps toward an eventual free-trade agreement between the isthmus and the EU.

Salvadoran Foreign Minister María Eugenia Brizuela told the press yesterday that Central America and the EU have officially begun negotiations to sign a "dialogue agreement," which will form a basis for future free-trade talks.

"[Today] we will begin a negotiation round with the EU that should conclude by December," Brizuela said, adding that free-trade talks between Central America and the EU could begin as soon as June 2004, if approved by all parties involved.

This week's pre-trade talks in Panama -- attended by the foreign ministers or vice-foreign ministers of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, as well as the Julio César Pichirilli, head of the EU's mission in Latin America -- will conclude on Thursday.

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