The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, May 27, 2003

TEACHING PACHECO A LESSON: Striking teachers protest outside the Casa Presidencial yesterday.
TT/Julio Laínez

Dundee Ranch's Future Uncertain
As the five remaining students at the recently closed Dundee Ranch Academy prepare to leave for the United States, a flurry of questions remain about the future of the controversial behavior modification program, a member of the Utah-based WorldWide Association of Specialty Programs (WWASP).
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Public Workers Strikes Continue
Striking workers of the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) and teachers unions continued their work stoppages yesterday, with other public sectors warning that they too will go on strike if the government does not meet their demands.
(Click for more)

Peace Corps Alive and Well in C.R.
After nearly being phased-out by the U.S. government, the Costa Rican branch of the Peace Corps is now expanding and still serving the same principles for which it was created, said Peace Corps Costa Rica Director Jim Criste during a speech Monday to the U.S. Democrats Abroad.
(Click for more)

May 27

Conference "El Arte de Curar"
By Rosa Olivares, at 7 p.m., Spanish Cultural Center, Av. 13, Ca. 31. Info: 257-2919.

Opening of New Room at Children’s Museum
The Egypt Room, with information and decoration of the Egyptian Culture, and lots of fun activities to celebrate, Ca. 4, Av. 9. Info: 258-4929.

Get Your Ticket Early for the "Evening for Fathers"
Israel Ladies Group is holding this event to celebrate Father’s Day, including dinner, music and comedic efforts of Costa Rican comedian Nel López, proceeds to Aids victims at Casa de la Esperanza, Thurs., June 12, 7:30 p.m., Q’Tal Restaurant, tickets on sale at the restaurant, call Carla de Nagel, 282-5700.

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Dundee Ranch's Future Uncertain
By Tim Rogers
trogers@ticotimes.net

As the five remaining students at the recently closed Dundee Ranch Academy prepare to leave for the United States, a flurry of questions remain about the future of the controversial behavior modification program, a member of the Utah-based WorldWide Association of Specialty Programs (WWASP).

ABANDONED bunk beds inside Dundee Ranch.
TT/Julio Laínez

Academy owner Narvin Lichfield -- released after being held 24 hours in jail Friday on allegations of abuse, coercion and holding kids against their will -- told The Tico Times yesterday that his lawyers finally got a copy of the prosecutor's file and were studying the charges and the evidence against him.

Lichfield and his legal team are expected to make a decision about a counter lawsuit against Prosecutor Fernando Vargas by the end of the week.

According to an email sent to The Tico Times Monday, one well-to-do former Dundee parent has offered to finance Lichfield's legal battle here.

The Dundee owner, meanwhile, insists the prosecutor's charges will not stick.

"I might have put my arm around a kid once and told him: 'you are a great kid,' but I have never been involved in the disciplining of a student," he told The Tico Times yesterday. "I was like Uncle Buck to the kids."

Vargas, who sparked a chaotic situation at Dundee last Tuesday when he told the 200 kids they didn't have to stay there against their will, was taken off the case Monday, and replaced by Prosecutor Marielos Alfaro. Vargas, an interim prosecutor, had been filling in for Alfaro during the latter's absence.

The Prosecutor's Office is still trying to gather testimony from former Dundee students -- a difficult task now that all but a few have left the country (TT Daily Page, May 26).

Lichfield, who is maintaining a skeleton staff at the academy, hopes to make the needed changes and reopen in two months. He admits, however, that it is still "too early to tell what will happen."

Child Welfare Minister Rosalia Gil agrees that the future of the correctional academy is uncertain here.

Gil told The Tico Times last April that she had informed Lichfield of several changes he needed to make in order to stay open. She said at the time that Lichfield appeared "very willing to cooperate" and to make the needed changes.

However, she said yesterday, that Lichfield never made any of the changes and it is yet to be seen if Dundee Ranch will be able to conform to the law.

Read The Tico Times Top Story and next Friday's print edition for complete coverage.

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Public Workers Strikes Continue
Tico Times Staff Report

Striking workers of the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) and teachers unions continued their work stoppages yesterday, with other public sectors warning that they too will go on strike if the government does not meet their demands.

Some 500 teachers from two of the nation's larger unions -- the Association of Secondary School Teachers and the Costa Rican Education Workers -- marched through the capital yesterday to the Casa Presidencial to put pressure on the government to resolve continued payment problems (TT Daily Page, May 19; TT May 16, 23).

Other teachers' unions, meanwhile, said they will give Minister of Education Astrid Fischel and President Abel Pacheco until the second pay period on May 29 to comply with promises to resolve the issue, before joining the others in strike (TT, May 23).

ICE's 11,000-plus workers, meanwhile, remained on strike Monday in spite of the government's seeming capitulation to union demands on Friday.

Central Bank president Francisco de Paula Gutierrrez, the final hurdle blocking the unions demands for approval of a $100 million bond issue to infuse ICE with working capital, cast aside his reservations Friday and said the Central Bank would approve the issue.

However, unions were angered that the Central Bank gave the all-clear to just the $40 million bond issue ICE requested for 2003, and deferred approval for a $60 million issue in 2004 to a later time.

Unions said they would remain on strike until the 2004 debt is approved.

President Abel Pacheco made an impassioned plea on television over the weekend urging the unions to abandon the strike. Union leaders were expected to examine the issue yesterday afternoon with top outside negotiators.

In the Caribbean province of Limón, employees of the Atlantic Port Authority (JAPDEVA) are also threatening strike this week, in the event the government does not allocate funds needed to modernize the port and resolve the provinces' worsening trash collection problems.

A JAPDEVA union spokesman told The Tico Times yesterday that the group had not yet declared a strike, as reported in the national press. However, he said, a strike could be declared by early next week if no progress is made in government negotiations this week.

Meanwhile, leaders of the Costa Rican Social Security workers' union (UNDECA) yesterday presented President Pacheco with a series of complaints, including irregularities in the government's purchasing of medicines.

Read Friday's TT print edition for complete strike coverage.

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Peace Corps Alive and Well in C.R.
By Jon Gambrell
Tico Times Staff

After nearly being phased-out by the U.S. government, the Costa Rican branch of the Peace Corps is now expanding and still serving the same principles for which it was created, said Peace Corps Costa Rica Director Jim Criste during a speech Monday to the U.S. Democrats Abroad.

The Costa Rican Peace Corps office, which was scheduled to be phased out by 2002, was salvaged after U.S. President George W. Bush announced in 2001 that he wanted to double the size of the organization by 2005.

Criste said while that funding has yet to come, the Costa Rican Peace Corps continues to do important work here in "peripheral" communities around the country.

"A lot of people come to San José, look around the (Central) Valley and say, 'What is the Peace Corps doing here?'" he said. "But they never leave the Central Valley."

Peace Corps Director Gaddi H. Vásquez visited the country two weeks ago to celebrate the organization's 40th anniversary in Costa Rica with the induction of 21 new volunteers (TT Daily Page, May 9).

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