The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, June 12, 2003

TAKING IT TO THE STREET: Some 15,000 teachers turned out for yesterday's march on San José. Story in Friday's TT print edition.
TT/Julio Lainez

Offshore Financer Busted, Handed
Over to DEA
MANAGUA (AFP)-Nicaraguan police arrested fugitive offshore financial wiz Marc Harris, head of The Harris Organization, and handed him over to the United States' Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Tuesday.
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Government to Develop Water Plan
Everardo Rodríguez, president of the Water and Sewage Board (AyA), and President Abel Pacheco this week announced new efforts to improve coordination among government institutions and to draft a long-term plan to solve the country's water-supply problems and improve existing infrastructure.
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International Labor Organization Celebrates World Day Against Child Labor
The International Labor Organization (ILO) today is celebrating the II World Day Against Child Labor, with a special focus on the international trafficking of minors.
(Click for more)

June 12

Last Day for Historic Photo Show
Hurry up! Next Saturday is the last day of the photo exhibit of the life of one of the world's most famous authors, Gabriel García Márquez. The display is at Castle, Children’s Museum, Ca. 4, Av. 9. Info: 258-4929, ext. 122.

Environmental Film and Video Show
Today the Centro de Cine is showing the documentaries, "Nosotros/as También Tenemos Derechos," Dominican Republic 26 min. long; "Defending Dolphin," Costa Rican, 8 min.; "90 Grados Sur," 24 min.; and "Ebro, El Último Gran Río de Europa," Spanish, 52 min.; "Menos Desechos, Más Ganancias," Costa Rican, 12 min., at 7 p.m., at Eugene O’Neill Theater, C.R.-North American Cultural Center, Barrio Dent. Info: 222-9329.

Hiking Tour
Everyone is invited to enjoy a trip to Prusia, at the bottom of Irazú Volcano. The tour includes: birding, a visit to a primary medicinal forest, a visit to the Reventado River, an incredible walk through a giant mushroom forest, ending with a walk to the crater of the volcano. Call today for further information at 232-9070.

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Offshore Financer Busted, Handed Over to DEA

MANAGUA (AFP)-Nicaraguan police arrested fugitive offshore financial wiz Marc Harris, head of The Harris Organization, and handed him over to the United States' Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Tuesday.

He is wanted for money-laundering and is alleged to have defrauded clients out of millions of dollars in purported offshore investment funds.

According to Harris' Nicaraguan lawyer Róger Guevara, Harris was arrested as he went to pickup his Nicaraguan residency papers and taken immediately to the Augusto Sandino International Airport, where he was handed over to U.S. authorities.

Harris, who had based his operations in Panama since moving there in the late 1980s, had moved to Nicaragua some time last year after running afoul of Panamanian authorities for unpaid bills, the newsletter Offshore Alert reported. Harris, a U.S. citizen, had obtained a Panamanian passport and his attorney said he had renounced his U.S. citizenship.

According to Offshore Alert, Harris set up shop in Panama, where he began to handle money from money-launderers and tax evaders by promising to effectively hide their funds from regulators and tax authorities through a series of shell companies set up in a variety of offshore havens, including Nevis, where he is alleged to have domiciled his latest front called "Mitchell Astor Gilbert Trust."

In Costa Rica, The Harris Organization operated an "information office" staffed by two former employees of teak-investment firm Bosque Puerto Carrillo, a scheme that collapsed amid allegations of overstated profit potential (TT, Aug. 27, 1999). In 1999, one Harris client sued one of Harris' local employees, saying the company refused to refund him nearly $40,000 (TT, Sept. 24, 1999).

According to Offshore Alert, as of last July dozens of Harris clients were suing him and his debt-laden organization for more than $4 million in a series of lawsuits. As of last September, Harris had bank accounts in seven countries (from Nevis to Belize to Latvia), including an account with San José-based Vinir Financial Services, a local exchange house that late last year defaulted on clients' accounts it was not authorized to offer (TT, Nov. 29, 2002).

Harris has long denied any wrongdoing, although he lost a $30 million libel suit against the newsletter in 1999.

U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua Barbara Moore confirmed Harris' arrest, but refused to comment further other than to call the arrest the result of "cooperation between our two countries."

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Government to Develop Water Plan
By Fabián Borges
Tico Times Staff

Everardo Rodríguez, president of the Water and Sewage Board (AyA), and President Abel Pacheco this week announced new efforts to improve coordination among government institutions and to draft a long-term plan to solve the country's water-supply problems and improve existing infrastructure.

"Solving the country's water-supply needs is part of this government's fight against poverty," Rodríguez said. "Water is an essential element for homes, businesses and industries -- it's one of our economy's main generators. We must make better use of this resource."

Rodríguez announced that the 17 government institutions involved in water supply and management will draft a 20-year strategic-development plan that will define a series of projects to be developed in the San José metro area and the rest of the country.

Costa Rica's current water policy is 60 years old, and previous reform efforts have been hampered by an apparent lack of political will (TT, April 25).

Last year, the government created the National Water Council -- a multi-institution task force composed of officials from AyA, Health, Public Works and Transport Ministries, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), and the National Subterranean Water and Irrigation Service (SENARA). Since the Council was created, it has traveled around the country holding town-hall meetings.

"For the most part, the country's water-supply problems are the result of administrative problems," Rodríguez said. "Improving coordination will solve many of these problems. However, even with improved administration and coordination between institutions, more resources are still needed to improve existing infrastructure and replace San José's 70-year-old sewer system."

The government's Economic Council recently approved additional funds for next year's budget to upgrade the country's rural-water treatment systems and urban sewer networks. But Congress has not yet approved the budget increase.

There are also plans to submit to the Public Services Regulatory Authority (ARESEP) a proposal to raise water rates in order to increase the amount of resources available to build new infrastructure.

Until funding is increased, the government will have a hard time moving beyond the coordinating stage of its plan, observers note.

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International Labor Organization Celebrates
World Day Against Child Labor
By Tim Rogers
trogers@ticotimes.net

The International Labor Organization (ILO) today is celebrating the II World Day Against Child Labor, with a special focus on the international trafficking of minors.

Worldwide, there are an estimated 180 million working children between the ages of 5-17, and there are approximately 147,000 working kids in Costa Rica -- 1,500 of whom live on the streets-- according to ILO and government statistics.

The Organization also claims that 1.2 million minors worldwide are victims of trafficking, many of them smuggled for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation.

According to regional child advocacy group Casa Alianza, Costa Rica is a "transit" and "destination" country for the trafficking of children from other countries. It is not known how many children are smuggled to or through Costa Rica, but Casa Alianza claims foreign children are sold into Costa Rica's sex trade from the Dominican Republic, Panama, Nicaragua and the Philippines.

According to a 2000 report by the U.S. Interagency Task Force on Trafficking in Women and Children, a Japanese mafia group called yakuza was allegedly involved in the trafficking of an unspecified number of young Costa Rican women to Japan as recently as 1998. The report charges that Ticas were told when leaving the country that they would be working as bar hostesses in Japan. But upon arrival, their passports were confiscated and they were forced to work as prostitutes under constant surveillance and barred from leaving the "workplace" (TT, Nov. 3, 17, 2000).

There are no reports of Costa Rican women smuggled to Japan since 1998.

However, Casa Alianza director Bruce Harris told The Tico Times this week that his organization is investigating reports that a foreign national living in a central Pacific beach town is currently involved in smuggling young Costa Rican boys to his home country for commercial sexual exploitation.

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Poll Shows Ticos Defend ICE

Most Costa Ricans supported the 21-day strike by employees of the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), and a strong majority of people believe the state-run monopoly will improve its services as a result of additional money provided by ICE's strike-ending agreement with the government, according to poll released yesterday by the Universidad Nacional's Institute of Social Studies.

According a demographically balanced phone survey of 600 people across the country (conducted between June 5 -8), the poll found that 72% of the population supported the ICE strike, while 27% were against it. The poll claims a 5% margin of error.

Following the June 5 agreement to end the strike, 77% of those polled claim they think ICE will use its newly authorized capital to improve electricity and telecom services, and 61% believe the monopoly will conduct itself with more transparency in the future.

The ICE strike began May 16 with union leaders claiming the government had not complied with its earlier promise to authorize a $97 million bond issue to help infuse the state monopoly with needed capital. The purpose of the strike then expanded into a protest of the government's "neoliberal" policies and perceived efforts to privatize ICE (TT, May 16, 23, 30; June 6).

According to the poll, however, 74% of Costa Ricans think the strike was "in defense of ICE as a public institution." And 65% claimed that the government's handling of the ICE strike was inadequate.

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