The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, November 3, 2003

HAPPY 100th B-DAY!!! A total of 13 Presidents and 74 international delegations are in Panama today to celebrate the country's 100th anniversary as an independent nation. Pictured: school girls from Escuela Saint Mary prepare over the weekend for today's festivities.
AFP/TT

Martin Murder Trial Begins
GOLFITO -- After a four-day delay due to a contested double-representation of murder suspects by defense lawyer Luis Eduardo Venegas, the trial for slain U.S. citizen Shannon Martin began Friday morning in the small southern Pacific port town of Golfito.
(Click for more)

New Initiative to Combat
Sexual Abuse in Tourism
National Liberation Party congresswoman Joyce Zurcher, backed by regional child advocacy group Casa Alianza, last Friday introduced a new bill calling for economic sanctions against hotel operators who don't take new steps to combat the commercial sexual exploitation of minors.
(Click for more)

Return To Top Of Page

Martin Murder Trial Begins
By Pete Majerle
Special to The Tico Times

GOLFITO -- After a four-day delay due to a contested double-representation of murder suspects by defense lawyer Luis Eduardo Venegas, the trial for slain U.S. citizen Shannon Martin began Friday morning in the small southern Pacific port town of Golfito.

Martin, a 23-year-old University of Kansas student, was stabbed to death in Golfito May 13, 2001.

Three Costa Rican suspects -- Kattia Cruz (known as La Panteonera), Luis Alberto Castro (Caballo) and Raphael Zumbado (Coco) - are standing trial for first-degree murder. All three defendants are represented by public defenders, following the judges' ruling last Monday that private attorney Venegas, who earlier represented Cruz before dropping his client and attempting to hire on as Zumbado's lawyer two days before the trial was scheduled to start, could not participate in the proceedings due to a conflict of interest (TT Daily Page, Oct. 28).

Jeanette Stauffer, the victim's mother, opened last Friday's proceedings with nearly two hours of passionate testimony, painting a portrait of her daughter's zeal for life and her love for the Costa Rican community where she was killed.

"[Golfito] is a community full of good, honest people, the type of people who attracted Shannon to come back here to continue her studies. Unfortunately, she crossed paths with some very bad people," Stauffer said. "These last two and a half years have been devastating for me."

The prosecution then presented three witnesses, all of whom placed the three defendants around the scene of the crime May 13, 2001.

One witness testified that he saw Castro the day after the crime with four scratches on his neck, while another witness - a Golfito taxi washer -- claimed to have seen Castro and Cruz get out of a cab with fresh blood stains on the door handles at 3:30 a.m. the day of the crime.

The defense did not present any witnesses Friday.

After Friday's opening to the trial, the court proceedings again were suspended until Nov. 12 due to court scheduling conflicts.

The remainder of the trial is scheduled to last three days, but could be extended.

"We have 21 more witnesses to go, including police and forensic experts," said Juan Carlos Arce, the lawyer representing the Stauffer family.

Return To Top Of Page

Radio for Peace Bunkers Down

With its Oct. 31 eviction deadline come and gone, Radio For Peace International (RFPI) is bunkered down in its two-story building located on the Ciudad Colón campus of the UN's University for Peace, and is determined not to leave.

Radio for Peace, a short-wave station broadcast around the world from the University for Peace [UPAZ] since 1987, was, without explanation, issued an eviction notice from the University last July (TT, July 25). The peace radio's board of directors decided to stay put and questioned the legality of the notice, arguing that the building they broadcast from was built with private donations and that no judge had ordered them off the property (TT, Aug. 1).

The Aug. 4 eviction deadline was then extended to last Friday but Radio for Peace is still not budging.

The station's gate has been padlocked and there are university guards monitoring the building.

"People bring us food. We sleep here because we are expecting hostile actions and we need to protect the radio station," said Radio for Peace director and cofounder James Latham.

"We have still not received any explanation for why [UPAZ] is doing this, or why they are trying to kick us out without any compensation," Emily Morales, the radio's operations director, told AFP.

The radio station is asking the university for indemnification for the costs of constructing the building, and claim they will not leave until their is a judge's order to do so.

Latham charged that UPAZ was violating freedom of expression, and lamented that such an action could be taken by an international organization for peace.

UPAZ President Maurice Strong repeatedly has declined comment to the press since the incident began last July.

Return To Top Of Page

New Initiative to Combat Sexual Abuse in Tourism

National Liberation Party congresswoman Joyce Zurcher, backed by regional child advocacy group Casa Alianza, last Friday introduced a new bill calling for economic sanctions against hotel operators who don't take new steps to combat the commercial sexual exploitation of minors.

Zurcher proposed that all hotel operators be required by law to develop databases of all children under the age of 18 who stay at hotels. Those who refuse, according to the new initiative, would lose economic tourist incentives.

The bill calls for a modification of the "Law of Incentives for Tourism Development," and would open hotel operators who fail to oblige to criminal proceedings.

Casa Alianza director Bruce Harris is calling on lawmakers to support the new initiative.
-AFP

Return To Top Of Page