The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, February 9, 2004

PEACE Warrior: Guatemalan peace activist Rigoberta Menchú is one of four Nobel Peace Prize winners speaking at the Universidad Nacional in Heredia tonight.
TT Photo/AFP

Osvaldo Villalobos
Back Behind Bars
Osvaldo Villalobos, under house arrest since last November because of a medical condition (TT, Nov. 14, 2003), has been sent back to La Reforma prison to serve the rest of his preventive sentence for allegedly committing money laundering and fraud through the controversial Villalobos Brothers financial operation.
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Mexico Endorses Country's
Candidate for OAS Secretary
The government of Mexico, through its embassy in Costa Rica, announced Friday it would endorse former Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodríguez' (1998-2002) bid to become secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), Costa Rica's Foreign Ministry announced in a statement.
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Another Commission
Will Study Fiscal Reform
The Legislative Assembly has voted to create a special commission that will have until Feb. 26 to study and revise the government's proposed Permanent Fiscal Reform Package, the Legislative Assembly announced in a statement.
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February 9

Puntarenas Carnival
Street festival, music concerts, horse parade and more, through Sun, Feb. 15, in Pacific port town of Puntarenas. Info: 661-1516.

Live Music
Debut of the group "Parque en el Espacio," hip-hop and acid jazz, starts at 10 p.m. at the Jazz Café in San Pedro. Info: 253-8933.

Ciberart
Six artists show their vision of Ciberart in the "Monotipias" exhibit at the National Gallery. Display runs through the end of the month. The gallery is in the Children's Museum, Av. 9, Ca. 4, in San José. Info: 258-4929.

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Osvaldo Villalobos
Back Behind Bars
By Fabián Borges
fborges@ticotimes.net

Osvaldo Villalobos, under house arrest since last November because of a medical condition (TT, Nov. 14, 2003), has been sent back to La Reforma prison to serve the rest of his preventive sentence for allegedly committing money laundering and fraud through the controversial Villalobos Brothers financial operation.

Sources in the San José criminal court system said last week that new evidence had been found in the case that increased the risk that Villalobos would flee the country. Villalobos' lawyer Edgardo García denied this.

"The evidence is the same that has always existed," García told The Tico Times on Friday. "There's nothing new to say. They argue he must remain in prison and not under house arrest. It was very hard for him to recover his health. Any worsening of his condition is the prison system's fault.

"He's now in a prison that lacks the conditions necessary for him to maintain his health," García said. "The judge's decision is contrary to what the State Prosecutor's Office had requested."

Enrique Villalobos and his brother Osvaldo ran a high-risk investment business and currency exchange house in Costa Rica known as "The Brothers," for two decades. They first encountered trouble in July 2002 after the Canadian Royal Mounted Police told Costa Rican officials they suspected the two of laundering money from the trafficking of cocaine and marijuana to Canada.

Investigators raided the brothers' offices and Osvaldo's home on July 4, 2002, seizing documents, computers and more than $300,000, sparking panic among thousands of investors who loaned Enrique Villalobos money in exchange for monthly interest returns of 2.8-3%. He continued to pay out the monthly interest payments until October, when the office was closed. By November 2002, Enrique had disappeared and Osvaldo was taken into custody.

The Brothers retain a devoted following among their approximately 6,300 investors, some of whom have demanded investigations into alleged disappearances of seized funds and who still hope to see their money again (TT, Aug. 8, 2003*).

* TT, July 12, 19, 26, Aug. 2, 16, Oct. 18, 25, Nov. 1, 15, 22, 29, Dec. 6, 13, 20, 2002, Jan. 17, Feb. 7, 14, 21, Mar. 14, Apr. 11, May 30, June 13, July 5, 11, 2003.

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Mexico Endorses Country's
Candidate for OAS Secretary

The government of Mexico, through its embassy in Costa Rica, announced Friday it would endorse former Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodríguez' (1998-2002) bid to become secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), Costa Rica's Foreign Ministry announced in a statement.

The decision came two days after Canada announced it would endorse Rodríguez and three days after Rodríguez' only official opponent, former Chilean Foreign Minister José Miguel Insulza, announced he was dropping out of the race (TT Daily Page, Feb. 5).

"Mexico believes regional support for Costa Rica's candidacy constitutes a valuable opportunity to elect a single candidate for the Central American region," said a statement issued by the Mexican Embassy in Costa Rica. "The government of Mexico considers equal geographic representation in defining the direction of multilateral forums contributes to their democratization. In that sense, the election for former President Rodríguez as Secretary General of the OAS will contribute to the goal of strengthening participation by member countries belonging to distinct areas of the hemisphere."

Foreign Minister Roberto Tovar on Friday expressed "profound gratitude" to the government of Mexico for supporting Rodríguez.

The endorsement "contributes enormously to making it possible, for the first time in the history of the OAS, for a Central American to direct the destiny of the hemisphere's most important forum," Tovar said.

Last week's endorsements by Mexico and Canada "commit us to further promoting the consensus necessary for this candidacy to serve our objectives of strengthening the historic tines of cooperation between the nations of the hemisphere and facing the main threats that are common to the region," the Foreign Minister said.

In addition to Mexico and Canada, Rodríguez has secured the support of 23 countries, including the 15-member Caribbean Economic Community (CARICOM).

Representatives of the OAS' 34 member states will meet in Quito, Ecuador, in June to elect the organization's next secretary general.

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Another Commission
Will Study Fiscal Reform

The Legislative Assembly has voted to create a special commission that will have until Feb. 26 to study and revise the government's proposed Permanent Fiscal Reform Package, the Legislative Assembly announced in a statement.

On Nov. 31 of last year, after 15 months of debate, the Congressional Fiscal Reform Commission finished studying the new tax plan. However, the commission was unable to reach a definite agreement on the plan and make it possible for it to enter the legislative agenda as a regular bill (TT, Dec. 5, 2003).

To speed up the approval of what it considers "an urgent bill," the government last month submitted the commission's majority report back to the Assembly as a government-sponsored bill.

However, before the bill could be voted on, it needed to be studied and, if necessary, reformed by another legislative commission. In recent weeks, the government has attempted to obtain the 39 votes (out of 57) necessary to create the new commission.

The new commission, created last Thursday, will have until the end of the month to evaluate and modify the bill.

The nine-member commission will include Nury Garita and Bernal Jiménez of the National Liberation Party, Carlos Avendaño of Costa Rican Renovation, Humberto Arce of the Patriotic Bloc, Epsy Campbell and Margarita Penón of Citizen Action Party, Federico Malavassi of the Libertarian Movement, and Mario Redondo and Olman Vargas of governing Social Christian Unity Party.

"I know the proposal has many mistakes, but it also has many virtues and with the efforts of everyone we can improve it," said Citizen Action deputy Rodrigo Alberto Carazo, one of the proponents of the motion to create the commission.

Malavassi, who issued an unsuccessful motion to stop the new commission from being created, argued the fiscal plan is so long and has so many chapters that deputies should be given 20 months instead of 20 days to revise it.

Presidency Minister Ricardo Toledo and Finance Minister Alberto Dent said they were pleased by the decision and are confident legislators will approve the bill before the end of April, when extraordinary legislative sessions (when the President is allowed to set the agenda) end.

However, they have warned the government will withdraw its support for the bill if it is not approved by April and will instead resort to a series of emergency measures aimed at slashing government spending, which President Abel Pacheco during last week's cabinet meeting referred to vaguely as "Plan B."

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Peace Prize Winners
Host Public Conference

Four Nobel Peace Prize winners will speak about "Historical Memory and Culture of Peace" at a public conference tomorrow evening at the Universidad Nacional in Heredia.

Guatemalan author Rigoberta Menchú, former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sánchez, Argentinean sculptor Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Antonio Jarquín, vice-president of Doctors for Peace International, will speak at the event, which begins at 7 p.m. in the Clodomiro Picado T. Auditorium.

The conference is part of the Shared Memory Conference, which begins tomorrow and continues Wednesday at the Hotel Ambassador in San José, and is a prelude to the Universal Forum of Cultures in Barcelona next May.

According to the organization sponsoring the event, Service, Peace and Justice in Latin America, the Shared Memory is a gathering of people dedicated to finding solutions to social, economic and political problems.

Conference organizers recommend arriving early for tomorrow's conference because seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. For info, call 237-5929.

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Wednesday October 26, 2005