|
Currency | |
|
Dollar Exchange: | |
|
Central Bank | |
|
|  Sell ¢490.58 |
|
CR Colon: | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
US Dollar: | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 Oct 2005 | |
Daily Edition: San
José, Costa Rica, February 18, 2004
 CAPTIVE AUDIENCE: Luis Alberto Salas, President of the National Insurance Institute's Workers' Union (UPINS) addresses a crowd of people opposed to the U.S.-Central America Free-Trade Agreement. Fewer than 100 people showed up for yesterday's protest. Tico Times/Alex Roach |
|
|
|
|
Sexual Diversity Center
Will Open Today
Costa Rica's first center for gay, lesbian and bisexual people is scheduled
to open today with a ceremony at 4 p.m. at the Central American Research and
Promotion Center of Human Rights in San José.
(Click for
more)
Dozens Protest Against CAFTA
About 75 people, mostly members of the National Insurance Institute's
Workers' Union (UPINS), held a peaceful rally outside the National Insurance
Institute (INS) building in downtown San José yesterday to protest the
U.S.-Central America Free-Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
(Click for
more)
More Evidence Sought
In School Shooting
As police officers yesterday continued to search for answers in a mysterious
school shooting incident the day before, President Abel Pacheco announced he
will reintroduce legislation to reform the child welfare code and allow
school authorities to search students' belongings for drugs and weapons if
there is suspicion.
(Click for more)
Public Works Minister Unveils
Plan to Aid Government Contracting
Public Works and Transport Minister Javier Chaves yesterday unveiled a new
bill that aims to make government bidding processes for goods and services
faster and more efficient.
(Click for more)
February 18
Art Contest Discussion
Writer Adriano Corrales, art historians Alejandra Triana, Verónica Zúñiga
and Esteban Calvo and museum expert, Hugo Pineda will talk about the "First
Contest of Emerging Central American Artists" tonight at 6 p.m. at the
Videoteca of the Contemporary and Design Art Museum, Av. 3, Ca. 11/15 in San
José. Info: 257-7202.
Transmúsica
Contemporary jam and world fusion music performance, 8 p.m. at El Semáforo
Theater in San Pedro. Info: 224-9476.
Consultations with Maya Elder
Maya Elder Alejandro Pérez Oxlaj, an anthropologist, astronomer and
naturopath as well as a Solar Priest, is visiting from Guatemala and
offering private consultations today and tomorrow in San José. Info:
221-0009, 817-4082.
Sexual Diversity
Center
Will Open Today
By Robert Goodier
rgoodier@ticotimes.net
Costa Rica's first center for gay, lesbian and bisexual
people is scheduled to open today with a ceremony at 4 p.m. at the Central
American Research and Promotion Center of Human Rights in San José.
The Sexual Diversity Cultural Center of Costa Rica (CIPAC) will host weekly
workshops, support and social groups to those of non-heterosexual
orientation and their friends and family members. The workshops will handle
issues in human rights, AIDS prevention and self-esteem.
The center will also offer a clinic, psychological and legal counseling, and
a telephone hotline that will offer information and support.
The new center is part of a project that has to do with the creation of
better living conditions for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and trans-gendered
people," said Francisco Madrigal, administrative director of CIPAC.
The project is the Global Fund of Costa Rica, part of a worldwide initiative
to diminish the impact of diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS.
Costa Rica will concentrate on the AIDS aspect of the program, and considers
men who have sex with other men to be the population of highest priority,
Madrigal said.
People who live with HIV or AIDS, sexually exploited children, youth in
vulnerable conditions such as poverty or from broken homes and prison
inmates are also considered populations of priority for the project.
The Global Fund will provide the majority of the funds to the new center.
For more information call CIPAC at 280-7821.
Dozens Protest Against CAFTA
By Fabián Borges
fborges@ticotimes.net
About 75 people, mostly members of the National Insurance
Institute's Workers' Union (UPINS), held a peaceful rally outside the
National Insurance Institute (INS) building in downtown San José yesterday
to protest the U.S.-Central America Free-Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
Costa Rica finished negotiating the agreement with the United States last
month (TT, Jan. 30).
A crew from the National Firefighter Corps, a handful of students from the
leftist Revolutionary Workers' Party (PRT) and a theater group from León,
Nicaragua, also attended the event. Three police officers (two on
motorcycles, one on a bicycle) were present in case the rally got out of
hand.
"This is an initial protest. Today we begin the second part of our fight,"
said Luis Salas, Secretary General of UPINS shortly after 3 p.m. yesterday.
"With this action, we begin a fight for the country's social security. This
fight will make history. Today we begin a fight in the streets."
UPINS and other public sector workers' unions, the National Firefighter
Corps and several other groups oppose CAFTA because it would require the
country open INS' monopoly on insurance and the Costa Rican Electricity and
Telecom Institute's (ICE) telecommunications monopoly (TT, Oct. 31, Dec. 19,
2003; Jan 30, Feb. 13).
Anti-CAFTA groups also fear the trade pact will drive small farmers out of
business by forcing them to compete with subsidized U.S. agricultural
exports, and hamper the Social Security System's ability to produce and sell
generic drugs by enforcing stricter protection of intellectual property
rights.
"CAFTA will benefit a small minority," Salas said. "It's the business
sectors who are looking to open INS and eliminate mandatory insurance
policies. This will allow them to reduce their production costs."
The free-trade agreement will help the rich become richer, Salas charged.
For example, it awards Central American countries large quotas to export
ethanol from sugarcane (TT, Jan. 30). The quota will directly benefit large
sugar producers -- namely Ingenio Taboga, a sugar refinery owned by the
Sánchez family, relatives of former President Oscar Arias Sánchez
(1986-1990), Salas said.
"It's not just the unions who will fight CAFTA, it's all Costa Ricans," he
told the crowd. "It's important to understand the treaty is not as
inevitable as the government wants us to believe."
Salas noted there is a strong chance CAFTA will be defeated by the
Legislative Assembly. He said 19 of the country's 57 deputies have already
announced they will vote against the trade pact.
In El Salvador, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Movement (FMLN),
which has promised to reject CAFTA, is likely to win this year's
presidential election. In the U.S. Congress, only a minority of legislators
has expressed support for CAFTA (TT, Nov. 21, 2003), he said.
Union leaders at yesterday's protest said they would continue to oppose
CAFTA by organizing large protest marches similar to the ones held late last
year (TT, Oct. 24, Nov. 28, 2003).
The next march is set to take place on March 20, according to Salas.
More Evidence Sought
In School Shooting
By Rebecca Kimitch
rkimitch@ticotimes.net
As police officers yesterday continued to search for answers
in a mysterious school shooting incident the day before, President Abel
Pacheco announced he will reintroduce legislation to reform the child
welfare code and allow school authorities to search students' belongings for
drugs and weapons if there is suspicion.
A stray bullet hit two 11-year-old girls at approximately 2:20 p.m. Monday
during recess at José Rafael Araya Rojas elementary and high school in La
Florida de Tibás, a neighborhood north of San José. The girls, Angie Campos
and Dorilín Rojas, were both hit in the ankle, according to police
spokeswoman Margarita Morales.
As of 5 p.m. yesterday, no gun had been found, nor had anyone been detained
or interviewed as a suspect in the incident, Morales said. Both students are
recovering from their leg wounds.
After metal detectors and police dogs were used to search for evidence, the
backpack of a 17-year-old student was confiscated and sent to the forensic
department to determine if a gun went off inside. The student was not
detained and laboratory results will not be available until the end of the
week, according to Morales.
"I regret social violence has made its way into the classroom," said Public
Education Minister Manuel Antonio Bolaños. "The ministry will not minimize
the seriousness of what happened."
In addition to supporting Pacheco's effort to change the child welfare code,
Bolaños said the ministry would continue to work on conflict-resolution
policies and strengthening ties between police and schools.
Police were mapping out the possible trajectory of the bullet in an effort
to limit the area from which the bullet could have come. Testimonies from
witnesses suggest the shot came from close by, Morales said.
Police will return to the school today to continue searching for the gun.
Public Works Minister Unveils
Plan to Aid Government Contracting
By Fabián Borges
fborges@ticotimes.net
Public Works and Transport Minister Javier Chaves yesterday unveiled a new
bill that aims to make government bidding processes for goods and services
faster and more efficient.
"The country's current administrative hiring laws are a straight jacket that
restricts the government's actions," Chaves explained during a press
conference, following the weekly Cabinet meeting. "The government is
incapable of supplying many of the country's infrastructure needs."
The bill was drafted by a special commission, composed of Chaves,
Vice-President Lineth Saborío and Presidency Minister Ricardo Toledo, in
response to the government's inability to build much-needed pedestrian
bridges over the Próspero Fernández Highway, which connects San José to the
western suburb of Santa Ana (TT Daily Page, Nov. 26, 2003).
During the last two years, at least eight people have died while attempting
to cross the highway. In response to the deaths, in October 2003 the
Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) ordered the Public
Works and Transport Ministry (MOPT) to build the bridges.
MOPT had organized a public bidding process in early 2003 to select a
company to build the bridges. However, the final decision was appealed by
one of the companies that lost the bid. This resulted in the entire project
being annulled. To this day, the bridges have not been built (TT, Oct. 17,
Nov. 21; 2003).
"The current laws protect the interests of private firms that supply
services to the government," Chaves explained. "It gives them too many
rights and grants them too much protection. While companies [that lose a
bidding process] issue appeals, vital projects are delayed. The bill we are
proposing aims to make it easier for the government to fulfill its
obligation of meeting the needs of taxpayers."
The bill aims to simplify the procedures required for the government to
organize a public bidding process for small projects. It also reduces the
amount of time companies have to submit bids, the time the government has to
evaluate the bids and the time the Comptroller General's Office has to
evaluate and approve the final contract, according to José Antonio Solera, a
private consultant who assisted the commission.
The proposal would create a national registry of builders and providers with
updated information on which public projects each company has taken part of
in the past and is currently working on.
The bill will allow the government to speed up small projects for which it
has already drafted plans, by holding a public auction where the lowest bid
would win instead of a longer bidding process. Solera believes auctions
would significantly reduce the time it takes to get small projects off the
ground.
It also would allow the government to issue "urgency procedures" for certain
projects. If the Public Works and Transport Minister declares a state of
urgency, he would be allowed to reduce the length of time allotted for each
step of the bidding process by half, Solera said.
The Legislative Assembly must approve the bill before it can go into effect.
Daily News | Home | Top Story |
Business News | Central American News
Editorial Cartoon |
Weekend | Exchange Rates |
Fishing |
Culture | Classified Ads
Display Ads | Subscribe! |
Travel Guide | Archives |
Links |
About Us |
Newsstand Locations
Contact Us
Thursday October 27, 2005