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27 Oct 2005

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, March 8, 2004

Legislative deputy Mario Redondo, of the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC), answers reporters' questions Saturday evening after the legislative commission announced it failed to reach a new agreement on fiscal reform by the deadline.
Tico Times/Jeffrey Arguedas

Commission Fails to Move
Forward With Tax Plan
Following a month of heated debate and intense negotiations between the country's political factions, the nine-member legislative commission charged with reforming the government's proposed Permanent Fiscal Reform Package on Saturday announced it was unable to reach a definite agreement on changes to the bill.
(Click for more)

Legislative Assembly Rejects
U.S.-Backed Police Academy
An agreement with the United States to create in Costa Rica an International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) has been virtually nullified after U.S. negotiators refused to accept various interpretive clauses proposed by the Legislative Assembly, sources from the assembly told the press last week.
(Click for more)

National Geographic Institute
Discredits Map of Costa Rica
The National Geographic Institute (ING) on Saturday discredited a map of Costa Rica being sold in commercial establishments throughout the country that includes San Juan River as part of Costa Rican territory.
(Click for more)

March 8

Auditions for "Ladies Night" (The Full Monty)
Six men (all ages), one young person and two women sought for Little Theatre Group production, 7-9 p.m., Blanche Brown Theatre in Escazú. Info: Contact Director Liz Howard, 228-2661.

Conference for Women's Day
"Women in Action: Successful Experiences," 7 p.m., at the National Museum, Ca. 15, Av. 2 in San José. Info: 256-8643.

Amarillo, Cyan and Magenta
Tunes of the NU JAZZ, with the participation of Bernal Monestel and CD raffles, 9:30 p.m. at the Jazz Café in San Pedro. Info: 253-8933.

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Commission Fails to Move
Forward With Tax Plan
By Fabián Borges
fborges@ticotimes.net

Following a month of heated debate and intense negotiations between the country's political factions, the nine-member legislative commission charged with reforming the government's proposed Permanent Fiscal Reform Package on Saturday announced it was unable to reach a definite agreement on changes to the bill.

Since no agreement was reached, the tax plan is right back where it started. The original tax package, approved by another commission in December, will be transferred to the floor of the Legislative Assembly to be reformed and voted on by all 57 deputies. Most of the reforms to the tax package that were proposed but never enacted by the commission will likely be amended through additional motions while the bill is debated in the coming weeks.

Through the tax plan, the government hopes to increase and improve tax collection in order to permanently reduce the country's fiscal deficit. The government hopes to obtain an amount equal to 2.56% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) through the tax plan.

Last December, after 15 months of debate, a mixed commission that included representatives from every legislative faction, business chambers and other groups unveiled what was believed to be the final version of the tax plan (TT, Dec. 5, 2003). The government adopted the plan and submitted it to the Legislative Assembly as a bill on Jan. 19.

The nine-member legislative commission was created Feb. 5 to study and modify the tax plan so it could be voted on. The commission was given until Feb. 26 to make last-minute changes (TT, Feb. 13, 20). The deadline was later extended until March 6.

Last week it appeared that the majority of the commission - deputies from the Social Christian Unity Party, the National Liberation Party, the Citizen Action Party and Carlos Avendaño of Costa Rican Renovation - had reached an agreement that included reforms to several main aspects of the original tax plan. The proposed changes would redefine the different income tax brackets, create additional exemptions to the proposed 13% value-added tax, make changes to the corporate tax rate and create a special differentiated tax system for small and medium businesses.

The agreements were reached during informal meetings between legislators held outside the commission. Commission member Federico Malavassi of the Libertarian Movement accused the meetings of serving as a "parallel commission" that undermined the efforts of the real commission.

Commission chairman Mario Redondo of Social Christian Unity said the meetings were necessary to speed up the work of the commission. The commission, he argued, had been paralyzed by Malavassi who, during the last month, had issued a barrage of over 400 reform motions, many of which had no validity.

The agreements reached were included in a 480-page motion that, once approved by the commission, would replace the majority of the December tax plan.

However, on Saturday, shortly after the commission convened for its last day of debate, Citizen Action deputy Epsy Campbell announced her party was no longer part of the agreement. She said deputies had not been given enough time to properly study the motion and Citizen Action would not sign a document it was not familiar with.

Nury Garita and Bernal Jiménez of the National Liberation Party accused Citizen Action deputies of turning their back on their word and delaying a bill of vital importance to the country by making a "political show" out of the commission.

The 480-page mega-motion was not voted on, and thus not amended to the tax plan. Once the commission's final deadline expired at 5:30 p.m., the commission voted to endorse the December tax plan a majority of five to four.

Unity, Liberation and Renovation will now issue a majority report with recommendations on what changes they consider the plan will need. Citizen Action, Patriotic Bloc and the Libertarians plan to issue three separate minority reports.

While the bill is debated on the floor of the Assembly, legislators will have the chance to make changes to the bill. Jiménez and Garita have already announced they will attempt to make all the reforms contained in the "mega-motion" through regular motions. However, legislators will not have long to discuss these reforms.

In recent weeks, the government was warned it will withdraw its support for the bill if it is not approved by April 30 and will instead move ahead with "Plan B" - a ¢72 billion ($171.4 million, roughly 1% of the country's gross domestic product) cut to the budgets of 15 different government ministries and several social programs.

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Legislative Assembly Rejects
U.S.-Backed Police Academy
By Steven J. Barry
sbarry@ticotimes.net

An agreement with the United States to create in Costa Rica an International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) has been virtually nullified after U.S. negotiators refused to accept various interpretive clauses proposed by the Legislative Assembly, sources from the assembly told the press last week.

Legislator Rolando Laclé, president of the Congress' Inter-nation Relations Committee, said the interpretive clauses "close any possibility whatsoever that there could be any aspect of military character in this project."

The project to create the academy, which would have trained officers to combat problems such as weapons and drug trafficking, generated controversy in Costa Rica after it was denounced as a military training center that would not be in keeping with the civil tradition here, AFP reported.

"It seems to me that since (Washington) has not accepted these interpretive policies, approval of the project has become very difficult," Laclé said.

In many countries, military personnel carry out duties normally reserved for civil police officers. It was the intention of the United States that the ILEA in Costa Rica would train such personnel, representatives of the U.S. Embassy told The Tico Times.

Under the administration of former Costa Rican President Jose María Figueres, the Legislative Assembly had backed the academy. The current group of legislators, however, opposes military personnel of any kind being trained on Costa Rican soil.

"We always said we understood the project in the sense that no military personnel would be sent nor would this be an academy of that character; if the [U.S.] government has not accepted some of those clauses, it is not going to remain sufficiently clear, and as a consequence it is not going to have the support it could have had originally," Laclé told the press last week.

The U.S. Embassy indicated in a statement to the Costa Rican chancellor on Jan. 30 that if the project was not approved by April 30 they would look for an alternative location for the academy.

U.S. Embassy representatives said the United States is already looking at other countries in the region that had vied for the academy alongside Costa Rica, such as El Salvador and Panama.

Costa Rica originally had been selected because of its relatively stable political, economic and social conditions.

The academy would have been the fourth of its kind outside U.S. territory, following installations in countries such as Hungary, Thailand and Botswana, according to the U.S. State Department's Web site.

Public Security Minister Rogelio Ramos said the purpose of the academy was never to train any kind of military forces in the country, La Nación reported.

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International Women's Day
Celebrated in Central Valley

International Women's Day will be celebrated in the Central Valley today with a variety of different events, including the presentation of the National Angela Acuña Braun Prize and gatherings in downtown San José and other areas.

The celebration comes as the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) reviews for the fourth time a bill penalizing violence against women. The bill had been debated fervently since its introduction in 1999, but legislators made a concerted effort in recent weeks to speed its passage after a rash of domestic violence slayings this year (TT, March 5).

The Acuña Braun prize is awarded to journalists who present an image of women "free from molded stereotypes of behavior," and who contribute to the eradication of discrimination and violence against women, according to a statement from the National Women's Institute (INAMU). The prize will be awarded at 8:30 a.m. today at the Hotel Radisson.

Angela Acuña Braun was the nation's first woman lawyer, and was known for the leading role she played in the effort to win Ticas the right to vote.

The downtown San José gathering will begin at 1 p.m. at Central Park and features a free performance by Guadalupe Urbina, a Guanacaste-born musician, poet and artist.

A gathering in Desamparados will be held at 10 a.m. in Centennial Park. The event will serve as an opportunity to pay tribute to the most noteworthy women in the area, according to the Desamparados Municipality.

Women's day was first celebrated before World War I, when Russian women observed it as a part of the peace effort. In 1917, with 2 million Russian soldiers dead, women there again celebrated the day to strike for "bread and peace," according to a United Nations statement about the subject.

Since then it has grown in popularity internationally, and is used as a time to "call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of women's rights," the statement said.

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National Geographic Institute
Discredits Map of Costa Rica

The National Geographic Institute (ING) on Saturday discredited a map of Costa Rica being sold in commercial establishments throughout the country that includes San Juan River as part of Costa Rican territory.

The map "presents inconsistencies with official data," said a statement from the institute, part of the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation.

"One of the most outstanding defects of the map is that it does not show that the international border with the Republic of Nicaragua is the right bank of the Río San Juan, which is considered reason enough for worry, for the diplomatic implications this could cause," the institute said.

The unauthorized relief map measures 97 by 67 centimeters and, according to the company Alza S.A. that distributes it, was created by the DeAgostini Geographic Institute in Italy, from where it was imported.

ING director Eduardo Bedoya said cartographic review or official approval is never practiced.

Río San Juan has been the subject of a prolonged dispute between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, elevated since 1998, when authorities in Managua prohibited armed Costa Rican authorities from navigating the route.

According to the Cañas-Jerez Treaty of 1958, Nicaragua exercises sovereignty over the river, and Costa Rica has the right to its navigation. The dispute revolves around the scope of the Costa Rican rights.
- AFP

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Thursday October 27, 2005