The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, March 17, 2004

JOINING forces: Members of Costa Rica’s police force are working with Environment Ministry officials to curb poaching in Corcovado National Park in the Southern Zone.
Tico Times/Steven J. Barry

Officials: Poaching in Corcovado
Reaches Breaking Point
Widespread illegal hunting in Corcovado National Park, on the Osa Peninsula in the southeast corner of Costa Rica, has reached a critical point, according to representatives of the Environment and Energy Ministry (MINAE).
(Click for more)

Pacheco Spends $5,000
On Harry Potter Books
President Abel Pacheco yesterday announced he had spent the $5,000 he received when he was awarded the Kolbe Peace Prize on Harry Potter books for fourth graders at the country’s poorest schools through a new government program.
(Click for more)

March 17

Honoring Writer Julio Cortázar
Event features talks, a photo exhibit, narration of short stories and film fragments, 6 p.m. today and tomorrow at the Librería Francesa. Info: 305-6074.

Opera Concert
By soprano Kate Vetter-Cain and pianist Tamara Sanikidze, from Maryland University, playing works by Claude Debussy, Paganini-Liszt, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Ernani Braga, Alberto E. Ginastera and Silvestre Revueltas, 7 p.m. at the Eugene O’Neill Theater in the Costa Rican-North American Cultural Center in Barrio Dent. Info: 207-7554.

“La Estrategia del Caracol,”
Spanish film by Sergio Cabrera, 7 p.m. at the Spanish Cultural Center, Ca. 31, Av. 13 in San José. Info: 257-2919.

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Officials: Poaching in Corcovado
Reaches Breaking Point
By Steven J. Barry
sbarry@ticotimes.net

Widespread illegal hunting in Corcovado National Park, on the Osa Peninsula in the southeast corner of Costa Rica, has reached a critical point, according to representatives of the Environment and Energy Ministry (MINAE).

Alvaro Ugalde, director of the Osa Conservation Area, which oversees the expansive national park, has drafted a request for a declaration of environmental emergency in the area. The request is under review by MINAE officials before being sent to Congress.

The two main species of animals affected by the poaching are the Central American jaguar and its main source of food, the white-lipped peccary. A study conducted by Universidad Nacional scientists revealed that if nothing is done to stop the slaughter, both animals might disappear from the park this year.

Poachers mainly target peccaries, killing them en masse with heavy assault rifles, according to MINAE officials. As their main prey disappears, jaguars are forced to search outside the park for food, and are killed by area residents trying to protect domestic animals, or simply out of fear.

Meanwhile, park guards, supported by Costa Rican police, are conducting lengthy counter-poaching patrols deep into the jungle. The Public Security Ministry offered the police support as part of a last-ditch effort to stop the killing.

Scientists believe the population of both animals has dropped by as much as 80% in the past three years.

See Friday’s Tico Times print edition or digital PDF version for the full story.

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Pacheco Spends $5,000
On Harry Potter Books
By Fabián Borges
fborges@ticotimes.net

President Abel Pacheco yesterday announced he had spent the $5,000 he received when he was awarded the Kolbe Peace Prize on Harry Potter books for fourth graders at the country’s poorest schools through a new government program.

On Feb. 27, the U.S.-based Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute awarded Pacheco the peace prize for Costa Rica’s anti-abortion efforts, which Pope John Paul II has come to call a “Culture of Life,” and Costa Rica’s efforts toward a permanent global ban on human cloning (TT Daily, Feb. 27).

During yesterday’s weekly Cabinet meeting, Pacheco announced he used the money to purchase 130 volumes of Spanish versions of all the Harry Potter books at half-price directly from the books’ publisher.

The books will be loaned to students at public schools for six weeks at a time. After the sixth week, the government will pick up the books and take them to another school that hasn’t read them. Schools that finish reading a book will receive the next volume in the series. That way, children at all the schools will be able to read the books, Pacheco explained.

Through the program, the President said he aims to use Harry Potter as a tool to foster reading among the country’s children by giving them an opportunity to read books they really want to read.

“I’m going to give them what my grandchildren want to read,” Pacheco told reporters. “I want to give the poorest kids an opportunity to read what the rich kids are reading.”

The program starts Friday at Escuela Nicaragua in the southern San José district of Cristo Rey and Escuela Omar Dengo in the northern San José district of Barrio México.

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Argentina, Brazil Endorse
Costa Rica's OAS Candidate

The Presidents of Argentina and Brazil yesterday announced they would endorse former Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodríguez (1998-2002) in his bid to become Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Costa Rica’s Foreign Ministry announced in a statement.

Foreign Minister Roberto Tovar expressed “profound” gratitude to the governments of Argentina and Brazil for pledging their “valuable support.”

“The message expressed today by the Presidents of Argentina, Néstor Kirchner, and Brazil, Luiz Inacio “Lula” Da Silva, to Costa Rica’s candidate, constitutes a valuable opportunity to secure the election of a Central American,” Tovar said. “It consolidates the possibility that a candidate that represents a hemispheric consensus will be elected.”

Kirchner and Da Silva announced their support for Rodríguez during a bilateral meeting held yesterday.

Rodríguez has secured the pledged support of 25 countries, including 15 members of the Caribbean Economic Community (CARICOM), Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Rodríguez is expected to travel to Chile, Ecuador and Perú later in the week in an attempt to secure their support.

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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Wednesday October 26, 2005