The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, May 24, 2004

IN CUSTODY: Sgt. Harold Roxburgh (left) and Mstr. Sgt. George Rhea (right) escort Staff Sgt Camilo Mejía from the Georgia courtroom Friday after he was sentenced for desertion by a military jury.
AFP/U.S. Army via Getty Images/Benjamin Brody

Investigation Ordered into
Prostitution Packages for Tourists
Tourism Minister Rodrigo Castro announced Saturday that he had ordered an investigation into offers of prostitution packages for large groups of tourists, one of which was exposed by the daily La Nación newspaper and a Detroit, Michigan branch of the U.S. television station ABC two weeks ago.
(Click for more)

May 24

World Music Show
Show features the Amounsulu group. Before the concert, the audience can enjoy some music from Bernal Monestel’s collection, 10 p.m. at the Jazz Café in San Pedro. Info: 253-8933.

Highlighted Trova Singer Performs
Tickets are on sale for the concert of Argentinean trova singer Facundo Cabral, who will perform songs from his new production “Facundo Cabral and The Latest News,” 7 p.m. this Friday and Saturday at the Melico Salazar Theater in San José. Tickets on sale at the Sala Garbo Theater. Info: 223-1086, 223-1960, www.conciertosinternacionales.com.

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Investigation Ordered into
Prostitution Packages for Tourists
By Robert Goodier
rgoodier@ticotimes.net

Tourism Minister Rodrigo Castro announced Saturday that he had ordered an investigation into offers of prostitution packages for large groups of tourists, one of which was exposed by the daily La Nación newspaper and a Detroit, Michigan branch of the U.S. television station ABC two weeks ago.

“Our official position is zero tolerance (of sex tourism), even of activities involving adults. The public and private sectors have the obligation to make every effort (toward this goal) possible,” Castro told La Nación.

For five days in late April and early May, a group of nearly 170 men from the United States stayed at a beach on the northern Pacific coast in Guanacaste province for a fishing tournament and were reportedly met by nearly 100 prostitutes. Their activities were photographed and reported by two journalists, Otto Vargas of La Nación and Steve Wilson of WXYZ TV in Detroit.

Wilson told The Tico Times that the Flamingo Marina Resort was “filled with Michigan Boys” and was the site of a party on their final night, which he and Vargas described in their reports – a foam party during which some participants took off their clothes.

“I call it an orgy,” Wilson said, “…Naked men and women doing all sorts of lewd things while everybody cheered.”

Meanwhile, Wilson’s and Vargas’ reporting tactics came under fire from event organizers and one hotel owner in the area. Niels Oldenburg, owner of the Flamingo Marina Resort Hotel, said, “We are totally outraged at the reports of La Nación… Certainly no act of prostitution was indeed visible or permissible.” He added that most of the fishermen did not go there for sex.

Prostitution is not illegal in Costa Rica, but there are laws against the organization of women for prostitution (pimping) in order to protect them from exploitation.

Bruce Harris, director of the child-advocacy group Casa Alianza, said he is gathering evidence against pimps he says were involved in the fishing trip. He said he will use the tape of the ABC segments together with recordings of three other recently filmed TV programs from news outlets in Spain, Great Britain and Canada in cases Casa Alianza is helping build against those who exploit prostitutes (TT, May 14).

“The girls paid money to certain people and Casa Alianza has taped some transactions. We will aid the (Costa Rican prosecutors) and also police authorities in other countries to bring justice to the people charging money,” Harris said.

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Police Make Five Arrests
In Journalist’s Murder Case

Police made five arrests on Saturday in connection with the case of slain journalist Ivannia Mora, who was shot to death last December while stopped at a light in front of a shopping center in San José.

One of the men arrested is Eugenio Millot, owner of the Red Castle Media Group and Mora’s former boss at the business magazine Estrategia y Negocios. He was arrested after the murder, and then released on conditional freedom until his second arrest Saturday (TT Jan. 9). With him, police rounded up four Colombians, alleged hired killers, at different locations around San José.

Authorities said the hit men were paid close to $20,000 to kill the 33-year-old journalist. An alleged witness for the state prosecutor, also a Colombian, said he was offered the job for a payment of between $10,000 and $20,000.
-- AFP

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World Day against Tobacco Celebrated

For the month of May, hundreds of thousands of smokers around the world swore off cigarettes and chewing tobacco in an effort to win a grand prize of $10,000 and a number of smaller prizes (TT, April 2).

Today marks the end of their competition.

The awards ceremony for the Costa Rican chapter of the Quit and Win international contest will take place in San José in the Plaza de la Cultura, at 9:30 a.m.

It is also World Day against Tobacco, which will be celebrated at the event.

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Nica-Tico Soldier in U.S.
Sentenced to Year in Jail

A U.S. soldier who is a citizen of both Costa Rica and Nicaragua was sentenced to a year in prison in Fort Stewart, Georgia, for deserting his unit in Iraq.

The soldier, Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejía, said it was a decision he doesn't regret making, after seeing the horrors of an “oil-driven” war.

Mejía, who has permanent resident status in the United States, claims he saw civilians die and Iraqi prisoners mistreated as early as May 2003. The issue has shocked the world since recent revelations of torture at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.

Mejía, 28, born in Nicaragua to a Costa Rican mother, turned himself in after five months of desertion to seek conscientious objector status (TT, March 19).

He said refused to go back to Iraq “because I doubted the constitutional and international legality of the war, and because I was morally opposed to the things that I had seen over there as a soldier,” according to the AP wire service.

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Wednesday October 26, 2005