The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, June 15, 2004

FRIENDLY reunion: President Abel Pacheco and former President Miguel Angel Rodríguez, Secretary General-elect of the Organization of American States (OAS), met this morning in San José. It was their first meeting since Rodríguez was elected to the post last week in Quito, Ecuador. The new OAS leader thanked Costa Rica for its support of his candidacy.
Tico Times/Jeffrey Arguedas

U.S. Report on Child-Trafficking Ranks
Costa Rica Second Among 140 Countries
Despite high-profile efforts to detain the country’s reputation as a sex tourism hotspot, Costa Rica is mired near the top of the list of chronic sexual exploiters and traffickers, according to a recently released U.S. report.
(Click for more)

Tourism Chamber Opposes
Creation of Regional Tourism Offices
The National Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR) yesterday announced it opposes and will lobby against two bills that would create independent tourism promotion agencies for the northwestern province of Guanacaste and the eastern province of Limón.
(Click for more)

Central American Scientists
Discuss Gene-Altered Foods
“A lot of people talk about transgenic (foods), but not a lot of people know about them,” said Dr. Daniel Vidal, as he opened an international class on biotechnology and food at the University of Costa Rica research campus yesterday.
(Click for more)

June 15

CORRECTION!
National Dance Festival Celebrated This Week
The National Dance Festival began yesterday and continues through Friday, June 18 (not July 14-18 as reported yesterday), 8 p.m. daily at the Melico Salazar Theater in San José. Info: 221-4952.

Dance Show
The National Dance Company performs “Rosa de Rosas,” “NaCI/H2O,” and “Ciclico,” today and tomorrow, 8 p.m. at the Eugene O’Neill Theater, C.R.-North American Cultural Center in Barrio Dent. Info: 207-7555.

Guitar Concert
Cuban Jorge Zamora performs, 7 p.m. at the School of Music of the University of Costa Rica in San Pedro. Info: 207-4271.

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U.S. Report on Child-Trafficking Ranks
Costa Rica Second Among 140 Countries
By Robert Goodier
rgoodier@ticotimes.net

Despite high-profile efforts to detain the country’s reputation as a sex tourism hotspot, Costa Rica is mired near the top of the list of chronic sexual exploiters and traffickers, according to a recently released U.S. report.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented the annual Human Trafficking report, in which Costa Rica was listed in the number two spot, among 140 countries reviewed, as the most notorious places in the world for sex trafficking and failure to meet minimum standards for combating the problem.

Former U.S. Congressman John Miller, who leads U.S. efforts against human trafficking, said criminals and their networks single out the most vulnerable people in countries around the world, the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica said in a statement yesterday.

“We are trying to create associations that push all governments to accelerate their efforts to put an end to this atrocity and protect people who are trapped in trafficking schemes,” Miller said in the statement.

After a recent sex-tourism scandal involving sports fishermen and prostitutes whipped up by reports in the Costa Rican daily La Nación and a branch of ABC TV in Detroit, Michigan, government officials last month condemned the country’s image as a destination for such activities. Tourism Minister Rodrigo Castro said the country’s official position is “zero tolerance,” and ordered his Ministry’s legal department to investigate the scandal (TT, May 28).

Vice-Minister of Public Security Ana Helena Chacón told The Tico Times “though legal, it (prostitution) is something that I consider immoral.”

The country has made some advances. The day that the United States extradited suspected pedophile Arthur Kanev to Costa Rica for trial in this country’s courts marked the end of a hemisphere-wide conference on an international front against child sex exploitation.

However, at least one professional in child advocacy, Bruce Harris of the San José-based group Casa Alianza, was unimpressed. He pointed out that Costa Rica spent more money on the conference than it provides the country’s commission against the commercial sexual exploitation of children.

“You have to wonder if it’s all public relations,” he said (TT, May 28).

Milena Grillo, executive director of child-advocacy group Paniamor, told The Tico Times “the important thing is that the country is preparing to study the problem.” Paniamor, she said, in alliance with Save the Children, will map the routes of child trafficking in the country from the borders to the most-often exploited areas. The organizations will work with police and immigration officials and expect to have the map by the end of the year.

Paniamor is seeking ways to improve regional, small-scale strategies to combat exploitation, and is pushing for legal reform and tougher punishments for criminals, according to Grillo.

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Tourism Chamber Opposes
Creation of Regional Tourism Offices
By Fabián Borges
fborges@ticotimes.net

The National Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR) yesterday announced it opposes and will lobby against two bills that would create independent tourism promotion agencies for the northwestern province of Guanacaste and the eastern province of Limón.

National Liberation deputies María Elena Núñez, of Limón, María Lourdes Ocampo, of Guanacaste, and Citizen Action Party deputy for Limón Edwin Patterson proposed the bills. They have been studied by the special legislative commission on tourism and will now be transferred to the commission on government and administration or to the floor of the Legislative Assembly to be voted on.

At a press conference Monday morning, CANATUR president William Rodríguez said the chamber worries the proposed agencies, which would receive their funding directly from the budget of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute, will have negative consequences on the institute’s ability to promote Costa Rican tourism.

“This bill would create an 11-member directive council and a permanent executive director for each agency – another political position that would be handed out among the country’s politicians,” Rodríguez explained. “All of the financing for these agencies would come from ICT’s budget.”

Rodríguez also expressed concern over the potential cost of the new agencies – which would be funded by the ICT’s shrinking budget.

He warned the Western province of Puntarenas would be next in line, after Guanacaste and Limón, to receive its own promotion office. This would create a precedent that would result in the Northern and Southern Zones requesting their own agencies. In a matter of two to three years, he said, ICT’s budget would be fragmented and subordinated to local interests.

Under the bills, Rodríguez said, the portion of ICT’s budget dedicated to paying salaries and bureaucratic expenses would increase, while the portion of the budget spent on promoting the country abroad as a tourist destination would decrease.

“We must be efficient as a country,” he explained. “Creating tourism agencies that would further disperse the resources available to promote tourism would be a “municipalization” of the country’s tourism decisions. In the tourism industry, we compete against countries. Tourism promotion should remain a technical matter and must not be subject to community interests.”

If necessary, CANATUR will lobby every deputy to make sure the bill is rejected, he warned.

While opposed to the bills, CANATUR is in favor of further decentralizing ICT to make it possible for tourism businesses to receive ICT’s services without having to travel to its central offices in San José.

Rodríguez suggested ICT’s decentralization be similar to the opening of local branches of a bank, instead of the proposed bills which, he said, aim to create several “mini-ICTs” that would divide the national tourism budget among themselves.

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Central American Scientists
Discuss Gene-Altered Foods
By Rebecca Kimitch
rkimitch@ticotimes.net

“A lot of people talk about transgenic (foods), but not a lot of people know about them,” said Dr. Daniel Vidal, as he opened an international class on biotechnology and food at the University of Costa Rica research campus yesterday.

The course, attended by leaders in the field from throughout Central America and the Caribbean, continues through Friday and focuses on advances in biotechnology, such as genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Also called transgenic organisms, GMOs are plants and animals that have been genetically altered by scientists to create certain traits, such as disease resistance. GMO opponents fear potential long-term health and environmental effects of altered species, such as allergies and cross contamination of genetically modified crops (TT, April 2).

The National Council for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICIT) and the United Nations University, Biotechnology Program for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNU/BIOLAC) organized the course.

“We are trying to plant a seed that people will be able to take back to their own countries,” said Verónika Brundula of UNU/BIOLAC. “The idea is that all of these students will continue to talk and stay in touch through the Internet, comparing experiences in each of their countries.”

The most important thing for countries that are just starting to enter the GMO discussion – which is highly controversial on an international level – is to develop debate between all interested parties, Vidal said.

Vidal is an expert in food biotechnology at the University of Valencia in Spain. While he said the notion that GMOs will stop world hunger is a lie, he said he believes they can help the Third World resolve many problems.

He also said many people object to biotechnology without fully understanding what it is.

“Since man decided to become a farmer, he has applied genetics,” he said. “For thousands of years, man has used biotechnology (with crossbreeding of crops). Fifty years ago, we started to understand why.”

Genetic altering over the years has produced variations of crops that did not previously exist, such as such as broccoli and cauliflower.

He added that people need not feel threatened by GMOs, because the 80 GMO foods that exist have been tested as extensively, or more, than any conventional food product.

“But there is no such thing as zero risk,” he said. “Even with conventional foods, some people are allergic to nuts.”

Vidal said he respects people’s right to choose, and supports the labeling of products that are made with GMOs.

One goal of this week’s class is to give countries guidance in following the Cartagena Protocol, which still must be ratified by Costa Rica.

The Cartagena Protocol regulates the movement of living genetically modified organisms across international borders. The treaty aims for greater transparency in GMOs by obliging countries using living modified organisms as food, feed or processing to inform the world community via the Biosafety Clearinghouse before the products can be exported.

The protocol has been ratified by 90 countries and went into effect Sept. 11, 2003.

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U.S. Boat Rescues
Fishermen Lost at Sea

The crew of a U.S. vessel identified as the Cromellin last weekend rescued three fishermen who had been adrift at sea, the Public Security Ministry announced.

The fishermen were identified as Jeudy Gómez, the captain, and two crewmembers, Fabio Ángulo and Wilfrido Barahona. They were found 54 miles south of Cabo Matapalo, on Costa Rica’s central Pacific coast, on board their ship Don Luis II.

Costa Rican Coast Guard Commander Claudio Pacheco informed the ministry that the Don Luis II had been missing for 15 days.

Apparently the fishermen’s ship had mechanical troubles, and the members of the U.S. ship tried to repair them. When their efforts failed, they towed the Don Luis II to land, in accordance with international maritime law, ministry officials said.

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Wednesday October 26, 2005