The Tico Times Online Daily Page

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

CHEERS: Former Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodríguez (left), accompanied by his wife, wife, Lorena Clare (right), is congratulated on his new post as secretary general of the Organization of American States by Minister of Foreign Relations Roberto Tovar (center).
Tico Times/Jeffrey Arguedas

Rodríguez Welcomed Back with
Parties, Congressional Hearing
While former Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodríguez (1998-2002) spent last night the center of a celebratory toast by international diplomats, he’ll spend today the center of questioning before a legislative commission investigating campaign-financing irregularities.
(Click for more)

Journalist Detained for Allegedly Assisting
Coercion of Witnesses in Murder Case
Attorney General Francisco Dall’Anese yesterday announced the arrest of a newspaper journalist in connection with the Parmenio Medina murder case.
(Click for more)

June 17

Music Marathon
Students of the basic level of the School of Music of the University of Costa Rica (UCR) are offering an¿ free afternoon concert, 2-6 p.m., at room 107 of the school in San Pedro, east of San José.

Storytelling Night
Edita Marín, Lilian Ocampo and Xavier Sánchez will tell lots of stories at 7 p.m. at the José Figueres Ferrer Culture House in Barrio Escalante. Free entrance. Info: 224-0010.

Shrek’s House
Parents can prepare for the animated film Shrek 2 by taking their tots to Shrek’s House in Mall San Pedro, open every day 2-7 p.m. Info: 221-6272.

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Rodríguez Welcomed Back with
Parties, Congressional Hearing
By Rebecca Kimitch
rkimitch@ticotimes.net

While former Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodríguez (1998-2002) spent last night the center of a celebratory toast by international diplomats, he’ll spend today the center of questioning before a legislative commission investigating campaign-financing irregularities.

Last night, ambassadors and heads of diplomatic missions in Costa Rica from nearly every Latin American country at the Ministry of Foreign Relations raised their glasses to Rodríguez for his election to the post of secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS) last week. Rodríguez was unanimously elected June 7 at the OAS General Assembly in Quito, Ecuador (TT, June 11).

“Rodríguez has received a very strong mandate for his position, unlike the presidency of the United States. This is very important in an international dialogue,” said Carlos Sojo, director of the Costa Rican office of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO).

Sojo said he hoped Rodríguez would help give OAS member countries a stronger voice in negotiating free-trade agreements, particularly in addressing poverty. He added that he thought Costa Rica is in the position to share some of its tradition of democracy with the rest of the OAS members.

Rodríguez told The Tico Times after the toast, “In the long term, I hope to achieve the right of every American to live in democracy and within an international system that fights for human rights, fully financed by the involved countries.

“We need to improve the international alliance between the Americas to fight crime, terrorism and narco-trafficking,” he added.

Rodríguez, who will be sworn in Sept. 15, is expected today to answer questions regarding accusations of illegally receiving ¢100 million ($293,000 at the time) in government campaign funds. He was scheduled to testify in March, but the Legislative Assembly commission voted in January that he would not have to testify until after the OAS elections.

In December 2001, while he was President, Rodríguez accepted funds from the Social Christian Unity Party, of which he is a member. Like all government campaign funds, the money was meant for the exclusive use of the party and should not have been transferred to him, according to Costa Rican law.

When first confronted about the issue in August of last year, Rodríguez denied taking the money. In October 2003, he admitted receiving the money, saying it was repayment of a debt the party had incurred with him during the 1998 presidential campaign.

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Ecuadorian Minister Interested
In Costa Rican Eco-Tourism Model

Tourism Minister Rodrigo Castro yesterday met with his Ecuadorian counterpart, Gladis Eljuri, who came to Costa Rica to learn about the country’s tourism model, particularly eco-tourism.

“We are also in the process of eco-tourism,” Eljuri explained. “For that reason this exchange of ideas is important.”

She noted that Ecuador and Costa Rica have many things in common – protected areas, biodiversity and volcanoes.

“We are countries that don’t compete, instead we go hand in hand,” she said.

Representatives of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) gave the minister presentations on Costa Rica’s National Sustainable Tourism Plan 2002-2012, market intelligence, communication and tourism.

Today, she will meet with representatives of Central American airline Grupo TACA and the Costa Rican Association of Tourism Professionals (ACOPROT). On Friday, she will visit the north-central area of Sarapiquí, where she will tour several eco-tourism projects.

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Journalist Detained for Allegedly Assisting
Coercion of Witnesses in Murder Case
By Steven J. Barry
sbarry@ticotimes.net

Attorney General Francisco Dall’Anese yesterday announced the arrest of a newspaper journalist in connection with the Parmenio Medina murder case.

Dall’Anese said prosecutors suspect that the journalist allowed a prisoner access to a cellular phone in his name, which the prisoner used to coerce and intimidate witnesses in connection with the case, which has yet to go to trial.

Dall’Anese did not disclose the name of either suspect, but the daily La Nación reported in a digital news flash that the journalist was Adrián Marrero of Diario Extra. La Nación also reported that the prisoner was Luis Alberto Aguirre, known as “El Indio,” who confessed to killing Medina in March (TT, April 16).

The phone was registered in the journalist’s name with the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) and his name appears when the cell phone is turned on, officials said. Dall’Anese declined to discuss evidence other than the cell phone linking the journalist to the witness intimidation.

He said the charges against the journalist pertain to how the phone ended up in the prisoner’s hands, as well as what was done with it. He clarified that whether the journalist knew precisely what the phone was to be used for is irrelevant, and likened it to a weapon.

“If someone leaves a revolver for another person, and that person uses it to kill a third person, it could be that the first person never intended the revolver to be used for murder,” he said.

Catholic priest Minor Calvo and sports businessman Omar Chaves, the suspected intellectual authors of Medina’s July 2001 assassination, are currently serving preventive detention sentences.

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Suspected Drug Traffickers Detained,
240 Kilograms of Cocaine Found in Pacific

Four Colombians suspected of trafficking cocaine in a “go-fast” boat through Costa Rican waters were handed a three-month preventive prison order yesterday, the Public Security Ministry announced.

Police and Coast Guard officers pursued the suspects off the central Pacific coast for nearly six hours on Monday, finally capturing them near the resort town of Manuel Antonio.

Police said the suspects were seen discarding packages from the speedboat into the ocean during the chase.

Police announced yesterday afternoon that some 240 kilograms of cocaine had been found floating 25 miles off the coast of the Pacific resort town of Jacó, and that officials were continuing to search for more drugs.

This is the third boat of this kind captured in Costa Rican waters this year. Eight Colombians were arrested in the other two cases, and one boat contained 325 kilograms of cocaine.

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Wednesday October 26, 2005