The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, July, 16 2004

GOAL! Costa Rica’s Andy Herron celebrates a buzzer-beater goal that allowed the country’s national soccer team to beat Chile 2-1 and qualify for the next round of the Copa America soccer tournament.
AFP Photo

Tico Soccer Team Wins,
Moves To Next Round
In a dramatic finale, the kind that rarely makes it into the real world from the movie screen, Costa Rica’s national soccer team (La Sele) scored a last-second goal against Chile Wednesday night, saving itself from elimination in the Peru 2004 Copa America – South America’s most prestigious soccer tournament. The final score was 2-1 in favor of Costa Rica.
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Police in Nicaragua Release Suspect,
Say He’s Not Fugitive Tico Priest
GRANADA, Nicaragua – Venezuelan missionary Orlando José Guerrero, 31, was released by Nicaraguan authorities yesterday morning after being arrested by police 36 hours earlier on suspicion that he was fugitive Tico priest Enrique Vásquez.
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July 16

Contemporary Dance Festival
More than 12 dance companies will participate, today and tomorrow at 8 p.m., Sunday at 5 p.m. at the Melico Salazar Theater, Av. 2, between Calle Ctrl./2 in San José. Info: 221-4952, 257-6005.

Health Vacation for Women:
Health vacation for women, hosted by yoga leader Dr. Kamayani, today through Monday at Termales del Bosque, hotel and hot springs near Ciudad Quesada in the Northern Zone. Info: 418-6561.

Opening of New Harry Potter Movie
“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” opens in Costa Rican theaters today. Check The Tico Times’ movie listing for schedules.

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Tico Soccer Team Wins,
Moves To Next Round
By Robert Goodier
rgoodier@ticotimes.net

In a dramatic finale, the kind that rarely makes it into the real world from the movie screen, Costa Rica’s national soccer team (La Sele) scored a last-second goal against Chile Wednesday night, saving itself from elimination in the Peru 2004 Copa America – South America’s most prestigious soccer tournament. The final score was 2-1 in favor of Costa Rica.

Going into the game, things looked bleak for Costa Rica. La Sele had lost its first two first-round games – first to Paraguay last Thursday in a disheartening 1-0 loss and again on Saturday when Brazil’s B-Team crushed the team 4-1.

However, there was a small ray of hope. During Tuesday’s games, Bolivia and Peru tied at 2-2 and Colombia dashed Venezuela’s hopes 1-0. These results made the winner of Costa Rica vs. Chile eligible for one of the tournament’s two wildcard seats. Despite a slow start, La Sele delivered, winning the game and clinching the wildcard.

Rafael Olarra opened the scoreboard for Chile at minute 39. Going into the second round, La Sele seemed doomed. Things changed at minute 58 with a goal by Mauricio Wright that tied the game at 1-1.

At minute 93, Costa Rica’s Andy Herron sank the ball as the clock wound down in the second half and, as the daily Al Día pointed out, referee René Ortubé had already taken off his whistle in expectation of the close of the game.

In San José, screams and car horns suddenly erupted as Herron pulled up his shirt for his victory laps and at least one Chilean player fell to his knees, suddenly disqualified from this year’s America Cup.

Celebrations continued yesterday, AFP newswire reported, while the team prepares for the quarterfinals in a match against Colombia tomorrow evening.

Newly hired Costa Rica coach Jorge Luis Pinto, who replaced the previous coach from the United States, Steve Sampson (TT, June 25) is a Colombian national who will lead the Tico team against his own country.

Wednesday night he issued his country a warning: “It hurts deeply – to confront Colombia – but we’re going to the top and we’re going to win no matter what it costs, so that Costa Rica shines,” he said.

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Police in Nicaragua Release Suspect,
Say He’s Not Fugitive Tico Priest
By Tim Rogers
trogers@ticotimes.net

GRANADA, Nicaragua – Venezuelan missionary Orlando José Guerrero, 31, was released by Nicaraguan authorities yesterday morning after being arrested by police 36 hours earlier on suspicion that he was fugitive Tico priest Enrique Vásquez.

Acting on a phone tip earlier this week, police detained Guerrero Tuesday afternoon in the northern department of Matagalpa and transported him to police headquarters in Managua to determine his true identity. Hours after the arrest, police announced they had detained a suspect who appears “almost identical” to the photographs of the accused pedophile priest, wanted by authorities in Costa Rica (TT, July 2).

Police suspicion heightened with the discovery that the suspect was in the country illegally and allegedly presented authorities with a false passport.

But fingerprint matches conducted by International Police (INTERPOL) yesterday afternoon revealed that the suspect’s prints did not match those of Vásquez, and Guerrero was turned over to immigration authorities, who fined him 20,000 córdobas ($1,200) for his irregular immigration status but issued him a visa to remain in the country.

Guerrero told local television upon his release that immigration authorities apologized to him for the scandal, which has been all over the front pages of the national newspapers and received international coverage.

“The police commissioner showed me the file on the priest and I told him I am not that guy; he has a different face than I do,” Guerrero told TV cameras, adding that he feels “morally and psychologically” affected by the whole ordeal.

“Nothing like this has ever happened to me before,” he said.

The police are defending their investigation as professional and within the law. Commissioner Miriam Torres told The Tico Times yesterday that the investigation in Nicaragua is continuing, although she did not rule out the possibility that the fugitive priest had slipped out of the country illegally at a “blind border crossing.”

Father Vásquez, who fled a criminal investigation in Costa Rica in 1998, faces allegations that he sexually molested several boys more than a decade ago. He had been working in Honduras in a rural parish until Interpol recently picked up his scent, sending him fleeing into Nicaragua July 1. There is no immigration record of him leaving the country since.

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Police Investigate Speedboat
Discovered by Residents

Officials from various agencies of the Public Security Ministry are searching for drug residue on an abandoned high-powered speedboat found Wednesday night by residents of Barra del Colorado, on the country’s northern Caribbean coast.

Police believe the boat, made in Colombia and porting two 200-horsepower Yamaha engines, may have been used as a “go-fast” vehicle to move drug shipments from Colombia up the coastline, according to ministry officials.

Police said one of the motors is highly oxidized, which they believe may be a result of long-term use in salt water.

Costa Rican authorities have speculated that increased efficiency on the part of police here have forced drug traffickers to rely more heavily on maritime transshipment.

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Search Continues for
Missing Fisherman

Costa Rican Coast Guard officials and Public Security Ministry pilots continued the search yesterday for three fishermen from the Caribbean port town of Limón, missing since Monday.

Authorities said they found no sign of Alexander Luna, Ronald Rodríguez or Alonso Cortés.

Coast Guardsmen and Red Cross functionaries yesterday patrolled the waters off Costa Rica’s Southern Caribbean Zone, as that is where officials speculate marine currents would likely have carried the fishermen by this point.

The fishermen are feared lost at sea after facing fierce waves and heavy rains, according to Public Security Ministry officials.

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Wednesday October 26, 2005