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Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, November 09, 2004
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| CHILLY weather: Veritas University photography student Ana María Zuñiga wore gloves and a scarf while working on a class assignment yesterday. Since Sunday, most of the country has experienced a cold front that brought lower temperatures, strong winds of 40-50 kilometers per hour and rain that has flooded some rivers. The Caribbean slope has suffered the worst of the downpours, with about 100 millimeters of rain, as of yesterday, in a 24-hour period, according to meteorologist Werner Stolz of the National Meteorology Institute. Floods have mostly affected people in the port city Limón, on the Caribbean coast. In the Central Valley , Heredia, north of San José , and San José , especially the suburb Desamparados, also have experienced flooding. Stolz said he expects the front to move on by tomorrow. |
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Trial Begins For Man
Suspected of Killing Girl
The trial of a man suspected of killing 8-year-old Kattia Vanessa González began yesterday with little drama besides the momentary fainting of the girl's mother.
(Click for more)
Registration Opens for
Artisans' Competition
Registration for the seventh National Artisans' Manos Creadora s (Hands that Create) Fair began yesterday and will continue through Friday.
(Click for more)
Nation's Police Chiefs
Will be Replaced this Month
Because of reforms in the General Police Law and the Civil Police Law, 11 regional police commanders will be replaced this month, the Public Security Ministry announced yesterday.
(Click for more)
Ex-President Calderón
Appeals Jail Sentence
The appellate hearing to annul the nine-month preventive prison sentence of ex-President Rafael Ángel Calderón (990-1994) concluded yesterday after being rescheduled last week because of health problems suffered by Calderón (TT Daily Page, Nov. 8).
(Click for more)
November 09
Children with Handicaps Display Art
Students ages 3-12 from the Fernando Centeno Güell School , a school for kids with disabilities, will display their artwork today through Nov. 19 at the Carlos Monge Alfaro Library at the University of Costa Rica campus. Info: 225-5437, ext. 108.
XIII Costa Rican Film and Video Festival
Festival offers films in different categories including feature-length fiction (more than 45 minutes); short fiction (less than 45 minutes); documentary; animation and video-creation. Shows are 4-7 p.m. every night through Nov. 13 at Cine Variedades, in San José . Info: 222-9329.
VII International Congress of Latin American Studies
Congress held 8 a.m.- 5:30 p.m. at Teatro 1887, CENAC.
Edited By Robert Goodier
Tico Times Staff
rgoodier@ticotimes.net
Trial Begins For Man
Suspected of Killing Girl
By Robert Goodier
Tico Times Staff
rgoodier@ticotimes.net
The trial of a man suspected of killing 8-year-old Kattia Vanessa González began yesterday with little drama besides the momentary fainting of the girl's mother.
As captured by television news cameras, Olga Juárez closed her eyes and fell back against a wall in a room in the court building after seeing the suspect, Jorge Sánchez. The trial was delayed 15 minutes while she recovered.
“It was really hard because (it made me) remember everything,” Juárez said afterward. “The hardest thing was seeing him there.” The mother said she knew he would be at the court, but did not expect him to be in the same room.
“When Olga saw him, you saw that she fainted,” Juárez's lawyer, Juan Diego Castro, told the press. “She felt that the man was staring at her fixedly, she turned to look… The accused was staring at her…”
Sánchez chose not to testify.
Today the court is expected to hear the testimony of forensic scientists from the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ), and the victim's “little friends” who were with her when she was last seen alive, Castro said.
Gonzalez's body was found July 10, 2003 , under the floorboards of Sánchez's home, 25 meters from where her family lived in the southern San José neighborhood of Quesada Durán. She had been missing since July 4 of that year (TT, July 11, 2003 ).
Sánchez, who reportedly has a history of suspicious behavior, was arrested and charged with the girl's murder.
An outpouring of grief and anger that month resulted in nearly 1.5 million signatures from around the country on a petition calling for tougher child-protection statutes and passage of the so-called “Kattia and Osvaldo Law,” named for the victim and Osvaldo Madrigal, 4, killed in June 2002 (TT, Dec. 24, 2003).
The law proposal remains in the permanent Commission on Childhood and Adolescence of the Legislative Assembly with no known date for completion or congressional vote, according to an assembly representative.
Registration Opens for
Artisans' Competition
Registration for the seventh National Artisans' Manos Creadora s (Hands that Create) Fair began yesterday and will continue through Friday.
Micro, small and medium-business owners who wish to enter their products in the fair must fill out an entry form and present a product sample to register, according to a statement from the Economy, Industry and Commerce Ministry (MEIC), which is organizing the event.
The fair will take place Dec. 10-19, offering the country's artisans an opportunity to promote their products and make connections for new contracts and sales.
“Manos Creadoras is the most important commercial event of the year for artisans, not only as a window of opportunity for promotion and sales, but also as a way to demonstrate the excellent quality and variety of national artisanship,” said Economy Minister Gilberto Barrantes in the statement.
Last year, 160 artisans from all over the country participated in the fair.
To register, visit the MEIC offices in the IFAM building in Moravia , a northeastern suburb of San José , or call 235-2700 for more information
Nation's Police Chiefs
Will be Replaced this Month
Because of reforms in the General Police Law and the Civil Police Law, 11 regional police commanders will be replaced this month, the Public Security Ministry announced yesterday.
The changes to the laws call for increased “professionalization” of regional commanders, and will result in almost all current regional chiefs being replaced by lawyers who meet the higher educational standards imposed by the changes.
A statement about the changes released by the ministry termed it “important to clarify that all (the lawyers) have ample experience in police work and have been working on tasks of citizen security in this ministry.”
Many of the lawyers are former police officers or police instructors, according to the ministry.
By Nov. 15, according to the statement, all regions but San José and Alajuela will have seen command changes.
San José 's incoming regional commander will be Randall Picado, and Alajuela's new commander will be Pablo Bertozzi. Both have worked in the community security field in Alajuela and Puntarenas, according to the ministry.
Picado is the only new commander who is not a lawyer.
Ex-President Calderón
Appeals Jail Sentence
The appellate hearing to annul the nine-month preventive prison sentence of ex-President Rafael Ángel Calderón (990-1994) concluded yesterday after being rescheduled last week because of health problems suffered by Calderón (TT Daily Page, Nov. 8).
Judge Didier Mora is expected to decide today or tomorrow whether he will serve the rest of his sentence in La Reform medium-security prison in Alajuela, northwest of San José , according to Judicial Branch spokeswoman Sandra Castro.
Calderón has been accused of masterminding the distribution of a $9.2 million “commission” connected to a $39.5 million government contract with a Finnish medical supply company to update Costa Rica 's public hospital equipment.
He testified before the judge along with Gerardo Bolaños, former board member of the Social Security System (Caja) and Juan Carlos Sánchez, former Caja manager of modernization, who are also implicated in the so-called Finland Project scandal.
Bolaños testified that Calderón did not take part in the distribution of the commissions, and Sánchez abstained from comment, the Web site for the daily La Nación reported.
Calderón's lawyer submitted the ex-President's health information as one of the reasons to annul his prison time.
Walter Reiche, former executive president of Corporación Fischel, and Eliseo Vargas, former Caja president, also testified, according to spokeswoman Castro, but their testimony was not released to the press. Both have been implicated in the corruption scandal and are serving preventive detention orders.
Vargas has previously accused Calderón of taking the lead in dividing up the commissions.
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