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Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, November 11, 2004

BACK Home: Eliseo Vargas, former president of the Social Security System (Caja) was released from jail yesterday after serving the first weeks of a six-month preventive prison sentence for his alleged involvement in a corruption scandal under investigation involving a multimillion-dollar contract to purchase medical equipment for Caja hospitals.
Tico Times file photo/Jeffrey Arguedas

Debate Over GMO
Moratorium Heats Up
Government leaders yesterday dove into the debate of whether Costa Rica should put a halt to the growth of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and proved to be divided along the same battle lines as the rest of the country
(Click for more)

Former Caja President
Released from Jail
Eliseo Vargas, former president of the Costa Rican Social Security System (Caja), was released from prison yesterday afternoon
(Click for more)

Downpours Flood
Caribbean Communities
The Sixaola region, on the Caribbean slope near the Panama border, was threatened with flooding yesterday and downpours continued to swell the Sixaola River into the evening, but emergency officials expected the situation to improve by today
(Click for more)

November 11

Honoring Author Lara Ríos
Presentation of his book “ Las Aventuras de la Lora Dora y Chico Perico ,” (Adventures of Dora the Parrot and the Boy Parakeet)” at 7 p.m. at the Mexico Institute, Los Yoses.

Second Annual Construction Fair
Fair runs today through Sunday in Plaza Liberia, Guanacaste. Info: 228-5706.

Christmas Music Concert
The San José National Band is celebrating Christmas with a concert at 6 p.m. at Terramall, in Tres Ríos east of San José. Info 283-5654.

Storytelling Show
Juan Cuentacuentos will perform “Stories to Sing and Tell,” at 4:30 p.m. at the Santa Elena school in Monteverde. Info: 221- 2022.

Edited By Robert Goodier
Tico Times Staff
rgoodier@ticotimes.net

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Debate Over GMO Moratorium Heats Up
By Rebecca Kimitch
Tico Times Staff
rkimitch@ticotimes.net

Government leaders yesterday dove into the debate of whether Costa Rica should put a halt to the growth of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and proved to be divided along the same battle lines as the rest of the country.

Environment Minister Carlos Rodríguez appears to be on the side of many environmentalists supporting a moratorium on the controversial technology, while Pedro León, director of the National Center for High Technology (CENAT), stood alongside scientists in supporting GMOs.

Scientists, activists, students and farmers packed a room at the University of Costa Rica (UCR) for the roundtable discussion, which also included environmentalist and agricultural engineer Fabián Pacheco, son of President Abel Pacheco.

While Rodríguez and León played buddies, despite their differences of opinion, Fabián Pacheco stood by his passions and demonstrated how polemic the growth of GMOs in Costa Rica has become.

The activist said that he and other GMO opponents are not just asking for a moratorium, they are calling a moratorium. They will not allow the growth of more genetically modified crops and will destroy those that exist, he said.

GMOs, also known as transgenics, are crops that have been genetically modified by scientists to exhibit certain traits, such as resistance to disease or herbicides.

Opponents suggest the technology presents unknown health and environmental risks. They maintain normal crops will be contaminated by the spread of genetically modified pollens.

Opponents have presented a proposal for a moratorium on the growth of GMOs to the National Commission on Biosecurity, which is working to create a national framework on how to approach the GMO question.

Rodríguez said he supports the moratorium not because he entirely backs the assertions made by transgenic opponents, but because a growth of GMOs should be halted while the country determines its policies on the subject.

He repeatedly insisted a moratorium would not ban GMOs, but rather put their cultivation on hold.

León said no scientific evidence has proven GMOs have done any harm to the environment or consumers' health, after more than 12 years of studies.

He did say he is very concerned about the fact that producers of transgenic seeds are the same vendors of herbicides used on transgenic products. For example, GMO-giant Monsanto produces genetically modified products that are “Roundup Ready,” meaning they are resistant to the herbicide the company produces. Problematic weeds – and all other species – are killed without affecting the Roundup Ready plants.

GMO opponents are hosting a video forum on the problems of transgenic soy cultivation in Argentina today at 2 p.m. at the State University at a Distance (UNED) in Sabanilla. For more information, call 283-6128.

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Former Caja President Released from Jail
By María Gabriela Díaz
Tico Times Staff
mgdiaz@ticotimes.net

Eliseo Vargas, former president of the Costa Rican Social Security System (Caja), was released from prison yesterday afternoon.

Vargas, who began a six-month preventive prison sentence Sept. 8, was released after giving a declaration at the Prosecutor's Office on Oct. 19. There, he implicated ex-President Rafael Ángel Calderón (1990-94) in the Caja scandal, saying he masterminded the alleged distribution of a $9 million “commission” linked to a $39.5 million government contract with a Finnish company for the purchase of medical equipment for Caja hospitals.

After the declaration, Vargas appealed his preventive detention order and succeeded. He left the jail in Cartago at approximately 3 p.m. yesterday, Channel 7 TV News reported.

According to a statement from the Prosecutor's Office, Vargas will need to fulfill certain preventive measures, including not leaving the country, signing in at the Prosecutor's Office every 15 days, staying away from other witnesses in the Caja case, not giving any public declarations or going into the Caja's central offices, and turning over his passports to the authorities.

Ex-President Calderón, who started his nine-month preventive prison order at La Reforma jail in Alajuela northwest of San José three weeks ago, had his order reduced to two months and will be released on Dec. 22.

After a three-day court hearing, Judge Didier Mora determined he would not change the preventive prison order to house arrest, but decided to decrease its length.

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Downpours Flood Caribbean Communities
By Robert Goodier
Tico Times Staff
rgoodier@ticotimes.net

The Sixaola region, on the Caribbean slope near the Panama border, was threatened with flooding yesterday and downpours continued to swell the Sixaola River into the evening, but emergency officials expected the situation to improve by today.

The National Emergency Commission (CNE) evacuated 454 people from Sixaola and other communities in the Talamanca region yesterday and moved them to nine temporary shelters.

In the entire Caribbean slope, emergency officials evacuated more than 2,000 people to 20 emergency shelters as of yesterday morning, but by the evening about 500 had returned to their homes. The rest are in 13 shelters or with other family members.

The rains began Sunday, produced by a cold front that descended on Costa Rica Sunday and drenched m ost of the country, provoked strong winds of 40-50 kilometers per hour and lowered temperatures to around 20° C (68° F) in the Central Valley and 23° C (73.4° F) in Limón, the port city on the Caribbean coast, according to the National Meteorological Institute.

(See Friday's edition of The Tico Times for the full story.)

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