[dailyarchive/2005_01/exchange_rates.htm]
Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, January 04, 2005
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| DON'T Want to Go: A truck filed with chayote squash joined hundreds of street vendors who marched through the capital yesterday protesting their eviction from the sidewalks around the Mercado Central. San José Mayor Johnny Araya says the informal vendors block public access and create unsafe conditions, while the vendors say their stands provide their only livelihood. |
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Vendors Evicted from
Capital's Streets
The hundreds of carts piled with fruits and vegetables that have for years colorfully cluttered the sidewalks around the Mercado Central in downtown San José were cleared away early yesterday morning – intensifying the nearly yearlong battle between municipal officials and street vendors about the legality of the unofficial businesses.
(Click for more)
Crime Rate Drops in 2004
“A milestone in the country's police history” is how Public Security Minister Rogelio Ramos refers to the decrease in Costa Rica 's crime rate during 2004.
(Click for more)
Tico Murders 5, Wounds 2
Before Committing Suicid
A man shot five people to death, wounded two others, then committed suicide in the Pacific coast town of Paquera , police said yesterday.
(Click for more)
President Says He'll Cooperate in
Campaign Finance Investigatio
President Abel Pacheco confirmed yesterday he is disposed to cooperate with the Chief Prosecutor's Office to clear up any questions about alleged irregularities in the financing of his electoral campaign.
(Click for more)
January 04
Modern Language Classes
The University of Costa Rica is offering classes in modern languages such as English, French, Japanese, Portuguese and Italian. Registration is today, 1-6 p.m. Info: 207-5196.
Newcomer's Club for English-Speaking Women
The club is holding its first General Meeting at 9:30 a.m. at the Cima Hospital west of San José . Members will discuss the insurance and health-care system in Costa Rica . Info: 232-3999.
Art Exhibit
Wilson McCray's painting exhibit closes tomorrow. Enjoy it today at the Galería Alternativa, Condominio Industrial de Pavas. Info: 232-8500.
Edited By Robert Goodier
Tico Times Staff
rgoodier@ticotimes.net
Vendors Evicted from Capital's Streets
By Rebecca Kimitch
Tico Times Staff
rkimitch@ticotimes.net
The hundreds of carts piled with fruits and vegetables that have for years colorfully cluttered the sidewalks around the Mercado Central in downtown San José were cleared away early yesterday morning – intensifying the nearly yearlong battle between municipal officials and street vendors about the legality of the unofficial businesses.
More than 800 municipal and national police officers, firefighters and Red Cross workers participated in the pre-dawn eviction of approximately 450 street vendors. The eviction is part of a greater municipal effort to clean up San José and “return the streets to the citizens,” Mayor Johnny Araya said yesterday in a press conference.
Araya said one small group should not have greater rights to public space than millions of people. He championed the eviction as a step toward cleaner, safer streets.
The vendors have fought the eviction since the San José Municipal Council voted in March 2004 to end the unofficial vending (TT, March 26, 2004). Their battle continued yesterday morning when they arrived in the area to find their wooden street carts cleared away, many destroyed by the heavy machinery used in the predawn eviction.
By 8:30 a.m. the vendors began a protest march from the Mercado Central, along Avenida Segunda and Avenida Central. Carrying vegetables and blasting Mayor Araya, the vendors were joined by university students and temporarily blocked those thoroughfares. They caused managers of some businesses on their path to pull down security doors because of the fear of violence.
After a few hours, the vendors returned to the area outside the Mercado Central where they remained for much of the afternoon, sitting on the curb and milling about the sidewalks that once held their small businesses.
“We have to continue fighting. Our enemy is Johnny Araya,” said 44-year-old vendor María Duran, who said many vendors live day to day on their earnings.
“What am I going to do in February when my children have to return to school? How will I feed them? We can't become thieves, that would hurt other businesses. We have to look for another alternative,” she said.
The Municipality did offer alternatives, including creating additional weekly agricultural fairs throughout the Central Valley , according to Araya. This offer was made again mid-day yesterday in last-ditch negotiations.
But leaders of various vendor organizations rejected these offers, instead requesting permanent regular places to sell their products.
Araya called the vendors' proposals – including a pitch to build a second story on the Mercado Central – “unrealistic” and invited the vendors to unite and rent spaces like parking lots to set up shop.
“They have the right to protest, but the center of the city is not negotiable,” he said.
The mayor cited various decisions by the Goicoechea Administrative Appeals Court and the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) which determined the municipality is responsible for the regulation of public space and that nobody has the sole right to public space.
In their effort to halt the eviction, the vendors have placed various injunctions with these courts in the past year. They placed another injunction Friday and leaders say until all the judicial complaints have been resolved, the municipality cannot legally evict the vendors.
“The fight will continue. The marches will continue, at 2 in the afternoon, at 4 in the afternoon, at 8 in the morning. We have been joined by farmers, by unions…” said Gerardo Chacón of the Costa Rican Association of Street Vendors (ACOVA).
In 1996, officials gave the vendors temporary permission to operate in the Zona de Tregua (Zone of Truce) – which spans Ave. 1 from the Mercado Central to the Coca Cola bus stops, Calle 8 from Ave. 2 to Ave. 8, small sections of Ave. 4 and Ave. 6 and one block on Calle 13.
When the decision to end the permission was made in March 2004, Araya said the vendors spread “chaos and anarchy” in the streets, block public access on sidewalks, and give San José a bad image.
Sidewalks crowded with shoppers and stands facilitate robberies, day and night, agreed Public Security Minister Rogelio Ramos (TT, June 25, 2004).
Crime Rate Drops in 2004
By María Gabriela Díaz
Tico Times Staff
mgdiaz@ticotimes.net
“A milestone in the country's police history” is how Public Security Minister Rogelio Ramos refers to the decrease in Costa Rica 's crime rate during 2004.
The number of homicides dropped by 19% from 2003 to 2004, home burglaries decreased by 25%, and bank robberies by 8%, the Public Security Ministry said in a statement.
A total of 4,307 car thefts in 2004 marked a substantial decrease from 2003, when 5,108 vehicles were stolen.
“A combination of various factors lead to this decrease in crime, but the fundamental, key element here is that people have adopted stronger safety measures,” Ramos told The Tico Times yesterday.
He said residents have responded to the Community Watch Program, established more than five years ago and now in approximately 4,000 communities across the country. Through the program, neighbors take care of each other by keeping an eye out for crime or suspicious behavior on their streets.
Ramos also called “Trusting Families,” a promotional TV campaign started more than a year ago, a success in instructing people how to better prevent car thefts and home burglaries, among others.
Although the number of violent deaths registered from Dec. 24 to Jan. 2 is 32, five more than during the previous holiday season, the Security Minister noted most of these deaths resulted from car accidents, not homicides.
Tico Murders 5, Wounds 2
Before Committing Suicide
A man shot five people to death, wounded two others, then committed suicide in the Pacific coast town of Paquera , police said yesterday.
The shooter, identified as Douglas Araya, killed four women and one man. Two of the victims – Patricia Ruiz and Dary Jiménez – were suing Araya for child support.
The male victim was identified as Geovanni Oporto, Ruiz's boyfriend. He was shot in the head.
Authorities identified the third woman as Blanca Madrigal, but they did not release the name of the fourth woman, whose body was found in a hilly area nearby.
Apparently, Araya was having – or had had – affairs with three of the women he killed. They were found dead in their respective houses.
Witnesses said that after killing his five victims, Araya went to a public meeting hall filled with people and opened fire, wounding Rosalia Cespedes and Alejandro Rojas.
Rojas, who was shot in the foot, told journalists that Araya “was a friend of mine.”
“What happened is a surprise to us. (Araya) had never acted in a violent manner,” he said.
Police said Araya fled the community hall and, after a search by authorities in the area, was found dead about five kilometers away.
“We found the body in a tree. He was hanging by the neck from a rope some two meters off the ground, and with a bullet in his head,” police spokesman Juan José Antades said.
--EFE
President Says He'll Cooperate in
Campaign Finance Investigation
President Abel Pacheco confirmed yesterday he is disposed to cooperate with the Chief Prosecutor's Office to clear up any questions about alleged irregularities in the financing of his electoral campaign.
“I'm at the orders of the prosecutor and open to any kind of investigation,” Pacheco said in an interview with Radio Monumental.
The Prosecutor's Office reported Dec. 24 that it has reopened the investigation into Pacheco and five of his former associates for the alleged irregularities involving the acceptance of donations to his 2002 electoral campaign.
The investigation is in a preliminary phase, but if the Prosecutor's Office considers the evidence sufficient, it will order the lifting of the President's diplomatic immunity, according to judicial sources.
Pacheco said he did not receive money from Taiwan , rather, he explained, “a group of (Taiwanese) business owners contributed to the electoral campaign,” which he does not consider a crime.
“The Taiwanese have not given me money,” he emphasized.
He said he is more interested than anybody in carrying out this investigation so his name will be cleared, and added he is disposed to comply with any order from the Judicial Branch, including a temporary leave of absence from the government if it is required.
The Chief Prosecutor's Office reopened the case under orders from the Penal Branch of the Supreme Court (Sala III), which, Nov. 26, rejected former Prosecutor Carlos Arias' request to ignore the case and the accusation against Pacheco.
The request was presented November 2002, but the Sala III judges said it incurred a series of investigation errors by not adequately discovering the origin and use of the irregular donations.
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