[dailyarchive/2005_02/exchange_rates.htm]
Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, February 18, 2005
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Chief Prosecutor Urges Patience
In Ex-Presidents' Cases
Chief Prosecutor Francisco Dall'Anese appeared before the Legislative Assembly's Public Expenditures Committee yesterday and told its members it is not yet appropriate to issue an international capture order for former Costa Rican President José María Figueres (1994-1998), who lives in Europe.
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Protestors Take CAFTA Opposition
To U.S. Embassy's Doorstep
Traffic near the massive U.S. Embassy building in the western San José suburb of Pavas slowed to a snail's pace yesterday morning as hundreds of protestors took to the street to protest the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).
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February 18
2005 Multi-Festival David
Includes dance, mime, concerts with national and international Christian musicians, theater and more, today through Sunday at the Universidad Católica in Moravia . Info: 240-7272.
Free Orchestra Concerts
Performed by the National Symphony Orchestra, today at 7 p.m. in the Basílica of Our Lady of Los Angeles in Cartago, and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. at La Agonía Church in Alajuela. Info: 240- 0333, exts.205, 206, 217.
“Cien Sacos de Arroz”
A Japanese play based on a real event that happened 130 years ago, organized by the Japanese Embassy, Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. in the National Auditorium at the Children's Museum, Av. 9, Ca. 4. Info: 296-1650.
Edited By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff
kstanley@ticotimes.net
Chief Prosecutor Urges Patience
In Ex-Presidents' Cases
By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff
kstanley@ticotimes.net
Chief Prosecutor Francisco Dall'Anese appeared before the Legislative Assembly's Public Expenditures Committee yesterday and told its members it is not yet appropriate to issue an international capture order for former Costa Rican President José María Figueres (1994-1998), who lives in Europe.
Dall'Anese also updated legislators on Prosecutor's Office investigations of Figueres and former Presidents Rafael Ángel Calderón (1990-1994) and Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (1998-2002), and asked for patience while prosecutors do their work.
All three former heads of state are under investigation for allegedly accepting questionable payments from international companies with public contracts in Costa Rica .
Calderón is accused of masterminding a $9.2 million commission on a medical equipment purchase by the Social Security System (Caja). Both Rodríguez and Figueres are accused of accepting funds from telecommunications giant Alcatel, which received a multimillion-dollar contract here during Rodríguez's presidential term.
However, Figueres, who has admitted to accepting $906,000 from Alcatel, maintains the payments were legitimate, as they were made in return for consulting services he provided to the company.
The Public Expenditures Committee has requested on four occasions since November 2004 that Figueres return from Switzerland , where he currently resides, to explain the payments in person. Last week, after he once again failed to appear, committee members denounced him before the Prosecutor's Office, asking prosecutors to consider whether a judge could open a case against Figueres on charges of disobedience of public authority (TT, Feb. 11).
Yesterday, Dall'Anese advised against this course of action, arguing that while such a charge could be successful in bringing Figueres home temporarily, Figueres, even if convicted of disobedience, would probably receive a fine equal to a month's salary or less. Such an action could also impede prosecutors' ability to bring Figueres home on other charges later on, should the investigation into his payments take such a turn, Dall'Anese added.
Committee members reacted to Dall'Anese's advice with a combination of thanks and frustration.
“How can we get this political rebel (Figueres) to give us information that could be useful?” Citizen Action Party (PAC) legislator Rodrigo Carazo asked, but then offered Dall'Anese the committee's full cooperation.
Legislator Ricardo Toledo, of the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC), echoed this mixed response.
“I have complete faith in the Prosecutor's Office,” he said. “But let me tell you this, Mr. Chief Prosecutor. The political judgment has been made… (only) the judicial judgment remains.”
PUSC legislator Mario Redondo was even more direct, criticizing the pace of the Prosecutor's Office investigations.
“There is a clamoring in Costa Rica that Figueres' case should not go unpunished,” Redondo said. “My petition is that more be done, much more, than what (the prosecutors) are doing right now.”
“Justice isn't a matter of the majority,” Dall'Anese responded. “We can't put someone in jail to satisfy the observer. We can't proceed…based on impulse.”
He emphasized the need for increased resources and personnel for the overworked Prosecutors' Office, as he has during previous visits to the assembly (TT, Oct. 22, 2004).
Protestors Take CAFTA Opposition
To U.S. Embassy's Doorstep
By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff
kstanley@ticotimes.net
Traffic near the massive U.S. Embassy building in the western San José suburb of Pavas slowed to a snail's pace yesterday morning as hundreds of protestors took to the street to protest the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).
Protest leaders submitted a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush, care of the embassy, in which they argued the treaty, if ratified, would undermine Costa Rican sovereignty and “destroy our development model.”
In addition to presenting the letter to the embassy, protestors rolled up copies and tied them to sets of helium balloons – red, white and blue, to represent the colors of the Costa Rican flag – which they released while singing the national hymn.
“We are well aware that we direct this letter to the President of the world's most powerful nation,” the letter said, going on to state that while Costa Rica is small, it has developed public policies and mechanisms for the distribution of wealth that have helped it avoid many of the problems of its Latin American counterparts.
“This treaty, as it is imposed upon us, Mr. President Bush, denies us (our) ideals and condemns our people to stop being the masters of their own history,” the letter said.
“The letter was received and is being transmitted to Washington ,” embassy spokeswoman Elaine Samson told The Tico Times yesterday afternoon. An embassy employee went out to the crowd to receive the document, she said.
She added that the employee also accepted a copy of “101 Reasons to Oppose CAFTA,” by Universidad Nacional professor Henry Mora, from the protestors.
Some participants wore masks that called the treaty “anti-Christian” and an example of “neoliberal corruption.” One participant's banner read, “I am the Free-Trade Agreement. I come for your country. I come for your sons and daughters. I come for you.”
Another banner depicted the treaty as a huge, sharp-toothed fish, poised to devour smaller fish labeled “ICE” (the Costa Rican Electricity Institute), “CCSS” (the Social Security System), “INS” (the National Insurance Institute), “Peace” and “Agriculture.”
ICE and INS employees have been among the most vehement opponents of CAFTA, since the agreement requires that the government gradually open the monopolies on electricity, telecommunications and insurance.
The street was blocked off for a few blocks in either direction, and more than 30 police officers lined the building's gates during the event.
CAFTA was signed in May 2004 by Costa Rica , Nicaragua , Honduras , El Salvador , Guatemala and the United States , and re-signed in August to include the Dominican Republic . El Salvador is the only country where the national legislature has ratified the treaty.
If the U.S. Congress ratifies the pact, it will immediately take effect between the United States , El Salvador and any other signatory countries that follow suit.
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