[dailyarchive/2005_03/exchange_rates.htm]
Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, March 10, 2005
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Failed Bank Robbery
Leaves at Least Nine Dead
SANTA ELENA, Monteverde – At least nine people were killed in a failed bank robbery turned hostage situation that lasted 28 hours and ended last night in a Banco Nacional branch in Santa Elena, near the popular and usually peaceful tourist destination Monteverde in the mountainous north-central region.
(Click for more)
Diarrhea Kills Two, Country
Spared Rotavirus Epidemic
Costa Rica has so far been spared the viral epidemic of severe diarrhea afflicting other Central American countries, but there are more cases now than this time last year, and the illness has claimed two casualties here.
(Click for more)
Ex-President Rodríguez Appeals
Preventive Detention Again
Former Costa Rican President Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (1998-2002), who is under investigation for alleged corruption, appealed for the second time the preventive detention order under which he is being held, saying he is not a flight risk.
(Click for more)
Services Today for
Archbishop Arrieta
Funeral services will be held today for San José Archbishop Emeritus Román Arrieta, who died Tuesday afternoon.
(Click for more)
March 10
Talent Night
Everyone is welcome to sing, dance, play an instrument or perform on stage tonight at El Sémaforo in San Pedro. Reservations required. Info: 253-9126.
Claroscuro – Women Making Music
Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the National Theater, Av. 2, Ca. 3/5, 273-1450. Info: 387-0118.
‘80s Nights
Alex Jiménez will sing hits of the 1980s in English at the Ram Luna Restaurant, road to Tarbaca. Info: 230-3060.
Edited By Rebecca Kimitch
Tico Times Staff
rkimitch@ticotimes.net
Failed Bank Robbery
Leaves at Least Nine Dead
By Rebecca Kimitch and Robert Goodier
Tico Times Staff
rkimitch@ticotimes.net
rgoodier@ticotimes.net
SANTA ELENA, Monteverde – At least nine people were killed in a failed bank robbery turned hostage situation that lasted 28 hours and ended last night in a Banco Nacional branch in Santa Elena, near the popular and usually peaceful tourist destination Monteverde in the mountainous north-central region.
The tragic standoff, which began Tuesday afternoon and ended just before 8 p.m. yesterday when the last assailant, identified in television news reports as Yerli Hurtado, in his mid-20s, surrendered with the last hostage, identified as 28-year-old Elizabeth Artavia.
Among the dead is officer Oscar Quesada, 44, who worked for the police intervention unit. The deceased also include five bank employees and customers and three of the attackers. They were not identified.
It is not clear how many assailants attempted to rob the bank, although authorities say one remains at large after escaping in a car, closely after the incident began at about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. The escaped assailant was presumably driving the getaway car, explained Minister of Public Security Rogelio Ramos.
At one point a total of 28 hostages were inside the bank – a mixture of bank employees and clients, Ramos said.
The hostages, including a pregnant woman, were released or managed to escape throughout the course of the evening and following day. Many were airlifted to Hospital Mexico in San José or treated in the Monteverde public health clinic.
U.S. citizens Beth and Dorothy, volunteers for a nearby school who told The Tico Times they preferred not to use their last names, were two of the hostages released at about 2 a .m.
“We were waiting in line to do a transaction and I looked at the door. There was a guy saying “ alarma, alarma ,” and the door guard looked scared. There was lots and lots and lots of gunfire,” Dorothy said.
“Immediately when we saw the guns we dove on the floor and didn't look around. We heard gunshots, a lot of gunshots. Workers and clients were killed.”
“It was the scariest thing in my life. I was thinking, ‘I don't want to die,'” Beth said.
Many hostages said they escaped on their own, without police help. However, Ramos explained, “they were able to leave because we were occupying the attention of the suspects for quite awhile while they were able to leave.”
Hurtado finally gave up after he “realized the reality of his situation, that he was not going to escape,” Ramos said.
Hurtado exited the bank and was escorted between two police officers. One Red Cross worker described him as looking “drugged” and exhausted.
Minister Ramos said negotiators had to make a large effort to maintain contact with the assailants throughout the Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning and afternoon. They did so initially by phone and then in person, after they entered the bank.
At one point yesterday afternoon, police considered the idea of allowing the assailant to escape in a vehicle, as he requested in exchange for hostages, but that idea was abandoned and officers decided to enter the building. Officer Quesada was killed during the attempt, according to TV news reports.
Ramos would not release information on reasons behind the change of tactics.
The assailants were armed with AK-47s and other heavy weaponry when they entered the bank. Two were shot, and one killed, by a bank security guard upon attempting to enter the bank.
Area police responded within minutes, according to officer Marvin Ugalde.
“When I got there, there was a dead man and an injured man and one coming,” officer Cristian Carballo said. “He turned back into the bank. We shot the injured man when he reached for his gun. We waited about an hour behind buildings for the arrival of reinforcements from around the region.”
The officer added it was only the second time he had ever shot anyone protecting this normally peaceful town.
This was, however, the third time the Banco Nacional in Santa Elena had been attacked in the past several years. It is the only bank in town.
Diarrhea Kills Two, Country
Spared Rotavirus Epidemic
By Robert Goodier
Tico Times Staff
rgoodier@ticotimes.net
Costa Rica has so far been spared the viral epidemic of severe diarrhea afflicting other Central American countries, but there are more cases now than this time last year, and the illness has claimed two casualties here.
Rotavirus has been the culprit in other countries, and at least 68 Central Americans have died of causes related to the diarrhea epidemic. Nearly 110,000 people, most of them children under five years of age, have been affected by diarrhea, which can cause severe dehydration and death of not treated.
Nearly 18,000 people in Costa Rica have come down with diarrhea this year, the Health Ministry reported. About 7,000 of those are children under age 5.
Rotavirus did not cause the diarrhea that killed one of the two victims, an 8-year-old boy; while the other, an adult homeless person who was not identified, died of diarrhea of unknown causes, the ministry reported.
Teresita Solano, the director of the Public Health Ministry's Epidemiological Vigilance Department, said Costa Rica 's incidence of diarrhea is not as drastic as that of El Salvador and Nicaragua , but officials have increased vigilance in the border zones.
“We have a little outbreak of rotavirus, but there's no epidemic,” Solano told The Tico Times. “We're taking measures to prevent and control and we're on a vigilance alert, but we don't have the kind of outbreak that has occurred in other countries.”
The rotavirus has spread quickly through El Salvador and has taken a toll on Nicaragua .
The virus causes intestinal infection with symptoms that can include diarrhea for three to eight days, vomiting, severe dehydration, fever and abdominal pain. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calls it the “ most common cause of severe diarrhea among children, resulting in the hospitalization of approximately 55,000 children each year in the United States and the death of over 600,000 children annually worldwide.”
She pointed out that the numbers in Costa Rica , while slightly higher this year than during this time last year, are normal. More than 100,000 cases are reported in the country every year, she said.
Solano said nation's public, nearly universal health-care system and public awareness programs have prevented an outbreak.
See The Tico Times print or online PDF edition Friday for full report.
Ex-President Rodríguez Appeals
Preventive Detention Again
Former Costa Rican President Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (1998-2002), who is under investigation for alleged corruption, appealed for the second time the preventive detention order under which he is being held, saying he is not a flight risk.
Rodríguez's lawyer, Rafael Gairaud, said his client should be immediately released or switched to house arrest because he has not been accused of corruption. The charges against the former President are illicit enrichment and illicit association, Gairaud said.
Furthermore, the lawyer said he is not a flight risk because his wife lives in the country and his only source of income is the pension he receives as a former President.
The San José court will have 48 hours to decide on the request. On Feb. 21, a judge rejected a similar request.
Rodríguez, who was Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) for less than a month before the suspicions of corruption arose, has been in preventive detention since October 2004. His preventive detention order expires April 22.
Rodríguez is accused of accepting illegal commissions in connection with government contracts awarded to the French telecommunications firm Alcatel.
–EFE
Services Today for
Archbishop Arrieta
Funeral services will be held today for San José Archbishop Emeritus Román Arrieta, who died Tuesday afternoon.
The services will be held at the Metropolitan Cathedral in downtown San José at 11 a .m.
President Abel Pacheco yesterday declared two days of national mourning in honor of the death of Arrieta, whom he said had an “open manner in relating with the people.”
The President will attend the services.
Arrieta, 80, was San José archbishop until Oct. 18, 2002. He held the position for 23 years.
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