Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, July 21, 2005
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Students Force Arias
Off University Campus
Waving banners that said No al TLC (No to CAFTA, the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States) and No queremos ser colonia Yankee (We don't want to be a Yankee colony), a group of 20-25 students from the University of Costa Rica (UCR) booed presidential candidate Oscar Arias off their campus, according to Gioconda Ubedo, Arias' spokeswoman.
(Click for more)
Special Diplomatic Police
Unit Begins Operations
A new police force created to oversee security at embassies and other diplomatic installations in Costa Rica has formally begun operations.
(Click for more)
July 21
Tibetan Conference
Tibetan monk Thubten Wangchen will discuss Buddhist Science and its legacy for peace at 6 p.m., at La Salle University, southwest Sabana Park. Info: 834-7924, 381-0601.
Storytelling Night
Ana María Amador and Katia Muñoz are telling the story “Ironías de Amor de los Fulanos,” at 7 p.m., at the José Figueres Cultural Center, Barrio Escalante. Info: 224-0010.
Dance Shows
By the National Dance Company, July 21, 7 p.m., July 22, 8 p.m., UCR, Golfito campus; July 29, 7 p.m., Monseñor Sanabria Vocational School, Desamparados; Aug. 3, 7 p.m., San Francisco High School, Guápiles, Limón; Aug. 4, 7 p.m., Eddy Bermúdez Gymnasium, Limón. Info: 222-2974
Edited By María Gabriela Díaz
Tico Times Staff
mgdiaz@ticotimes.net
Students Force Arias
Off University Campus
By María Gabriela Díaz
Tico Times Staff
mgdiaz@ticotimes.net
Waving banners that said No al TLC (No to CAFTA, the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States) and No queremos ser colonia Yankee (We don't want to be a Yankee colony), a group of 20-25 students from the University of Costa Rica (UCR) booed presidential candidate Oscar Arias off their campus, according to Gioconda Ubedo, Arias' spokeswoman.
The former President (1986-90) and Nobel Peace Laureate arrived at UCR Tuesday afternoon for an interview on Channel 15, the university television station.
“As we got out of the car, the students appeared by surprise, and it was impossible to establish dialogue with them,” said Ubedo, who accompanied Arias to the interview.
“Don Oscar tried to talk to them, but he was unable to, and when they became more violent in their language and gestures, he decided to leave,” she told The Tico Times yesterday.
Some of the students' shouts focused on the criticisms of UCR media voiced by members of the candidate's party, according to ACAN-EFE newswire service.
National Liberation Party (PLN) legislator Joyce Zürcher and Carmen Conejo, president of the National Liberation Youth, recently sent a letter to university authorities in which they warned that UCR media (Channel 15, University Radio and the Semanario Universidad, a weekly publication) could become “subversive” and “generate instability,” ACAN-EFE reported.
According to Ubedo, the students' reaction to Arias was “very painful and unexpected,” especially because Arias is a UCR graduate.
“This behavior – preventing expression before the media – is not what you would expect from a university, where ideas are discussed,” said Ubedo, a UCR professor of international law.
Cristian Artavia, a UCR History student, told journalists that it is “unheard of that UCR lend its independent media to Oscar Arias, especially after Liberation legislators have asked the rector (Yamileth González), to censor the radio and newspaper because they divulge matters that go against (PLN) interests,” according to ACAN-EFE.
Special Diplomatic Police
Unit Begins Operations
A new police force created to oversee security at embassies and other diplomatic installations in Costa Rica has formally begun operations.
A spokesman from the Public Security Ministry told ACAN-EFE the head of the Special Protection Unit began working on logistics two months ago, and the entire unit began operations yesterday.
Police Director Walter Navarro said in a statement the special unit is part of the nation's police force and is headed by officers with a background in police administration.
The unit was recommended by a special commission named by the Security Ministry last year to review the nation's police systems and procedures at accredited diplomatic sites in Costa Rica (TT, Aug. 13, 2004).
The commission was created after Luis Orlando Jiménez, a policeman guarding the Chilean Embassy in San José, shot and killed Chilean Consul Cristián Yussef, First Secretary Roberto Nieto and secretary Rocío Sariego before turning the gun on himself in mid-2004. The slayings horrified the nation (TT, July 30, 2004).
Jiménez had been stationed as a guard at the embassy for two years before the incident. Authorities said they believed he broke down after learning he would be transferred from his post at the request of Chilean Embassy officials.
The new diplomatic police unit, created by executive decree Jan. 10, will keep track of its members using a complete, confidential operative file for each post or diplomatic installation being provided with public security officers.
Psychologists from the Security Ministry will periodically evaluate officers assigned to permanent posts and, if necessary, take corrective actions.
The three executive officers in charge of the new unit were trained at the Carabineros Academy of Police Sciences in Chile and the Institute of Political Sciences of the University of Chile.
The three, whose names were not released, will lead the unit's 135 officers, who were trained at Costa Rica 's National Police Academy.
-ACAN-EFE
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