Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, August 04, 2005
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Hospital Damage Estimates
Reach $20 Million
It will take $20 million to repair the damage done by a fire that raged through Hospital Calderón Guardia last month, killing 19 people, Alberto Saénz, executive director of the Social Security System (Caja), announced yesterday.
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President Pacheco
Plans Trip to Asia
Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco yesterday confirmed that he will participate in the presidential summit of the countries in the System of Central American Integration (SICA) and Japan, scheduled for August 18 in Tokyo.
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Vice-Minister of Trade Fired
Because of Lack of Confidence
Trade Minister Manuel González announced yesterday that Vice-Minister Amparo Pacheco had been fired for a “lack of loyalty.”
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August 04
Free Seminar on the Prevention
of Natural Disasters
Led by Dr. Rocío Sáenz, Minister of Health; MSc. Luis Diego Morales, President of the National Emergency Commission; Rafael Villalta, Executive President of the National Water and Sewer Service (AyA); Yoshihiko Sumi, Japanese Ambassador, and guest speaker Toshizo Ido, Governor of Hyogo, Japan, who will talk about the Japanese experience in the prevention of disasters, at 8:30 a.m., at the auditorium of the AyA.
¿Dónde Están los Ladrones?
Play written by Claudia Barrionuevo, a nine-act comedy about current events and the national and international political situation, opens tonight with additional performances Aug. 18 and 25, all at 8 p.m. at Meridiano al Este, Barrio La California. Info : 221-0650.
Café Scientifique
Science discussion held in an informal environment by specialists of CIENTEC and the CENAT. Free entrance. Tonight Mike Gaunce, of CENAT, is talking about the “Tropical Cloud Systems and Process in Costa Rica,” in English, at 6:30 p.m., at El Observatorio, in front of Cine Magaly, Barrio La California. Info : 223–0725.
Edited By Rebecca Kimitch
Tico Times Staff
rkimitch@ticotimes.net
Hospital Damage Estimates
Reach $20 Million
By Rebecca Kimitch
Tico Times Staff
rkimitch@ticotimes.net
It will take $20 million to repair the damage done by a fire that raged through Hospital Calderón Guardia last month, killing 19 people, Alberto Saénz, executive director of the Social Security System (Caja), announced yesterday.
The majority of these funds – approximately $17 million – will come from $37 million that has been sitting unused, intended for the construction of a world-class cancer institute.
Leaders explained that the tragic circumstances of the fire, which took place July 12, require leaders to use the cancer institute funds, which were collected from a special lottery tax, according to the wire service EFE. The institute will now be part of the rebuilt Calderón Guardia.
The most immediate goal is to get the hospital, located in central San José, returned to near capacity as best as possible, Saénz said. Over the next four months, the first two phases will take place – demolishing the destroyed part of the building and making repairs to reestablish services in the north wing.
“By the end of the year, basic services will be restored,” said Luis Diego Morales, head of the National Emergency Commission (CNE).
Reconstruction of the demolished portion of the hospital will take more than a year and will not begin until 2006, he said.
A cancer center will be established in the reconstructed building, leaders explained. Originally envisioned as a world-class hospital, the cancer institute was downgraded to a cancer diagnosis center last year, with hopes it would evolve into a hospital (TT, July 23, 2004). Officials had hoped to break ground on the center on a side in La Uruca, northwest of San José.
Public Health Minister Rocío Saénz said that including the cancer institute in the rebuilt Calderón Guardia is in full legal compliance with the law passed by legislators for the construction of the institute.
The remainder of the $37 million in cancer funds will be used for human resources, cancer programs in other hospitals and cancer awareness programs.
In addition to the $17 million from the cancer institute, funds to rebuild Hospital Calderón Guardia will come from other government institutions, leaders of which evaluated and adjusted their budgets to offer support, including the National Production Council, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), the Child Welfare Office (PANI) and the National Training Institute.
President Pacheco
Plans Trip to Asia
Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco yesterday confirmed that he will participate in the presidential summit of the countries in the System of Central American Integration (SICA) and Japan, scheduled for August 18 in Tokyo.
“It is essential that I go to Japan. The Central American SICA Presidents will all go to Japan,” Pacheco told reporters during the press conference following his weekly Cabinet meeting.
Pacheco said he will discuss trade with Japanese leaders.
Other topics that will be discussed to promote cooperation between Japan and SICA member countries include health, education, fishing, tourism and security.
Pacheco also announced he will “take advantage” of his trip to Tokyo to make an official visit to Taiwan, because that country has assisted Costa Rica in difficult moments, he said.
“I am going to spend some days in Taiwan …a nation that maintains a very tight relationship with ours and that been there through our calamities,” he said.
-ACAN-EFE
Vice-Minister of Trade Fired
Because of Lack of Confidence
Trade Minister Manuel González announced yesterday that Vice-Minister Amparo Pacheco had been fired for a “lack of loyalty.”
“I need people who are totally and absolutely loyal to the job that I consider that I have to do and, from that point of view, I need to work with people that I already have a more immediate closeness with, that I have chemistry with,” González said to Radio Monumental.
Pacheco makes the eighth high-level trade official who has resigned or been fired in approximately 1.5 years.
In September of 2004, former Trade Minister Alberto Trejos, former Vice-Minister Gloria Llobet and Anabel González, the chief negotiator of the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), all resigned over differences with President Abel Pacheco's administration.
Trade Minister González, who acknowledged Amparo Pacheco's years of experience and ability in matters of international commerce, said, “it simply seems that the period of the next months, from now until this government ends (May 2006), is very important period for the government.”
According to the former Vice-Minister, who received her letter of dismissal Monday, González “is within his rights to have a person who is in his total confidence.”
“I have not been unconditional, but I have been loyal to him, to the President and to the government,” Pacheco said.
-ACAN-EFE
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