Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, September 08, 2005
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Southern Zone
Boycotts Plastic
Coca-Cola Femsa S.A., the company that bottles and distributes Coca-Cola products in Costa Rica, recently announced that the returnable glass bottles it used to ship to the Osa Peninsula, in the country's Southern Zone, would be replaced by plastic bottles – a decision that has alarmed area residents, environmentalists and hotel and restaurant owners, concerned about an ongoing garbage problem that already consumes the peninsula.
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Four Companies Apply
for Hospital Contracts
Four companies interested in rebuilding much of the downtown San José Hospital Calderón Guardia made their offers known yesterday to the National Commission on Risk Prevention and Emergency Attention.
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Drug Trafficker, Jewel Thief
Found in Costa Rica
The International Police (INTERPOL) and the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) detained Manuel Zaratín, an Italian man wanted for drug trafficking and car robbery, yesterday in Playa Sámara, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, authorities announced.
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Information for Families
of Hurricane Victims
The Costa Rican consulate for the U.S. city of New Orleans advises Costa Ricans seeking to track down friends or family in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina to call its office in the United States at (001) (504) 638-1095, or e-mail consulcrno@hotmail.com or consulcrno@bellsouth.net with the complete name, birth date and, if possible, the location where the family member lives.
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September 08
Book Presentation: “Medicina Tradicional Indígena, Interculturalidad y Globalización”
Today at 7 p.m., at the Spanish Cultural Center, Barrio Escalante. Info: 225-6397.
Limón Roots 2005 Afro-Cultural Festival
Featuring “Paso a Paso: A Sentimental Journey,” a documentary about calypso music, at 3 p.m. and live gospel music at 4:30 p.m., at UNED, Sabanilla. Info: 250-5779.
Celebrating Children's Day
The storyteller Kattia Muñoz feeds the imagination of children with the fantasy of her stories, today at 10:30 a.m. at the José Figueres Cultural Center, San Ramón, Alajuela.
Edited By Leland Baxter-Neal
Tico Times Staff
lbaxter@ticotimes.net
Southern Zone
Boycotts Plastic
By María Gabriela Díaz
Tico Times Staff
mgdiaz@ticotimes.net
Coca-Cola Femsa S.A., the company that bottles and distributes Coca-Cola products in Costa Rica, recently announced that the returnable glass bottles it used to ship to the Osa Peninsula, in the country's Southern Zone, would be replaced by plastic bottles – a decision that has alarmed area residents, environmentalists and hotel and restaurant owners, concerned about an ongoing garbage problem that already consumes the peninsula.
The company's failure to reply to alternative proposals from Osa residents led them to boycott plastic bottles by no longer purchasing and reselling Coca-Cola Femsa products and switching to Pepsi instead (TT, Sept. 2).
Coca-Cola Femsa announced its switchover to plastic three weeks ago, according to Osa resident Belén Momeñe, owner of El Remanso Hotel. At press time, the company's national managers had not yet responded to multiple phone calls from The Tico Times regarding the rationale behind the change and whether other areas of the country will eventually be affected.
The company's announcement spurred Momeñe and other hotel owners in the area to seek a compromise with the company, urging its leadership to rethink the change or contribute to the community's recycling efforts.
A group of seven area hotels – El Remanso, Bosque del Cabo, Lapa Ríos, Luna, Nicuesa, Iguana, and Ojo del Mar Lodges – and the Women of the Osa (WOO), a local women's association, addressed a letter to Jorge Barahona, head of Coca-Cola Femsa in the Southern Zone, asking the company to donate $5,000 to build a recycling center in Puerto Jiménez, a port town on the peninsula; to promise to collect the center's plastic and recycle it; and to contribute to the environmental education of the Osa population. They urged Coca-Cola Femsa to reply before Sept. 1 or face a boycott of their product by hotels and area residents.
Momeñe told The Tico Times the letter-writers have not yet received a reply from Coca-Cola Femsa and many hotels have begun the boycott.
According to Barahona, however, the projects proposed in the letter are the responsibility of local governments, and Coca-Cola Femsa has other alternatives planned for the community, including placing recycling bins throughout the city.
Tao Watts, WOO's secretary, said the women's association, formed two years ago, is organizing the construction of a recycling center at the local school in Puerto Jiménez. She says the association will finish the project with or without a donation from Coca-Cola.
“When we heard (about the switchover to plastic), we said, ‘Wait a minute, we're trying to reduce garbage, and now they (Coca-Cola Femsa) are tripling the amount of plastic,'” she said.
For more information on the Women of the Osa or on how to make donations to the community recycling center, contact Tao Watts at 820-7095 or Andrea Bonilla at 352-5149.
See Friday's print or pdf edition of The Tico Times for the full story.
Four Companies Apply
for Hospital Contracts
Four companies interested in rebuilding much of the downtown San José Hospital Calderón Guardia made their offers known yesterday to the National Commission on Risk Prevention and Emergency Attention.
A fire ravaged the hospital in the early morning hours of July 12, claiming 19 lives and destroying much of the fourth and fifth floors of one of the oldest buildings in the hospital complex (TT, July 15).
The company that is chosen will be in charge of demolishing the burned building; connecting electricity, water, air conditioning, and gases such as oxygen and nitrogen; and building hallways between the North Tower and the nutrition area, the commission announced in a statement yesterday.
The commission said it would evaluate the companies on several factors, such as their experience in building demolition and with hospitals, their machinery and choice of location for depositing waste materials, and their plans for managing dust and noise during construction.
The approximate cost of the construction, the commission said, is ¢488 million (approximately $1 million) which is “proportionate to what, as of now, has come into the National Emergency Fund.”
The company will have four months to complete the project once the contract is awarded, with the goal of finishing in December, the commission said in its statement.
Drug Trafficker, Jewel Thief
Found in Costa Rica
The International Police (INTERPOL) and the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) detained Manuel Zaratín, an Italian man wanted for drug trafficking and car robbery, yesterday in Playa Sámara, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, authorities announced.
INTERPOL also detained Colombian Rafael Lasso Gómez yesterday. He has been wanted in France since 2001 for participating in a ring of jewel thieves.
Zaratín, 36, allegedly dealt drugs, including hash and cocaine, and acquired a vehicle he knew to be stolen, INTERPOL reported.
For these crimes, the Italian faces a seven-year prison sentence, handed down Feb. 7 by an Italian court. According to police information, Zaratín has been in Costa Rica before, and entered most recently March 1 from Nicaragua, crossing at the Peñas Blancas border crossing.
The Italian owns an auto repair shop in Playa Sámara, where he also has a home.
Zaratín is in custody awaiting extradition at the request of the Italian government.
Lasso, 44, was detained in central San José after six months of investigation, according to INTERPOL.
In 2001, Lasso, along with three men, allegedly robbed a diamond and gold necklace worth 32,226 euros in Paris and later robbed a bank of 6,800 euros.
The French police reportedly detained the gang and recuperated the stolen goods, but Lasso escaped months later, according to INTERPOL.
Lasso is also in custody awaiting extradition orders from the French government.
– ACAN-EFE
Information for Families
of Hurricane Victims
The following information first appeared in the Sept. 6 edition of The Tico Times Daily Page.
The Costa Rican consulate for the U.S. city of New Orleans advises Costa Ricans seeking to track down friends or family in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina to call its office in the United States at (001) (504) 638-1095, or e-mail consulcrno@hotmail.com or consulcrno@bellsouth.net with the complete name, birth date and, if possible, the location where the family member lives.
U.S. citizens concerned about family members in the area can access resources such as the Red Cross Web site, www.redcross.org, which has links to a list of survivors and a missing person registry – or call 1-877-568-3317 for information on missing family members. The Red Cross site also lists ways to donate money to rescue efforts.
The New Orleans-area newspaper The Times-Picayune has information on its Web site, www.nola.com. A third site for finding family members is www.familylinks.icrc.org/katrina/search. For Spanish, go to www.katrina-survivor.com/es/.
See Friday's print or pdf editions of The Tico Times and The Nica Times for more on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
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