Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, October 04, 2005
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Vice-Minister of Trade Outlines
Complementary Agenda
Doris Osterlof, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Trade, met yesterday with representatives from various business sectors and the press to explain in detail the collection of loans and associated development programs known as the Complementary Agenda for the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).
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Quintuplets Born Early,
But Healthy in Capital
Five babies were born yesterday to a woman whose pregnancy lasted six and a half months.
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Police On Hunt for
20 Most Wanted Sex Abusers
Police maintain their widely publicized offensive against the country's 20 most wanted men convicted of or charged with sex abuse. Six have been caught so far, including a high school teacher arrested at school who had escaped a jail sentence for having sex with a minor (TT, Sept. 23).
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October 04
Extreme Makeover Newcomers Next General Meeting:
Including a coffee social hour, presentation begins at 10 a.m., at the White House Hotel, Escazú. Info: call Pat Bliss, 289-8638, or e-mail crnow@amnet.co.cr.
“Protocolo 84” Series on La Penca Bombing
Tonight features part two of two parts, on Channel 7, at 9 p.m.
Gala Concert
Tonight with Pilar Aguilar at 8 p.m. at the National Theater, Av. 2, Ca. 3/5. Info: 221-9417.
Edited By Leland Baxter-Neal
Tico Times Staff
lbaxter@ticotimes.net
Vice-Minister of Trade Outlines
Complementary Agenda
By Leland Baxter-Neal
Tico Times Staff
lbaxter@ticotimes.net
Doris Osterlof, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Trade, met yesterday with representatives from various business sectors and the press to explain in detail the collection of loans and associated development programs known as the Complementary Agenda for the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).
The agenda is intended to strengthen Costa Rica 's ability to compete if CAFTA is ratified by the Legislative Assembly.
Osterlof emphasized that what has often been referred to as the complementary agenda – the loans and bills under consideration in the assembly – is in fact only the part of the Complementary Agenda that currently has funding, and that more programs will be unveiled in the future.
Osterlof said that the process of preparation and transition needs to be thought of in the long term, pointing out that trade changes under CAFTA are implemented gradually over a period of 10 years, and the complementary agenda does not have to be “everything at once.”
The Vice-Minister's repeated assertions that the programs unveiled to date do not constitute the entire complementary agenda come after a recent report released by the President Abel Pacheco's Council of Notables said the government's agenda does not do enough to prepare the country for changes under CAFTA (TT, Sept. 30). The council is a group of five men Pacheco selected to analyze the text of CAFTA and to give their opinion on how it would affect Costa Rica.
The agenda Osterlof laid out yesterday comprised programs financed by $355.4 million in loans and government funding under consideration in the Legislative Assembly.
Osterlof described in detail only the components pertinent to the Trade Ministry, programs aimed specifically at strengthening the competitiveness of businesses that produce both for export and for internal consumption, and at strengthening and modernizing the public institutions to handle the management and administration of the changes that would be brought about by CAFTA.
These projects would be paid for by $116.8 million in loans from the Inter-American Development Bank, and $91.5 million in government financing.
Quintuplets Born Early,
But Healthy in Capital
Five babies were born yesterday to a woman whose pregnancy lasted six and a half months.
“They are in good condition and are adequately developed for their age,” Jorge Ramírez, director of the public Women's Hospital, where the babies were born, told Channel 7 news.
The doctor, who did not specify the babies' genders, said their mother, 32-year-old Silvia Araya, was forced to have a Caesarean section. According to Ramírez, the pregnancy could not continue because “she was always under the threat of having a miscarriage and had to stay in bed all the time.”
Eight doctors participated in the operation, according to the doctor.
Silvia Díaz, the quintuplet's grandmother, told journalists she and her family are “very excited, happy, grateful to God and waiting to see what he will bring them now.”
According to medical sources, the mother chose to undergo in vitro fertilization in Panama, because in Costa Rica the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) prohibited this procedure in 2000.
--ACAN-EFE
Police On Hunt for
20
Most Wanted Sex Abusers
Police maintain their widely publicized offensive against the country's 20 most wanted men convicted of or charged with sex abuse. Six have been caught so far, including a high school teacher arrested at school who had escaped a jail sentence for having sex with a minor (TT, Sept. 23).
The Special Investigation Agency (DIE), an arm of the Public Security Ministry, launched the offensive Sept. 14, and arrested its sixth target – a man, whose last name is Navarro, wanted for rape charges.
Police sought Navarro, 46, for weeks after he skipped a trial for his alleged sex crime against a woman, the ministry said in a statement.
Paúl Chávez, DIE director, called on every citizen to report all cases of sex abuse about which they have information.
The first man arrested, Víctor Hugo Vargas, 53, was working as a high school industrial arts teacher after being sentenced to 16 years in jail in 1996 for the rape of a 14-year-old student. He escaped before authorities could put him behind bars, and managed to get a job at the rural school where he was arrested last month.
Chávez said those arrested in the last two weeks are teachers, field workers, pirate taxi drivers and construction workers.
-- ACAN-EFE
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