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26 Jan 2006 |
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Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, January 26, 2006
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Grandmother and Three Children
Drown in Sarapiquí River
Red Cross workers yesterday continued to search for the body of one of the four people – three girls and one woman – who drowned in the Sarapiquí River, in north-central Costa Rica, on Tuesday, Red Cross spokeswoman Rosa Vargas told The Tico Times.
(Click for more)
Central Bank Announces
2006 Monetary Policy
Central Bank President Francisco de Paula Gutiérrez yesterday announced a drop in the colón's devaluation rate against the dollar from ¢ 0.15 to ¢ 0.13 per day, a decision aligned with the bank's 2006 inflation goal.
(Click for more)
Spanish Ex-President
González:
Latin America 's
Destiny Will Change
During a visit to Costa Rica, former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González said yesterday that he is sure that the destiny of Latin America “can and will change,” and that the region has the resources necessary to increase its income and production.
(Click for more)
January 26
Association of Residents of Costa Rica Monthly Seminar
Jan. 26-27, Feb. 23-24. Info: 233-8068, 221-2053, www.arcr.net.
Soccer Planet Exhibit
Opens today at the Costa Rican Art Museum, east Sabana Park, just west of San José. This Goethe Institute exhibit includes 50 soccer photographs from around the world. Through Feb. 19. Info: 222-7155.
4th Longo Mai Arts Festival
Today at 3 p.m., a discussion on the farmers' situations and experiences including field trip; 7 p.m., screening of documentary on CAFTA and roundtable discussion on the Central American campesino. Rancho de UNAPROA, Longo Mai, Inter-American Highway, km 164. Info: 771-4239.
Edited By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff
aroberson@ticotimes.net
Grandmother and Three Children
Drown in Sarapiquí River
By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff
aroberson@ticotimes.net
Red Cross workers yesterday continued to search for the body of one of the four people – three girls and one woman – who drowned in the Sarapiquí River, in north-central Costa Rica, on Tuesday, Red Cross spokeswoman Rosa Vargas told The Tico Times.
The body of Stephanie Carmona, 9, could have drifted as far as five kilometers from the swimming hole where she, along with two other young girls, were swimming with Adela Alvarez, the grandmother of one of the girls.
Alvarez, 62, her granddaughter, Fiorella Araya, 8, and neighbors Melissa Ugalde, 6, and Stephanie Carmona, 9, all drowned after being swept under water, according to the Red Cross. Heavy rains in the Sarapiquí area resulted in the river rising quickly, making swimming holes dangerous.
Gloriana González, Ugalde's mother, who accompanied the four swimmers, told the daily Al Día she tried unsuccessfully to pull her drowning daughter out of the river and that Alvarez also tried to save the girls before she herself drowned.
Red Cross workers in kayaks rescued the bodies of Alvarez, Araya and Ugalde Tuesday shortly after they drowned, Vargas said, but Carmona's body had already floated downstream and disappeared.
So far in 2006, 13 people have drowned in Costa Rica 's rivers and two in the ocean, according to the Red Cross.
Central Bank Announces
2006 Monetary Policy
By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff
kstanley@ticotimes.net
Central Bank President Francisco de Paula Gutiérrez yesterday announced a drop in the colón's devaluation rate against the dollar from ¢ 0.15 to ¢ 0.13 per day, a decision aligned with the bank's 2006 inflation goal.
This change, along with the rest of the monetary policy presented at a press conference in downtown San José, mirrored the policy presented last January. Now as then, Gutiérrez said inflation – 14.07% last year, according to the National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC) – remains the major concern for the bank; that controlling the country's debt will not be possible without tax reform; and that significant growth will not be possible without the approval of the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).
The bank's target inflation rate is 11% this year and 10% for 2007. Its stated goal was 10% last January (TT, Jan. 21, 2005), but factors including an international rise in gas prices made that target a distant memory by year's end.
In December, Gutiérrez said it is time to “rethink” the country's exchange system and consider a more flexible one (TT, Dec. 23, 2005). However, he said Wednesday that significant changes will not take place in the immediate future, though they are under consideration.
For now, the bank will stick with a mini-devaluation system, though “we are changing the rhythm… based on (our) inflation goal and not on past inflation,” he said. The colón, selling at ¢ 498.14 yesterday, will devalue 6.6% this year, he added.
The bank also enacted a ¢ 0.02 change in the devaluation rate a year ago, when it dropped to ¢ 0.15 from ¢ 0.17.
The Finance Ministry announced at year's end that the national deficit dropped from 2.5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2004 to 1.3% in 2005, thanks in part to improved tax collection and controlled spending (TT, Dec. 23, 2005). However, Gutiérrez said it “would be very difficult for the Finance Ministry to repeat these results” unless the Permanent Fiscal Reform Package, which would increase taxes and improve tax collection, is approved.
The tax plan is still under consideration in the Legislative Assembly after more than three years of debate. Resolving the 150 pending motions on the plan and bringing it to a vote will top the agenda when legislators return to work Feb. 7, following the national elections.
Gutiérrez also mentioned the potential benefits of CAFTA, also under consideration in the assembly. He said the pact “would allow us to have economic growth higher than what we have foreseen.”
The bank's growth estimates, which assume CAFTA and the structural reforms that accompany it will not be approved this year, are 3.6% for 2006 and 3% for 2007. Costa Rica had 4.1% growth in 2005.
Spanish Ex-President González:
Latin America 's Destiny Will Change
During a visit to Costa Rica, former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González said yesterday that he is sure that the destiny of Latin America “can and will change,” and that the region has the resources necessary to increase its income and production.
“Today I believe that the destiny of Latin America can and ought to change because there is no reason why not,” González said during a press conference.
The former Prime Minister arrived Tuesday night in Costa Rica, where he was invited by the Rodrigo Facio Political Training Institute, an institution of the National Liberation Party (PLN), to speak at the closing of a conference on political training.
González said that Latin America has almost 10% of the world's population and 5% of the Gross World Product and that its “production per person is almost the same as it was in 1980, but now it is badly distributed.”
He said he hopes in the next decade this product will double.
The former Prime Minister considered this goal “possible,” seeing that “ Latin America has sufficient human and fiscal capital, but lacks good policies.”
González also added that in Latin America, “there is a general current of dissatisfaction” over the lack of results on the progress of policies that worsened the 1980s debt crisis,” and “a desire to try something different and alternative.”
The former Prime Minister said that “an attitude mainly in favor of a more open economy, more involved in globalization and free-trade agreements” exists along the Latin American Pacific coast.
The Atlantic coast of Latin America has another discourse, he said, referring to the rejection in some countries of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
He also criticized the United States ' policies toward Latin America.
During the press conference, González rejected complaints Tuesday by Costa Rican unions and the Libertarian Movement Party. These groups claim there are links between González, Mexican telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim – who, according to the daily La República, is seeking inroads to Costa Rica 's telecommunications market – and ex-President and Liberation Party presidential candidate Oscar Arias, with whom González met on several occasions during his visit here.
“Carlos Slim is a very good personal friend of mine. He's such a good friend that he has never asked me for anything that has to do with his business interests and, of course, I don't think he needs it,” said González, who denied having any economic interests in Costa Rica.
