“The production of electric energy in the world must undergo a profound transformation to be profitable in the future,” said President Oscar Arias during the conclusion of the Central American Electric Energy Conference yesterday in Escazú, west of San José.

The conference – organized by the Costa Rica-based Academy of Central America and the Institute of the Americas, in San Diego, California – drew representatives from the government, public sector and private sector from Central America, Mexico and various South American countries to discuss energy commerce, regulation, interconnection and other topics.

“All countries want to depend a little less on (fossil) fuels. This is easy to say, difficult to make happen,” said Eduardo Lizano, Academy of Central America president, touching on a major point of the conference: alternative sources of energy.

Jeffrey Davidow, director of the Institute of the Americas, said many alternative, renewable sources of electricity production – such as wind, solar, geothermic and biomass power – are becoming available and growing in Costa Rica, where more than 80% of energy production comes from hydroelectric plants.

Arias, in his closing speech, referenced an article in The Economist magazine stating that the business of renewable energy “is becoming the next boom in investment.”

Participants in the conference were not there to “draw conclusions or make recommendations,” said Lizano, but rather to discuss common energy issues.

Representatives also discussed plans for Central America's regional electric grid under construction.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) yesterday expressed concern over the as-yet-unpunished murder of two Costa Rican journalists in recent years and the challenges members of the press face in doing their work.

Ignacio Alvarez, an IACHR specialist in freedom of expression, told journalists during a press conference yesterday that although Costa Rica is a centuries-old democracy where freedom of expression has played a “fundamental role,” the country also should be “embarrassed” by its lack of justice in the murder of the journalists, limited access to public information and press law that allows journalists to be jailed.

Alvarez said he was affected by the recent verdict in the trial for slain journalist Ivannia Mora, 33, who was killed by two men on a motorcycle the night of Dec. 23, 2003, as she sat in traffic in Curridabat, east of San José. Mora's former boss, businessman Eugenio Millot, was tried in alleged connection with the murder, and the three presiding judges ruled last week to drop the charges against him and five alleged accomplices, saying “essential” evidence for the case was improperly obtained and inadmissible in court (TT, Nov. 24).

Mora's death followed that of radio journalist Parmenio Medina (TT, July 13, 2001). A Catholic priest and his business partner are being tried for alleged involvement in the crime. Like Mora's murder trial, Medina's has also been fraught with problems and delays (TT, Nov. 24).

Alvarez said the commission is also perplexed by Costa Rica's press law, which establishes prison sentences for journalists convicted of defamation and libel.

A new press law eliminating the prison clause has been drafted, and Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias announced yesterday that his brother President Oscar Arias' administration will send it to the Legislative Assembly for review during the extraordinary session that begins Friday. The minister said the law has been moved to third place on the assembly's agenda – a huge advance from its previous 40th-place status.

Alvarez is in Costa Rica for three days, during which he is scheduled to meet with Chief Prosecutor Francisco Dall'Anese, Legislative Assembly president Francisco Pacheco and other government officials.

See this Friday's print or pdf edition of The Tico Times for more on this story.

-ACAN-EFE and Tico Times

-Tico Times