The textile company WR Alajuela S.A., owned by VF Corporación, announced last week that it is closing down its plant in the northwestern San José district of La Uruca, citing an insufficient demand for the pants it produces. About 400 employees will lose their jobs.

By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff | aroberson@ticotimes.net

A thief allegedly made away with a sacramental relic from the Los Angeles Basilica in Cartago, east of San José, Saturday, according to Public Security Ministry spokesman Guillermo Solano.

The crime occurred at about 9:05 a.m. while a funeral was going on at the church. Two women said they saw a man enter and stash the relic, called the hostia consagrada, along with its metal container, underneath his clothes and slip out of the church, Solano said.

No suspects have been apprehended, and the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) are investigating the case.

Priest Juan Carlos Delgado told the wire service ACAN-EFE that church officials plan to reinforce security at the famous basilica, to which thousands make a pilgrimage each year to pay tribute to the country's patron saint, Nuestra Señora de los Angeles.

While the pieces stolen are not worth much money, “they have great spiritual and religious value,” Delgado said, calling the theft a “sacrilegious act.”

Environment and Energy Minister Roberto Dobles announced Friday that the Costa Rican government plans to sue the chemical company Químicos Holanda for damage caused by a massive chemical fire at the company's chemical storage facility in the Caribbean port city of Moín on Dec. 13, 2006, according to the daily Al Día.

The fire, which erupted at the facility where solvents and caustic soda were stored, left two dead and 20,000 people temporarily without water (TT, Dec. 15, 2006).

Dobles told Al Día the government will sue Químicos Holanda for environmental damage and for the at least ¢250 million ($485,436) the state has spent so far to deal with the emergency.

Experts from the University of Costa Rica and Universidad Nacional are carrying out studies to evaluate the impact on water, soil and the atmosphere caused by the explosion, which produced stories-high flames that burned for 11 hours.

Their findings will be used to “take appropriate actions” against the company, Dobles said.

Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias last week reported that water had been restored to all but 2,000 residents of the Caribbean province of Limón and that surface waters and ecosystems near the site of the accident were “returning to normal” (TT, Jan. 5).

-Tico Times

The textile company WR Alajuela S.A., owned by VF Corporación, announced last week that it is closing down its plant in the northwestern San José district of La Uruca, citing an insufficient demand for the pants it produces. About 400 employees will lose their jobs.

VF Corporación shut down another textile plant in Coronado, northeast of San José, in December 2006, leaving 350 people jobless. These closures have the Foreign Trade Ministry worried, according to a statement released by the ministry Friday.

The effects of these plants closing should be analyzed carefully since they hurt prime materials providers, transport companies and state-run providers of services like water, telephones and electricity, the statement said.

“This is an alert signal for the country because of the impact the loss of formal jobs has on families,” said Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz, according to the statement.

The Minister also urged legislators to ratify the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), saying their failure to do so is causing “uncertainty” among textile companies and could lead more of them to pull out of Costa Rica, the only signatory country that has not ratified the agreement, the statement said.

-Tico Times