HANGING MUSIC: This piece, “ Vibraciones de Colores ” (“Vibrations of Colors”) is one of 20 works by artist Erika Stanley that incorporate real musical instruments on display at “Hanging Music,” an exhibit at Galería Valanti's new location in Los Sueños Marina Village in Playa Herradura, on the central Pacific coast. The exhibit runs through Feb. 26.

Representatives from the Spanish company Actividades de Construcción y Servicios (ACS) are in Costa Rica to discuss the possibility of setting up projects and investing here, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

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

Defenders of human rights, or ombudsmen, from 17 countries in Central America and the Caribbean concluded a three-day conference in San José yesterday by announcing a new alliance they have formed to tackle problems facing their countries.

“Human rights cannot be defended in an isolated manner because we share common problems, and we should also share common solutions,” said Costa Rican Ombudswoman Lisbeth Quesada, explaining that poverty, the environment, health and governmental practices are among areas on which the ombudsmen will collectively focus, in addition to social exclusion, HIV/AIDS and immigration.

Visiting ombudsmen came from countries including Haiti, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Honduras, Panama and El Salvador. They belong to two umbrella organizations: the Central American Council of Ombudsmen (CCPDH) and the Caribbean Ombudsman Association (CAROA). During the conference, these human rights defenders signed a resolution to merge the two groups, forming the Joint Forum of Members of CCPDH and CAROA.

Paul Rodríguez, CAROA president and Ombudsman for Belize, said this new alliance will be an instrument to “protect world peace and fight violence and racial discrimination, or any form of discrimination.”

“This new union will put our region on the map of the world as an area where people can push for the defense of their human rights,” Rodríguez said.

The group plans to convene again next year in Curacao. After yesterday's press conference, they met with President Oscar Arias at Casa Presidencial to inform him of their work.

Isla San Lucas, a natural reserve and former prison island in the Pacific coast Gulf of Nicoya, is soon to be site of a movie filmed by Costa Rican director Douglas Martin.

Martin recently told the daily Al Día he plans to film a movie based on the book “ La Isla de los Hombres Solos ” (“The Island of Lone Men”) by Costa Rican author José León Sánchez, which tells his story as a prisoner who was later proven innocent.

The company Yacaman Producciones, owned by U.S., Honduran and Costa Rican investors, is producing the movie and will begin filming in December, Al Día reported.

“We're not basing the movie just on the literary work, but also on the life of José León Sánchez, who remained in San Lucas until his innocence was proven,” said Martin, a five-time winner of the National Prize for Literature who was given an honorary doctorate by the Autonomous University of Mexico.

Sánchez returned recently to the island where he was incarcerated and called the experience “painful” but said he had to “confront what I have lived so that new generations don't experience the horrors that were experienced there,” including torture.

Sánchez was sentenced to jail in 1950 for committing murder while robbing jewels from the Los Angeles Basilica in Cartago, east of San José. He got out of prison in 1969 but was not declared innocent by the Penal Branch of the Supreme Court (Sala III) until 1999.

-Tico Times

Representatives from the Spanish company Actividades de Construcción y Servicios (ACS) are in Costa Rica to discuss the possibility of setting up projects and investing here, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

The company, one of the biggest of its kind in Europe, works in energy production; petroleum processing; development and maintenance of urban water, gas and electricity networks; telecommunications and waste management.

In Costa Rica, ACS is particularly interested in developing bioethanol or diodiesel biofuel plants. Costa Rica is suitable for the production of these fuels because of its agricultural production and its government's interest in promoting alternative energy, the statement said.

Representatives from the company, who arrived Tuesday and are leaving today, have met with members of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT), National Oil Refinery (RECOPE), Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) and National Water and Sewer Institute (AyA).

After initial meetings, ACS representatives expressed enthusiasm in setting up projects and establishing a regional office here.