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BACK to School: Yesterday was the first day back to classes after summer vacation for children around the country, including these students at Rincón Grande School in Pavas, west of San José. Here, Marvin González, 10, shows off a new sticker for his backpack he received as part of a Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) campaign to make kids walking to and from school more visible to drivers. |
| Mónica Quesada | Tico Times |
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| Trade Minister Announces E.U. Negotiators |
Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz announced yesterday that a team of three Costa Ricans, two of whom helped negotiate a controversial trade pact with the United States in 2003, has been chosen to represent the country in negotiations for a Central American-European Union Association Agreement.
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| Villalobos Trial Suspended Until Friday |
Proceedings in the trial of Osvaldo Villalobos – accused of money laundering, illegal financial intermediation and fraud in connection with the defunct, high-interest investment operation known as “The Brothers” – have been suspended until Friday as the judges review motions presented by the defense yesterday. |
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| 'Safe Passage' Gives New
Hope To Guatemalan Children |
Hanley Denning was only 36 when a car crash outside Guatemala City ended her extraordinary life last month – but according to those she left behind at her innovative brainchild, Camino Seguro (Safe Passage), a program that's helping hundreds of children who live at Guatemala City's garbage dump, the work she began will far outlast her too-brief life.
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| February 08 |
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Preview of the Film 11:14 ( Hora de Morir )
Starring Hilary Swank, Henry Thomas and Patrick Swayze, 8 p.m., Cine Magaly, Barrio La California, San José. Info: 223-0085.
Gaviota in Concert
Ballads, 9 p.m., Restaurante K y S, Plaza Cristal, Curridabat, east of San José. Info: 283-7583.
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Edited By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff | aroberson@ticotimes.net
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Trade Minister Announces E.U. Negotiators |
By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff | kstanley@ticotimes.net
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Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz announced yesterday that a team of three Costa Ricans, two of whom helped negotiate a controversial trade pact with the United States in 2003, has been chosen to represent the country in negotiations for a Central American-European Union Association Agreement.
Chief negotiator Roberto Echandi, as well as adjunct negotiators Cristian Guillermet, representing the Foreign Relations Ministry (COMEX), and Fernando Ocampo, representing the Foreign Trade Ministry, will work with representatives of other Central American countries in the coming months to prepare for the first E.U. meetings, expected to begin mid-year, Ruiz told reporters following President Oscar Arias' weekly Cabinet meeting.
Asked why he chose Echandi and Ocampo, who served on the often-criticized negotiating team of the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) – activists at anti-CAFTA marches often claim the pact was negotiated “behind the backs of Costa Ricans” and that negotiators ceded too much ground – Ruiz said they're simply the most qualified people for the job.
“It's not a political team. It's a technical team,” he said, adding later that “we need the best people there, and these are the best people.”
However, the government plans to “learn from the experiences we had (with CAFTA) and involve the ministries a great deal” in the negotiation process, as well as social groups, Ruiz said. The Foreign Ministry and COMEX will work with ministers to ensure the sectors under their leadership are represented, and will coordinate with the Planning Ministry to ensure that aid or cooperation the European Union offers during negotiations meets Costa Rica's needs. |
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Villalobos Trial Suspended Until Friday
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By Leland Baxter-Neal
Tico Times Staff | lbaxter@ticotimes.net
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Proceedings in the trial of Osvaldo Villalobos – accused of money laundering, illegal financial intermediation and fraud in connection with the defunct, high-interest investment operation known as “The Brothers” – have been suspended until Friday as the judges review motions presented by the defense yesterday.
The Brothers was a well-known investment program run out of the same office where Osvaldo had a currency exchange business, Ofinter S.A. Osvaldo insists he had nothing to do with The Brothers, and it was his fugitive brother Luis Enrique Villalobos who ran the operation. More than 6,000 investors lost between tens of thousands and millions of dollars in 2002 when The Brothers and Ofinter shut down and Luis Enrique disappeared with an estimated $800 million-$1 billion of their money (TT, Oct. 18, 2002).
Defense attorneys yesterday morning challenged the hundreds of civil suits and querellas (private cases added to the government's prosecution) filed by jilted investors with attorney Ewald Acuña, alleging procedural errors. According to defense lawyer Rodrigo Araya, many of the claimants incorrectly processed their power of attorney, and therefore their suits should be dismissed.
The motions came during the defense's opening arguments, in which the attorneys claimed Osvaldo is innocent of all charges and was involved only in Ofinter, not The Brothers.
The prosecution's opening accusation began Monday and lasted a day and a half, followed by Acuña's, which wrapped up Tuesday afternoon. |
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'Safe Passage' Gives New
Hope To Guatemalan Children |
By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff | kstanley@ticotimes.net
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Hanley Denning was only 36 when a car crash outside Guatemala City ended her extraordinary life last month – but according to those she left behind at her innovative brainchild, Camino Seguro (Safe Passage), a program that's helping hundreds of children who live at Guatemala City's garbage dump, the work she began will far outlast her too-brief life.
Denning, a teacher from the U.S. state of Maine who first went to Guatemala to learn Spanish, visited the dump in 1999. Horrified to learn that many of the children living there couldn't attend public school because their families didn't have the money for the fees, and because the kids worked sorting trash to help support their families, Denning sold her car and computer and raised enough money to put 40 kids in school.
After eight years of tireless efforts that earned her the nickname “Angel del Basurero ” (“The Angel of the Dump”), the organization she founded is serving 580 students, with approximately 500 more on the waiting list, and offers before- and after-school support, vocational training, and even a hotel where kids can train to work in the hospitality business. The organization relies on volunteers, earnings from its Posada Lazos Fuertes hotel in Antigua (www.posadalazosfuertes.com) and donors, including individuals or groups who “adopt” a child or classroom.
“In many schools, she found an attitude of, ‘We can't do anything with these kids,' but she was so insistent,” program leader Lety Méndez told The Nica Times in a phone interview. “She convinced the teachers to accept them.”
On Jan. 18, a bus struck the car in which Denning was traveling from Guatemala City to Antigua, killing her and her driver and injuring two program volunteers in the backseat, according to a Portland Press Herald article on Denning's funeral in her hometown of Yarmouth, Maine.
Méndez, 34, said that she and the rest of the staff are determined to carry on Denning's work.
“Normally, people in Guatemala, we try two or three times, but she tried 1,000 times … It really could be done,” she said. “Now, more than ever, I believe it.”
Opportunities abound to help Safe Passage, including participating in short- or long-term volunteer projects, donating to the Hanley Denning Memorial Fund, sponsoring a child or classroom and staying at Posada Lazos Fuertes. For more information, visit www.safepassage.org.
See this Friday's print or electronic edition of The Nica Times' Central America page for more on Hanley Denning and Safe Passage.
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