ZONA Roja: Actors Lorelay Sancho and Ronald Moya play in “ VIP en Zona Roja ” (“VIP in the Red-Light District”), a drama about life in a rough neighborhood showing today through Sunday at Teatro de San José at 8 p.m. Call 256-5752 for more information.

Nicaraguan poet and novelist Gioconda Belli yesterday said that poetry will save humanity during the third International Poetry Festival, which began Tuesday and ends today in Granada.

Orange Fair
Dance, theater, marimba music, today through Sunday and Feb. 16-18, Ciudad Colón, west of San José. Info: 249-1050.

Playas del Coco Blues Fest
John Swan, 9 p.m., also with Blues Devils, Sunday, 9 p.m., Bar La Vida Loca, Playas del Coco, Guanacaste, northwest of San José. Info: 670-0181.

Puntarenas Carnival
Food sales, rides, dances, sports, parades, through Feb. 18, horse parade, Saturday, 4 p.m., carnival, Feb. 17, 5 p.m., Paseo de los Turistas, Puntarenas. Info: www.puntarenas.com/carnavales/programa.html

Green Community Forum
Art, meditation, live music, circus acts, drinks, appetizers, Saturday, 5:30 p.m., Barracuda Art Gallery, Tamarindo, Guanacaste. Info: ingrid@voecretreats.com.

Los Acetatos in Concert
Rock, with special guests at end, 8 p.m., Yellow Submarine Bar, Centro Comercial Los Colegios, Moravia, northeast of San José.

A poll published in the daily La República yesterday found that 62% of Costa Ricans questioned said they support the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), while 37% said they oppose this controversial trade pact.

The poll also questioned Ticos about whether they fear violence surrounding future CAFTA protests, and 15% said they are very afraid of violence; 22% said they are somewhat afraid; 28% said they have little fear; and 26% said they are not afraid at all.

CAFTA opponents have announced they are planning a protest in late February.

These results were compared to those from a poll conducted in October 2005, when 64% of those questioned said they were in favor of CAFTA and 10% were against it.

The recent poll was conducted for La República by CID-Gallup Jan. 20-28 with 1,231 people. It claims a 3% margin of error.

Costa Rica is the only signatory country that has not ratified CAFTA, which is being studied by the Legislative Assembly and is likely to move to its main floor soon.

-Tico Times

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

Police in the Caribbean port city of Moín yesterday unearthed a machine gun illegal in Costa Rica as well as two boxes containing hundreds of bullets for guns also illegal here and arrested three men accused of possessing these weapons, according to Public Security Ministry spokeswoman Jesús Ureña.

The men, identified by the last names Jara, 20, Costa Rican; Céspedes, 34, Costa Rican; and Mayorga, 40, Nicaraguan, were allegedly standing armed with a knife near the grounds of the Moín National Oil Refinery (RECOPE) plant, according to a statement from the Public Security Ministry.

Police received an anonymous call about their presence and went to inspect the grounds. They found the three men “armed and with a suspicious attitude,” the statement said. While looking around the grounds, police noticed a bit of loose dirt and discovered buried a box of 100 bullets for an M-50 machine gun, a bag of 391 bullets for an AK-47 gun and one Fall brand machine gun, Ureña said.

Police are investigating these three men in connection with the buried weapons, Ureña said. They stand before the Limón Prosecutor's Office.

Nicaraguan poet and novelist Gioconda Belli yesterday said that poetry will save humanity during the third International Poetry Festival, which began Tuesday and ends today in Granada.

About 140 poets from 45 countries around the world are in town for the festival, which is dedicated to Nicaraguan poet Pablo Antonio Cuadra, who died in 2002.

Poetry is “what is going to save us... I feel like we are living in a world so convoluted, so complicated, that poetry has to remind us of the great human values, without which there would be nothing,” said Belli, 58, author of novels including “ La Mujer Habitada,” (“The Inhabited Woman”) and “ Wasala,” which have won her international recognition.

“There are things that run through poetry that show the human need to seek transcendence, to seek things that unite us, grand feelings, humanism,” she said.

Meanwhile, Brazilian poet Amadeu Thiago De Mello called the poetry festival in Granada “a very important moment for the life of our humanity.”

Belli and De Mello joined poets from around the world including Steven White ( United States ), Waldo Leyva ( Cuba ) and Amir Heicom ( Israel ) in poetry recitals in public venues around Granada. Additionally, the city's streets were graced with folkloric dancers and other colorful cultural acts.

Belli, one of the festival's organizers, said this year's event has been successful and had good participation.