ANTI-CAFTA Alliance: The newly formed Campesino Agrarian Front met yesterday at the Legislative Assembly to announce that it is gearing up to participate in protests against the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) planned for Feb. 26. CAFTA would hurt farmers, who are not prepared to compete on the international market, they say.

Prosecutors in the trial of Osvaldo Villalobos -- accused of money-laundering, illegal financial intermediation and fraud -- yesterday called up Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) investigators who brought forth the first evidence in the case: a boxload of documents seized in the investigations documenting “The Brothers” investment operation between 1996-2002.

Recruiting Volunteers
The Protected Area Volunteer Association (ASVO) is recruiting volunteers, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Costa Rican-North American Cultural Center, eastern San José neighborhood of Barrio Dent. Info: 258-4430 or reclutamiento@asvocr.org.

French Film Festival
Featuring the movie “Hacia el Sur ” (“Toward the South”), in French with subtitles in Spanish, 3 p.m. 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., Outlet Mall, San Pedro, east of San José.

By Amanda Roberson and Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff | aroberson@ticotimes.net kstanley@ticotimes.net

The Campesino Agrarian Front yesterday joined universities, unions, the indigenous and other groups in announcing their plans to join protests against the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) planned for Feb. 26.

This new front is a union of agricultural groups that oppose CAFTA, which is likely to soon be debated on the Legislative Assembly's main floor, because of the devastation they say it will bring the country's farmers when their goods are forced to compete with subsidized U.S. products, explained the group's organizer Oscar Campos at a press conference at the Legislative Assembly in downtown San José.

“Never in 25 years have we seen a threat like this for farmers,” Campos said. “CAFTA means unfair competition, and today we are showing that we're ready to fight.”

The group presented a statement entitled “The Manifesto of the Campesino Agrarian Front,” which echoed these sentiments and argued that “CAFTA will push the rural population, and the country in general, to a state of dysfunction; we will be thousands stripped of our resources and our lifestyles.”

Other CAFTA opponents are also working to drum up momentum against the pact this week, with an eye to the protest later this month. Today, groups of environmentalists, farmers and fishermen are scheduled to give a joint press conference at the assembly to express their opposition to the agreement, and on Thursday, professors from the University of Costa Rica (UCR) plan to launch the UCR Front Against CAFTA, according to a statement from the university.

In response to the heightened anti-CAFTA activity, Rodrigo Arias, President Oscar Arias' brother and spokesman, said in a statement that he is pleased with march organizers' assertions that the event will be peaceful, and “hopes it really will be like that.”

As he did last year, when student organizers accused police officers of brutality in reacting to protests in Cartago, east of San José, Arias said the police force has “no interest in aggression… but of course, if there's an attitude of violence against the National Police (officers), will have every right to act differently.”

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

The National Children's Hospital in San José yesterday got a boost in its efforts to prevent and treat cancer in children. The Costa Rican Cancer Institute, together with the Social Security System (Caja), donated a computerized axial tomography (CAT) scan machine, according to the institute's spokeswoman María Morales.

CAT scans are useful in detecting cerebral tumors, differentiating between malignant and benign tumors and planning radiography treatments, among other things, according to a statement from the institute.

The donation was part of the institute's work to strengthen the national oncology network by helping health centers obtain equipment to detect cancer.

Like many public hospitals, the National Children's Hospital suffers from a shortage of functioning equipment, and until now young patients had to be taken to San Juan de Dios Hospital next door to receive a CAT scan, the statement said. Now they will be able to have this test done at the Children's Hospital.

Throughout Costa Rica's public health-care system, a lack of machines to perform tests or broken equipment, combined with a shortage of doctors in certain specialties, has contributed to notoriously long waits for Ticos to receive treatment (TT, July 7, 2006).

By Blake Schmidt
Tico Times Staff | bschmidt@ticotimes.net