FROM Teen Idol to Activist: Latino pop star Ricky Martin yesterday gave a press conference with President Oscar Arias to announce the launch of his ad campaign Llama y Vive (Call and Live) in Costa Rica. The program aims to fight human trafficking and exploitation by encouraging victims to call and get help.

An episode of the TV show South Park that mocks Costa Rica as a dirty third-world country yesterday ruffled the feathers of Tourism Minister Carlos Benavides.

III Summer Art Festival CIDEA 2007
Including concerts, storytelling, poetry and plays; today through Friday, noon-8 p.m.; Universidad Nacional (UNA), Heredia, north of San José. Info: 277-3402.

3 Some Live
Rock-pop concert by Gandhi, Banooba and The Convulsions, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro, east of San José. Info: jazz_cafe@racsa.co.cr.

French Film Festival
Featuring “Hacia el Sur”, in French with Spanish subtitles, 3 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Outlet Mall, San Pedro.

By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff | kstanley@ticotimes.net

With a megawatt smile and carefully messy hair worthy of a former boy-band star, pop sensation Ricky Martin teamed up with President Oscar Arias yesterday afternoon to announce new efforts in the fight against human trafficking and exploitation.

Martin descended on – and then ascended from, via helicopter – Casa Presidencial for a meeting with Arias and then a press conference where he launched a new print and broadcast ad campaign. In the TV ads, which began airing in Costa Rica yesterday, the Puerto Rican-born singer urges the victims of exploitation to call 911 and get help.

The campaign, sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the International Organization for Migration and Costa Rica's Child Welfare Office (PANI), targets the trata de personas, defined as tricking adults or children to travel far from their homes and work against their will, often becoming the victims of sexual exploitation.

IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno said during a video recording played at the press conference that an estimated 2 million people become the victims of such exploitation each year. Martin explained that because human trafficking is always conducted illicitly, it's extremely difficult to obtain exact figures regarding its proliferation.

The 911 program, called Llama y Vive (Call and Live), has been very successful in Peru, Nicaragua and Ecuador, the countries where it has already been implemented, Moreno said. He added that El Salvador will become a part of the program soon and Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico are targeted next.

The program began in 2006 as an initiative of the Ricky Martin Foundation, a nonprofit organization the singer founded seven years ago to advocate for the well-being of children internationally.

“Ticos…want to end this bad industry,” said the performer of hits such as “ Livin' la Vida Loca.” “I love being a part of that.”

Martin arrived in Costa Rica Monday to perform a concert that night at the Ricardo Saprissa Stadium, north of San José, and is expected to spend some time vacationing here before returning home. For more on the Ricky Martin Foundation, visit www.rickymartinfoundation.org.

By Leland Baxter-Neal
Tico Times Staff | lbaxter@ticotimes.net

The trial against U.S. businessman Narvin Lichfield got under way yesterday with Lichfield taking the stand and declaring his innocence.

Lichfield, who founded and oversaw Dundee Ranch Academy – the tough-love school for supposedly troubled youth, located on Costa Rica's Pacific slope – is charged with torture, holding minors against their will and international crimes (violating a law based on international treaties, in this case, torture).

Lichfield told The Tico Times yesterday he is confident that students were not abused at Dundee Ranch. At least one former student traveled from the United States to testify for the defense, while the prosecution “did not have the means” to bring witnesses from abroad to testify for their case.

Prosecutor Edgar Oviedo called the prosecution's only witnesses, three Costa Rican officials, and today he will read from testimony given by two male students after Dundee Ranch was closed in 2003. Authorities raided the school after a parent said her daughter was being held against her will there (TT, May 23, 2003), while Lichfield says the woman had no custodial rights to the girl.

The trial was scheduled to begin again today at 8 a.m. at the Alajuela Courthouse, northwest of San José, in courtroom 4 on the third floor and is open to the public. It is not expected to last past this week.

An episode of the TV show South Park that mocks Costa Rica as a dirty third-world country yesterday ruffled the feathers of Tourism Minister Carlos Benavides.

In the show's characteristically rash, politically incorrect humor, the kids of South Park are forced by their teacher Mr. Mackey to join the “Getting Gay with Kids” choir, according to the show's official Web site. The choir then takes a trip to Costa Rica to help save the rainforest, hence the episode's name “Rainforest Schmainforest.”

On a bus ride through San José, the group ogles over the prostitutes, trash and shantytowns they observe out the windows while complaining of an offensive smell. Mr. Mackey then explains that Costa Rica is a third-world country, and these are the ugly things that come along with it.

Benavides yesterday told the told Channel 7 TV News that the show should be considered “trash” created for people with little education and bad manners.

The episode originally aired in 1999, but was apparently brought to Benavides' attention recently. He said he is not worried that the episode has hurt tourism to Costa Rica, since the show is not directed at people who would visit the country anyway.