KEEPING Their Eyes on the Roads: Minister of Public Works and Transport Karla González (right) and her Vice-Minister Viviana Martín yesterday described repairs to roads and national airports the ministry has been working on to prepare for Easter Holy Week next week, when millions are expected to travel around the country. They also plan to station more than 800 Traffic Police around the country.

President Oscar Arias inaugurated the seventh “ Smart Community Center ” of his administration yesterday at the municipal library in Paraíso, east of San José.

Concert
“Café Chorale a Capella ,” 7 p.m., Calderón Guardia Museum, Barrio Escalante, San José. Info: 222-6392.

E-business and Global Management Competitiveness
8 a.m.-1 p.m., Costa Rica Marriott Hotel, San Antonio de Belén, northwest of San José. Info: 239-8924.

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

With the goal of facilitating safer travel for Costa Ricans and tourists during Easter Holy Week, or Semana Santa, next week, the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) yesterday announced plans to beef up the Traffic Police force during this time and outlined roadway and airport repairs under way.

An estimated 1.8 million to 2.1 million people are expected to travel around the country next week, according to a statement from the ministry. Beginning Saturday, 819 traffic police will be stationed along primary roads leading to prime vacation spots, explained Traffic Police Director Gérman Marín.

Additionally, at 11 strategically placed checkpoints, officials will be looking for drunk drivers, stolen vehicles, alleged criminals wanted by police and illegal immigrants. These checkpoints will be placed at spots including the vicinity of the Juan Santamaría International Airport, just northwest of San José; La Lima de Cartago, east of San José; the road from Palmar Norte to Dominical, in the Southern Zone; and at the entrance to beaches in the northwestern Guanacaste province including Playas del Coco, according to the ministry.

The ministry has also sped up repairs to some heavily trafficked roads in preparation for this busy vacation week, explained Public Works and Transport Minister Karla González.

These include the road from Santa Elena to Guacimal near the popular north-central cloud forest preserve of Monteverde, the northern Inter-American Highway from Limonal to Cañas and the road between the Guanacaste beaches of Nosara and Sámara, which residents have recently decried for accident-causing clouds of dust (TT, March 23). Workers are trying to get this road in “acceptable” conditions, the minister said.

Eight of the country's 24 airstrips for national flights are also being worked on. The ministry invested more than ¢1.1 billion ($2.1 million) in improvements to airstrips and terminals at airports in the Southern Zone towns of Golfito, Drake and Palmar Sur, and others around the country, the statement said.

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

Opponents of the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) are taking up the fight against a proposal that would protect the right of inventors of new seed varieties to market their new product.

As part of CAFTA, which Costa Rica has signed but not ratified, the country agreed to pass 13 other bills along with the trade pact. One of these bills would give the developers of new seed varieties the exclusive right to market them for up to 25 years.

At a press conference at the Legislative Assembly yesterday, anti-CAFTA legislators, activists and educators came out against the proposal being discussed in the assembly's agriculture commission.

"Should our seeds, our plants, be in the hands of our people... or in the hands of a few?" asked César López, leader of the Cultural Movement against CAFTA.

Opponents of the proposal say it could mean more costs for small farmers, threaten Costa Rica's food security and biodiversity and limit the ability of public institutions to do scientific research.

President Oscar Arias inaugurated the seventh “ Smart Community Center ” of his administration yesterday at the municipal library in Paraíso, east of San José.

The center, which has 10 computers, Internet access and video conferencing equipment, is open to the public and designed to allow all community members' access to knowledge, information and creativity, according to a statement from the Science and Technology Ministry (MICIT). Arias seeks to open 350 such centers through the Science and Technology Ministry by the time his four-year term ends in 2010, starting with 100 by the end of 2007.

So far, centers have been opened in the provinces of Guanacaste, in the northwest Pacific; Limón, in the Caribbean; Alajuela, northwest of San José; and Cartago, east of San José. MICIT maintains the labs and staffs them with trained computer teachers.

“With the (Community Centers) we are seeking to reduce the digital divide in our country and put new technologies at the disposal of the rural population,” Science and Technology Minister Eugenia Flores said in a statement.