ART Therapy: Jorling Esmeralda Angulo, 20, sketches the members of her family for an art therapy exercise during a meeting of a women's group in the low-income San José neighborhood of La Carpio while her daughter Francinic María Arguello, 1, watches. Angulo and about 10 other women meet every Friday for this support group led by Gail Nystrom, of the Costa Rican Humanitarian Foundation.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Friday objected to Costa Rica's plan to ask experts from the United Nations to determine the maritime border between these two countries, which has long been a source of contention.

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Eduardo Libby
Photography, through May 16, Port City Java, across from AutoMercado, Boulevard Lindora, Santa Ana, west of San José. Info: 203-8211.

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

The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) yesterday called off planned power outages throughout this week, announcing that workers fixed the three broken thermal energy plants partly responsible for an insufficient national energy supply.

These thermal plants in Barranca, on the central Pacific coast; San Antonio de Belén, northwest of San José; and Moín, on the Caribbean coast; broke down after working “intensely” to make up for low water levels at the country's main hydroelectric plants, according to an ICE statement, which blamed these low water levels on the weather phenomenon El Niño creating an unusually dry rainy season last year.

Residents around the country became aware of the dire energy situation Thursday evening, when a blackout left most of the country in the dark for hours. ICE, Costa Rica's state-run energy monopoly, attributed the incident to an energy transmission malfunction at its plant in the north-central Arenal area.

Some areas of the country lost power again Friday after regaining it following the blackout, and that afternoon ICE announced that power outages would be planned this week to conserve energy and that electricity distributors, including the National Power and Light Company (CNFL), Public Services Company of Heredia (ESPH) and Coopeguanacaste, had been instructed to implement the blackouts.

However, ICE decided to cancel this plan late yesterday afternoon in light of workers repairing the three thermal energy plants, spokeswoman Adriana Víquez told The Tico Times.

“There shouldn't be a need for any power cuts this week,” Víquez said, adding that the coming rainy season will “greatly help” Costa Rica's energy situation.

In the meantime, ICE called for citizens to ensure the “prudent, rational and responsible” use of water and electricity, in a statement.

The blackouts have placed ICE under a national spotlight. Businesses united under the Union of Private-Sector Chambers and Associations (UCCAEP) blasted the institute for not “taking necessary precautions to confront the (energy) demand” in a statement released Friday. The union demanded that ICE explain “with absolute transparency to the country how it reached this situation” and how it will come up with long-term solutions to the energy shortage.

Scientists recently discovered new species of coral, algae, starfish and sea cucumbers at the Isla del Coco national park off the Pacific coast, according to a statement from the marine conservation organization MarViva.

Detailed information remains to be gained about these species, but scientists are studying them and believe these finds could lead to the discovery of other new species, the statement said.

The discoveries were made during a recent expedition led by the Center for Research of Marine Sciences (CIMAR) and the University of Costa Rica (UCR) to gather information about Isla del Coco's unique marine environment and plan for long-term monitoring of the area. The expedition was the first of its kind in 100 years.

This “marks a new era of marine research in the country and is an essential part of planning efforts for conservation on a regional level,” the statement said.

Similar research was conducted by scientists at the Galapagos Islands, in Ecuador; Isla Coiba, in Panama; and Isla Malpelo, in Colombia; to establish regional marine corridors for coordinated research.

-Tico Times

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Friday objected to Costa Rica's plan to ask experts from the United Nations to determine the maritime border between these two countries, which has long been a source of contention.

“International experts can't come to determine these borders,” Ortega told journalists Friday, two days after Costa Rican Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno suggested that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon assign experts to determine the border.

Differences over where Costa Rica ends and Nicaragua begins were reawakened recently when a Costa Rican fishing boat was detained and fined by Nicaraguan authorities April 10 (TT, April 20). The incident left Nicaragua and Costa Rica in disagreement over which country's territory the boat was in when it was detained and exactly where the border lies.

Upon hearing Stagno's suggestion that U.N. experts determine the border once and for all, Ortega rejected it, maintaining his country's stance that Costa Rica and Nicaragua should reach a bilateral maritime territory agreement.

Ortega said he and Costa Rican President Oscar Arias have talked about strengthening relations between their countries, but that doing so requires first “coming to agreements on certain things of mutual interest.”