Take That: Nicaraguan boxer Ismael Lewitt (left) took on Costa Rican competitor Bruno González in the 91-kilogram final at the 14th Central American Amateur Boxing Championship in San José Saturday. Lewitt, who emerged victorious, joined Nicaraguan winners in five other weight classes. Two Salvadorans and one Guatemalan fighter also took home gold medals in their classes, as did Costa Ricans Berman Aguilar and Germán Sandí, who knocked out his opponent within ten seconds. A total of 68 boxers from throughout Central America took to the ring during the competition.

The bodies of Costa Rican boat captain Antonio Cajina and U.S. tourist Bryan Wolf were found this weekend, days after the small sport-fishing boat in which they were traveling capsized near the mouth of the Colorado River, on Costa Rica's northern Caribbean coast, June 7 th.

Mundoloco Concerts
Nagual Trio, Jazz-rock fusion and Sonambulo, Afro-Hantillano music, June 11, at 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro. Info: 253-8933.

Hermanos Roca Circus
Mechanical King Kong, dog show, clowns, magic, humor, through June 17, Mon.-Thurs., 7 p.m.; Fri.- Sat., 5 and 7 p.m.; Sun., 11 a .m., 2, 5 and 7 p.m., Zapote fairground. Info: 892-9097, 377-9097.

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

Businessman Osvaldo Villalobos appeared in a San José court Friday to hear judges read him the fine print of his 18-year prison sentence for fraud and illegal financial intermediation.

Villalobos was convicted last month in a long-awaited trial that began in February (TT, May 18). Still at large is his fugitive brother, Luis Enrique Villalobos, the alleged kingpin of the siblings' San José-based investment scheme known as “The Brothers.” The operation, which shut down in late 2002, attracted hundreds of millions of dollars from mostly foreign investors.

Defense attorney Juan Tovar told The Tico Times Friday that the defense plans to appeal Osvaldo's sentence, and has 30 business days from Friday in which to do so.

By Peter Krupa
Tico Times Staff | pkrupa@ticotimes.net

Costa Rican Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruíz has announced that the country will begin examining the possibility of a free-trade agreement with China. The announcement comes on the heels of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Ruíz told wire service ACAN-EFE that the Foreign Trade Ministry (COMEX) will begin “the studies to initiate, in the near future, negotiations for a free-trade agreement” between Costa Rica and China.

A statement from COMEX also noted that the ministry will be forging ties with its counterpart in China, as will Costa Rica's Foreign Trade Promotion Office (PROCOMER).

Meanwhile, fallout from President Oscar Arias' announcement that Costa Rica would establish relations with China and sever relations with Taiwan after more than six decades of cooperation (TT, June 8) continues. According to ACAN-EFE, a paid advertisement in the local media by the Taiwanese Embassy in El Salvador criticized Arias for negotiating the change “in secret” and stated that the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize-winner “decided to toss aside the universal values of peace, liberty and human rights, mutually treasured by Taiwan and Costa Rica, and become the ally of communist, autocratic China.”

The bodies of Costa Rican boat captain Antonio Cajina and U.S. tourist Bryan Wolf were found this weekend, days after the small sport-fishing boat in which they were traveling capsized near the mouth of the Colorado River, on Costa Rica's northern Caribbean coast, June 7 th.

Cajina, 49, was found in the nearby Parismina River, according to the daily La Nación; Wolf, 23, was found a few kilometers from the coastal fishing town of Barra del Colorado. Two others were in the boat at the time of the accident: Cajina's 21-year-old son, identified as Norman Cajina, whose body was found June 8, and tourist Kevin Holmes, who survived.

The four men had traveled to the river mouth to fish sábalo and had been there some time when a large wave surprised them and capsized the boat, the daily reported. Holmes alerted other fishermen, beginning a search effort that concluded Saturday when Cajina and Wolf were found.