Displaying the Wares: Gloria Inés Osorio, 51, of Colombia, served up a buñuelo – a fried ball of goodness containing cheese, flour and eggs – at a fair to showcase refugees' small businesses in San José yesterday. The fair, which continues today, is being held at the University of Costa Rica (UCR) in honor of a visit from Philippe Lavanchy, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' director for Latin America. Refugees started the businesses highlighted at the fair with support from a loan system operated by Costa Rican office of the UNHCR and the Association of International Consultants and Advisors (ACAI).

The man expected to become the Chinese ambassador to Costa Rica was scheduled to arrive here last night. Various Chinese businesses and trade organizations took out a full-page advertisement in daily La Nación to welcome Wang Xiaoyuan.

Ballad Concert Tonight
Performed by Victor Kapusta, June 14, 8:30 p.m., Tintos y Blancos Wine Restaurant, Terramall, Tres Ríos. Info: 278-6900.

Hip-hop Dance Show
By Proyecto La ZoNA , June 14, 7 p.m., Spanish Cultural Center, Av.13, Ca. 31. Info: 257-2919, ext. 118.

A San José judge sentenced the nurse who set fire to Calderón Guardia Hospital in downtown San José in 2005 to 50 years in prison yesterday.

The fire, which killed 19 people including 16 patients and three nurses, caught the hospital – which lacked proper fire safety infrastructure and planning – off-guard. Patients and hospital staff jumped from fifth floor windows in an attempt to escape.

The fire also outraged the media and Costa Ricans nationwide, prompting calls for improvements in fire safety preparedness in the country – though a recent investigation by The Tico Times shows only marginal progress has been made (TT, June 8).

The principal evidence in the case against nurse Juan Carlos Ledezma came from witnesses who testified that they'd seen him leaving the warehouse where the fire began immediately before the hospital's rudimentary alarm system began to sound.

The fire, the most tragic in Costa Rica's history, destroyed the oldest part of the hospital, which dated back to 1943.

A $15 million donation from the government of Taiwan was to fund the rebuilding of the hospital. Although President Oscar Arias announced last week that Costa Rica had cut ties with Taiwan, which promptly announced it would withdraw all funding for pending projects, Arias has assured the country that work on the hospital will continue.

- Tico Times and ACAN-EFE

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

As international leaders gathered in New York yesterday to evaluate Central America's progress during the past two decades, President Oscar Arias and Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno rallied support for their Costa Rica Consensus, a proposal designed to reduce military spending in the developing world.

Arias spoke at the United Nations during an event held to commemorate the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Central American Peace Accords, signed Aug. 7, 1987 in Guatemala to bring an end to the region's conflicts.

At a conference on the challenges facing Central America today, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said the drug trade and rising crime in the region have the potential to “erode support for democracy,” according to the U.N. Web site.

“Crime scares away investors. It encourages ‘brain drain,'” said Ban, who also pledged U.N. support for Central American governments.

For his part, Arias, one of the accords' signatories during his first presidential term (1986-1990), urged listeners to support the Costa Rica Consensus, which encourages developed nations to provide increased foreign aid to developing countries that decrease their military spending.

Stagno pitched the proposal to an audience that included renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs, U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd at a conference at New York's Helmsley Hotel, according to a statement from Casa Presidencial.

The man expected to become the Chinese ambassador to Costa Rica was scheduled to arrive here last night. Various Chinese businesses and trade organizations took out a full-page advertisement in daily La Nación to welcome Wang Xiaoyuan.

A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told The Tico Times that Wang's appointment as ambassador will become official once the Chinese government approves it.

Wang was previously the ambassador to Uruguay, and has also worked in a diplomatic capacity in Mexico, Spain, Brazil, and Equatorial Guinea. Wang will present his credentials to the Foreign Relations Ministry on Monday.

President Oscar Arias announced last week that Costa Rica had established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China and ended a 63-year relationship with Taiwan (TT, June 8).