Knee Deep: A man and his dog made their way through floodwaters in the northwestern Guanacaste town of Ostional Friday after heavy rains left this and other Guanacaste communities inaccessible by car.

Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno told the press Friday about the fruits of his recent trip around Africa to seek support for Costa Rica in its vie for a non-permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council and build diplomatic relations in the region.

Spanish Writing Workshop
By writer and poet Delia McDonald, today, also Oct. 1-8, 6:30 p.m., Centro Cultural del Este, behind Guadalupe Cemetery . Info: 305-6074.

Mundoloco Shows
Featuring Moonlight Dub Experiment, 9:30 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro.

By Gillian Gillers
Tico Times Staff | ggillers@ticotimes.net

Kevin Casas stepped down from his posts as Second Vice-President and Planning Minister Saturday.

He has come under fire for a memo he wrote to President Oscar Arias recommending questionable and possibly illegal tactics in the government's campaign for the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA). The memo was leaked to the University of Costa Rica (UCR) weekly newspaper, which broke the story Sept. 6.

The document, co-written by National Liberation Party (PLN) legislator Fernando Sánchez, suggests that the government manipulate voters, blackmail mayors, and improperly use public resources to boost its CAFTA campaign (TT, Sept. 14).

The memo has fallen under a national and political spotlight. The anti-CAFTA Citizen Action Party (PAC) and the pro-CAFTA Libertarian Movement Party have insisted that Casas resign. The Alliance for Yes on CAFTA and the pro-CAFTA Liberation Party have distanced themselves from the memo's authors and rejected their ideas.

Casas decided last week to temporarily leave the Planning Ministry while its Internal Auditing Office investigates whether the state improperly used public money. He had planned to return after the investigation ended. The Supreme Elections Tribunal (TSE) is also looking into whether Casas violated the Electoral Code by becoming involved in party politics.

Arias said in a statement that he accepts Casas' resignation.

“I regret losing one of my best ministers,” Arias said. “In the government we have lost a capable, efficient and very hard-working person.

Those living in Costa Rica can expect an average 6% increase in their water bills thanks to a price hike approved Friday by the Public Services Regulatory Authority (ARESEP).

The National Water and Sewer Institute (AyA) had asked ARESEP for a 35% price hike this year, a 15% increase next year and a 10% increase for 2009, 2010 and 2011, according to a statement from ARESEP.

ARESEP denied the institute these requests, saying it has a hefty financial surplus from 2006 that it should put toward development and operational costs and that it underestimated its income and overestimated its expenses.

ARESEP instead granted an average 6% price increase and restructured AyA's tariff scale to “encourage the rational use of water, have the least affect as possible on low-income families and charge those who consume more water more,” the statement said.

For example, those who consume less than 40 cubic meters monthly will only see their bill increase 3.6%, while those who consume more than this amount will pay 8.5% more, according to the daily La Nación.

The same idea applies to companies. Those who consume more than 120 cubic meters per month will pay 6.5% more per month, while those who use less than this amount will only see their bills go up 3.6%.

A similar scale has been established for government institutions and “preferential” entities, including schools, prisons and churches.

These price adjustments were published Friday in the official government daily La Gaceta and will apply to water consumed as of Oct. 1, the statement said.

-Tico Times

Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno told the press Friday about the fruits of his recent trip around Africa to seek support for Costa Rica in its vie for a non-permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council and build diplomatic relations in the region.

Stagno established diplomatic relations with Botswana, the Congo and Uganda and also visited Burundi, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique, Rwanda and South Africa.

This visit was the first “high level” contact Costa Rica has made with many of these counties in years. It also gave the minister a chance to tout some of President Oscar Arias' pet programs such as the Costa Rica Consensus, a plan to reward developing countries that spend on social works rather than weapons, and “Peace with Nature,” which promotes international cooperation on environmental matters such as global warming and protection of biodiversity.

Stagno called the trip successful but said Costa Rica “still has a significant deficit, a significant debt to recuperate,” with Africa since “for a long time we've been settled into a basically trans-Atlantic and Americanized diplomacy.”

“It's time to break these mental borders and open ourselves to the world,” he said.

Costa Rica is vying with the Dominican Republic for a non-permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council from Jan. 1, 2008 to Dec. 31, 2009. The United Nations will vote on the matter Oct. 16.

Leading up to the vote, Stagno plans to “intensify his efforts with foreign ministers and U.N. representatives,” especially during his visit to the Assembly General next week for a session on climate change.

“Our advantage is that we are a country that has clear and transparent positions that the whole world is familiar with. That's not necessarily something other countries can say,” Stagno said.