Breakin' It Down: Members of the National Theater Company group “eRre and Jota” yesterday showed off their moves for the press. They're one of the Costa Rican dance groups headed to Spain for the Cádiz Latin American-Iberian Latin American Theater Festival, which kicks off next week.

A range of Latin American documentary films not available at commercial theaters is coming to Costa Rica today for the third Latin American Film Festival.

Bar Opening
Opening of Latino Rock Café, with live music, exotic-bistro food, 6 p.m., opposite La Primavera Gas Station. Info: 222-4719. 

Festival in Turrialba
5-7 p.m., cimarronas, mascarades, folkloric dances; tomorrow, 9 a.m.-7 p.m., rollerblading, biking, street bike demonstrations, break dancing, trova music, rock, folklore, choir presentation and dances; Sunday, 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m., capoeira demonstration, play for children, hip-hop, rock concert, poetry, folklore, trova, ballet, Turrialba park: Info: 221-2022.

Culture Festival
Including craft exhibits and sales, food, music and more, 2-9 p.m.; Sunday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m., Mercedes Sur Church, Mercedes Sur, Heredia.

Concert by Angelicus Coral Choir
Performing “Come, Ye Sons of Art,” by Henry Purcell, and other songs such as “Killing Me Softly,” “Tears in Heaven,” and others, 7 p.m., Church of Our Lady of Fátima, Heredia.

Little Theater Group Performs in Jacó
Performing “ 84 Charing Cross Road,” Club Del Mar, 7 p.m., $13 includes pre-show bocas at 6 p.m.

“El Cumpleaños de la Infanta”
Based on the Oscar Wilde story, Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m., 5 p.m., National Theater, San José. Info: 221-5341.

Mural Contest
Saturday and Sunday, Plaza Real Cariari, Heredia. Info: 243-7864, avillalobos@icafe.go.cr.

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

At least two people are dead and 10 are missing in the town of Atenas, northwest of San José, after a landslide yesterday buried six houses.

In Fátima de Atenas, Red Cross workers are working with the National Emergency Commission (CNE) and the Firefighters' Corps to clear the rubble and search for those trapped underneath it.

The National Emergency Commission (CNE) yesterday declared a red alert for the central Pacific areas of Parrita, Garabito and Puntarenas and the Central Valley coffee town of Atenas. Floods washed over more than 800 houses in these areas and along the Pacific coast, according to CNE spokesman Reinaldo Carballo. At least 400 people in the central Pacific and Atenas are in temporary shelters.

The commission has placed the rest of the country under a yellow alert, except the Caribbean coast, which is under a green alert. Residents should remain alert of water levels and have an evacuation plan in the event of flooding.

This week's steady rains and unusually rainy mornings were the result of a low-pressure system over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula blowing precipitation over Costa Rica. The system was expected to begin to diminish yesterday, but in its place a tropical storm is brewing over Panama that will likely bring more heavy rain to Costa Rica's Pacific coast this weekend, Carballo said.

Two of the roads blocked earlier this week by landslides are now clear. The road running south from San José to the Southern Zone canton of Pérez Zeledón and the road connecting the mountain town of Tarbaca, south of San José, with Río Conejo have been cleared and are open to traffic. However, the Vuelta de Jorco road, also south of San José, remains blocked, according to Ministry of Public Works and Transport spokesman Juan Carlos González.

President Oscar Arias yesterday appointed University of Costa Rica (UCR) professor Roberto Gallardo as his new planning minister, according to a statement from Casa Presidencial.

Gallardo replaces Kevin Casas, the former Planning Minister and Vice-President who last month stepped down after a scandalous memo he co-authored suggesting that the government use intimidation tactics in its campaign for the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) (TT, Sept. 28).

Gallardo will be sworn into his new post Oct. 17 at the President's weekly Cabinet meeting.

“I wanted to announce to all Costa Ricans that I feel very honored that an intellectual such as Roberto Gallardo has accepted the job of future planning minister,” Arias said, remarking on Gallardo's merit as a political mind at UCR.

Gallardo will pick up some of the projects Casas was working on, including Digital Government, a plan to upgrade technology in government offices, and the National Development Plan.

-Tico Times

A range of Latin American documentary films not available at commercial theaters is coming to Costa Rica today for the third Latin American Film Festival.

The event, which runs through Oct. 26, seeks to create a space to share the work of talented alternative filmmakers, explained Laura Molina, of Central de Cine de Costa Rica, who is organizing the festival.

The festival, to be held at Cine Variedades in San José, will feature films from Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Panama, Paraguay, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Mexico, Guatemala and Costa Rica.

Molina said the previous two festivals have drawn crowds and that she hopes for the same success this year.

Among films scheduled to be screened are “El Benny” (Cuba), about the musician Benny Moré; the Colombian film “Crónica de una muerte anunciada,” an adaptation of the book by the same name by Gabriel García Márquez; as well as “Padre Nuestro,” from Chile; “Punto y Raya,” from Venezuela; “Madeinusa,” from Peru; and “Al otro lado,” from Mexico.