Fighting for Rights: The Casa de Derechos, a center offering legal help and other services to immigrants and Costa Ricans, was inaugurated in the southern suburb of Desamparados Friday.

Three alleged thieves didn't get far after robbing a U.S. couple Saturday at the central Pacific beach of Playa Hermosa when Tourism Police stopped them and reclaimed more than $10,000 belonging to the couple, according to a statement from the Public Security Ministry.

Mundoloco Concerts
With Park in the Space, rock, 9:30 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro.

LTG Open House
Presenting “An Evening with Mark Twain,” by Steve Friedman, 7-9 p.m., Café de Artistas, 100 m south of Plaza Rolex, San Rafael, Escazú. Info: 355-1623, www.littletheatregroup.org.

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

Navigating Costa Rican bureaucracy to access the services one needs can be a confusing process for immigrants and Ticos alike, and the new Casa de Derechos, inaugurated Friday in the southern suburb of Desamparados, seeks to make it easier by pooling resources under one roof.

Legal advice, counseling, alternative conflict resolution, information about sexual health and help filling out government paperwork are among services available at the center, which was designed with immigrants and refugees in mind but is available to anyone.

Strategically located in Desamparados, the second most heavily populated canton, the center is a joint effort of the Desamparados Municipality, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Association of International Consultants and Advisors (ACAI) and the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF).

“This is a place where people can come to learn their rights and how to get access to them,” said ACNUR spokesman Giovanni Monje, explaining that the center is the first of its kind in Costa Rica and is modeled after similar centers in Quito, Ecuador, and Bogotá, Colombia.

Ramón Eduardo Monsalve, a refugee from Colombia who's lived in Costa Rica for four years, sold sweet crackers with dulce de leche in front of the new center Friday as part of a fair at which refugee small business owners sold some of their products.

He said he could have used a center like Casa de Derechos when he first arrived to Costa Rica.

“I almost left because I had such a hard time,” he said. “Now thank God I've gotten ahead.”

Casa de Derechos is located 100 meters west and 50 meters south of the Desamparados Municipality in front of the Funeraria del Recuerdo Park. It's open from Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; for more information, call 219-4976 or 250-9105.

The collection of pre-Columbian art at the National Museum in San José grew Friday by 14 pieces, thanks to a donation by a woman in the United States.

U.S. citizen Mary Kay Becker received the small ceramic vases as a gift and contacted the Costa Rican Embassy in Washington D.C. to return them here, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

Archaeologists believe the pieces date back to the period from A.D. 300 to A.D. 800 and come from the northwestern Guanacaste province.

They were brought here by the embassy and handed over to the museum Friday during a ceremony at the Foreign Ministry.

“For us, it's very satisfying that people who have obtained pre-Columbian pieces decide at some point to return them to the country, and we applaud the cooperation the Costa Rican Embassy in Washington D.C. has offered in the matter,” said National Museum Director Francisco Corrales.

The pieces will help archaeologists better understand groups that lived during this period in Guanacaste, he said.

The pieces belong to the Department of Patrimonial Protection and will be used in exhibits and educational activities, the statement said.

-Tico Times

Three alleged thieves didn't get far after robbing a U.S. couple Saturday at the central Pacific beach of Playa Hermosa when Tourism Police stopped them and reclaimed more than $10,000 belonging to the couple, according to a statement from the Public Security Ministry.

The U.S. pair, identified as Melissa Grace and Phillip Hemion, were sitting on the beach when a man asked them to borrow a match. When they said they didn't have any, he disappeared. A few minutes later, the couple was in the water when they saw the man, along with two others, take their belongings from the beach and drive away in their Geo Tracker.

The victims notified the Tourism Police, who stopped and arrested the three alleged thieves – two Colombians and one Costa Rican – in the neighboring town of Jacó.

Inside the vehicle was $10,300 cash belonging to Grace, the statement said.