Costa Rican soccer star Paulo César Wanchope announced Friday that he's giving up the game because of problems with his knees.

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

President Oscar Arias told The Tico Times recently that he agrees with the idea of sending police officers to train at a U.S. military school that has come under fire in recent years for its ties to human rights violations.

“If they are going to get training on how to handle drugs, I would be OK with it,” Arias said after the presentation of the State of the Nation report Thursday night.

Public Security Minister Fernando Berrocal recently visited the school, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in the U.S. state of Georgia, and says he plans to recommend to the President that some Costa Rican police officers train there for at least two years. They would take classes in leadership, citizen security and fighting drug trafficking.

Arias said in May after meeting with U.S. peace activists that he would not send any more officers to the school, which is a U.S. Defense Department institution that trains military and law enforcement officers from Latin America, Canada and the United States. Isabel MacDonald, who heads the Friends' Peace Center in downtown San José, was not pleased that Arias might change his mind.

“We're going to make a big fuss, of course,” said MacDonald, who was at the first meeting with Arias and is trying to arrange another one.

In its former incarnation as the School of the Americas, the institute graduated some of Latin America's worst human rights violators. In the 1980s, it used manuals that advocated torture to quell insurgencies in the region.

WHINSEC spokesman Lee Rials said the school has since changed; it now has a human rights curriculum and an independent board of visitors.

The School of the Americas Watch, which lobbies for the WHINSEC's closure, held its annual protest this weekend outside the grounds of Fort Benning, Georgia, where the school is located.

Two fierce and tireless mountain bikers rode strong for four days of the Ruta de los Conquistadores race to capture the winning trophies. Costa Rica's Federico “Lico” Ramírez won the Men's division, while Susan Haywood, from the United States, won the Women's, according to a statement posted on the race's Web site.

Each won three stages of this four-day race that started in the central Pacific town of Jacó and crossed the country to end in the Caribbean town of Playa Bonita, Limón.

This marked the fourth win of the Ruta de los Conquistadores for Ramírez, while Haywood took the trophy during her first time competing in this event.

She finished the race in 22 hours, 50 minutes and six seconds, with fellow U.S. rider Louise Kobin coming in second and Tica Alejandra Carvajal coming in third.

Ramírez's time was 17 hours, 40 minutes and 21 seconds, with Costa Rican Paolo Montoya finishing right behind him and France's Thomas Dietsch coming in third.

One of the toughest spots in the race was the final push to Limón, when riders were hit with thick humidity and rain. Race organizers were forced to change the course to avoid crossing the unstable bridge over the Matina River and adding a few more kilometers of paved highway instead.

Another obstacle came along the railroad tracks bikers had to cross 10 kilometers before the finish, where rain had turned the land surrounding them into a waist-deep swamp, the statement said.

Next year's Ruta de los Conquistadores is scheduled for Nov. 12-15, 2008.

-Tico Times

Costa Rican soccer star Paulo César Wanchope announced Friday that he's giving up the game because of problems with his knees.

The famous forward, who has most recently played for the U.S. Chicago Fire team, held a press conference in Costa Rica to make the announcement, assuring that he'll stay “tied to soccer” in some way.

“It's been a difficult decision, but I have to make it,” Wanchope said. “I've always been known to give 100% so that things go well … and sadly these last games haven't been to my satisfaction, so that's why I decided to retire from soccer.”

Wanchope received harsh criticism for his performance with the Chicago Fire, especially after the team lost in a playoff game.

“I'm going out calmly because I took advantage of every opportunity I was given to play soccer. I didn't waste time, which is the most important thing when one is going to retire, to be able to look back and say that things went well, that I was a good professional … that gives me the peace to be able to say goodbye to soccer,” Wanchope told the press.

Wanchope began his soccer career in 1994 with the team of Heredia, north of San José. In 1997 he was hired to play for Derby County, England, and stayed in that country to play for West Ham and Manchester City.

This athlete and heartthrob also took to the field in Spain, Qatar, Japan and Argentina and competed in the World Cup in Korea and Japan in 2002 and in Germany in 2006.