The Costa Rican government yesterday congratulated the people of Venezuela for completing the “democratic exercise of a referendum,” a vote which resulted in an unprecedented, albeit narrow, defeat for Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

Hanukkah Menorah Lighting
Today through Thursday, 6 p.m.; Friday, 4:15 p.m.; Saturday, 6:30 p.m.; Sunday, family program at 4:30 p.m., lighting at 5:30 p.m.; Dec. 10-11, 6 p.m.; La Sabana Park, behind León Cortés statue, San José. Info: 296-6565.

Christmas Book Fair
Today through Sunday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m., Bulevar de la Unión Europea, Ave. 4, Calle 5/9.

Newcomers Club Meeting
“Camera Tips for the Holidays” with photographer Jane Moore, 9:30 a.m., Aurola Holiday Inn, San José, for tickets contact Chris Furman. Info: 239-5708.

By Alex Leff
Tico Times Staff | aleff@ticotimes.net

“I was watching TV at my friends house when suddenly there was a heavy tremor,” said Paola Vega, 16, describing the earthquake yesterday afternoon that was registered 3.1 on the Richter scale by the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI), based at National University. The National Seismological Network, based at the University of Costa Rica, measured it at 3.9.

Many residents in and around San José province felt the quake, which hit the capital at 2:05 p.m. Vega was in Alajuela, northwest of San José, at the time. She said it lasted about a minute. “My friend was scared, but I wasn't,” she said.

According to National University's seismology experts, the earthquake started 14 kilometers below the ground, in the canton of Dota, southeast of San José.

No one was hurt, the daily La Nación reported.

Some residents hardly felt a thing. Katherin Morales, 19, noticed the quake “more or less,” she said, while tending to customers at the Super Tico shop, in court district of eastern San José. She was chatting with friends when the store shook a bit. “Nothing major, just a little shake,” she said.

Eduardo Gutiérrez, 28, was sitting at his stall nearby in the Artisan Market at the Plaza de la Democracia, making earrings, when he felt “a weird vibration.”

“The street always shakes a little, because of traffic. But this was different,” Gutiérrez said, gesturing with his hand up and down.

But others missed the wave completely, such as Antonia Gaede, 21, who seemed shocked by the news. “I was meeting friends at the Teatro Nacional. We didn't feel anything.”

A confiscation of cocaine aboard a small fishing boat named Yorleny II is turning out to be one of the biggest at-sea drug busts this year as police continue to find hidden drugs.

U.S. and Costa Rican Coast Guard authorities intercepted the boat Wednesday night 250 nautical miles off the coast of the northwestern Guanacaste province near the Nicaraguan border. The seven-member crew was transferring packets of the drugs to a Mexican boat. Upon seeing authorities approach, they began throwing their cargo overboard.

Drug Control Police first estimated there to be about 800 kilograms of cocaine aboard, but they have since found a total of 4.5 metric tons of the drug hidden aboard the boat, on the ocean floor and on the Mexican boat, the Jurel IV.

The seizure is the biggest made by a joint effort between U.S. and Costa Rican Coast Guard authorities so far this year, according to a statement from the Public Security Ministry.

Police arrested six Costa Ricans aboard the ship identified by the last names Espinoza, 27; Gómez, 36; Mora, 27; González, 38; Espinoza, 36; and Cambronero, 47; as well as a Nicaraguan identified as Novoa, 45.

They face drug trafficking charges before the Prosecutor's Office of the Pacific port of Puntarenas, and a court yesterday sentenced them to three months preventive prison.

Police assume the drugs were being carried from the Colombian port of Buenaventura, suggesting a link between Colombian, Mexican and Costa Rican drug-trafficking operations.

-Tico Times

The Costa Rican government yesterday congratulated the people of Venezuela for completing the “democratic exercise of a referendum,” a vote which resulted in an unprecedented, albeit narrow, defeat for Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

“Costa Rica experienced something similar last month,” said a statement from the Foreign Ministry, pointing to the country's referendum on the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).

Costa Rica's Oct. 7 vote, however, ended in a victory for the nation's President, Oscar Arias, who has made CAFTA a centerpiece in his administration's agenda.

In the hopes of pushing through reforms of Venezuela's constitution, Chávez has been less fortunate.

In one of the first majority thumbs-down in the leftwing president's rule, 50.7% of participants rejected Chávez's proposed reforms, which called for a lift on presidential term limits and other changes viewed as pushing forward a 21 st century socialist revolution.

The 49.2% in favor was not enough to buoy Chávez's plan; 44% of voters abstained.

Among the proposals rejected were plans to shorten the working day and lower the voting age from 18 to 16. However, Chávez's bid for indefinite presidency stirred the most controversy, at home and abroad.

Opposition in Venezuelan society to reforms, and even growing dissent from within the president's own political camp, could be what tipped over the vote, commentators said.

“We believe strongly, those who voted against this constitution, that it would have excluded a large section of this country,” student leader Francisco Hernández told the BBC. “The victory was only possible today because Chavistas (Chávez supporters) voted against these reforms.”

However, despite losing at the polls, Chávez appeared calm and collected in a televised speech to announce the outcome of the referendum.

“This is not a defeat,” Chávez said, and pledged to “continue working toward socialism within the framework of our (current) constitution.”