Blues show with Mudcat Dudeck
Blues, with Eskil Wetterqvist on drums, Eliot Greenspan on mandolin, 8 p.m., Tex Mex, Santa Ana, 50 m north of the church, 282-6342.

Poetry reading
“La Balsa de la Medusa” by Luis Antonio Bedoya, Gustavo Solórzano Alfaro and Mauricio Vargas Ortega, 7:30 p.m., Galería D'Adriano, 600 m east, 100 m south of Santa Teresita Church, Barrio Escalante.

Alexandre Saada Jazz Quartet in concert
Jazz Café, San Pedro, 10 p.m.

Lawmakers approved in initial debate the seventh of 12 bills required, in some form, to implement the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA). The bill, which cracks down on intellectual property violations, must still pass a second vote to become law.

Foreign Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz will meet with Deputy U.S. Trade Representative John Veroneau next week to seek an extension on a March 1 deadline for entering the treaty.

Since Fidel Castro first fell ill, his day-to-day leadership role has been replaced not only in Cuba, but also in grander geopolitical terms as the historic figurehead of the Latin American revolution. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, in many ways, has moved himself into the top spot on the totem pole and is now the de facto leader and reference point, even in Nicaragua, where President Daniel Ortega seems to defer to Venezuela's leadership more so than Castro's.

However, though weighing in later than leaders of other nations such as Venezuela and Costa Rica, Ortega yesterday issued a statement paying high praise for the aging, ailing revolutionary.

“Fidel will continue being the indisputable leader and moral authority of the Cuban people,” Ortega said describing what he called a man of “universal transcendence,” according to newswire ACAN-EFE.

“Ideas don't disappear when a person dies,” he said, but added that “furthermore, I don't think Fidel's going to die.”

Yet despite waxing almost spiritual about the resignation of the long-time communist icon, Ortega's praise of late has begun to falter, say observers, and has drifted somewhat southward, to Venezuela.

What's more, the statement at the San Salvador press conference clearly echoed a speech earlier by Hugo Chávez.

Former Sandinista Vice President Sergio Ramírez noted in a recent interview with The Nica Times that Castro and Cuba seem to now play second fiddle to Chávez and Venezuela.

Though Ortega symbolically “gifted” his 2006 electoral victory to Castro and promised the Cuban leader that the revolution will continue, political commentators have rumored that the relationship between the two was strained recently over Ortega's controversial alliance with the Catholic Church, which has led to a blanket ban on therapeutic abortion in Nicaragua.

In the past year, Ortega has referred to Castro mostly in historical terms – almost in the past tense – calling him a brother and the father of the revolution. Castro is often a point of reflection on the past, and the role he played in helping the Sandinistas in the 1970s-'80s.

Analysts consulted by The Nica Times this week don't seem to think Castro's announcement would have much of an impact on the Sandinista government project or the greater revolutionary movement in Latin America.

Emilio Alvarez, former minister of foreign relations, said that Castro's decision has more to do with Cuba's internal institutional situation than it does with the communist island's relations with other countries. Alvarez says that even though brother Raúl Castro appears to be the more “flexible” of the two, the dictatorship is too entrenched to open up much, and Cuba's relations with other countries won't likely change.

“Change won't come to Cuba until both of the Castro brothers disappear,” Alvarez told The Nica Times.

Edmundo Jarquín, former presidential candidate and leader of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), said Castro's announcement only makes official something that has been known for a long time. The historic leader stepping down from his post, he said, most likely won't take the wind out of Ortega's sails in Nicaragua.

“Daniel Ortega is inventing a revolution in Nicaragua where there isn't one,” Jarquín said, adding that this new phase of “Sandinista revolution” has more to do with Ortega and Chávez than it does Castro.

Alvarez, meanwhile, claims that Chávez hasn't exactly been able to fill Castro's shoes.

“Chávez admires and wants to copy Castro, but he hasn't had the same success as Castro, who has a complete dictatorship, compared to Chávez, who is faced with a strong opposition.”

For Tico Times' recent coverage on Costa Rica's reaction to Castro's resignation, click here: http://www.ticotimes.net/dailyarchive/2008_02/0220081.htm

Costa Rica's health authorities this year are setting out on a bold plan: End starvation among the country's youngest, most vulnerable inhabitants by 2012.

Considering this country's health care system, “we shouldn't be registering deaths because of hunger or severe malnutrition,” Rosa Novygrodt, director of the nutrition office at the Public Health Ministry, said at a press conference yesterday.

“Our plan is zero deaths from hunger by 2012,” she said.

National statistics indicate that starvation in Costa Rica has been declining in recent years. In 2004, nine children died from hunger. In 2005, the number was five and in 2006, it dropped to three.

However, malnutrition is on the increase. Sixty-five children in Costa Rica suffered from malnutrition in 2005, rising to 77 in 2006. These totals only reflect the numbers of children who were cared for by doctors.

The ministry is most concerned about children age 5 and under, it said.

Its plan, still awaiting a budget, is intended to promote breastfeeding and to build new, and improve existing, medical facilities for the poorest families.