Jazz Cafés
In San Pedro: jazz jam session, ¢2,000 ($4) In Escazú: “Trip rock” band Parque en el Espacio, ¢3,000 ($6). http://jazzcafecostarica.com/

Exhibit: Frances Valesco and Anita Wetzel
Mixed media, 7 p.m., runs through April 29, National Gallery, Children's Museum.

Newcomers Club meeting
Talk about “Immigration and Laws that Apply to Us,” by ARCR representative Ryan Piercy, 10 a.m., Pavilion at Los Arcos, Cariari, Heredia, 2249-2673, casafloradora1@yahoo.com.

Marco Arias and Karen Mizrahi in concert
Jazz, rock, pop, 8 p.m., Latino Rock Café, Barrio La California, across from Bomba La Primavera, 8880-8657.

Costa Rica's minister of the presidency, Rodrigo Arias, said departed Public Security Minister Fernando Berrocal made “statements without foundation” about local political ties to Colombian guerrillas, requiring his removal.

Berrocal left his post Sunday on the eve of his scheduled appearance before the Legislative Assembly to explain comments that a computer seized from Colombian guerrillas in a March 1 attack on their positions inside Ecuador contained information linking the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to “political sectors” here.

“Neither a list or names of Costa Rican politicians linked to drug trafficking exists,” said Arias at a press conference yesterday.

Vice President Laura Chinchilla was named interim-public security minister.

Arias – brother of President Oscar Arias – stopped short of saying Berrocal was asked to resign, but did say he made statements at odds with the government.

“There were some statements by don Fernando that the government did not share," said Arias. “Statements were made that were not completely accurate.”

Arias said a commission composed of Chinchilla, Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno and Chief Prosecutor Francisco Dall'Anese will travel to Colombia to talk with government officials about what information they have about FARC ties in Costa Rica.

Separately, the Legislative Assembly formed a committee yesterday to investigate the country's links to the Colombian rebel group.

After his departure, Berrocal wrote a letter to the assembly's president, Francisco Antonio Pachecho, requesting to appear before the committee in April or early May “to make the speech that, for reasons the country knows, I could not make today.”

The issue of FARC ties arose after information from the computer seized in Colombia's cross-border raid in Ecuador allegedly led police to $480,000 located in a safe at the home of a couple in Heredia, north of San José.

The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) lamented a “troubling decline” in Latin American press freedoms at its mid-year meeting last week in Caracas, Venezuela.

Five Latin American journalists were killed during the past six months: three in Mexico, one in Argentina and another in Honduras. More than 30 were attacked in Peru, and 32 threatened in Colombia. The transfer of power in Cuba from Fidel Castro to his brother Raúl did not improve the status of the 25 journalists still in prison or the adverse working conditions of independent journalists, according to an IAPA statement.

The press association highlighted judicial rulings and court cases against journalists in the region.

The association condemned Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's treatment of the media. In Venezuela, where the March 28-30 meeting was held, “President Hugo Chávez and several of his ministers continued their hostile attitude toward independent newspapers and journalists,” the association said. After Radio Caracas Televisión was shut down last year, threats against Globovisión have been stepped up recently.

Some improvements have been made, however, with Nicaragua among several countries to introduce new laws to allow public access to official information.

But IAPA still listed Nicaragua among countries whose press freedoms have suffered, along with Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela, Honduras, Ecuador, Mexico, Brazil, Guayana, Dominican Republic, Bolivia and Argentina. News media in these nations, the association asserts, have faced threats ranging from verbal attacks, censorship and impunity in crimes against journalists to government discrimination against newspapers' editorial policies by punishing or rewarding them with government advertising.

Costa Rican secondary school teachers went on strike yesterday in education's latest push for better work conditions and pay.

It was not clear how many teachers participated in the strike before this article was posted, although the Education Ministry told reporters participation was low.

The High-School Teachers' Association (APSE) claims the government left its workers out of a wage hike the administration gave to its own functionaries.

“The problems are with the ministry (of education) and they're not giving us a viable solution,” said Beatriz Ferreto on Saturday, calling for teachers to begin taking action yesterday, according to the news agency ACAN-EFE.

Some students protested the teacher-government schism. Jazmín Núñez and Nick Espinoza, ninth-graders at Liceu Nuevo de Purral school, in downtown San José, where teachers were meeting about their next action. The students carried a sign that read, “We want a school, not a battle field!”