Join us at 4:30 p.m. to ask CID-Gallup poll's senior analyst and regional expert, Carlos Denton, your questions about how Central Americans are leaning on key political and social issues. Also a columnist for the daily La República, Denton has tackled topics from Nicaraguan migration to Central American integration to property fraud.

David Bustamante in concert
Spain's 'Pop Idol,' 8 p.m., Tragaldabas Club, Plaza Rohrmoser.

Mundoloco concerts
Features Amarillo Cian y Magenta, at 9:30 p.m., Jazz Café Escazú. Reservations at 2253-8933, 2288-4740.

A tense atmosphere lingered over Nicaragua's North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) yesterday following a day of rioting over the fate of the municipal elections, which led to a dozen injuries, including two people critically wounded from gunshots Friday morning.

Anti-Sandinista leader Osorno “Comandante Blas” Coleman told The Nica Times that his group, YATAMA No Sandinista, was planning to march to the local police station yesterday evening to “liberate” 17 fellow indigenous protesters who were arrested over the weekend for rioting. Coleman said the police have not gone after Sandinista sympathizers who reportedly shot the two protestors, but rather the “victims” of the aggression.

“This is political persecution,” he charged, adding that the situation threatens to get violent again.

President Daniel Ortega had argued that the conditions for elections did not exist in the RAAN municipalities of Bilwi, Prinzapolka and Waspam due to the damage caused by last year's Hurricane Felix. The opposition, however, alleges that Ortega wanted to cancel the elections because he is afraid he'll lose those mayoral seats to the Liberals.

When three Liberal lawmakers trekked out to Bilwi Friday morning to investigate the situation, they were attacked by Sandinista supporters. The fighting escalated when anti-Sandinista indigenous groups came to the lawmakers' defense, and then spread downtown, where residents sacked the mayor's office and burned several government vehicles.

The Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) then ruled Friday evening to suspend the elections in the three indigenous municipalities until April, 2009 – a decision that has been decried as illegal by opposition indigenous leaders, Liberal lawmakers and several prominent legal analysts.

Read this Friday's Nica Times, an eight-page publication of The Tico Times, for more on this story.

Costa Rican lawmakers are divided over who makes a better investor in their country, the United States or the European Union, according to a recent questionnaire.

A study called “Costa Rica 2006-2010,” conducted by the University of Salamanca in Spain, asked members of the Legislative Assembly here questions to test the waters on issues of investment and trade preferences. It found legislators are split: while 39% went with U.S. businesses as preferred foreign investors, the same percentage favored Europeans.

Another 12% preferred Asian investors.

The poll found just over half, or 53%, of legislators support the free-trade agreement with the United States, or CAFTA, a treaty that Costa Ricans approved by referendum last October but has faced a slow passing through the assembly's bill-by-bill vote. One in three assembly members disapprove of CAFTA, according to the Spanish study.

In foreign affairs, 47% said their immediate region, Central America, should come first, while 23% said greater Latin America is a priority.

About eight out of 10 said they are satisfied or very satisfied with the state of Costa Rica's democratic system.

A team of Chinese engineers and architects is now in Costa Rica to work on a proposal for a $60 million national stadium, one of China's most generous gifts since the two countries forged diplomatic ties last year.

The 11 Chinese professionals, who arrived late last week and plan to stay until April 30, will meet with Costa Rican authorities, visit notable architectural works and study the site of the current national stadium in La Sabana, a park on the western edge of San José.

The old structure will be largely razed to make way for the new stadium, which will hold 45,000 people and feature a soccer field, a track, greater office space and parking and a court for food and souvenirs.

The team – seven engineers, two architects, a professor and a translator – will submit a report to Chinese Ambassador Wang Xiaoyuan with recommendations for building plans.

China's government will then choose a Chinese firm to build the stadium, expected to open in 2010.

It will dwarf Costa Rica's largest existing arena, the Ricardo Saprissa Stadium in Tibás, north of San José, which holds 21,700 people. The current National Stadium seats 18,000.