FIA by night: Orquesta del Río Infinito plays  Saturday at the Lake Stage at San José's La Sabana Park in one of the weekend's highlights at Costa Rica's International Arts Festival (FIA). There are events through Sunday in the park and San José theaters, plus venues in Alajuela, northwest of the capital, and the central Pacific town of Puntarenas. Get a complete FIA listing in the latest The Tico Times.

Compagnie Retouramont
Gravity-defying French team set to swoop down from the façade of the Gran Hotel opposite the National Theater, San José , 6 p.m., part of the International Arts Festival program. Check The Tico Times for a complete listing.

Free Almodóvar film
“Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón ” (Spain, 1980, 82 min.), director, Pedro Almodóvar, 6 p.m., Contemporary Art and Design Museum, CENAC.

Speakers Forum: Loose Change
Including documentary: "Loose Change-Final Cut," documentary about 9/11, 6:45-8:45 p.m., Big Mike's Place, Escazú, 2289-6333, 8821-4708.

Costa Rican environmental authorities have closed three hotels in a Caribbean wildlife preserve in this Central American country for causing environmental damage, officials said.

During a surveillance and inspection operation, local authorities decided to close a recently built hotel Thursday, since it was constructed on the wetlands of Playa Negra, 185 kilometers (115 miles) southeast of San José, and also closed the extensions of two other already existing hotels.

Officials at the Environment and Energy Ministry told Costa Rican press Friday that among the irregularities detected in the first case was the construction of a three-kilometer (two-mile) road across a land-sea zone that, according to the law, must remain in its natural state.

Construction works to enlarge another of the hotels were stopped when it was found that a large quantity of trees had been cut down for use in the building project.

Hotel Almendros y Corales (Almond Trees and Corals), with four “leaves” of Costa Rica's five-leaf sustainable tourism certification, has been implicated.

“We're going before the environmental tribunal to find a solution. The complete project measures 2,400 square meters (25,800 square feet) and we have worked 20 years for the conservation of the preserve. If we've done anything wrong, I take full responsibility and will offer a corrective plan,” Aurora Game, spokeswoman for Almendros y Corales told the daily La República.

José Lino Chaves, president of the Environmental Administrative Tribunal – an agency of the Environment and Energy Ministry – warned of the impact that home and hotel construction is having on the preserve, located in the southern Caribbean region of the country, and said that the surveillance will continue.

-ACAN-EFE

By Nick Wilkinson
Tico Times Staff | nwilkinson@ticotimes.net

Isla del Coco, a virtually uninhabited island 584 km (365 miles) west of Costa Rica's Pacific port of Puntarenas, is currently ranked fifth on a list of the world's natural wonders, coming in right behind the Ganges River in India and the Amazon River in South America.

The list is compiled daily by a Swiss foundation called New7Wonders after the results of ongoing voting to create a new category of seven natural – as opposed to man-made – wonders of the world.

Isla del Coco is not the nation's only place on the list. Arenal Volcano ranks 122.

People can vote online for their favorite wonder but it doesn't appear the Web site (http://www.new7wonders.com) has any control over people stuffing the ballot box – voting more than once. All that is required to vote is an e-mail address and a voter has to rank seven different “wonders” in the order of their preference.

Voting started in January and ends on Dec. 31. After this year's results, a panel of “experts” will evaluate and create a list of 21 finalists that will be voted on again during 2009. The foundation says they will announce the winners in 2010.

Susana Pérez, a spokeswoman for MarViva, Costa Rica's equivalent of Greenpeace, is encouraging people to vote so the country gains international recognition for its little slice of paradise. She said she hopes a win would also help the island gain more environmental protection and not encourage development.

Bernard Weber, a Swiss-Canadian, created the New7Wonders foundation in 2001, according to its Web site.

“(The foundation) is committed to investing 50% of excess revenue in global good causes related to monument documentation and preservation,” a press release states.

The foundation does not disclose the source of its revenue and reports having two other arms – the NewOpenWorld Foundation, which runs the voting campaigns, and the private for-profit NewOpenWorld corporation, which is the commercial licensing arm.

According to Weber, the original Seven Wonders of the World – Lighthouse of Alexandria, Temple of Artemis, Statue of Zeus, Colossus of Rhodes, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and Pyramids of Egypt – were compiled by Philon of Byzantium in 200 B.C.

“Philon's selection of wonders was essentially a travel guide for fellow Athenians and its stunning sites were all located around the Mediterranean basin, the then-known world,” a press release states.

By Blake Schmidt
Nica Times Staff | bschmidt@ticotimes.net

Nicaragua's Sandinista government is set to acquire 16% of the shares of Spanish utility Union Fenosa and representation on the energy giant's board of directors, according to an agreement reached over the weekend.

The agreement, which now must be approved in National Assembly, dominated by the opposition, is being called a victory for the Sandinista government in its ongoing power struggle with Union Fenosa.

“The Nicaraguan people, by means of the state, ought to have a right to a percentage of the shares of Union Fenosa. Because we don't have a single share in that business while Union Fenosa owes the Nicaraguan state $70 million,” Ortega said at a speech in Managua three days before the Spanish company agreed to sell the 16%.

While Union Fenosa owes Nicaragua $70 million, the government owes Union Fenosa up to $55 million in subsidies and service payments, putting the company balance with the state at around $15 million – the value put on the shares that Fenosa agreed to sell to Nicaragua.

For Ortega, who champions a mixed economy, the agreement will help to reverse “neo-liberal” policies put in to place since the Sandinistas were voted out of power in 1990. Since then, many state-run services, such as energy, education and telecommunications, have been privatized – a move strongly criticized by Ortega.

Energy and Mines Minister Emilio Rappaccioli told the official government radio station Radio Ya yesterday that the forthcoming law against electricity fraud must be passed in the National Assembly in order for the Union Fenosa agreement to take effect. He said the Sandinista government plans to use its sway on the company's board of directors to guarantee power to 60,000 Nicaraguans who don't receive electricity.