Pink Floyd tribute
Federico Miranda and Kurt Dyer play for Floyd, Jazz Café Escazú, 10 p.m. http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Blues Devils
Big Mo & the Blues Devils play at Jazz Café, San Pedro, 10 p.m. http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Book fair
Today through Friday, General Studies School, UNA, Heredia.

'The Coyote and the Firefly' book presentation
With games, music, 2 p.m., José Figueres Ferrer Cultural Center.

'11 y 12'
Performed by Mexican actor Roberto Gómez Bolaños, known as Chespirito, today and tomorrow, 8 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 p.m.; Saturday, 8 p.m., Sunday, 7:30 p.m., Melico Salazar Theater.

Despite a sputtering U.S. economy and concerns over runaway development in the region, Costa Rica's northwestern Guanacaste province continues to put up record tourism numbers, according to statistics released yesterday.

Tourist arrivals at the Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia, Guanacaste's principal tourism hub, rose 13% in the first three months of the year compared to the same period last year, according to a marketing study commissioned by the Guanacaste Chamber of Tourism (CATURGUA).

Citing numbers from the Civil Aviation Authority, CATURGUA reported 156,028 tourists came through the airport from January through March, considered the peak of the year's tourism high season. Tourism numbers begin to drop off after March as the country enters its rainy season, and commonly don't spike again until December.

Tourism Minister Carlos Ricardo Benavides, speaking at a press conference yesterday held to announce the new figures, highlighted the good reputation Costa Rica appears to be enjoying among the visitors to Guanacaste.

“That 96% say that they are going to recommend us seems to me a fantastic product, considering that the majority of people that arrive in this country do because it was recommended by a friend or family member,” Benavides said. “It's not all destinations in the world where people tend to come, or return again, with the frequency that you see in Costa Rica.”

According to the CATURGUA study, carried out by the marketing firm C&D Consultores, 48% of the tourists interviewed had already been to Costa Rica on a prior trip, up from 36% during the 2007 high season and 28% during the 2006 peak.

The research found that nearly three out of four (74%) visitors came from the United States and the rest (26%) came from Canada.

C&D Consultores interviewed 300 passengers at the Daniel Oduber airport, approaching passengers seated in seats pre-selected by the firm.

Costa Rica exported goods worth $2.4 billion in the first quarter of this year, compared to $2.2 billion during the same period last year.

But that 7.6% growth in exports did not bless all sectors of the economy.

Among the winners, according to the Foreign Trade Ministry (COMEX), was the agriculture sector, which grew 10%, thanks to good performances from the pineapple, banana and coffee harvests. Exports of cantaloupe, however, suffered a 15% blow due to bad weather conditions.

Another strong showing was posted in the food industry, whose sales abroad increased 30%, thanks to palm oil, prepared foods, juices and fruit spreads.

Industrial exports grew 6.3%, due to improved sales of goods such as computer parts and medical implants, COMEX said.

Exports of textiles, however, fell 24%. The decrease, according to the ministry, was caused by the closure of several businesses that have lost customers in the delay surrounding the implementation of the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), which voters approved in a referendum last October.

The United States continued to be the principal destination for Costa Rican exports, despite a 4.6% drop in exports to that country. Other big trading partners were Costa Rica's Central American neighbors, China and the European Union.

Last year, exports totaled $9.34 billion, 14% more than the $8.2 billion in 2006.

Trade authorities have set a goal of $18 billion in annual exports by 2010. However, that goal seems to be getting harder to achieve, according to various official sources.

Former Colombian legislator Mario Uribe asked Costa Rica for political asylum after a prosecutor ordered his arrest for alleged ties to paramilitary groups – but he was denied yesterday afternoon.

Uribe, cousin and adviser to President Alvaro Uribe, went to the Costa Rican Embassy in Bogotá yesterday on the grounds that he lacks proper procedural guarantees in Colombia, according to the nation's daily El Tiempo. The ex-lawmaker has repeatedly denied ties to paramilitary death squads.

The embassy refused his request. “The (Costa Rican) Foreign Ministry, with knowledge of the facts in the case made known, in particular, by the Prosecutor's Office of Colombia, in compliance with rules and regulations of the right to asylum … considers this request inadmissible,” a ministry press release said yesterday.

The chief prosecutor said he issued the arrest warrant because of at least two meetings Mario Uribe held with then paramilitary chiefs from 1998-2002, according to The Associated Press.

The chiefs said Mario Uribe had asked them to back his Senate campaign and help him acquire cheap farmland, Reuters reported.

More than 30 Colombian lawmakers are under investigation for alleged links to paramilitary groups.

Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental organization, said in a press release the groups Mario Uribe is allegedly linked to are “drug-running paramilitary death squads that are responsible for some of the most horrific atrocities in Colombian history.”

The NGO urged Costa Rica to turn Mario Uribe over. “It's utterly absurd for Mario Uribe, one of Colombia's most powerful politicians, to claim he is somehow a victim who needs asylum,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, according to the press release. “On the contrary, Colombia's judicial authorities deserve international support in investigating paramilitaries' infiltration of the political system.”

Vivanco continued, “Costa Rica shouldn't let itself become a tool to further impunity in Colombia by allowing him to evade justice.”