EXPOTUR 2008
Tourism fair, today through Thursday, Ramada Plaza Herradura conference center, Cariari, www.expotur.com.

Free film showings
“Leaving Las Vegas,” tonight at 5 p.m.; “Little Miss Sunshine,” Thursday at 2 p.m., Casa del Estudiante, National University (UNA), Heredia.

Jazz jam
By Jazz Trio, at Jazz Café, San Pedro, 10 p.m., http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Sonambulo in concert
Jazz Café Escazú, 10 p.m., http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Demolition of Costa Rica's National Stadium has begun, marking an adiós to an era that for 84 years has seen moments in sports, culture and social history.

It's also paving the way for a new stadium triple its size, one of the recent gifts China has showered over this Central American country (see www.ticotimes.net/topstory.htm).

The stadium, in the city's west Sabana district, has hosted figures from soccer hero Pelé to Pope John Paul II, and concerts by Luciano Pavarotti, Aerosmith and Bruce Springsteen.

By yesterday, much of the arena had been turned to rubble.

But nostalgic fans on Sunday had already taken home chunks of the historic stadium. At the end of the last game – Brujas beat University of Costa Rica 3-2 – spectators rushed to grab pieces of earth and grass, goal net and cement as souvenirs.

Socialists may have waved red flags as far back as the 19th century, but Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's plans for 21st century socialism in Nicaragua look a bit more green.

Chávez's alternative trade and financing pact with leftist Latin leaders, known as ALBA, is releasing $2 million to fund research to protect Central America's largest body of water, Lake Nicaragua, according to Nicaragua's environment minister, Juana Argenal.

The feasibility study is part of a larger $66 million plan to clean up the lake and reforest large swaths of woods that have been cut in the lake's basin in the past two decades, according to the minister.

“We have to set limits,” said Argenal, adding that the funds will be used to order the lands around Lake Nicaragua, which will in turn help the ministry enforce Nicaragua's environmental laws surrounding the lake. Argenal said the ministry and Nicaragua's municipalities will administer the funds.

Argenal is meeting with environmental officials from Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador and the tiny Caribbean Island of Dominica this week as part of efforts to unite environmental policy between ALBA countries. The meeting, which began yesterday in the Las Mercedes hotel in Managua and lasts until May 14, will also include a tour of Managua, San Juan River and a trip to Ometepe Island, a unique volcanic island in Lake Nicaragua.

Apparently undeterred by an international scandal over his alleged offer earlier this year to help arm the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has granted asylum to two Colombian women who survived Colombia's March 1 bombing raid on FARC in Ecuador.

In an official press release, the president announced yesterday that he has granted asylum for humanitarian reasons to Doris Torres, 21, and Martha Pérez, 24, both of who reportedly arrived in Nicaragua on Sunday with human-rights workers from South America.

The president's announcement came the same day as a headline in the daily La Prensa accusing Ortega of being embroiled in “FARC-gate.” This was referring to Nicaragua's alleged offer to supply the Marxist rebel group with old weapons hidden in Nicaragua, according to information allegedly found in e-mails on computers that belonged to Raúl Reyes, the FARC's No. 2 in command. Reyes was killed in the March 1 raid, but his laptop allegedly survived the attack, according to the Colombian military.

The computer files that allegedly link the FARC to Ortega and other leftists in the area were published yesterday in the Spanish daily El País.

Ortega last month offered similar asylum to Mexican Lucía Morett, who also survived the attack on the FARC camp but insists she is a student, not a terrorist.

Although FARC is on U.S. and European Union lists of terrorist organizations, Ortega has shown public support for Reyes, who he says was a leader of the Colombian peace process. Ortega also hailed FARC leader Manuel Marulanda a “dear brother” and decorated him with the Order of Augusto Sandino.

Opposition leaders in Nicaragua, meanwhile, have expressed growing concern over Ortega's relation to the FARC and how it might affect Nicaragua's relations with the Untied States and other donor countries.