New exhibit by Efraín Méndez
Paintings “El Cerco,” through Oct. 3, Galería Amón, Barrio Amón www.galeriaamon.net, 2223-9725.

Short film premier ‘Ellas se aman'
Directed by Laura Astorga, 6:30 p.m., Véritas University, Zapote.

Talk on tantric sex: ‘How to Make Love, Making Love'
Tonight 7-8, Thursday and Friday 6-9 p.m., and Saturday at 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Casa Ames, Los Yoses, San Pedro, Info: www.qigongcostarica.com/html/workshops.php. 

Film screening ‘Alegría de una vez'
Directed by Mateo Herrera (Ecuador, 2001), part of the free Latin American film series Videoteca Sur, 7 p.m., Sala Calle 15, on Avenida 2 by south corner of Parque de la Democracia.

María Pretiz Trio in concert
Jazz, 9:30 p.m., Grappa, Santa Ana, info: 2203-7544.

The morning after President Oscar Arias gave an Independence Day address that seemed more a resignation speech at times, a new Unimer poll suggests a remarkable number of voters may wish it had been just that – a farewell from Arias.

Published yesterday in the daily La Nación, the poll by Unimer Research International said the number of Costa Ricans who think their president is doing a “poor” or “very poor” job has doubled, from 14 percent in March to 28 percent.

Arias' approval rating has plummeted from 50 percent in March to 29 percent in the poll, conducted of 1,230 Ticos from Aug. 28 to Sept. 4. Forty-three percent of interviewees deemed Arias' performance as is “average.”

The president's turnover-prone cabinet also took a blow, with an 18 percent approval rating, far below March's 36 percent.

The marks are the lowest since Arias took office in May 2006, and represent an about-face from January when his approval rating shot up to almost 65 percent, according to a CID-Gallup poll.

The latest report card came after Arias told the nation Monday he is “tired of trying to govern a country that believes criticism at any cost is the best way to carry out opposition.”

Criticism of Arias and his administration surged recently, following controversy over the secret sale of $300 million in Costa Rican bonds to China.

A prior portion of the Unimer poll published Sunday said an increasing number of Costa Ricans (44 percent) put economic woes at the top of their list of worries, followed by a slightly falling concern about crime and violence (16 percent).

MANAGUA – Hundreds of residents of a Nicaraguan municipality Monday burned and looted the local police station to protest the shooting death of an area youth, news media reported.

The demonstrators attacked the police station in La Paz Centro, 57 kilometers northwest of Managua, damaging the facility with sticks and stones, and then set fire to it, while the police officers fled to avoid being lynched, according to television reports.

The mob attacked the station during the funeral of Luis Angel Vargas, 15, who was shot three times on Sunday.

The boy was shot in the back at the door of a relative's house by cops who were pursuing him for allegedly going through a police roadblock on his bicycle, according to unofficial reports.

Enraged townspeople left the local parish church, where a funeral Mass was being celebrated, and headed for the police station in a move meant to take justice into their own hands.

The National Police urged residents for calm and promised to thoroughly investigate the boy's death and punish the officers, who have been suspended from duty.

Two television stations reported that dozens of anti-riot officers had been dispatched from Managua to La Paz Centro to reestablish public order.

The U.S. Army and the Costa Rican Social Security System, also known as La Caja, are teaming up to provide health care to isolated indigenous people.

The Ngobes tribe, roughly 600 of whom live on a reservation in Punta Burica on the border with Panama, are scheduled to receive medical assistance Sept. 25-27.

Thanks to logistical and medical assistance from the United States, the locals will be receiving medical services for the first time in at least two years, according to Golfito Acting Health Director Jocseliny Benavides.

Benavides said authorities haven't been able to attend to the Ngobes for years because of bureaucratic inertia, lack of resources and problems coordinating arrival to an area without good roads.

“The (indigenous leaders) complained about the lack of service, and we managed to get this agreement with the United States just this year,” she said. “The people are suffering from respiratory infections, parasites, and they don't even have potable water.”

The United States is providing a team of 19 medical professionals, and a helicopter is being contracted to transport the personnel.

According to a press release, Caja authorities hope to institutionalize medical visits to the region every three months. The release also states area residents suffer from tuberculosis, dermatitis, diabetes and diarrhea.