Book launch
“De Reojo,” by Gerardo Bolaños, presented by Rosemary Ross, Eduardo Ulibarri and Carlos Cortés, 7 p.m., Mexico Institute.

European Film Festival
Opens tonight with French film “Exils,” 8 p.m., Arte Cine Lindora at Centro Comercial Lindora along the radial highway connecting the western towns of Santa Ana and San Antonio de Belén (2205-4130), festival runs through Oct. 2, at Lindora and Variedades Theater in San José (2222-6108).

Sege in concert
Senegalese music, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, Escazú, http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias called on lawmakers yesterday to approve as quickly as possible the last bill required to implement the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).

The bill, intended to strengthen intellectual property rights, was struck down by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) because lawmakers had not consulted the indigenous community on a clause that would affect them.

A congressional committee yesterday voted to delete the problematic clause and pass the bill again. The entire process could take six weeks to three months, said Oscar Núñez, faction head for the National Liberation Party (PLN). The timeline depends on whether the anti-CAFTA Citizen Action Party (PAC) again challenges the bill's constitutionality before the Sala IV.

Either way, Costa Rica will miss an Oct. 1 deadline for entering the pact, an extension already granted by CAFTA partners from an original February deadline. President Oscar Arias will ask for another extension in a meeting Wednesday in New York City with U.S. President George W. Bush and other Central American presidents.

GRANADA, Nicaragua – The Nicaraguan-American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) yesterday came out with its strongest criticism to date of the government of President Daniel Ortega in “energetically condemning” Saturday's violence by Sandinista groups that prevented an anti-government protest march in the northern department of León.

AMCHAM, which has been criticized by some for not playing a more active role in speaking out against the Ortega administration, blamed the “violent and irresponsible actions” of Saturday afternoon on groups “linked to the official government party.” The business chamber said the Sandinista violence was in violation of the constitutional rights of all Nicaraguans to express themselves and protest publically, peacefully and civically.

A planned protest march by the left-wing Sandinista Renovation Movement was stopped before it started Saturday morning, when hundreds of pro-Ortega Sandinistas – many wearing masks and wielding weapons – blocked all the entrances into the city of León to stop traffic and prevent protesters from arriving to the march. Many passengers were harassed and terrorized as masked men with sticks and machetes boarded buses and searched vehicles for protesters that Ortega has labeled as “traitors.”

The pro-Ortega group then clashed violently with riot police, resulting in several injuries. So far no one has been arrested.

AMCHAM said that the violence perpetrated by the “minority” Sandinista groups is taking the country “each day further from the policies of national reconciliation” promised by Ortega.

“The people of Nicaragua have won the right to live in democracy, without fear of those who try to intimidate others who don't think the same way they do,” the business chamber said in its release.

AMCHAM called on the National Police and the Prosecutor's Office to take the necessary steps to punish those responsible for Saturday's violence, which resulted in five injuries and property destruction.

The business chamber called on Ortega to act responsibly and to work toward a true national dialogue to “avoid a return to the situation experienced in the 1980s” during the first Sandinista government.

As of yesterday afternoon, Ortega, who was preparing for a trip to the United States, had not commented on Saturday's violence. The president is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly today.

With the goal of strengthening Nicaragua's credit card market, U.S. financial group Citibank has finalized the process of integrating into the national financial system by converting Grupo Financiero Uno to Citibank de Nicaragua.

Citibank, which acquired Nicaragua's Grupo Financiero Uno in 2006, already operates in neighboring Honduras and El Salvador.

Citibank de Nicaragua, with its new cash machines and other financial services inherited from Grupo Financiero Uno, will attend to 140,000 clients in Nicaragua, including 1,200 employees nationwide, according to the daily La Prensa.