15th International Guitar Festival
Sept. 26, 8 p.m., Berta Rojas (Paraguay), Carlos Barbosa Lima (Brazil); Sept. 27, 8 p.m., Tecnológico de Monterrey Guitar Orchestra (Mexico), Nicaragua Guitar Orchestra, UCR Guitar Orchestra, Technology Institute of Costa Rica Guitar Orchestra, Castella Conservatory (C.R.), Escuela Municipal de la Unión Guitar Orchestra (C.R.), Kalrtac Bulrarke (C.R.), 3 p.m.; Remi Jousselme (France), Rafael Andújar (Spain; Sept. 28, 8 p.m., Iván Trinidad Sánchez Flores (Mexico), Manuel López (C.R.), 2008 National Guitar Contest winners (Costa Rica. All concerts at the National Theater 

European Film Festival
“Against the Wall” (Germany), showing at 4 and 7 p.m. at the Variedades Theater, Calle 5 between Avenida Central and Avenida 1; and at 5 and 8 p.m. at Arte Cine Lindora in Santa Ana.

Limón Socio-Cultural Workshops
Including percussion, dances, craft, singing, Sept. 26, 10 a.m., UCR campus in Limón, 2798-1349, ext. 119. 

Contemporary Dance Show
By Jessica Hendricks and Rachel Harding of the University of Colorado, Sept. 26, 8 p.m., Eugene O'Neill Theater, CCCN.

European Film Festival
“Cívico Zero” (Italy) Showing at 4, 6 and 8 p.m. at the Variedades Theater, Calle 5 between Avenida Central and Avenida 1; and at 3, 5 and 8 p.m. at Arte Cine Lindora in Santa Ana.  

XII University Cultural Festival
Including music, poetry, theater, crafts, through Sept. 27, 9 a.m.-9 p.m., Universidad Nacional, Heredia.

Guitar and Piano Concert
Sept. 27, 6 p.m., Etapa Básica de Música, east side of Escuela Central, Palmares, Alajuela.

Play Uvieta
Story by Costa Rican author Carmen Lyra, Sept. 27, 10 a.m., Spanish Cultural Center.

European Film Festival
“Happy Family” (Holland) Showing at 4, 6 and 8 p.m. at the Variedades Theater, Calle 5 between Avenida Central and Avenida 1; and at 3, 5 and 8 p.m. at Arte Cine Lindora in Santa Ana.  

Dog and Cat Adoption
Sept. 28, 9:30 a.m.-noon, Sabana Park, 2267-6011 or 8382-5163.

Workshop Movement Therapy
Instructor Sol González, Sept. 28, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Kapoli Studio, Escazú. Info: 2203-4759.

“Música en el Museo”
Free concert by Banda Nacional de San José, Sept. 28, 11 a.m., National Museum, Calle 17, Avenida Central and 2.

MANAGUA – The Nicaraguan government sanctioned 17 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have been critical of President Daniel Ortega for acting “on the fringes of the law,” according to an official source.

The director of the government ministry's Association for Registry and Control, Gustavo Sirias, indicated to the media that those 17 NGOs committed “illicit acts” in signing agreements with other organizations that are not legally registered with the association.

Sirias said the NGOs were fined between 1,000 and 5,000 córdobas ($51 and $255), for signing a total of 58 agreements with movements that are not recognized legally. The total amount of the fines was not specified.

Sirias added that the NGOs offered their legal personnel so that movements without legal representation could apply for resources from international cooperatives.

Sirias stopped short of saying the NGOs have committed crimes, such as tax evasion, by “lending” their legal representation to groups that are legally nonexistent.

But he did say he will send the list of the fined NGOs and civic movements that are operating illegally to see if they have committed crimes or not to the Public Ministry.

Among the sanctioned NGOs that could lose their legal status, said Sirias, is the Research Center for Communication (CINCO), which is directed by journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, son of former Nicaraguan President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1997).

Another threatened group is Center for International Studies (CEI), directed by Alejandro Bendaña, ex-husband of Zoilamérica Narváez, Ortega's stepdaughter who has accused him of rape.

Ortega himself alleged that these NGOs have “favored” the Women's Autonomy Movement (MAM) and the September 28 Campaign for the Decriminalization of Abortion in Latin America, which does not have legal representation.

Those are the two women's rights groups that announced last August that there existed a global pact of similar organizations to condemn Ortega, whose stepdaughter accused him of raping her.

The international women's pact responded as well to the support Ortega has given to legislation that would prohibit all types of abortion in Nicaragua.

The Civil Coordinator, a conglomerate of 600 civic organizations without legal recognition by the Nicaraguan government, has condemned that the Nicaraguan organizations critical of Ortega are being fined, saying they are victims of “political persecution” by the executive branch. The Ortega administration denies the charge.

According to official statistics, 4,461 organizations are registered with the government, of which 3,758 are active and the other 703 are either inactive or operating outside of legal requirements.

Finance Minister Guillermo Zúñiga has said he will run for president in 2010, joining a crowded field of aspirants from the National Liberation Party (PLN).

Zúñiga, 58, told the weekly El Financiero that party leaders had asked him to run. Under the electoral code, he would have to give up his cabinet post by February, 12 months before the elections.

Other PLN aspirants include San José Mayor Johnny Araya, former Public Security Minister Fernando Berrocal and businessman Antonio Alvarez. Vice President and Justice Minister Laura Chinchilla is also widely expected to run, though she has not yet formally announced her candidacy.

PLN picks its candidate in an open nationwide primary in June.

Of the four aspirants, Chinchilla is most popular among active PLN members, according to a Unimer poll conducted for the daily La Nación published earlier this week. Some 32 percent of party members support her, while 29 percent back Araya, 17 percent like Alvarez, and just 3 percent are rooting for Berrocal. Unimer did not ask about Zúñiga, who announced his intentions after the poll was taken.

Zúñiga has garnered praise for substantially improving tax collection and logging the country's first budget surplus since the 1950s. As of late August, the surplus stood at $275 million.

Still, neither the Finance Ministry nor the Central Bank, on whose director's board Zúñiga sits, has been able to protect Costa Rica from global economic woes. Surging fuel and food prices worldwide have contributed to a 15.4 percent inflation rate here during the past year, and the economy is expected to grow just 3.2 percent this year, down from 7.1 percent last year.

More recently, Zúñiga has come under fire for refusing to give the press details about China's purchase of $300 million in Costa Rican bonds. Earlier this month, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) ordered Zúñiga to make the information public.

The National Liberation Party appears favored to win the presidency: 32 percent of Costa Ricans support PLN, while 15 percent back the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC), and just 7 percent favor the Citizen Action Party (PAC), according to a poll by CID-Gallup conducted in late July for the daily La República.

Still, 42 percent of Costa Ricans are undecided and could throw the elections to any party.

In the face of too much demand, Coopeguanacaste, the electrical cooperative in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, on Thursday began a new wave of six-hour electrical outages in El Coco and Ocotal from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday.

Other interruptions will occur during the same hours on Oct. 2, 9, 16 and 24.

Previously, most outages lasted four hours, but in a memo addressed to Coopeguanacaste's clients, operations manager Eduardo Cabalceta explained that workers needed larger blocks of time to be effective as they upgrade infrastructure. Such outages, the memo admitted, are especially difficult on parts of the country that depend on the tourism industry.

According to Coopeguanacaste, electrical consumption in the Santa Cruz and Carrillo cantons has increased by 15 percent in the last three years, primarily due to the residential and tourist sector growth. Electrical consumption increases on average 4 to 7 percent annually in other Latin American countries.

To provide for the increased demand, Coopeguanacaste is spending $47 million on electrical infrastructure upgrades, which include a new substation and new 230–kilovolt lines.

Coopeguanacaste predicts that the completed project will not only allow for a higher capacity of electricity transmission, but it will also reduce the number of other unforeseen outages when car crashes, felled trees, branches, wind, animals and even birds' nests disrupt service.

The group has been able to secure just 45 percent of the property easements needed for the Papagayo to Nuevo Colón segment of the project.