‘Art Caribe'
Talk by Manuel Monestel, 7 p.m., Spanish Cultural Center. 

Film: ‘The Outsider'
7:30 p.m., Eugene O'Neill Theater, CCCN.

Perrozompopo in concert
Nicaraguan singer-songwriter, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro, http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

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

Costa Rica water authorities announced they will shut off water service today from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in several neighborhoods in the canton of Santa Ana, southwest of San José.

The neighbors affected are Salitral, Calle El Perico, Calle Machete, Chirracal, San Rafael and Calle Montoya.

The water outage was planned to carry out repairs of the region's main water tank, according to a press release from the Costa Rican Water and Sewer Institute.

MANAGUA – Two more non-governmental organizations were called before the state Prosecutor's Office yesterday as part of an ongoing investigation that rights groups and civil society are calling “political persecution.”

Swedish development organization Forum Syd and the Civil Coordinator, a civil society umbrella group, were ordered yesterday to present their financial records to the Prosecutor's Office in an investigation that has already led to raids and citation of other non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Police raided the Center for Communication Investigation (CINCO), headed by renowned journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, and the Autonomous Women's Movement (MAM), confiscating files and computers from both buildings.

Oxfam Great Britain and the International Republican Institute have also been cited in the probe and, like Syd and the Civil Coordinator, have asked for extensions to get their books in order.

The official Sandinista news media are hailing the government's actions as a crackdown on corruption, money laundering and other “illegal” activities promoted by the “oligarchic” sectors of society that they claim NGOs represent.

So far, no formal accusations have been filed.

Armando Juárez, head investigator for the Prosecutor's Office, told The Nica Times yesterday that the NGOs are being looked into for “suspicious behavior,” but he denied that the investigation represented political persecution.

Gonzalo Carrión, a top lawyer for the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, says the government is looking for ways to “create crimes” against organizations that have taken a critical position against the administration of President Daniel Ortega.

Ortega, meanwhile, seems to be trying to make the issue about class.

“The oligarchy thinks they have impunity; they did before but not anymore,” Ortega said during a speech Monday night.

Meanwhile, members of Ortega's Councils of Citizen Power, or CPCs, rallied outside the Prosecutor's Office in support of its investigation.

Holding up pictures of political opposition leaders as well as Chamorro and feminist leaders Sofía Montenegro and Azalia Solís, the CPCs chanted against corruption and clashed yesterday afternoon with a group of university students who showed up to protest Ortega.

Most CPC protesters interviewed yesterday by The Nica Times interviewed were unable to identify the people on the signs they were accusing of corruption.

One person remained missing yesterday along Costa Rica's central Pacific coast after torrential rains and flooding swamped the area Sunday night.

Edwin Fonseca, 52, his son, Alexander, and a mutual friend, Luis Cardenas, were driving across a small bridge near the town of Cerritos de Quepos between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Sunday night when a surge of water pushed them into the swollen river.

“It was the worst experience of my life,” said Cardenas, who together with the younger Fonseca, were able to escape from the automobile as it filled with water.

When the car sank into the river the electrical system failed, leaving the three men unable to escape through the windows. As water filled in around them, Alex Fonseca found a tree branch and knocked out a back window, at which point he and Cardenas escaped to the roof of the car, and eventually to the bank of the river. Edwin Fonseca, unable to swim, never made it to shore.

Yesterday morning Fonseca, members of the press and two pilots boarded a rescue helicopter and took flight to search for the missing man. After an hour in the air, and with help from police and firefighters on the ground, the chopper returned. The search with continue today.

Fonseca, who currently resides in the U.S. state of New Jersey, had returned to Costa Rica earlier in the weekend to look at property for an upcoming development project.

“We are only alive by a miracle,” said Cardenas. “God gave us a new opportunity to live.”

Costa Ricans with disabilities should find accessible entrances to municipal offices in San José and Santa Cruz, in the northwestern Guanacaste province, within six months, the Constitutional Court has ruled.

The ruling concluded two separate cases in which complainants – one with last names Badilla in San José and another last-named Hernández in Santa Cruz – filed against the municipalities for the discriminatory layout of their facilities, without any way to enter besides stairs.

The ruling said that the current structure goes against the “right to equality of opportunities and to not be discriminated against” of people with disabilities, according to a court press release issued yesterday.