Newcomers of Costa Rica meeting
With Avi Garav, owner of Biosfera Florist Shop in Escazú, demonstrating new techniques in flower arranging, 9:30 a.m., Los Cebollines, Santa Ana. Info: 2416-1111, newcomerscr@yahoo.com.

Charity poker tournament
Organized by Central Pacific Chamber of Commerce, $100 buy-in, collecting gifts for kids, 7 p.m., Jazz Casino, Hotel Amapola, Jacó, Puntarenas. Info: 2643-2853, 8344-5574.

Ninth International Baroque Festival
EMAI Orchestra, conductor/violinist Luis Diego Piedra, trumpeter Fred Sautter, violinist Anthony Vivas, performing works by J.S. Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann, 7:30 p.m., Santa Ana Church.

Jazz jam session
10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro, http://jazzcafecostarica.com.

Live Brazilian music
Fabio Avelino and Batuque Congo, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, Escazú, http://jazzcafecostarica.com. 

The state opened its case yesterday against Rafael Angel Calderón, Jr., the first former president to be tried on corruption charges in Costa Rica.

Calderón, who was president from 1990 to 1994, is facing charges that he accepted kickbacks for helping a Finnish medical equipment firm sell goods worth $39.5 million to the Caja, the national public health care system.

“Finally, the truth can come out,” said Calderón, who maintains his innocence and has expressed interest in running for president in 2010 on the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) ticket. “The final ruling will bring peace to our household.”

The case is important, said prosecutor Juan Carlos Cubillo, because it reflects that Costa Rican law applies equally to all citizens, including leading politicians.

Seven others face charges for their involvement in the scheme, including Eliseo Vargas, a former lawmaker and ex-president of the Caja, and Walter Reiche, former president of Fischel Corp., which represents the Finnish firm in Costa Rica.

More than 300 witnesses will testify in a three-judge trial that could last up to 18 months, according to estimates by lawyers. Barring Friday afternoons, arguments take place every day from 8 a.m. through late afternoon, with two hours for lunch.

“The last time I had to follow a schedule was in the university,” Calderón said. “It's not every day that a former head of state stands trial.”

Major League Baseball veteran Cal Ripken, Jr. is set to travel to Nicaragua next week, this time playing for diplomacy, according to the U.S. State Department.

Ripken, who made his career as an all-star shortstop with the Baltimore Orioles from 1981 to 2001, was named American Public Diplomacy Envoy for the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Culture by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in August.

Joining Ripken will be fellow ex-Oriole Dennis Martínez, who is Nicaraguan, and two baseball instructors, all of whom will visit Managua, León and Granada from Nov. 13 to 18 to spread the “Ripken Baseball brand of instruction to over 500 Nicaraguan kids and over 100 youth coaches,” the State Department said in a press release.

MANAGUA – The Finnish government has revoked a 1.95 million euro aid package meant for Nicaragua in protest of what it alleges is a lack of transparency in Nicaragua's national budget and its municipal elections Sunday.

The Finnish Embassy's development and governance adviser, María Luisa Babini, told reporters that the funds – equal to about $2.46 million – were meant to be given to Nicaragua as support for its 2008 budget.

But Finland's Foreign Trade and Cooperation Ministry on Oct. 22 sent a letter to Nicaragua's Foreign Ministry to announce it was taking back the money, according to a report in the weekly newspaper Confidencial.

The letter said that delivery of the funds was suspended because the government of Daniel Ortega still has not published the final version of the 2008-2012 National Plan for Human Development, and outlawed smaller opposition parties ahead of the municipal elections.

“There are two things that are requested in the budgetary support group: indicators that gauge the country's progress and also, one of the fundamental principles, free and transparent elections,” said the letter.

The Finnish Embassy here said its government decided to cancel its aid package “when it received the news that there weren't going to be electoral observers” in the upcoming municipal elections.

News of the revoked Finnish aid, published in the weekly paper Confidencial, came after the U.S. State Department, the European Union, former world leaders including U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and a host of global NGOs issued damning communiqués that target different aspects of Nicaragua's alleged clampdown on opposition.

For more on Nicaraguan politics, see www.nicatimes.net.