National University Symphony Orchestra in concert
With soloist pianist Suham Bello, singers Ana María Aguilar and Franklin Castro, 7:30 p.m., Melico Salazar National Theater, Avenida 2, Calle Central and 2, 2257-6005.

Santos y Zurdo in concert
World electronic, Mundoloco concert series, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro, www.jazzcafecostarica.com.

Unmarried couples can now file for residency for their foreign partner in Costa Rica, just as a married couple would, following a recent Supreme Court decision.

The ruling, by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV), struck down Article 69 of Immigration Law 8487, which said “Civil unions do not offer any judicial migration effect whatsoever,” according to a court press release.

This meant that previously foreigners could not cite the fact their live-in partner is Costa Rican as a way to avoid deportation or to gain legal residency.

Sala IV, however, has now ruled the article “unconstitutional.”

“The concept of family should be understood in a broad sense, not only as a product of matrimony, which is why (Sala IV) declared it … unconstitutional and annulled the norm in question,” the court said.

The ruling, however, has raised concern in the government over the possibility of making it too easy to add customers to the underground industry that marries off foreigners for papers.

“Our fear is that these mafias that have focused on marriages for power will now focus on trafficking civil unions because the passing requirements are lower,” Immigration Director Mario Zamora said, according to newswire EFE.

“No (other) country gives immigration benefits based on civil unions because of the difficulty of verifying them,” he said.

Costa Rica's Caribbean side has been taking a lashing by rainstorms, forcing 1,688 people into shelters after flooding swamped their homes in the cantons of Matina and Talamanca, emergency authorities reported yesterday.

A low pressure system is pushing the water levels up to dangerous levels in most of the rivers in the area, particularly in the northern reaches of Costa Rica's Caribbean coast, according to a CNE press release.

CNE has issued a red alert – an evacuation call, the highest weather warning level – for Talamanca, in the south, and Matina, to the north.

The central cantons of Limón city, Siquirres, Guácimo, Pococí and Sarapiquí de Heredia are all under yellow alert, the second highest warning, telling residents to prepare for evacuation if the situation worsens.

The Red Cross said relief workers are tending to more than 30 shelters set up across the region, and have been taking small boats and four-wheel drive Unimog trucks to aid residents who were isolated by the floods.

The Central Valley, where San José lies, was on the low-level green alert (take caution) as of last night after weekend rains, according to CNE.

Today the valley could see drier and warmer hours during the day but could return to long rains by late afternoon, according to meteorologist Evelyn Quirós.

Quirós said this weather is not uncommon considering this is the tropical cyclone season, which will continue until Nov. 30.

GRANADA, Nicaragua – President Daniel Ortega said he will block the opposition's proposal for a revote of the Nov. 9 elections, as Sandinista supporters celebrated a victory by the ruling party in the large majority of municipalities.

“They're trying to twist the law, twist the Constitution,” Ortega said at a victory rally Friday night after the Sandinistas won 105 of 146 mayoral seats that were up for grabs in the elections, which opponents say were rigged to favor the Sandinistas.

The Liberal Constitutional Party (PLC) took 37 mayoral seats while the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) won four, according to official results released by the Supreme Elections Council (CSE) Thursday night.

The two weeks since the Nov. 9 election have been marked by political violence between Liberal and Sandinista factions.

Before the results were released, the opposition had already prepared a proposal to annul the election results, which would call for another vote, perhaps in January.

“The government has an agenda to weaken representative democracy. The National Assembly is obligated to act, to stress the supremacy of the Constitution that says Nicaragua is a democratic republic,” said Liberal legislator José Pallaís.

But Sandinistas insist their victory has been “convincing.”

“We already did a recount,” said Juigalpa Mayor-elect María Elena Guerra, standing behind the stage that was erected in front of the CSE building Thursday night as part of Sandinista celebrations that clogged several city blocks with a singing, drinking, flag-waving multitude of red and black. Demonstrators burned a toy rat symbolizing the official defeat of Liberal mayoral candidate for Managua Eduardo Montealegre, whose nickname is “ superatón, ” or Mighty Mouse.

Montealegre and the Organization of American States have called for a recount with international observers.

The Episcopal Conference in Nicaragua requested that “all legal and constitutional mechanisms be exhausted” to find a solution to Nicaragua's electoral quandary.

Guerra, Juigalpa's first female mayor-elect, said the country is polarized and must find common ground.

“We're going to work with all sectors regardless of politics and religious creed,” she told The Nica Times.