Christmas Fair
With various choirs, crafts sales, through Sunday, Central Park, Avenida 4.

Christmas bazaar
2:30-6 p.m., Humboldt High School, Pavas.

Play: ‘La Gata en Vacaciones, Fiesta de Ratones'
Tonight-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 5 p.m., Variedades Theater, Calle 5, Avenida Central and 1. Info: 2222-6108.

Pérez Zeledón Music School piano recital
7 p.m., court building, Pérez Zeledón, Southern Zone.

Las Tortugas in concert
Classic rock, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, Escazú, info: 2288-4740, www.jazzcafecostarica.com.

Costa Rica emergency officials yesterday issued another red alert for the Caribbean province of Limón and Caribbean slope town of Sarapiquí, after a fresh bout of cold-front rains began punishing the region.

More than 1,500 people remain in shelters after their homes were flooded by constant downpours, according to the National Emergency Commission.

The weather came just days after hundreds of families began returning to their homes after entire towns had evacuated to escape flooding in the region, sparking an international call to help Costa Rica.

France became the latest nation to announce a relief package, pledging some 50,000 euros to the cause, the French Embassy in San Jos é said.

U.S. Southern Command deployed military helicopters to Costa Rica, and western Panama, also swamped in rain, bringing aid to communities cut off by damaged roads and bridges.

The emergency commission has also issued a yellow alert – the second highest weather warning – for Costa Rica's Northern Zone.

Developers angered over the closure of construction projects for alleged environmental violations planned to block the coastal highway today on the southern Pacific coast.

Víctor Solís, who heads the Chamber of Developers in the southern canton of Osa, said he expected between 1,000 and 1,200 protestors to show up, and they would block the Costanera coastal highway just north of Dominical and just south of Uvita.

“While it is true that there needs to be some control over development in the area, it is also true that there are people who live off it and depend on development for work,” Solís said.

The Environmental Tribunal, an administrative court of the Environment, Energy and Telecommunications Ministry (MINAET), has carried out surprise inspections of construction projects in Osa three times this year.

Two of those have targeted the Fila Costeña mountain range, where researchers and environmentalists have warned that uncontrolled development is harming the range's ecosystems, including those along the coast.

A total of 35 projects along the mountain range have been suspended and put under investigation for potentially violating their construction permits or environmental laws.

“Eight hundred people are now unemployed,” Solís said. “We consider it a total abuse of authority.”

Solís said that projects are being closed down on simple suspicion, and some have gone for as long as eight months without seeing a formal accusation, forcing developers to fire their workers.

Solís acknowledged that three of the nine developments that he represents have been suspended by the tribunal, but denies any environmental wrongdoing.

José Lino Chaves, head judge at the tribunal, insisted all projects were closed with cause.

“Nothing is suspended without a technical report that tells us if there is environmental damage or not, or if (the developers) went beyond what their environmental permits allow,” Chaves said.

Chaves said his inspections uncovered illegal logging, construction within protected areas along rivers, streams and springs and unauthorized movements of earth – often roads or foundations dug without permits.

Costa Rica is in a good position to weather the global recession that many believe will last well into next year, says noted economist and former Finance Minister Fernando Naranjo.

Speaking yesterday before a Union of Private Sector Chambers and Associations luncheon, Naranjo said the country's economic position is considerably better than it was during the severe economic crisis of the late 1970s and 1980s.

“We won't have a crisis,” said Naranjo. “We are in a very solvent economic situation, with a budget surplus of about 1 percent of GDP.”

He said growth will slow to about 2.5 percent, as will foreign investment, but the government can stimulate the economy by spending the surplus on social programs and infrastructure.

University of Costa Rica and former legislator Constantino Urcuyo told the luncheon crowd that Costa Rica is a country in search of a different identity than the historical one of coffee-growing republic.

The process of urbanization and the disappearance of political consensus among establishment will oblige leaders to look for a new, more forward-looking identity for the country, he said.