Central Pacific Women's Group Meeting
9 a.m., Jacó, Puntarenas, info with Jane Swidler, 2643-1248.

International Ballet Theater
Performing “The Dream,” 7 p.m., National Theater.

Play: ‘Atrapados en un Febrero BisiestoI'
Drama by Claudia Barrionuevo, 3 and 7 p.m., Earth University, Guácimo.

A U.S. business owner was shot and killed at his nightclub Tuesday night in Parrita, south of Jacó on the central Pacific coast.

James Norris, 47, was getting ready to leave his club, Bouganvilea, in the Los Angeles neighborhood, when a man in a ski mask entered at around 11:15 p.m., went directly to Norris and shot him at least seven times, according to Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ).

A waitress said patrons and staff hit the floor after the first shot, and the shooter fled immediately after he finished firing. Norris died at the scene.

No arrests have been made in the case so far.

Just a month ago, three masked men went to Norris' house, not far from the club, and shot him four times before robbing his home. It is unknown at the time if those involved in the January robbery are connected to Norris' murder.

Norris was originally from New Hampshire and had lived in Costa Rica for several years, opening up the disco a year ago. Norris had no family in Costa Rica.

Police are urging any individuals with information on the murder to contact the Aguirre-Quepos OIJ at 2777-0511 or 2777-1511.

Tico Times correspondent Christopher Wayne contributed to this report from Parrita.

The company Seguros del Magisterio S.A. could make Costa Rican history becoming the first private company to sell life insurance here, breaking up an 84-year state stronghold on the market.

The pension funds supervising authority (SUPEN), which regulates the insurance market, announced Wednesday it has authorized Seguros del Magisterio to do business here, giving the company one month to submit specific plans.

The private insurance company must also deposit $3.4 million into an account in the Central Bank.

Until now, Seguros has only been allowed to insure teachers and their families, offering 22 different insurance policies to some 40,000 individuals. The new move would open up the entire market to Seguros, which would compete with the National Insurance Institute (INS), the longtime holder of a monopoly on insurance policies.

Seguros del Magisterio CEO Santiago Araya said the strategy to compete with INS will bring affordable prices and accessibility to life insurance for the whole population.

Several other companies and banks are seeking to enter Costa Rica's insurance market, but Seguros is the first to win official approval.

Last year lawmakers stripped INS of its monopoly as a requirement for entry by Costa Rica into the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), which Costa Rica officially joined at the start of this year.

A group of more than 50 employees from defunct Sábila Industrial S.A, the U.S. company that suddenly closed its operations late last month in Costa Rica's northwestern Guanacaste province and left their workforce without any compensation, filed four separate lawsuits at the Civil and Labor Court in Liberia.

Judicial Branch spokeswoman Andrea Marín confirmed Wednesday afternoon that 56 employees had joined the lawsuits over the last two weeks.

Labor Vice Minister Eugenio Solano was contacted early last week by the legal representatives of Sábila, an aloe processing company, and said the business attributed its closing to the financial crisis.

In addition, Solano confirmed the managers of the Liberia plant fled the country last week.

In the absence of management, Solano arranged a meeting with the company's lawyer late last week in order to negotiate the employee's compensations.

As of Wednesday afternoon, despite repeated attempts The Tico Times could not reach the negotiators to confirm the details of this meeting.

Sábila Industrial S.A., a subsidiary of U.S. biopharmaceutical company DelSite Inc., shut its doors late on Jan. 29, leaving about 143 employees out of work, without warning.

Two weeks ago, the Labor Court froze close to ¢2 million (about $3,667) in company assets, including bank accounts and seized plant machinery and computer equipment (see story).

A former employee said she was on vacation when she received the news that the company was closing down.

“On Feb. 2, I picked up my (dismissal) letter,” said the employee, who would not disclose her name for fear of affecting future job prospects. “My boss didn't have anything to say since he has lost his job as well.”

The employee, who worked for Sábila for a little more than four years, said she has been looking for work primarily in industrial companies throughout the region with no luck.

In addition, the former Sábila worker, who held a supervisory position at the plant, said she has kept in touch with many employees who were laid off from Sábila and said that most of them, who are single mothers, have not been able to find other jobs.

See the Feb. 20 print or digital edition of The Tico Times for more on this story.