Sculpture symposium
Through the weekend, 8 a.m.-noon, 1-5 p.m., at the Park, Barva, Heredia.

Danish gymnastics team exhibition
Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m., Liceo de Atenas, Atenas, Alajuela.

Santos, Moldo and Wash in concert
Presenting “Exilio en Calle Blancos,” Feb. 27, 8 p.m., Spanish Cultural Center, Plaza del Farolito, Barrio Escalante, 2257-2919.

Play: ‘Atrapados en un Febrero Bisiesto'
Drama by Claudia Barrionuevo, 7 p.m., Salón Comunal, Jicaral, Puntarenas; Saturday, 7 p.m., Coonaprosal, Colorado de Abangares, Guanacaste.

Trip to Río Celeste
Organized by the Organization of Tropical Studies, Saturday and Sunday, 2524-0607, www.ots.ac.cr/biocursos.

Flamenco class for kids
10 a.m., Spanish Cultural Center.

Theater and earthquake-relief fundraiser auction
Organized by Little Theatre Group, after Calendar Girls play, Laurence Olivier, 2273-0747.

Photo exhibit ‘Cuanto Vale una Vida'
About victims of crime and car accidents, through March 9, Children's Museum, end Calle 4.

Allan Guzmán in concert
Singer songwriter, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San José, 2253-8933, www.jazzcafecostarica.com.

See the print of The Tico Times for a full calendar of cultural and sporting events, club activities and movie listings.

Import and export numbers both sustained considerable blows in January from the global economic crisis, but the traffic of incoming shipments slowed further than that of outgoing goods, bringing down Costa Rica's trade deficit by 52.7 percent.

Imports shrank in January by 32.6 percent from the same month last year, while exports went down 17 percent. Economists continue to declare a recession, though state officials and the Central Bank are still avoiding the “R” word (see last week's story).

“The drop in imports reflects a lower domestic demand, resulting from the rise in interest rates, the recession the country is experiencing, and the drop in the prices of fuel,” consulting firm Aldesa said.

In terms of exports, the recession in the United States, the chief importer of Tico-made goods, continued to cut into companies' earnings here. Last month saw $220.7 million in goods exported to the U.S., down by 17.6 percent from January 2008, according to the Foreign Trade Ministry (COMEX).

Of all exports, computer parts were hit the hardest, said COMEX, citing losses of as much as $56 million, or 30 percent.

“One of the principal causes of the lower level of operation of exporting companies is based on the difficulty in this sector to attain lines of credit,” Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz said in a statement.

Amid the grim figures, the Foreign Trade Promotion Office found a ray of hope: Canada. Against the grain, exports to Canada rose by 9.7 percent in January compared with the same month last year, with ornamental plants, tires, pineapples and textiles driving the increase.

Banco de Costa Rica (BCR) reported on Thursday the release of more than ¢100 billion (nearly $18 million) in housing credit loans this week, money that could ultimately help as many as 6,000 families who wish to build or buy a home.

Home-buyers can apply for the loans at any BCR branch nationwide, and applications will take an average of 15 days to be processed, said a BCR statement released this week.

The measure is part of the Mano Solidaria (“helping hand”) program created after President Oscar Arias in January requested a yearlong 2 percent decrease in interest rates for loans for buying houses and for small, medium and big companies, as well as personal credit.

For a ¢20 million (about $35,736) loan, a person would have to make payments of ¢250,000 ($447) a month. Prior to this program, loan recipients had to make payments of a little more than ¢300,000 ($536).

Basic requirements for an application include photocopies of both sides of the national identification card, proof of address (a utility bill receipt) and a statement verifying the applicant's monthly income.

Nicaragua is again bracing for another round of political street violence this weekend following the Sandinista Front's call for a nationwide mobilization Saturday, the same day the opposition has scheduled a march against the government in nine different cities across the country.

The ruling Sandinista Front, frequently criticized for its crackdowns on public protests over more than the last six months, announced this week it will launch a campaign the same day as a march by opposition groups. Under its new member-identification slogan “We are millions,” the party said it will carry out its campaign “with caravans, marches, and activities throughout the entire country.”

The Sandinista Youth has also called for massive mobilization to celebrate the revolution throughout the country.

Opposition and human rights leaders, however, say the Sandinistas' call to “celebration” is a thin guise for a call to repress the protest marches scheduled for the same day. Civil society and opposition politicians are organizing simultaneous marches in Managua, León, Chinandega, Chontales, Jinotega, Boaco, Puerto Cabezas and Ometepe Island to protest what they consider to be fraudulent municipal elections last November and the installation of dictatorship in Nicaragua.

First lady Rosario Murillo this week rallied fellow Sandinistas to start a “permanent campaign” aimed at retaining the presidency in 2011.

The timing of the Sandinistas' new campaign has sparked suspicion and criticism, prompting critics to call the move irresponsible and intolerant.

“The call by President Daniel Ortega to mobilize his people the same day as the opposition march is a way of trying to provoke and intimidate people,” Marcos Carmona, executive secretary of the Permanent Commission on Human Rights, told The Nica Times yesterday.

In the past, Carmona said, the “Sandinista mobs” have “attacked civic protest marches with machetes, mortars, knives, sticks and stones.”

Carmona said his group has already sent a letter to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to blame in advance the Ortega administration for any political violence during Saturday's march.