Photos by John Dessarzin
“Cuba. Cuba? Cuba!” photography exhibit, opens July 1, 7 p.m., runs through July 31, National Gallery, Children's Museum.

San José Guitar Festival
July 1, Nicolás Alvarado (C.R., Latin American classical), Alonso Torres (C.R., Latin American classical), Jorge Luis Zamora (Cuba, classical); July 2, Carlos Moscardini (Argentina, folkloric), Camilo Portronieri (C.R., rock-jazz fusion); July 3, Dúo Antú (C.R., classical and contemporary Latin jazz), Santos y Zurdo (C.R., electrofusion); July 4, Cuarteto de Guitarras de Costa Rica (classical), Mario Ulloa (C.R./Brazil, classical); July 5, all participating guitarists. All concerts at 7 p.m., Roberto Sasso Auditorium, Veritas University , Zapote.

President Oscar Arias is calling for more political and economic sanctions against the recently installed Honduran government and a stronger stance by the United States in order return ousted leader Manuel Zelaya back to power.

As the newly appointed president of the Central American Integration System (SICA), Arias' words carried a little more weight this week as he assumed leadership duties of the organization. It was good timing for the Nobel Peace Prize recipient, whose own country had outlawed its military 60 years prior (in part, to avoid similar events) and who has long preached a message of demilitarization.

“What happened in Honduras is a setback for democracy in Central America and Latin America,” Arias said in a statement released Monday night. “We thought we had turned the page on coups in the last century. But (it is evident) that we did not.”

In response to the evolving situation in Honduras, Arias urged the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) to suspend loan disbursements and to postpone all cultural, political, financial and sporting events in the country.

He didn't go as far as to cut off Costa Rica's trade to Honduras, an action that Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador pursued following the coup.

"For an economy as weak as the Honduran one and a country so poor, the people are going to be harmed,” Arias told a Costa Rican radio station, Radio Monumental, on Tuesday. “I hope that the measures take effect very quickly, so that people do not continue to suffer."

He was quick to add that such sanctions are necessary: “We should not let it pass without punishment….”

Arias expressed confidence in the leadership of the United States in responding to the situation in Honduras.

He called Barack Obama "a president who is different" and said this is a “great opportunity to (shift foreign policy) away from that of the Republicans who were previously in the White House.”

Zelaya has plans to return to Tegucigalpa on Thursday, accompanied by the José Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the Organization of American States.

According to Costa Rican copyright law, if a person or business obtains commercial benefit from the communication, performance or playing of recorded or live music, then a corresponding fee must be paid. Thus, businesses that offer music, such as hotels, restaurants, bars and clubs, have begun to pay a fee for their use of music to FONOTICA, the Costa Rican recording industry trade association.

The National Tourism Chamber of Costa Rica (CANATUR) conducted a study that analyzed the fees that FONOTICA charged for use of copyrighted music. The fees are based on minimum wage, which is around $11 per day, and capacity of each location.

CANATUR, which has 213 members that offer lodging, found that if all the businesses in the hospitality sector incurred this fee, they would pay approximately ¢14.145 million ($24,590) per month between them. Though this fee is divided among individual hotels and businesses, the additional cost could cause particular worry for smaller businesses, which are already pinched financially with lowered tourism revenues reported this year.

“Calculating these numbers helps us to understand that smaller businesses will be the most affected,” said Gonzalo Vargas, president of CANATUR. “The added cost will make it increasingly difficult for them to operate, particularly because in the first quarter of this year there was a 12 percent decrease in tourists as compared to last year.”

When CANATUR included other tourism businesses, such as bars, restaurants, clubs, air lines, tour operators, transportation and other recreational organizations, CANATUR estimated that its affiliates all together would pay ¢17.993 million ($31,281) per month for commercial use of music.

The fee is calculated through a formula based on capacity and minimum wage. For example, if a club has a capacity of less than 200 people, it pays a fee of five minimum wages per month. The rate of the fee increases in accordance to the size of capacity.

The long awaited and highly-touted bill against organized crime appears poised to become law as early as this Thursday.

After more than a year of being thrown back and forth between the floor of the Legislative Assembly and legal committees, the bill has shot through the debate process after being officially loaded onto the discussion docket last week.

The bill passed the first debate on Tuesday morning with ease and will enter the second and final necessary debate this Thursday.

Legislators are confident it will pass.

“We very pleased,” said Libertarian Movement legislator Luis Barrantes, who has been pushing for the bill since it entered the Assembly. “They agreed on a very important piece of legislation today and I think Thursday will bring similar results.”

Rodrigo Arias, minister of the presidency, shared Barrantes' optimism.

“The step that we have taken today is enormous for the protection of citizens' safety,” Arias said in statement. “Criminals and mafias know there's no place for them in Costa Rica.”

Among the bill's main initiatives are to develop an information sharing platform for police, assign new functions to the office of attention to crime victims in the Public Security Ministry, build a judicial communications center and form a permanent commission to attend to crisis situations.

Much remains to be done on the funding front for the programs the bill proposes, but for now, Barrantes seems satisfied with the progress.

“We are still missing a lot of things,” he said. “We are lacking money, we are lacking police, but at least it's an advance and now we can start looking ahead.”