Happy Halloween!

Torre Geko Halloween Party 2009
Oct. 30, 8 p.m., Torre Geko, Real Cariari Mall, Ciudad Cariari, Heredia, www.todoticketcr.com. 

Jacó annual Halloween masquerade ball
Oct. 30, 10 p.m., Hotel Docelunas, Jacó, Puntarenas, 2643-2195.

Heredia costume contest
7 p.m., ProFitness, Paseo de las Flores Mall, Heredia, tickets on sale at the front desk.

Jacó Halloween costume party
Midnight Spaghetti band, Oct. 30, 10 p.m., ¢10,000, costume contest. Free haunted house for kids, 6 – 9 p.m., DoceLunas, Quebrada Seca in Jacó.

White House Halloween party
Live DJ, dancing, burgers, hot dogs, prizes for best costumes, Oct. 31, 8 p.m., White House Hotel, San Antonio, Escazú, 600 m south of cemetery, 2288 6362.

10th International Baroque Music Festival
Oct. 30 – Castella Conservatory Symphony, violinists Pitter Niechet and Israel Carrillo, flutist David Arroyo, 7:30 p.m., Santa Ana Church. Oct. 31 – Ensamble Barroco de Costa Rica, 7:30 p.m., EMAI Auditorium, Santa Ana; Camino y Voces de Venezuela, 7:30 p.m., Cartago Basilica, Cartago. Nov. 1 – EMAI Orchestras, Camino y Voces de Venezuela, 7:30 p.m., Santa Ana Church.

6th Regional Young Dancers Festival
Oct. 30-Nov. 1, workshops with international groups, 10 a.m.; cimarrona and mascarada, 1 p.m., Carmona, Nandayure, Guanacaste.

‘Ultima gota (Conexiones)'
Music, theater, dance show, Oct. 30-Nov. 15, Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 5 p.m., Barrio Amón, Ca. 7, Av. 11, next to TEOR/éTica, 8838-5110, 8819-4203.

National Mascarada Day Celebration
Oct. 31, 9 a.m., Parque Alberto Manuel Brenes, San Ramón, Alajuela.

3rd Somos Creadores Festival
Mask and painting workshops, exhibits, Oct. 31-Nov. 1, 9 a.m.-7 p.m., Casa Cultural, San Vito, Coto Brus, Southern Zone.

5th Annual Festival of Dance
Ballet, contemporary, Latin, hip-hop and more, Oct. 31, 7 p.m., Salón Parroquial, church, Atenas, 2446-7735.

Globetrotters in Costa Rica
Nov. 1, at 2 and 5 p.m., Palacio de los Deportes, Heredia, www.costaricaticket.com. 

National and International Masquerades and Giants
With concerts by La Solución and Son de Tikizia, souvenirs, traditional food, folklore dances, Nov. 1, 11 a.m., Aserrí Park.

2009 Pacacua Customs and Traditions Fair
Dances, music, souvenirs, Oct. 31, 2-7 p.m.; Nov. 1, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Municipal Market, Ciudad Colón.

‘1, 2, 3, a jugar otra vez'
Interactive show for children, through Nov. 1, Sun., 11 a.m., 2 p.m., Variedades Theater.

MANAGUA – The streets of Nicaragua's capital once again became an unruly mob scene Thursday as roving bands of masked Sandinista youth, party fanatics and state workers took to the streets to protest what they claim is “U.S. interventionism” in their country's internal political affairs.

A group of several hundred Sandinistas protested aggressively outside the U.S. Embassy, launching mortars at the embassy building and spray painting anti-U.S. and pro-Sandinista graffiti on embassy property. Vandals, many of whom were bussed in for the protest, broke embassy security cameras, exterior lighting and attempted to destroy the signage for U.S. Consular Services.

Nicaraguan police assigned to protect the embassy stood by watching and didn't intervene, even when protesters spray painted the embassy walls next to where they were leaning.

In other parts of the capital, streets were blocked by similar protesters in several points in the city, prompting the United Nations to issue a warning to its employees to avoid affected areas.

“Death to the yanquis ! Death to the empire!” screamed one Sandinista Youth leader into a microphone outside the U.S. Embassy. Others yelled revolutionary slogans once used against the Somoza dictatorship in the 1970s.

Protesters – many of whom were masked and some wielding sticks, bats or rocks – demanded the ouster of U.S. Ambassador Robert Callahan in response to a speech he gave Oct. 28 to the Nicaraguan-American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM), in which he reiterated the U.S. government's concerns over the state of democracy in Nicaragua

In his speech to the business chamber Wednesday afternoon, Callahan questioned the controversial ruling by Sandinista magistrates in the Supreme Court to overturn a constitutional ban on consecutive reelection and clear the way for President Daniel Ortega to run again in 2011 (NT, Oct. 30).

“From our point of view, the Supreme Court acted improperly and with unusual speed, in secret, with the participation judges from only one political movement and without any public debate or discussion,” Callahan said. “We think that an issue of such importance and concern for the future of Nicaragua's democracy deserves due deliberation and analysis.”

The Sandinistas responded furiously.

“That gringo can't tell us what to do,” said Andres Castillo, one of the Sandinista protesters outside the embassy Thursday afternoon.

“Let Nicaragua resolve Nicaragua's problems,” said another protester, Silvia Reyes. “This is the restitution of the rights of the people,” she said of Ortega's reelection, repeating the party line verbatim.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman declined to comment on the violence yesterday. But AMCHAM president Roger Arteaga told The Nica Times that the ambassador had called him to tell him what had happened and warn him that AMCHAM might also be targeted for similar vandalism.

AMCHAM responded by sending its staff home for the day and talking with police.

Arteaga, meanwhile, lamented the violence and the increasingly instability of Nicaragua.

“Attacking the U.S. Embassy is not going to resolve the problems of Nicaragua,” he said.

“When ideas run out, the only thing left is force. And this government has run out of ideas.”

Costa Rica's jobless rate has reached its highest level in more than 20 years, jumping to 7.8 percent in 2009, up from 4.9 percent in 2008, according to a study released Thursday morning by the National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC).

According to INEC's Multipurpose Household Survey, of the 4,318,115 people in the country, 2,121,451 were employed in July of this year, which is when the study was conducted. In 2009, there were 64,039 more unemployed citizens in the country than in 2008.

Officials recorded the highest unemployment rate in 1982, when an economic crisis made jobless numbers skyrocket to 9.4 percent. The rate proceeded to fall in 1983 and '84, when it hit 7.9.

This year is the first time it has grazed that mark since.

The percentage of households living in poverty this year also increased to 18.5 percent in 2009, up from 17.7 percent last year.

“It's never good news to have this type of growth in the unemployment and poverty rates,” said the Minister of the Presidency Rodrigo Arias. “Above all we should keep in mind that behind the numbers there are people and families.”

Breaking down the total, INEC found that the unemployment rate of women rose from 6.2 percent to 9.9 percent, while the unemployment rate of men rose from 4.2 percent to 6.6 percent.

The Central Valley's unemployment rate is 7.5 percent. The highest unemployment rate, 10.1 percent, was recorded in the Chorotega/Guanacaste region.

The Central Valley also recorded the lowest rate of poverty, at 15.3 percent. The highest poverty rate was in the Brunca/Puntarenas region. Over 30 percent of the population was considered to be living in poverty, with 8.5 percent considered to be experiencing extreme poverty.

“We have to remember that Costa Rica, like the rest of the world, has lived the last few months in the wake of the worst economic crisis of the last decades,” Arias said. “Thanks to the responsibility in the management of the national economy … the figures in our country and much less than in other nations.”

Responding to a bridge collapse in the central Pacific last week, the Municipality of Santo Domingo de Heredia closed one of its suspension bridges along a popular shortcut from San José.

Engineers from the municipality noticed defects in the bridge after a recent survey, leading Mayor Raúl Isidro Bolaños to close it on Wednesday.

“It's a preventive decision, which will give technicians a chance to do a full evaluation to determine the structural condition,” said Bolaños. “If the technicians determine there's no problem, we will open it. But we don't want to incur risks.”

Bolaños said his decision was prompted by an incident in Turrubares last Thursday that killed five people. Long over due for repairs, that bridge over the Tárcoles River snapped under the weight of a bus.

“When situations like this occur, it's a good signal for us to take preventive measures,” he said.

The route connecting San José to Heredia will remain open, but traffic will be directed over a newer one-lane bridge built alongside the suspension bridge.