34th Central American Junior Golf Championship
Ages 7-17, Jan. 11-16, Costa Rica Country Club, Escazú, and Cariari Country Club, Heredia, www.anagolf.com.

Adventure Kids Day Camp
Ages 5-12, with bilingual camp and counselors, including horse farm, swimming, arts and crafts, skits and games, Jan. 11-15, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Escazú and Ciudad Colón, 2289-0404, www.ausunkids.com. To sponsor a low-income child for camp or to nominate a child who lives in Escazú for a camp scholarship, write Carol Weir at weircarol@hotmail.com.

Camp
For teens, including swimming, tours, organized by CEPPA, Jan. 11-15, 18-22, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., 2234-0524, info@ceppacr.org.

Vacation Activities
Gymnasium, tennis, crafts, dance, cooking, literature, theater in English, balloon figures, math, Jan. 11-29, 8:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., SEK International School, Cipreses, Curridabat, 2272-5464.

A group of 17 opposition lawmakers headed by congressman Eduardo Montealegre is calling for the impeachment of President Daniel Ortega, following a weekend presidential decree that's being blasted as another brazen violation of Nicaragua's Constitution.

In his first official act of the year, President Ortega, dressed in the presidential sash, issued a decree Saturday to extend the terms of more than a dozen top judges, magistrates and other key government officials, who are scheduled to be replaced within the next six months, according to constitutionally established term limits.

Unable to muster the votes needed in the National Assembly to appoint his people to key posts, Ortega ordered by decree the extension of the current magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), the Supreme Court, the Comptroller General's Office, the Superintendent of Banks, and the Ombudsman's Office, which had already been cleared out last year.

Ortega justified his decree by saying it would contribute to the stability of the country. He blamed the National Assembly of trying to “create chaos” and “paralyze” his government by not proposing candidates or holding elections to replace the officials. The president said if the National Assembly won't elect new officials, then it's his obligation to take actions to prevent chaos.

The opposition, however, claims Ortega's the one creating chaos by overstepping his constitutional boundaries to get what he wants and maintain his quota of power. Montealegre's voting bloc says Ortega has gone too far this time, and needs to be removed from office and brought to justice for violating the Constitution.

"According to the Constitution, President Ortega can be declared incapacitated to continue governing the country (now that he's shown) he can't even follow the most basic attribution of a chief of state, which is to comply with the Constitution and the laws," the opposition "Nicaraguan Democratic Bloc" proclaimed in a statement Sunday evening.

According to the law, all five CSE magistrates and their supplements are scheduled to be replaced in two shifts on Feb. 14 and June 1; all eight comptrollers are to be replaced by Feb. 14; and the terms of four Supreme Court magistrates, including Ortega's main advocate Rafael Solís, ends April 11.

The jolts and spews continued at Costa Rica's Turrialba volcano, about 40 kilometers northeast of San José, as the mountain began to release gas and ash through a new crater that formed at the end of the week.

For several families who were forced to leave their homes, the disruption has followed from their residences along the slope of the grumbling giant to the temporary shelters down the hillside.

As of Friday, officials of the National Emergency Commission (CNE) said the government had ordered evacuations for 40 people, 33 of whom spend their days in the Santa Cruz de Turrialba community center, an old barn with little more than a half-dozen picnic tables inside, and slumber on cots and in sleeping bags in the Santa Cruz church next door. Local volunteers cook three meals everyday for the evacuees. Children play board games and kick soccer balls while parents mull around town talking to neighbors, listening to the radio and waiting for updates about the volcano.

For most of the evacuees, the temporary shelter is the only option.

Greivin Mora, 28, was evacuated from his home in El Retiro on Tuesday. The Costa Rican Red Cross picked up Mora, his two children, two and four, his wife, 22, and his father, 53, in an ambulance and drove them to the Santa Cruz community center.

Mora's dad moved to El Retiro 13 years ago to live and work on a dairy farm. Mora has no other family to speak of and his wife's parents were taken to a separate shelter in La Pastora, about a 10-minute drive from Santa Cruz.

“We aren't really sure where we are going to go,” Mora said. “Right now we are just waiting and praying that everything will work out.”

On Saturday, Costa Rican president Oscar Arias visited the shelter in Santa Cruz and assured the evacuees that more assistance will be on the way shortly.

But for 27-year-old María Sumbrilla, who was evacuated from the town of La Central and is staying with family in La Pastora, more aid isn't what families need, but access to their homes, she said.

“We left a lot of important things in our home,” she said. “Our clothes, food, animals, its all up there and the National Police won't let us in. It's ridiculous. The press show up and they can pass. Ministers and government officials come, and they get access. But the people who have lives up there, they tell us no, you can't pass.”

Sumbrilla vented her frustrations as a National Police officer kept her fenced out of the La Pastora shelter, where her friends and belongings are, on a chilly and drizzly afternoon while Agriculture Minister Javier Flores toured the facility with the press corp.

In response, Flores told The Tico Times that his ministry will “work with the National Police to make sure people can get what they need.”

After showing signs of activity since May 2007, Turrialba erupted with ash and gas Tuesday in a display not seen since 1866. Scientists say it is not likely to flow lava

See the Jan. 15 print or digital edition of The Tico Times for more on this story.

Full Copa: In the singles final Saturday, Monica Puig of Puerto Rico loses to An-Sophie Mestach of Belgium (orange) in a tight game at the under-18 Copa del Café tournament.

Pablo Franceschi | Tico Times

On the final day of the under-18 Copa del Café tennis tournament Saturday, 16-year old Belgian sensation An-Sophie Mestach stole the show. Mestach won two titles that day, beating Monica Puig of Puerto Rico 7-6, 6-3 to win the singles title, and then pairing with Demi Schurrs of the Netherlands to take the doubles title later in the evening.

Mestach entered the tournament as the sixth-seeded player in the singles competition and was seeded fifth in the doubles pairings.

On the boys side, the Canadian duo of Nikolai Haessig and Edward Nguyen overcame Renzo Olivo of Argentina and Sebastian Stiefelmeyer of Austria 7-5, 6-3 to win the doubles competition. In five matches, the unseeded team of Haessig and Nguyen beat the No. 1, 2, 3 and 5 seeded teams to win the title.  

In the singles competition, Olivo bounced back from his earlier doubles defeat and held off Venezuelan Ricardo Rodríguez 7-5, 7-6 to win the individual title. Olivo was the 43rd ranked youth player in the world entering the tournament.   

Saturday's finals concluded the 46th edition of the Copa del Café, which welcomes the world's best tennis stars to Costa Rica each year. The tournament, which was held at the Costa Rica Country Club in Escazú, west of San José, featured 128 male and female players from a tournament-record 49 countries.

Players that compete in the Copa del Café often go on to make their mark on the professional tennis circuit. The tournament touts an impressive list of alumni, including tennis greats such as Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl, 2009 U.S. Open winner Juan Martín del Potro and current tennis king Roger Federer. On the women's side, stars such as Amanda Coetzer and Jana Novotna competed in the Copa del Café.

Perhaps some of the young rising stars competing this week, such as Mestach and Olivo, will experience similar successes in the professional ranks in years to come.