Seminar on Cultural Politics, Research and Innovation
Led by Lázaro Israel Rodríguez of Cuba, for researchers, university professors and students, Feb. 22-26, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Spanish Cultural Center, convocatorias@ccecr.org.

“Arabes y Americanos” Film Festival
“El color de los olivos” (Mexico), 7 p.m., Spanish Cultural Center, Barrio Escalante.

Salsa concert
Madera Nueva, 9 p.m., El Observatorio, Barrio La California, across from Cine Magaly.

While this week's Latin American summit marks Oscar Arias' last meeting with heads of state as Costa Rican president, it will be the first for his replacement, President-elect Laura Chinchilla.

The pair traveled together to the Unity Summit for Latin American and Caribbean Nations (CALC) on Sunday afternoon, arriving in Mexico's Playa del Carmen, south of Cancun, in time for the inaugural dinner.

Chinchilla said she hoped to take advantage of the opportunity to maintain the same quality of diplomatic relations as her predecessor, whose presidency was characterized by a strong emphasis on international affairs.

Often criticized for allocating too much attention to the international front at the expense of domestic affairs, Arias could not say whether Chinchilla, his former vice president, would follow in his footsteps in that regard.

Outside his home on Friday night, he told reporters, “I don't know. I haven't spoken with her about the emphasis she wants to put on foreign relations.”

Speaking about his last regional summit as president, Arias said he regrets it will not include Honduras.

“It's very difficult to aspire to greater unity within the Latin American community if (the summit) excludes a country that recently elected – in a clean, transparent and democratic election – a president like Porfirio Lobo,” he said.

Honduran President Lobo's legitimacy continues to be questioned throughout much of Latin America because he was elected to replace a president who had been forcibly – and in many eyes, wrongly – deposed. And even Arias, who acted as mediator during the conflict that lasted for the better part of 2009, did not attend Lobo's inauguration ceremony last month.

However, on Friday Arias said, “I think that the logical thing to do is to turn the page and analyze the possibilities of diplomatically recognizing a new government as soon as possible.

“The only other choice is to continue to punish the Honduran people and they do not deserve more punishment.”

Google, the most popular Web search engine, is eyeing Costa Rica as a possible location for what would be the company's seventh Latin American site.

Earlier this month, Daniel Gertsacov, the head of new markets for Google in Latin America, visited Costa Rica to meet with government officials, advertising agencies and representatives of the tourism sector to discuss and appraise the country's capacity for online advertising. Gertsacov said Google is analyzing the possibility of opening a new office in Latin America, and that Costa Rica, Panama and Puerto Rico are considered as potential sites for the Internet search giant.

“We are looking to approach new markets to reveal some important tools that we have indentified that businesses are still unaware of,” Gertsacov wrote in a statement to The Tico Times. “More than 90 percent of Google's income comes from online advertising that is conducted in the search engine. We want to promote this in the region and assist companies to know the benefits of online publicity and see the Internet as an ally to conduct business.”

Gertsacov said the creation of a Google office in the region would allow a representative of the company to act as a Google “ambassador” to ensure that the company was communicating and working with companies that could benefit from the services offered. Currently, Google has Latin American locations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and will soon open offices in Peru. According to Gertsacov, Google is drawn to Costa Rica due to its stable economy and the presence of several multinational companies here.

The new destination for Google is expected to be announced in the next few weeks.

Two members of the foreign relations committee of the United States Senate passed through Costa Rica on Friday to meet with President Oscar Arias and President-elect Laura Chinchilla.

Thirty-year senator Chris Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, who recently announced his decision not to seek another term, and his freshman colleague, Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, spent only a few hours with the Costa Rican leadership before leaving for Honduras, where they planned to meet with newly installed Honduran President Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo.

For Dodd, this wasn't his first visit to Costa Rica. He had come in the 1980s for the Arias-led Central American peace talks and returned again when his brother, Thomas J. Dodd Jr., served as ambassador to Costa Rica between 1997 and 2001.

“When I first came to Costa Rica, I had completely black hair,” he said, standing on the doorstep of Arias' home in the western San José neighborhood of Rohrmoser. “Now I have pelo de cana, as they say here.”

Speaking to reporters in Spanish, Dodd said, “We haven't had a country that is a better friend to us than Costa Rica.”

Corker, who was passing through Costa Rica for the first time, called it a “tremendous honor” to meet Nobel Prize winning and second-term president Oscar Arias.

“He is known in our country for having great wisdom,” said the 57-year-old longtime businessman. “When he speaks, we always listen to what he has to say.”

Before leaving to San José's Hotel Corobicí, where they spoke about pending agenda items with President-elect Laura Chinchilla, Dodd praised the Costa Rican people for another “animated election.”

“Congratulations goes not only to (Chinchilla), but also to the people of Costa Rica,” he said. “Seventy percent (turn-out) is incredible. In our country, 52 percent is big.... It's just one more example of what citizens can do.”