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Pavel Lominchar: “Ilusiones de Mujeres”
March 25, 7 p.m., Enmarcarte, San Rafael, Escazú, opposite Scotiabank. Info: 2228-4853.

Art Exhibit Opening
Guido Sáenz and Rafael Bello: Paintings, jewelry, March 25, 7:30 p.m., Country Art Café, Costa Rica Country Club, Escazú. Info: 2208-5016.

Piano and Oboe Concert
March 25, 5 p.m., National Theater.

Alajuela National Band and Róger Morales in Concert
March 25, 7:30 p.m., Central Park, Alajuela.

12 th International Arts Festival
“El pentagrama de Zagre,” play by the Zagreb Youth Theater (Croatia), March 25, 8 p.m., National Theater. “Leonardo,” dance show by Yoshua Cienfuegos and the National Dance Company (Spain, C.R.), March 25, 8 p.m., Melico Salazar Theater. Humberto Vargas, María Pretiz, Bernardo Quesada (C.R.), and Javier Ruibal (Spain), March 25, 6 p.m., La Sabana Park Stage. Capoeira exhibition, March 25, 4 p.m. and monologue show, 5 p.m., La Sabana Park, El Farolito Stand.

For three long months, sugar producers have been unable to sell their products in the United States due to a piece of legislation that they claim has little to do with them.

Rigoberto Vega, legal director of the sugary industry advocacy group Laica, estimates the industry has lost nearly a million dollars, which could rise to $3.6 million if action isn't taken quickly.

“The industry has suffered losses that can't be recuperated,” Vega said. “We are frustrated and upset, and we think it's unjust.”

A suspension of imports of Costa Rican sugar into the U.S. was imposed in January after the Legislative Assembly delayed the passage of an amendment which was to be the final piece of the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).

The Arias administration hopes the final law will move through congress this week, so that the U.S.-imposed sugar ban will be lifted in April.

“We are very close to completing the free trade agreement,” Rodrigo Arias, presidency minister, said in a press conference on Wednesday.

The final amendment, which relates to copyrights, took a step forward on Tuesday, when legislators approved it 26-13 in a preliminary vote after the bill's first debate on the floor of the assembly. But continued opposition threatens to delay the final vote, and opponents have sent a query to the Supreme Court questioning the constitutionality of the amendment.

Legislators with the Citizen Action Party (PAC) and the Libertarian Movement are concerned about the language of the law and its effect on the agrochemical business.

A statement from PAC legislators accused the law of valuing the rights of transnational corporations over the interests of small and mid-sized local businesses.

Not only would it enforce strong fines on persons who perform or interpret songs protected by law (such as karaoke establishments and mariachi bands), they said, but it would also give exclusivity rights to large agrochemical producers, thereby driving up costs for farmers, and consequently consumers.

The final amendment of CAFTA needs a simple majority to pass second debate and leaders within the majority party, the National Liberation Party hope to push it through this week, before the Holy Week recess.

In a statement Wednesday, the United States Embassy said it “welcomes the news that he 14th CAFTA bill has passed first debate in the legislative assembly.”

Once formal approval is complete, the statement read, the United States will need a month before it restores the sugar quota, which is 11,880 metric tons under CAFTA.

Vega said he's not blaming the United States for the sugar ban.

“We think the solution is in the Legislative Assembly,” he said. “We are hoping that it will be approved, and we are going to keep pressing until it is.”

Electricity rates for Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) customers nationwide will increase by an average of 10 percent within the next five days, the Public Services Regulatory Authority (ARESEP) announced on Wednesday. The price increase, which was requested by ICE, will be applied to electricity distribution, transmission and public lighting.

According to ARESEP, the increase in the electricity rates was approved to ensure that ICE will have sufficient funding to finance investments, complete expansion and plant refurbishing projects and to construct hydroelectric generators. ARESEP stated that the approximate annual cost needed to run ICE is ₡ 45 billion (around $85 million).

Residential electricity costs will rise from ₡ 75.44 per kilowatt hour to ₡ 83.48. Commercial and business electricity costs will rise over ₡ 10 per kilowatt hour.

The cost of the transmission of electricity will increase 17.4 percent, distribution will rise10.35 percent and public lighting will go up 12.87 percent.

José Miguel Insulza will continue as secretary general of the Organization of the American States (OAS) after his re-election Wednesday, which came as no surprise – he was the only candidate.

Chile's former foreign minister, Insulza is finishing his first five-year term as head of the world's oldest regional organization, according to the OAS Web site. His tenure became more tumultuous as world events dragged the OAS into center stage. Notably, the organization under Insulza sought to heal severed relations with Cuba and restore the presidency of an ousted member, former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. Despite aggressive work, it failed in both these missions.

Insulza was forced into exile for 15 years after the overthrow of Chilean President Salvador Allende. A former professor and lawyer, with a master's degree in political science from the University of Michigan, in the U.S., the OAS chief has vowed to work to never let military coups, such as the one suffered by his homeland, happen again.

But while working to be the region's democratic watchdog, the 66-year-old Insulza has been selective about when to bark. When The Tico Times asked Insulza about the controversial push for re-election by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and a list of officials and judges loyal to him, which many charge is illegal, Insulza said, “I won't comment on this issue because it corresponds to the constitution of (that) country.”

He added, “The better part of a democracy is re-election, and so I don't see re-election as an assault on democracy.”

Insulza has taken criticism for missing opportunities to intervene in countries like Venezuela when political and press freedoms have come into question. In February, an editorial in The Washington Post, a leading U.S. newspaper, urged the Barack Obama administration to “press for change at the OAS,” the headline read. The editorial went on to say, “A Chilean socialist, Mr. Insulza has unabashedly catered to the region's left-wing leaders – which has frequently meant ignoring the democratic charter” the organization adopted in 2001.

There had been some doubt about whether Insulza would receive a thumbs-up from the United States, site of the OAS headquarters and that supplies as much as three-fifths of its funding. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton confirmed that the Obama administration supports his re-election, according to newswire EFE.

While accepting the organization's vote of confidence Wednesday, Insulza said he remains committed to work for democracy, human rights, public security and other values outlined in the democratic charter.

“I believe we have made progress in many of these (areas), more than is sometimes acknowledged outside the organization,” he said during the 39th Special General Assembly of the OAS. “But we can still make a big effort to improve our work, to make sure that all the resources our states contribute at great sacrifice are well utilized, and to seek more external resources.”