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Art City Tour
A tour visiting main museums and theaters of San José, April 21, 6 p.m., leaving from San José Cultural Center, 300 m. north, 300 m. east of Santa Teresita Church, Barrio Escalante. Further information at 2211-7872.

Concert for the Environment
Performed by Soniclaje band which uses musical instruments made of recycling materials, April 21, 7 p.m., Spanish Cultural Center, Barrio Escalante, Av. 13, Ca. 31. Info: 2257-2919, www.ccecr.org

Round Table “Climate Change, Women and Development”
April 21, 2-4 p.m., Auditorium of La Salle University, South Sabana Park. Info: 2271-3101, ext. 111, 106, congreso@colpsico.net

The Nicaraguan-American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) is accusing the Sandinistas of promoting “terrorism” after a mob of President Daniel Ortega's supporters attacked the Holiday Inn yesterday with rocks and improvised explosives fired from homemade mortars.

The Sandinista mob blocked off the street and fired explosives at the Holiday Inn Tuesday morning in protest of what they claim was an “illegal” congressional session convoked inside the hotel by opposition lawmakers.

Led by four of the seven members of the legislative directorate, 48 lawmakers from the Liberal Constitutional Party, the Vamos con Eduardo party and the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) convened a special congressional session inside the Holiday Inn to introduce a bill to annul President Daniel Ortega's controversial decree extending the periods of 25 top magistrates and administration officials.

In the absence of Sandinista lawmakers, the opposition voted unanimously to send the bill to the Liberal-controlled Commission on Justice, skirting the ruling Sandinista party's attempts to block the measure.

Assembly President Rene Núñez, a Sandinista, declared the congressional session illegal. He said congress must convene in the National Assembly, and cannot hold votes in the Holiday Inn.

Opposition lawmaker and fellow directorate leader Wilfredo Navarro, however, defended the opposition's tactical move, arguing “The National Assembly is not a physical location, but rather the majority of the lawmakers.”

The opposition had secretly decided to hold the session in the Holiday Inn in response to the Sandinistas' announced march on the National Assembly yesterday. When the Sandinistas discovered the session was being convened in the Holiday Inn, they quickly turned the march around and went to the hotel, which they attacked with explosives, breaking at least one window and terrifying guests.

Three Liberal Party lawmakers reportedly suffered injuries when the Sandinista mob attacked their vehicle as it attempted to leave after the session ended.

Also injured was Nicaragua's business climate and the rule of law, as the government continues to unravel.

AMCHAM responded swiftly to the attack against the Holiday Inn, one of its members, by “firmly and energetically denouncing the vandalism perpetuated by agents of the ruling party, whose gangsterism and delinquent attitude put at risk the security and lives” of the hotel's clients and staff.

AMCHAM blamed the “executive branch” for promoting “terrorist actions that don't contribute at all to a solution to the serious institutional crisis provoked by personal ambitions and party interests.”

The business chamber once again called on police and the state prosecutors to do their jobs to protect the peace and prosecute those who break the law.

Read the April 23 edition of the Nica Times for more on Nicaragua's crisis of governability and culture of violence.

San José will host an international medical tourism conference beginning next Tuesday. Costa Rica is one of the leading countries in medical tourism, the practice of traveling to a foreign country for cost-efficient medical treatment.

The three-day Latin American Global Medicine and Wellness Congress will focus on attracting business from the region's principal market, the United States. Twenty countries are slated to participate, and close to 500 attendees are expected at the Hotel Ramada Herradura Convention Center in San Jose.

Even with the health care reform bill passing in the United States last month, medical tourism providers maintained a positive outlook on the industry (TT – March 23, 2010). Some providers say the bill will increase the number of underinsured Americans, who will look abroad for treatment.

According to a study by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, 750,000 Americans traveled internationally for health care in 2007, and that number could increase to six million in 2010. The Costa Rican Tourism Board estimated 95 percent of medical tourists that come to Costa Rica are from the United States.

The recently-passed U.S. health care reform bill requires all U.S. citizens to have health insurance by 2014. Several U.S. medical tourism facilitators and insurance companies will give presentations at the event while Costa Rica in recent years has pushed marketing of its top-ranked medical facilities in order to bring in more patients from abroad.

Brazil, Cuba and Mexico are considered Costa Rica's biggest competitors in the medical tourism business, and organizers of the event hope the conference will give Costa Rica an advantage. The congress will offer tours of the country's medical facilities and place an emphasis on Costa Rica's eco-friendly image as ideal for treatment and recovery.

Officials from the U.S. Embassy, U.S. State Department, the Costa Rican Public Security Ministry and the Police celebrated the beginning of construction of a $3 million facility for the Costa Rican coast guard that includes a command station, barracks, a floating pier, and a renovated marine maintenance facility. The Costa Rican Coast Guard plans to transfer its operations from Puntarenas to the Caldera station upon the base's completion in January 2011.

Anne Slaughter Andrews, U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica, noted in her speech in Caldera today that "the Coast Guard will now be better positioned to rescue mariners in distress, enforce fishing regulations, and safeguard Costa Rica's rich marine ecosystems for future generations." Over the past eight years, the U.S. government has donated high speed boats to the Costa Rican Coast Guard, replaced or renovated existing patrol boats and created a communications node for information-sharing. The U.S. has also provided training for Costa Rican police forces, having trained 102 officials in U.S. schools and 214 officials here in Costa Rica by bringing in experts from the United States.

Since its inception, Costa Rica's ten-year-old coast guard has been working closely with the U.S. Costa Guard on everything from narcotics seizures to rescues of migrants at sea, as well as illegal fishing seizures and search-and-rescue missions. The two countries signed the U.S.-Costa Rica Maritime Cooperation Agreement in 1999, the first of its kind in Central America. The U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) website describes the agreement, known as the "Joint Patrol," as an operation that aims to "increase intelligence sharing and coordination in counter-drug activities."

The United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) is responsible for contingency planning, operations and security cooperation for Latin America. Located in Miami, Florida, SOUTHCOM is a joint command comprised of more than 1,200 military and civilian personnel from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and several other federal agencies. It is one of ten unified Combatant Commands (COCOMs) in the Department of Defense.

"The U.S. Coast Guard believes that two-thirds of the illegal drug traffic moving through the region does so on boats, including small coastal freighters, fishing vessels and the small swift vessels called 'go-fasts,'" according to information on the US SOUTHCOM website.