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Psychology Conference
For professionals and general public, May 17-18, Hotel Crowne Plaza Corobicí, northwest La Sabana Park. Register at 2271-3101, ext. 102, colpsico.net.

Salsa Concert
Performed by Madera Nueva band, May 17, 9:30 p.m., El Observatorio, Barrio La California, across from Cine Magaly.

Oboe Recital
May 17, 7 p.m., Room 107, School of Music, UCR, San Pedro.

Interested companies have an opportunity this week to comment on plans for opening the Costa Rican cellular telephone market. The plans, prepared by the Telecommunications Superintendency (SUTEL), were released on May 6.

On Friday, potential cellular providers can offer their “commentaries and observations” regarding the 95-page draft drawn up by SUTEL and the Environment, Energy and Telecommunications Ministry (MINAET). According to the plan, the cell phone market should be opened to new competitors within six to nine months. However, up until now, the opening of the market hasn't gone according to plan.

SUTEL had initially planned to begin accepting applications from potential cell phone service providers on Feb. 5, with the hopes approving three companies to provide local cell phone service before ex-president Oscar Arias left office on May 8. However, due to “logistical” problems concerning the availability of wavelength frequencies, SUTEL postponed the Feb. 5 date for accepting applications just hours before it was to go into effect.

The Costa Rican cell market was officially opened on Jan. 1, 2009, when the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) went into effect. CAFTA allowed private companies to compete in the cell phone and internet service market for the first time. Before CAFTA, telecommunications services were the exclusive domain of the state-owned Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE).

As of Thursday, SUTEL reported that applications for entry into the market had been received from cellular service companies based in Europe and Latin America. International service providers Digicel, Millicom, Telefónica, Cable & Wireless, and América Móvil have all expressed interest in operating in Costa Rica. All five currently provide cell phone service in parts of Central America and the Caribbean.

To qualify as a viable competitor in the Costa Rican market, SUTEL requires that interested companies have a minimum of 1.5 million subscribers, have been in operation for at least five years, have operations in more than one country and earn more than $450 million annually. Of the three competitors selected to compete in the Costa Rican market, SUTEL expects each to invest over $1 billion in local operations during their first five years. According to SUTEL, for every dollar invested by the companies, the country is expected to receive an indirect benefit of $4 for infrastructure, transport, marketing, logistics and construction.

Almost 10,000 Costa Ricans are over 90 years old, according to recent demographic data from the Central American Population Center at the University of Costa Rica. Luis Rosero Bixby, a researcher at the center, has followed ageing trends in the country since the 1970s, and has concluded that, for its income level, Costa Rica has one of the most long-lived populations in the world, reported the daily El País.

Rosero's research sparked interest by Dan Buettner, author of the best-selling book “Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest,” published by National Geographic. Buettner traveled to Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula in 2007 with team of scientists and demographers to confirm Rosero's data. Buettner's Blue Zone Project now lists the Nicoya Peninsula along with Sardinia, Italy ; Ikaria, Greece ; and Loma Linda, California as one of the special places on the planet where conditions are allowing people to live beyond 90 and enjoy a higher quality of life.

How is it that Costa Rica, and its Nicoya Peninsula in particular, and have such a long-lived population? The answer is by no means clear or simple. El País quotes Rosero as saying, "For example, obesity levels in elderly men are especially low, but other indicators like blood pressure and cholesterol are not very good in Costa Rica, nevertheless people don't die from that." Buettner's Blue Zone study suggest a diet of whole corn tortillas, beans, and squash, combined with daily physical activity and a close social network contribute to the long and happy lives of an unusually high percentage of Nicoyans.

Some recent findings on youth lifestyles seem to suggest that the pattern of longevity among Nicoyans may be endangered. A recent study of 700 students aged 10-18 in Nicoya, Cañas, Santa Cruz and Liberia was reported on this week by the daily La Nación. The study found that youth watch up to 3.5 hours of TV per day and do less than an hour of exercise. Obesity averaged 14.2 percent, less than the national average for that age group of 21 percent, but a finding that 27.5 percent are underweight led to concerns of malnutrition. According to Pedro Ureña, the study's coordinator, family relations were cited as the most important factor in their quality life, reported La Nación.

Her trial in the United States has come and gone, but Ellen Stubenhaus has no intention of returning to her native country. She's dug in her heels in a Costa Rican prison and has fought off extradition attempts, preferring to bunk with criminals instead of facing the risk of being prosecuted for her political beliefs.

She was arrested in July 2009 because of her connection to the self-help group Pinnacle Quest International (PQI), which was accused by the U.S. government of promoting tax evasion and debt-elimination schemes. In March, her former colleagues received prison sentences of from five to 30 years, with fines of up to a million dollars.

“I have never evaded a tax,” said Stubenhaus, in the courtyard of the Buen Pastor women's prison. “I am here solely because of my political views.”

Stubenhaus, 51, became involved with the group because of its work in alternative medicine. A certified chiropractor, she was attracted to their promotion of unconventional healing methods. She joined the organization's sales team and quickly rose in the group's hierarchy.

But medicine wasn't the only thing the organization had its fingers in. They were also coaching people on how to reduce their taxes, offering ways to get out of debt and hosting forums on topics the U.S. government considered “anti-American,” according to Stubenhaus.

“There was nothing illegal about it. We weren't breaking the law,” she said, explaining that PQI was exercising its first amendment right to free speech under the U.S. constitution.

But prosecutors saw it differently.

Victory S. O. Song, chief of the Internal Revenue Criminal Investigation unit, said PQI wasn't just offering tax advice, it was promoting tax evasion.

“The use of abusive trust schemes and fraudulent debt elimination tactics intended to conceal income from the IRS isn't tax planning; it's criminal activity. There is no secret formula that can eliminate a person's tax obligations,” he said in a statement. “Today's verdict reinforces our commitment to every American taxpayer that we will identify and prosecute those who promote illegal financial transactions designed to evade the payment of taxes.”

Judges sided with the U.S. government in the trial that ended on March 31, with the conviction of eight former PQI executives of tax, wire fraud and money laundering charges. Their final sentences will be dictated on July 6.

However, there was a breakthrough in Stubenhaus' case this week, as Costa Rica's high court ruled that her immigration status in Costa Rica needed to be resolved before she could be extradited to the U.S. Stubenhaus had filed a petition for refugee status in October of last year with the hope that she would be able to leave prison and continue her life in Costa Rica.

For Stubenhaus, the case has nothing to do with taxes and everything to do with constitutional rights, which, she said, the United States is violating.

She added, “This is about freedom of speech and the right to assemble. Period.”

For an earlier Tico Times report on this case, click here.

To see a letter to the editor of The Tico Times written by Stubenhaus, click here.