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Ut(r)ópicos Film Festival
Video art showings, June 23 and 30, 6 p.m., Contemporary Art and Design Museum, CENAC (FANAL), Av. 3/5, Ca. 11/15.

Art City Tour
Free tour of San José cultural venues, June 23, 6-8 p.m. Info: 2243-4219, 8998-9788, sanchezcm@bccr.fi.cr.

Adventure Kids Day Camp
Ages 5-12, nature activities, sports, crafts, swimming, field trip, bilingual, July 5-9, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Escazú and Ciudad Colón. Info: 2289-0404, advkids@gmail.com.

“Pintando la música costarricense”
Paintings by art students celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Association of Music Composers, through June 30, National Museum, Ca. 17, Av. Ctrl./2, 2257-1433, www.museocostarica.go.cr.

Last fall he was aiming to become the country's first blind president. Now he wants to be the Costa Rican capital city's first blind mayor.

Oscar López, best known for his work in the Legislative Assembly and for starting the Accessibility Without Exclusion Party (PASE), announced his mayoral ambitions Monday.

He will challenge San Jose's current mayor, Johnny Araya of the National Liberation Party, in municipal elections on Dec. 5.

López was not available for comment, but the leader of his party in the Legislative Assembly, Víctor Emilio Granados, told The Tico Times, “We think he's a candidate that brings all the qualities.”

Granados said López's campaign will focus on three areas: making the city more amiable for everyone – especially the disabled – making San José more environmentally friendly and introducing a change in attitude among the people.

“We will work in these three areas, where we believe the city is lacking,” Granados said.

López, (age), who has been blind since birth, achieved wide support during his four years as legislator. Although his presidential bid was unsuccessful, his party gained four seats in the Legislative Assembly.

No other candidate has yet announced their intention to run for mayor of San José.

The U.S. State Department listed Costa Rica as a tier two country in its 10th annual report on human trafficking released this month.

The ranking, the second that uses the report's three-tier system, grades countries based on their compliance with the United States' Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act. As a tier two country, Costa Rica “does not fully comply with the act's minimum standards, but is making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.”

Third tier countries are the worst offenders.

Since the report's inception in 2001, Costa Rica has consistently been listed as a tier two country, with the exception of 2008, when the country fell to the tier two watch list, signaling a decrease in compliance or a significant increase in the number of victims.

Female sex slaves, some of whom are under 18 years old, account for the majority of human trafficking victims in Costa Rica, according to the report. Women and girls from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Colombia and Panama have been subject to forced prostitution in Costa Rica. The report calls child sex tourism here “a serious problem.”

Men, women and children are also victims of forced labor in the agriculture, construction and fishing sectors, according to the report.

The report commended Costa Rica for ensuring basic assistance to trafficking victim, but determined that the country has implemented “no proactive efforts to search for trafficking victims.”

The report recommends that Costa Rica “vigorously implement anti-trafficking statutes” and “intensify efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses.”

Costa Rica's neighbors, Nicaragua and Panama, are both listed under the tier two watch list ranking in this year's report. Colombia, having complied with all of the U.N.'s minimum requirements to fight trafficking, is the only Latin American country that was ranked as a tier one country in this year's report.

Laura Chinchilla is using an innovative approach to address her central campaign promise of increased citizen security: she's asking citizens themselves to help draw the roadmap.

Last Wednesday at the Children's Museum in downtown San José, with over 400 people in attendance, she inaugurated Polsepaz, a process of developing an “Integral and Sustainable Citizen Security Policy and the Promotion of Social Peace in Costa Rica.”

The process is being coordinated by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and involves town meeting-type sessions throughout the country, as well as workshops and a variety of other channels, to collect public opinion.

People can give input on the topic over the next month via a telephone line (800-444-4444), a Facebook page, (Polsepaz Seguridad Ciudadana) an e-mail address (info@polsepaz.org) and a page on the UNDP website with questions open for comment, documents and other information related to the issue of citizen security and the consultation process (www.pnud.or.cr).

The UNDP is applying expertise in promoting citizens' participation in developing security plans and programs gained in developing similar processes in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Brazil.

The idea is to bring citizen security measures in line with the democratic aspirations of the country. As the 2009-2010 UNDP Human Development Report states, “Citizen security and justice systems that are intelligent and respectful of the democratic state provide for more genuine and solid security.”

At the kick-off of the process last week, Polsepaz Coordinator Lara Blanco presented data from a Latinobarómetro poll last year in which 33 percent of Costa Ricans said citizen insecurity was their biggest concern.

Currently on the UNDP's website are three questions to which people can respond:

Danilo Mora, UNDP press officer, said opinions submitted in languages other than Spanish will be translated and incorporated into the findings.

The process will conclude in mid-August when the UNDP will turn in its policy recommendations based on the information collected. The expected outcome is a comprehensive crime prevention and management plan based on input from a cross-section of society, from individuals to community groups to businesses and everything in between, according to the UNDP.