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Free Film Festival
“A ojos cerrados,” drama, directed by Hernán Jiménez, June 29, 7 p.m., all at Spanish Cultural Center, Barrio Escalante, Av. 13, Ca. 31. Info: 2257-2919, www.ccecr.org.

“Don Quijote”
Play sponsored by the International Baccalaureate Association (Asobitico), co-produced by Terruño Espressivo and England's TNT Theatre, community tour, June 29, high school, Bagaces, Guanacaste.

Theater at Noon
“Ensalada de palabras,” play performed by Teatro Experimental Miraluz, June 29, 12:10 p.m., National Theater, Av. 2, Ca. 3/5. Info: 2221-5341, www.teatronacional.go.cr.

The Sandinista Front's audacious municipal power grab escalated Monday afternoon when riot police and Sandinista sympathizers stormed the municipal building of Boaco and forcibly removed elected mayor Hugo Barquero.

The forced removal of Barquero came on the one-year anniversary of the June 28, 2009 coup in Honduras, which was strongly condemned by the Sandinistas.

“They hit me and dragged me out of the mayor's office,” Barquero told The Nica Times by phone, shortly afterwards. “This is completely illegal, completely illegitimate and unconstitutional.”

Barquero, a Liberal Party dissident allied with opposition leader Eduardo Montealegre, was stripped of his office last week by a questionable resolution passed by the Sandinista-controlled city council – a move the opposition claims is totally illegal.

Barquero, who defeated the Sandinista candidate by 3,000 votes in the 2008 municipal elections, said the Sandinistas had tried to get him to support President Daniel Ortega's re-election efforts next year. When Barquero refused, he was removed from office by the dubious city council resolution and replaced by Ortega supporter Juan Obando.

In the past few months, the Sandinistas have used their considerable resources to buy the loyalty of 56 opposition city council officials and six mayors, all of whom now pledge allegiance to Ortega's party, the FSLN. The ruling party also has forcibly removed four additional mayors through legally questionable city council resolutions (NT, June 18).

The opposition has likened removal of elected mayors to a coup d'état on the municipal level. Barquero, meanwhile, claims he's not done fighting even though he's been physically removed from office. He's calling for a nationwide march on Boaco Wednesday.

Read the July 2 print or digital edition of The Nica Times for more on this story.

The ferry shuttling passengers between the Pacific port of Puntarenas and Paquera, on the Nicoya Peninsula, will have a new schedule next month to accommodate an expected increase in passengers.

From July 1 until Aug. 2, the ferry will run 14 trips a day – seven in each direction – for passengers hoping to cut an hour off their trip between Puntarenas and the Guanacaste beaches. The ferries can accommodate all types of vehicles, from motorcycles and bikes to cars and buses.

The Seaports Division of the Public Works Ministry approved the change. The ferry leaving Puntarenas usually departs from 5 a.m. until 8 p.m. The first departure time will not change, but, starting July 1, the last ferry will leave at 9 p.m. An extra departure will take place in the afternoon. The first Paquera boat leaves at 6 a.m., and the last will depart at 8 p.m.

The authorities expect the scheduled changes will provide for the larger number of passengers expected during July, when most students in Costa Rica will be on holiday after taking their midterm exams. The break will result in a high season in travel. The new schedule lasts until the Dia del Virgen de Los Angeles, a national holiday celebrated Aug. 2.

The costs of the ferry for adults ( ₡ 810, equal to about $1.57) and children ( ₡ 485, or 95 cents) will not change. The cost of the trip for passenger cars will remain at ₡ 6,300.

For more information call 2523-2061.

Ferry schedule Puntarenas-Paquera

A 13-day standoff between resident doctors and the Costa Rican Social Security System (Caja) came to an end on Saturday, when both parties signed an agreement regarding continuing education for physicians.

The strike arose from a disagreement over the terms of service to the Caja – which oversees public health care – by doctors completing training as specialists at the University of Costa Rica. Under the previous system, doctors were required to fulfill a certain number of years of paid service in a post determined by the Caja. If a resident doctor opted out of the position – for example, if they wanted a post that didn't take them out of the city – they were fined ₡ 32 million (about $62,000).

Resident Doctors protested the fine, believing they shouldn't have to pay to work in a post of their choosing, especially after financing their education at the University of Costa Rica (UCR).

“No worker in this country takes on a debt to work,” said Ana Belén, a resident who spoke to The Tico Times Thursday. “And that is what is happening with us here. We are incurring a debt with the Caja.”

Nevertheless, the Caja has argued that a UCR tuition of about ₡ 500,000 ($965) per student per semester only covers a fraction of the cost of medical training, and that a large part of the difference is paid by the Caja.

The agreement reached Saturday requires each medical intern to work for one year based on each year of study. If the resident doctor chooses to work at a post other than that assigned by the Caja, he or she takes an 8 percent pay cut.

The Guatemalan government has suspended work on the Marlin gold and silver mine due to complaints over water contamination.

The Marlin mine is owned by GoldCorp, a Canadian company, and is located on a mountain range 48 kilometers west of the city of Huehuetenango in the northwest corner of the country.

The suspension came last week in response to a resolution issued in May by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) requesting that the Guatemalan government temporarily close the mine. The resolution came after 18 communities near the mine reported contamination of their water supplies.

Two weeks ago, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights for indigenous peoples also recommended that the Guatemalan government suspend operations at the mine.

Preliminary studies from Guatemala's Environment Ministry and the Ministry of Energy and Mines did not find any contaminants in nearby water. The country's Public Health Ministry also reported that no illnesses caused by contamination exist in communities in the area.

The IACHR said it will visit the mine in July to analyze the environmental and health impacts of the mine.