Subscribe to our Daily News RSS feed.

Read the Daily News on your mobile device.

Newcomers Club of Costa Rica “Kickoff” Meeting, Sept. 7, 9:30 a.m., Cariari Country Club, Ciudad Cariari, 2249-4003, 2416-1111, costaricaporo@yahoo.com, ctbookhout@yahoo.com.

Theater at Noon
Miravalles Quintet, Sept. 7 at 12:10 p.m., National Theater.

Syntagma Musicum in Concert
Sept. 7, 7 p.m., Room 107, School of Music, UCR, San Pedro.

A joint project between Panama and Costa Rica marks the first product of the European Union-Central America Association Agreement, an aid and trade accord between the regions signed in May.

Announced at a meeting of the Central American Integration System (SICA) in Guatemala last week, the project with Panama aims to strengthen border security, promote greater connectivity and facilitate integrated management and information sharing in border areas. 

The €5.5 million ($7 million) initiative will be funded primarily by the European Union and is the first project between SICA and the EU, according to the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry.

Border processes in Costa Rica have historically been slow and bureaucratic, a circumstance that Rafael Sánchez, a London-based analyst and author of “The Politics of Central American Integration” doesn't see changing.

“Integration should mean that people can travel wherever they want within a region,” Sánchez told The Tico Times last year. “But countries like Costa Rica and Panama want to control who enters their countries. There is resistance, and there has always been resistance.”

Asked whether Central America could ever be similar to a European Union, Sánchez responded without hesitation, “It's unthinkable that Central America could ever achieve the same level of integration, especially when there is opposition to the free movement of people and goods. Yet, the EU is the model and it will remain the model” (TT, Sept. 18).

After nearly three years of talks, negotiations for an Association Agreement came to a successful close in May. The agreement is expected to increase trade between the two regions, encourage Central American integration and boost emergency preparedness. It is the first region-to-region pact ever negotiated by the European Union.

“Assalamu alaykum,” says Yusef Sánchez in greeting as he walks through the doors of the Muslim Cultural Center in Guadalupe, a suburb just northeast of San José. Sánchez is one of few Costa Rican converts to the Islamic faith. Active in their religion, he, his wife and baby son journey from their home in the central Pacific town of Jacó every Friday, the Islamic holy day, to attend meetings at the only mosque in Costa Rica.

Sánchez estimates that he is one of maybe 20 Ticos who make up a small portion of the country's total Muslim population, a tiny minority in a country that is 90 percent Christian.

Attending a typical Friday worship service are immigrants from Germany, Lebanon, Egypt, Pakistan, France and Palestine, among others. Sánchez's wife is from the U.S. city of Chicago.

Either on Thursday or Friday, depending on the moon, Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, will end in a celebration Eid ul-Fitr. Ramadan is a period of increased piety in which Muslims abstain from food, drink and sexual relations and other activities from sunrise to sunset. In addition to fasting they actively look for opportunities to give to the poor. Muslims participate in these activities to teach themselves humility, spirituality and tolerance.

Dr. Abdulfatah Sasa Mahmoud, secretary of the Muslim Cultural Center and a Palestinian refugee who has been living in Costa Rica since 1973, said Muslims should always be generous, but especially during the month of Ramadan.

Every Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m., the center holds a free class on Muslim culture, and gives tours of the Muslim Cultural Center, which is located in Guadalupe, 700 meters north and 500 meters west of the tribunals, one block west of the Santa Mónica elementary school. Everyone is welcome.

For more on this story, see the Sept. 10 print or digital edition of The Tico Times.

Costa Rican sprinter Nery Brenes continued his recent run of international track success this weekend, taking gold in the 4x400 meter relay at the Continental Cup in Split, Croatia on Sunday. Brenes has won four gold medals in the last six weeks.

On Sunday, Brenes ran the first leg of the relay for the Americas team, which included U.S. runners Bershawn Jackson and Greg Nixon, as well as Jamaican Ricardo Chambers. Running against teams from Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Europe, Brenes was pitted in the first leg of the relay against British runner Michael Bingham, who has the fastest recorded 400-meter time in Europe this year. After falling behind Bingham during the first 200-meters, Brenes caught and passed Bingham in the final 200 meters, handing the baton off to Jackson in first place. Brenes' 400-meter leg was clocked at 45.30 seconds.

In the second leg, Jackson fell behind European runner Kevin Borlée, but Nixon regained the lead in the third leg and Chambers sealed the win with a blurring final lap. The Americas' time of 2 minutes, 59 seconds broke the competition's previous record in the 4x400 relay of 2:59:12.

Since winning Costa Rica's only gold medal at the Central American and Caribbean Games in the 400-meter run in July, Brenes has gone on to win gold in the 400-meter run at the Diamond League competition in Brussels, Belgium in August, and at an international competition in Zagreb, Croatia on Sept. 1. Brenes also won silver in the same race at an event in Berlin, Germany on Aug. 22. 

Brenes, who competed in the 400-meter race at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China, will run again in a competition in Milan, Italy on Sept. 9 and in Kawasaki, Japan on Sept. 17.