American Airlines has started selling, through its website, trips to Havana, Cuba, starting June 6, 2020.
On its website, the airline offers 4 flights daily between Miami (MIA) and La Habana (HAV), with prices starting at US$207, round trip.
However, flights are not guaranteed because the last word is with the Cuban aviation authorities, which currently maintains closed the Havana airport (from early April) until further notice due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the event that they do not reopen, American Airlines has announced that passengers can change their tickets, without penalty, if purchased prior to May 31, 2020.
For more info visit the American Airlines website:c.
FILE PHOTO: Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are seen inside Oxitec laboratory in Campinas, Brazil, February 2, 2016. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker
BOGOTA (Reuters) – As the coronavirus kills thousands and dominates government attention across Latin America, another deadly viral infection is quietly stalking the region.
FILE PHOTO: Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are seen inside Oxitec laboratory in Campinas, Brazil, February 2, 2016. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker
Dengue – colloquially called breakbone fever for the severe joint pain it causes – is endemic in much of Latin America, but COVID-19’s arrival has pulled crucial attention and resources away from the fight against it, doctors and officials say.
The Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) expects 2020 to be marked by high rates of dengue, which can fill intensive care units and kill patients even absent the pressures of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Around the world, COVID-19 has affected other diseases in different ways. Though in Europe measures to stop the coronavirus have banished seasonal flu, in Africa border closures have stopped transportation of measles vaccines and other supplies.
In Latin America, a dengue epidemic which started in late 2018 is still being felt. Dengue infections in the Americas surged to an all-time high of 3.1 million in 2019, with over 1,500 deaths in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the PAHO.
Cases of the disease should begin to decline in the second half of the year, the organization said.
Spread by mosquitoes, dengue outbreaks typically occur three to five years after the previous epidemic.
And with four strains of dengue in circulation, people may catch it more than once, with second cases more likely to be severe.
“COVID is the star right now, so all of the attention is being put on COVID, but there are still problems with dengue,” said Doctor Jaime Gomez, who works at a hospital in Floridablanca, in Colombia’s Santander province.
Although dengue is not usually fatal and can be treated with painkillers, some sufferers deal with persistent symptoms like fatigue, weight loss, and depression that affect their ability to work. Severe dengue is treated with intravenous fluids and those who do not get tested are at risk of dangerous complications.
Such medical intervention cannot be given if patients stay home, worried about contracting the coronavirus, or if overcrowded hospitals have to turn them away.
With relatively few cases of COVID-19 in the province where he works, Gomez said his clinic had seen hospitalizations fall by half, as people were fearful of venturing outdoors.
‘SYSTEM HAS COLLAPSED’
Paraguayan lawyer Sonia Fernandez avoided seeking care when she and her two daughters, ages 11 and 8, got sick with dengue at the beginning of April.
“All three of us had dengue, we had all the symptoms, the pain, the rash, but we didn’t go to a clinic or a health center so as not to expose ourselves (to COVID-19),” Fernandez said.
All three have since recovered.
Dengue cases in Paraguay have exploded this year. In the first 18 weeks of 2020, the country reported 42,710 confirmed cases and 64 deaths, compared to 384 confirmed cases and six deaths in the year-earlier period.
In Ecuador, where the coronavirus outbreak has hit hard and hospitals in the largest city of Guayaquil been overwhelmed, an apparent fall in the number of dengue cases could mask other issues.
According to Ecuador’s health ministry, dengue cases peaked at 888 in the week ending March 14, two weeks after the country confirmed its first case of COVID-19. For the week of April 4, they fell to 257.
“Very clearly dengue is being under-reported,” said Esteban Ortiz, global health researcher at Quito’s University of the Americas.
“Cases haven’t decreased, the diagnosis of cases has decreased, which confirms the system has totally collapsed,” he added.
Ecuador’s health ministry said in a statement that the country was no more exposed to the double impact of COVID-19 and dengue than any other in the region, adding it has sufficient supplies to treat cases of the mosquito-borne disease.
Dengue has also spiked sharply in Central America. Cases in Costa Rica nearly tripled through May 1 compared with a year ago, to over 2,000.
“We are going through a difficult moment dealing with COVID-19 but unfortunately other diseases continue their cycle,” Rodrigo Marin, director of Costa Rica’s health surveillance agency, recently told journalists.
In Panama, where dengue has caused at least two deaths this year, Panama City health official Yamileth Lopez also sounded the alarm in an interview with Reuters.
Once airports and borders open again and people are able to fly freely — a process already in play as airports of all sizes around the world ready strategies to ensure healthy air travel — how much are you ready to change your flying habits?
As much as was required after 9/11? Less? More?
Considering some of the changes already happening and the many more recommended before airports can reopen safely to commercial routes, experts are referring to the coronavirus pandemic as ‘the new terrorism,’ triggering the biggest crisis the airline industry has ever faced.
Let’s start with the entire process of checking in for flights, which some calculate that it could take up to four hours and involving social distancing, sanitation of passengers and luggage, wider spaces for various lines and waiting to board.
Nine out of 10 experts expect slower turnarounds between flights due to the need of thorough cleaning of cabins and following of sanitary measures at airports.
In the short run, though, it’s expected that reduced passenger numbers and airlines traveling to a smaller pool of destinations may reduce delays.
A person walks through a near empty John F. Kennedy Airport where some national and international flights are still departing and arriving, although many have been cancelled due to a lack of passengers and restrictions on global travel.
What You Can Expect
Among the steps under consideration: no cabin bags, no lounges, no automatic upgrades, face masks, surgical gloves, self-check-in, self-bag-drop-off, immunity passports, on-the-spot blood tests and sanitation disinfection tunnels.
Digital technologies and automation will play a critical role in the future of air travel. The need to reduce “touchpoints” at airports implies mandatory use of biometric boarding that allows passengers to board planes with only their face as a passport.
A number of airlines including British Airways, Qantas and EasyJet already are using the technology.
According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), “the ‘new normal’ at major airports, such as Heathrow, JFK and Singapore Changi will include almost exclusive use of online check-ins, and contactless payments.
Then there are the radical changes the airports will have to make starting most probably with stopping non-fliers from entering at all except for unaccompanied minors or others who need assistance.
They will need more extensive all-biometric check-in systems and efficient DYI for dropping off bags, ‘travel bubbles,’ or tunnels for disinfection. (After being checked in, luggage may also be put through a disinfection fogging tunnel). They also must install demarcation of the spaces for social distancing in corridors and concourses, larger spaces for queues and waiting, plexiglass or other protective barriers at customer service counters, hand sanitation stations and thermal scanning to check crowds for fever-grade body temperatures, which already are in use in some major airports.
“Only those ‘fit to fly’ will be allowed to enter,” predicts the airline strategy firm SimpliFlying, in a recent report, where it identifies more than 70 different areas in the passenger journey that “are expected to either change or to be introduced from scratch, including having bags ‘sanitagged’ after going through fogging, electrostatic or UV-disinfection to restore confidence in flying after COVID-19.”
The Telegraph explains that “it may sound futuristic, but UV sanitation is likely to become commonplace at the world’s airports. London Heathrow says it is to begin trialling the process for its security trays.”
And then comes boarding
The boarding process is expected also to become ‘touchless,’ with options including facial recognition, already used in some U.S. airports for international flights. On the planes, there will be blocked seats, electrostatic spraying, personnel in protective gear and, of course, masks. Major European carriers such as Air France and KLM already have made them compulsory and it’s expected that all other airlines will do the same.
As for food, the tendency is to stop serving altogether on short-haul flights, while the airlines consider ‘light refreshments’ for long-haul flights. Hong Kong Airlines has decided to stop offering food altogether.
On Arrival
At the arrival point, SimpliFlying forecasts, international passengers will need to show some type of immunity document/passport, also advocated by the International Air Transport Association, IATA, to border control agents. Once a vaccine has been found, that could shift to a proof of vaccination.
“Arriving passengers will also undergo another temperature screening at their final destination and potentially even blood tests for COVID-19,” Conde Nast predicts. “Some airports like Hong Kong and Vienna are testing passengers for the coronavirus with a blood test before they are allowed to enter the country. Those types of tests, however, might be short-lived.”
Thermal testing is also recommended by IATA, “while Airlines UK, which represents British Airways, EasyJet and Virgin Atlantic, has said ‘pre-screening’ of travelers should be introduced ideally as early in the passenger journey as possible,” reports The Telegraph.
Although there are no standard decisions about making such tests and screening mandatory, airports and airlines are pushing for uniform regulations. It’s not clear who will be responsible for checking travelers’ temperatures and other Covid-19 symptoms, for example.
SimpliFlying predicts that a new federal health agency likely will be created to coordinate health screenings inside airports.
As immediately following 9/11, a process of trial-and-error is likely, with many airports and airlines following what some ‘pioneers’ establish.
“There will be new protocols for check-in involving digital technology; hand sanitizer stations at frequent points including where luggage is stored; contactless payment instead of cash; using stairs more often than lifts where the two-meter-rule can be harder to maintain; and fitness equipment being moved for greater separation, among other examples,” the WTTC wrote in a recent report.
The international institution says that the sector will face a gradual return to travel over the coming months as a “new normal” emerges before a vaccine becomes available on a mass scale, large enough to inoculate billions of people.
Travel is likely to return first to domestic markets with “staycations,” then to a country’s nearest neighbors before expanding across regions, and then finally across continents to welcome the return of journeys to long-haul international destinations. WTTC believes that younger travelers in the 18-35 age group, who appear to be less vulnerable to COVID-19, also may be among the first to begin traveling again.
According to Gloria Guevara, WTTC President & CEO, traveling in the ‘new normal’ age requires coordinated actions, including new standards and protocols, “for a safe and responsible road to recovery for the global Travel & Tourism sector as consumers start planning trips again.”
Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris almost deserted. Barcroft Media via Getty Images
The new protocols and standards are being defined following feedback from associations representing the different travel sectors including International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Airport Council International (ACI), Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), United States Travel Association (USTA), Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the European Travel Commission (ETC) and the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).
But with protocols and standards, biometric systems, immunity passports and the best intentions for a safe road to recovery, the future of traveling, as New York Times’s Niraj Chokshi explains, is still bleak: “With much of the world closed for business, and no widely available vaccine in sight, it may be months, if not years, before airlines operate as many flights as they did before the crisis. Even when people start flying again, the industry could be transformed, much as it was after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.”
And in the process, as it is already the case, some airlines, especially smaller ones, will be push into bankruptcy or become takeover targets. “Consumer fears about catching the virus on crowded planes could lead to reconfigured seating. Carriers may initially entice wary travelers with discounts, but if they can’t fill up flights, they may resort to raising ticket prices.”
For Dave CalhounIn, CEO of Boeing, not only are the smaller airlines in danger. He thinks that at least a major U.S carrier will “most likely” go out of business due to the coronavirus pandemic. In an interview with NBC News’ TODAY, on Tuesday he told Savannah Guthrie: “…something will happen when September comes around. Traffic levels will not be back to 100%. They won’t even be back to 25%. Maybe by the end of the year we approach 50%. So there will definitely be adjustments that have to be made on the part of the airlines.”
Article first appeared at Forbes.com. Read the original here.
China placed 50 million people under quarantine in Wuhan Province in January. Since then, many liberal democracies have taken aggressive authoritarian measures of their own to fight the novel coronavirus.
By mid-March, almost all Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries had implemented some combination of school, university, workplace, and public transportation closures; restrictions on public events; and limits on domestic and international travel. One country, however, stands out as an exception in the West.
Rather than declare a lockdown or a state of emergency, Sweden asked its citizens to practice social distancing on a mostly voluntary basis. Swedish authorities imposed some restrictions designed to flatten the curve: no public gatherings of more than 50 people, no bar service, distance learning in high schools and universities, and so on. But they eschewed harsh controls, fines, and policing.
Swedes have changed their behavior, but not as profoundly as the citizens of other Western democracies. Many restaurants remain open, although they are lightly trafficked; young children are still in school. And in contrast to neighboring Norway (and some Asian countries), Sweden has not introduced location-tracing technologies or apps, thus avoiding threats to privacy and personal autonomy.
Has Sweden got its science right?
Swedish authorities have not officially declared a goal of reaching herd immunity, which most scientists believe is achieved when more than 60 percent of the population has had the virus. But augmenting immunity is no doubt part of the government’s broader strategy—or at least a likely consequence of keeping schools, restaurants, and most businesses open. Anders Tegnell, the chief epidemiologist at Sweden’s Public Health Agency, has projected that the city of Stockholm could reach herd immunity as early as this month.
Based on updated behavioral assumptions (social-distancing norms are changing how Swedes behave), the Stockholm University mathematician Tom Britton has calculated that 40 percent immunity in the capital could be enough to stop the virus’s spread there and that this could happen by mid-June.
Sweden has won praise in some quarters for preserving at least some semblance of economic normalcy and keeping its per capita death rate lower than those of Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom. But it has come in for criticism in other quarters for exceeding the per capita death rates of other Nordic countries and in particular, for failing to protect its elderly and immigrant populations.
People receiving nursing and elder-care services account for upward of 50 percent of COVID-19 deaths in Sweden, according to Tegnell, in part because many facilities were grievously slow to implement basic protective measures such as mask wearing. Immigrants have also suffered disproportionately, mainly because they are poorer on average and tend to work in the service sector, where working remotely is usually impossible. But Swedish authorities have argued that the country’s higher death rate will appear comparatively lower in hindsight.
Efforts to contain the virus are doomed to fail in many countries, and a large percentage of people will be infected in the end. When much of the world experiences a deadly second wave, Sweden will have the worst of the pandemic behind it.
When much of the world experiences a deadly second wave, Sweden will have the worst of the pandemic behind it.
Sweden’s response has not been perfect, but it has succeeded in bolstering immunity among the young and the healthy—those at the lowest risk of serious complications from COVID-19—while also flattening the curve. The country’s intensive care units have not been overrun, and hospital staffs, although under strain, have at least not had to juggle additional childcare responsibilities because daycares and lower schools continue to operate.
Whether or not they have openly embraced the Swedish approach, many other countries are now trying to emulate aspects of it. Both Denmark and Finland have reopened schools for young children. Germany is allowing small shops to reopen. Italy will soon reopen parks, and France has a plan to allow some nonessential businesses to reopen, including farmers’ markets and small museums, as well as schools and daycare centers. In the United States, which has by far the highest absolute number of reported COVID-19 deaths, several states are easing restrictions at the urging of President Donald Trump, who despite bashing the Swedish model, is pushing the country toward something very similar.
Sweden has adopted a more relaxed approach than its neighbours.
There are good reasons for countries to begin easing their restrictions. It will take several years to tally the total number of deaths, bankruptcies, layoffs, suicides, mental health problems, losses to GDP and investments, and other costs attributable not just to the virus but to the measures used to fight it. It should already be obvious, however, that the economic and social costs of lockdowns are enormous: estimates from the OECD suggest that every month of pandemic-related restrictions will shrink the economies of advanced countries by two percent. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, according to the OECD, will see their economies shrink by more than 25 percent within a year. Unemployment is rising to levels unheard of since the 1930s—fueling political backlash and deepening social divisions.
Lockdowns are simply not sustainable for the amount of time that it will likely take to develop a vaccine.
Lockdowns are simply not sustainable for the amount of time that it will likely take to develop a vaccine. Letting up will reduce economic, social, and political pressures. It may also allow populations to build an immunity that will end up being the least bad way of fighting COVID-19 in the long run. Much about the disease remains poorly understood, but countries that are locked down now could very well face new and even more severe outbreaks down the road. If these countries follow the Swedish path to herd immunity, the total cost of the pandemic will decrease, and it will likely end sooner.
Sweden’s approach to COVID-19 reflects the country’s distinctive culture, and aspects of it may not be easy to replicate elsewhere. In particular, reliance on official recommendations and individual responsibility may not travel well beyond Scandinavia. Sweden is a special country characterized by high levels of trust—not just between people but between people and government institutions. Swedes were primed to take voluntary recommendations seriously in a way that citizens of other nations may not be.
Swedes are also generally healthier than citizens of many other countries, so additional precautions may be necessary to protect the infirm in other parts of the world. Countries lifting restrictions should also learn from Sweden’s missteps when it comes to the elderly and immigrants: masks and other protective equipment should be made immediately available in nursing homes, and greater emphasis should be placed on protecting service-sector workers who are at higher risk because of age or infirmity. But the emphasis must be on helping at-risk people stay safe and out of harm’s way, not locking entire societies down.
As scientists learn more about the virus and authorities develop new and better ways to work around the contagion—altering the parameters for calculating herd immunity to account for behavioral changes, for instance—the justification for general lockdowns grows weaker and weaker. Even in places like the United States and the United Kingdom, where the pool of at-risk people is much larger, the cost of protecting these people is much lower than forcing everyone to stay home. Managing the path to herd immunity means, above all, protecting the vulnerable. Sweden learned that the hard way, but the situation there is now under control.
As the pain of national lockdowns grows intolerable and countries realize that managing—rather than defeating—the pandemic is the only realistic option, more and more of them will begin to open up. Smart social distancing to keep health-care systems from being overwhelmed, improved therapies for the afflicted, and better protections for at-risk groups can help reduce the human toll.
But at the end of the day, increased—and ultimately, herd—immunity may be the only viable defense against the disease, so long as vulnerable groups are protected along the way. Whatever marks Sweden deserves for managing the pandemic, other nations are beginning to see that it is ahead of the curve.
Rico’s Digest – One of the thousands of Costa Ricans waiting to get back home is my friend, who is in Brazil with his wife, along with several dozens others anxiously waiting for Sunday’s flight back to the land of Pura Visa.
Photo courtesy Antonio Alexandre
Antonio Alexandre and his wife Daniela traveled to Brazil to visit their respective mothers on March 7, just one day after the first case of covid-19 became known in Costa Rica. Since then they remained in the South American nation.
The death toll from coronavirus in Brazil has already exceeded 12,500 and that situation has him terrified, he admits.
I have known Antonio for more than a decade and would never have thought of him as one to be scared, alone terrified.
He cannot avoid comparing the situation of Brazil and Costa Rica.
A dual citizen (Brazil and Costa Rica), by phone Antonio, said: “The issue with Brazil is that it does not have the same vision or social education that Costa Rica has. That, in my opinion, is what has caused that in Costa Rica there is no chaos. Here the local and municipal governments have total independence from the national government. President Jair Bolsonaro is a military man, with far-right ideas, very authoritarian and does not respect what his former Minister of Health has recommended to the country in terms of social distancing,”
“Nobody imagined what this would be, but in Costa Rica, we have been blessed, because things have been controlled: in Costa Rica there have been 7 deaths while here there are about 900 official deaths every day. The media in each area of the country report higher death rates, which sometimes do not match. Many people die in the home and are buried without an examination, and it is unfortunate that there is no room in intensive care units. Waiting in Brazil makes us anxious”.
Antonion, Daniela and 38 other Ticos have paid US$1,200 each for the one-way ticket, “a fair price for the cost-benefit” he admits.
Sunday’s flight will arrive empty in Brazil and bring this group of Ticos back to a country where deaths from covid-19 is in the single digit.
The flight coordinated by the Vemsa travel agency will leave Sao Paulo on Sunday at 11:55 pm. Brazil time, will make a pit stop in Panama and finally arrive in Costa Rica on Monday morning.
“The flights from that airport (Sao Paolo) continue to operate internally in Brazil, so we know that there must be a health protocol there, but we do not know it in detail. The airline has told us through the consulate that we are all going to travel using an n-95 mask, in addition to a plastic shield mask. We should all wear gloves and we all have to bring alcohol wipes to clean the seats and the surfaces on which we lean.
“As there are 40 passengers on a plane with a capacity of 180, we will practically be one (person) per row. We were also asked to bring gel alcohol, which would normally not be allowed on the plane. We have clear instructions not to converse with people, to comply with all this (social) distancing,” explained Antonio.
Upon arrival in Costa Rica, the group will be met by medical personnel and perform covid-19 testing to confirm or discard infection.
The embassy distributed a CCSS form to the group in which they must state their medical condition and whether they have been at risk of contagion.
As all arrivals, they will be ordered to a 14-day isolation or quarantine.
“It will be some difficult days ahead as we wait, but the best thing to do is be patient and follow orders.
“As an entrepreneur, I say this, you must think about the economic damage of having certain businesses closed, but in Brazil, many cities did not enact the social distancing in time due to pressure from sectors and it was fatal; now they have to close everything at once.
“You have to be patient, and you have to understand that the world is not going to be the same as we lived before”, were the words of my friend.
Will I be at the airport Monday morning to greet him? Antonio will understand why I will not.
Since March, when so-called rescue or repatriation flights began, to date, almost 2,400 Costa Ricans and residents have been able to return to the country in an attempt to escape the covid-19 pandemic.
Nothing like being back in the land of Pura Vida
They came from 83 countries.
This figure includes the 300 arriving Tuesday night, on a flight from Madrid, Spain.
They are all part of the some 3,000 Costa Ricans scattered around the world who told Costa Rican consular representations their desire to return to Costa Rica. Some were passing through, visiting, other countries when world travel shut down, others had a life abroad.
A total of 728 are yet to make it back to Costa Rica, waiting on five more flights, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“The reasons are of a different nature. For example, the closing of borders, the cancellation of flights by airlines, internal health measures, and even the curfew in some countries taken as a result of the covid-19.
“In some cases, when the possibilities of charter flights were announced at the time, people did not take them. But then, upon verifying the extension of the measures, they were interested. In others, the cost of the ticket and the availability of flight dates make options difficult,” explained the Foreign Ministry.
Each transfer involves coordinated work between Costa Rica’s embassies and consulates abroad, the immigration service and Civil Aviation, among other institutions.
According to the Foreign Minister Rodolfo Solano, there are some 64,000 Costa Ricans living abroad, and when taking into account those studying abroad, the number is nealry 100,000
Solano assured that consulates where available are there to assist them.
A total of 162 flights from 12 countries brought the Ticos home.
The diplomatic efforts, in addition to repatriating Costa Ricans, involved helping 4,917 foreigners from 17 different countries get back home, who left Costa Rica left on 44 flights. Some had remained in Costa Rica as tourists, while others were passing through, and others only arrived from other Central American countries to board the flights, according to the Foreign Ministry.
The Foreign Ministry has insisted that it does not have its own financial resources for repatriation or for humanitarian assistance to Costa Ricans abroad.
“There is only a limited repatriation fund managed by immigration, which only applies to exceptional cases of extreme and proven vulnerability,” the press office of the chancellery clarified without going into details.
For that reason, Solano held an initiative by the Costa Rican North American Chamber of Commerce in Costa Rica (Amcham) and the Business Development Alliance (AED) to raise funds to repatriate who have no way to pay for a ticket.
According to the Chancellery, each case has its own complexity.
“It must also be taken into account multiple diplomatic, operational and logistical efforts, overflight permits, sanitary permits for the internal mobilization of Costa Ricans, negotiations with private airlines, consular aspects that must be resolved to make possible the return to the country”, it explained.
Róger Ordóñez was hospitalized for respiratory problems last week. When his son Enrique went to visit him the next morning, the 69-year-old retiree was already being buried by Health Ministry employees, dressed from head to toe in white protective suits, in a cemetery on the outskirts of Chinandega, a city of 133,000 inhabitants in northwest Nicaragua.
The hospital advised the Ordóñez family to be quarantined for two weeks, but denied that the father had a coronavirus, although they did not show them the test results.
The government of Daniel Ortega resisted imposing measures to control covid-19 for more than two months from the appearance of the first case in Nicaragua.
A woman attending a funeral at the Managua Central Cemetery on Monday, May 11, 2020.
Now, doctors and family members of the alleged victims say the government has gone from denying the presence of the disease in the country to actively trying to hide its spread.
“I begged the doctor to tell me what happened to him,” Enrique Ordóñez told The Associated Press (AP). “I needed to know if I was infected. I have an 18-month-old girl, my mother has a variety of ailments and we need to know if my father died of covid or not.”
The government assures that in the country of 6.5 million there are only five deaths from the covid-19 and 16 confirmed cases since the first case was confirmed in March. The Nicaraguan Ministry of Health (MINSA) went almost a week without updating.
Businesses and government offices remain open. Schools remain open. The central markets of cities and towns, including Managua, are open. While neighbors like Costa Rica to the south and Honduras to the north have measures in place to stay at home, practice social distancing and restricted border movements, and the government in Nicaragua actively promotes sporting events and other mass events.
After a week without reporting the coronavirus, the Minsa broke the silence on Tuesday and raised the death toll to eight and the confirmed cases of the disease to 25, this time without assuring that there is no community transmission.
In its most recent report, the NGO Obsertario Cuidadano, made up of doctors and activists, claimed to have identified 1,033 suspected cases of covid-19 in the country as of Saturday.
According to the NGO, they say there are at least 188 deaths.
Nicaraguan doctor Álvaro Ramírez, who was head of Epidemiology during the Sandinista revolution and currently lives in Ireland, said that the number of infections is already much higher and that the next few days “will be decisive” for Nicaragua.
He estimates that in two weeks there could be about 18,000 infections, of which 890 would be serious.
For the past week, plainclothes police and government supporters have detained journalists in the vicinity of a hospital in the capital, Managua, and in a cemetery in Chinandega, where the pandemic is becoming difficult to hide.
The presence of men in white suits onboard trucks with sealed coffins has become commonplace for residents. And it seems that everyone knows someone who has become ill. Or died. But no one is talking openly.
“There is a lot of nervousness here,” said Pablo Antonio Alvarado, a university student who said that a couple of acquaintances were infected in the city. “They say we are the epicenter of the pandemic, like Wuhan in China.”
Also on Tuesday, doctor Ciro Ugarte, director of health emergencies of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), expressed in a videoconference concern regarding the reporting of cases in Nicaragua. He noted that unofficial reports indicate a “high” number of patients who have been hospitalized with symptoms of acute respiratory infection.
“Nicaragua is the only country or territory in the Americas where the type of transmission is undetermined, according to our reports,” he indicated. “As you recall, more than a month ago, PAHO expressed its concern regarding the evidence, regarding the follow-up of contacts, the reporting of cases, and these concerns remain.”
Ugarte also noted that “the call for massive events continues to manifest itself in the country.” PAHO, he added, is waiting for the official information in Nicaragua “to have a level of detail” that allows the Organization to make an adequate analysis of the situation.
A doctor from Chinandega, who asked to speak anonymously for fear of retaliation, said that she knew four people who died. One of them was one of her patients and was buried two hours after he died, she added.
“Everyone who believes they have died of atypical pneumonia is buried immediately,” she said.
Most diagnoses are made based on symptoms and lung X-rays of patients because tests for the virus are strictly controlled by the Ministry of Health and are difficult to obtain.
An informal network of Chinandega doctors “counted 25 alleged deaths from covid-19 as of last Sunday,” the doctor said. “If we can survive this, it is because God is great. There is no other explanation.”
Dead and buried
Enrique Ordóñez, who is a sales executive, knew that his father suffered from chronic ailments such as hypertension and respiratory problems, but noted that last week he was suddenly having trouble breathing. He took him to the hospital on Thursday and that same night he died.
“The hospital organized everything, they supplied the coffin and the cemetery plot,” he said, recalling that when he went to ask about his father on Friday morning, he learned that he had already been buried. “I tried to identify the grave as best I could, because earlier, at dawn, they had buried others and there were seven or eight more graves next to it.”
“I wonder: if my father did not die from coronavirus, why did they not let us bury him? I didn’t bury my father, they buried him. But you know, we can’t raise our voices much. Fear is widespread in our country,” he added.
According to the latest report from the Central American Integration System (SICA), as of Monday, 24,257 people have fallen ill with coronaviruses in the region and 818 died. Countries like Honduras and El Salvador adopted strict measures against the disease, and many wonder why Nicaragua has so few cases without taking any preventive action.
Requests for comment by the official government spokesperson of the Ortega administration, vice president, and first lady, Rosario Murillo, get no response.
But it seems that many agree that the government is beginning to recognize what lies ahead.
In late April, the Ministry of Health summoned all hospital directors and high-level medical authorities to a meeting.
“They were told that this is getting serious and that everyone should prepare,” Róger Pasquier, president of the Nicaraguan Association of Anesthesiology, said in an interview with AP News. In his opinion, the measure is too late.
“Isolation measures have not been taken here, health workers have not been protected, there are not enough beds in any hospital in Managua, nor in any regional hospital,” he added.
“Contrary to what is officially shared, I know through my medical colleagues that we have a large number of sick people in Managua, Masaya, Matagalpa and Chinandega, where there is an outbreak that could be very dangerous,” said Pasquier.
Although many doctors fear speaking publicly, almost 600 specialists signed a letter in early May demanding protection equipment for all health workers from the government. José Antonio Vásquez, president of the Unidad Médica de Nicaragua, an organization that was formed after the April 2018 protests, said the group has identified more than 42 apparently infected doctors, nurses and technicians.
Sources: Today Nicaragua, La Nacion, La Prensa, 100% Noticias, AP News
The alarm started on April 7, when a 55-year-old man died of a heart attack while sleeping in a section of the Roberto Huembes market. That afternoon, Forensics workers arrived by Don Pepe’s body wearing white protective suits that covered them from head to toe, a precaution that seemed suspicious to many, considering that the world is experiencing a Covid-19 pandemic.
On May 6, Don Irineo Delgadillo Méndez, 67, died on the road while riding his motorcycle. His case is one of the most recent in the wave of sudden deaths recorded in recent weeks. La Prensa
Others, on the other hand, called for calm and asked not to jump to conclusions.
But just a day later, security guard Benito Uriarte, 54, died of a heart attack while working security at a gas station in the city of León. A man who happened to be passing by saw him put a hand to his chest before falling struck on the floor of the premises.
After four days without an incident, on April 13, three people joined the list of deaths from a heart attack. University student Elton Vílchez, 21, died in a Matagalpa hospital to which he had been transferred the previous day after suffering a drop in blood pressure. The other two victims were Mercedes Ramos, 73, and Margarita Reyes, 98. Both residents of León.
Ramos died in the morning and a few hours later, in the late afternoon, Reyes began to feel sick. The old woman was reportedly on her way to the laundry room when she first fainted. Then she put her hands to her chest, said she felt pain in her heart, and passed out again.
In the following 23 days, the media has reported at least 14 other similar cases: sudden deaths from a heart attack or stroke.
Forensics workers in full gear to remove a body from the streets of Managua on April 7. La Prensa
Under normal circumstances, the explanation that the high temperatures are responsible for this wave of deaths could suffice. After all, if the statistics of the Ministry of Health (Minsa) are taken as a reference, during 2019 in Nicaragua 3,097 people died from acute myocardial infarction: an average of 8 people per day. But that explanation does not seem to suffice in the current circumstances.
Expert opinion is divided. All affirm that definitely the heat of the season have something to do; But some argue that a possible link to Covid-19 should not be ruled out, an infection from which something new is discovered every day. These are the explanations behind the mystery of the sudden deaths on the streets of Nicaragua.
New evidence
Until a couple of weeks ago, cardiologist Daniel Meneses considered that there was still no scientific evidence to associate sudden deaths with Covid-19. However, recently the prestigious The New England Journal of Medicine published an article that made him change his mind.
According to the study “Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest during the Covid-19 outbreak in Italy”, between February 21 and March 31, 2020, there was an increase of 58 percent of cases in Lombardy, the region most affected by the pandemic in that country, in relation to the same period of 2019. These are 133 additional cases, of which 103 (74.4 percent) were diagnosed with Covid-19.
For Meneses, this is new evidence that suggests a relationship between the disease and sudden deaths, although it is “impossible to state conclusively.”
“What you do notice is a disproportionate increase in the reports of people on the streets who have these reactions,” he says. “At this point, the regular epidemiological estimate is out of the question.”
Coffins bound for a funeral home. Sudden deaths from heart attacks have been the order of the day in recent weeks. La Prensa
“We always had, close to Easter, an increase in heart attacks and sudden deaths, but not in these proportions. Now it is massive. Every now and then they are reporting it everywhere,” he warns. “I think it is a little above what we regularly have from statistics. Instinctively one knows that this is new. It is a matter of perception because there is no clear statistic, but epidemiologically, so many cases are already significant.”
Another phenomenon that must be taken into account, points out the doctor, is the reduction of “acute coronary symptoms that reach hospitals”.
Currently, he participates in a regional study of the Latin American Society of Interventional Cardiology and in the case of Nicaragua, he says, “the rates are eighty percent less than patients.”
But “it is not that there are fewer cases, but that these cases are staying at home” for fear of catching the new coronavirus. And that, too, likely “explains a little bit of these sudden street collapses.”
On the other hand, cardiologist Pablo Hurtado considers that the phenomenon may be related to Covid-19, but for different reasons. In addition to the high temperatures, which have been unusually prolonged this year, the stress and fear caused by the pandemic are added.
José Noel Amador, 47, died of a stroke while caring for an Enacal wastewater treatment plant in Boaco. Photo from TN8
According to Hurtado, at least fifty percent of patients with hypertension do not control their disease. “It is very frequent that an uncontrolled hypertensive person can collapse from heat, if he does not hydrate well and does not take the entire treatment,” he said in an interview with LA PRENSA days ago. However, worry, anxiety and depression multiply the risk of having a heart attack.
“People are worrying more about the virus than about current health. Everyone’s current alert is the (prevention) measure, so people are very afraid, “said Hurtado, and recommended hydration and little stress. In other words, no person at risk should submit to the bombardment of the news or participate in pessimistic conversations about what has happened in places like Guayaquil.
“It should not be ruled out”
On April 17 the issue of sudden deaths returned to give something to talk about. The chinandegano Alberto Martínez died at home, after suffering a cardiorespiratory arrest caused by a heart attack. A Forensic Medicine unit came to examine the body and the coroner ruled that the man died at night while sleeping. It counted six victims of heart failure in ten days.
Three days later, on April 21, caretaker José Noel Amador, 47, died while caring for an Enacal wastewater treatment plant in Boaco. His body was found at 6:40 in the morning by a co-worker at the start of his shift. According to official media, the man died at about 4:00 a.m. when “a rise in blood pressure” triggered a stroke.
The following morning, the case of Bismarck Ruiz, 64, a former ambulance driver, became known, who suffered a heart attack when he withdrew a payment in the city of Jinotepe. And at night Mr. William Castillo, 82, was found dead in the bathroom of his home in Granada. The cause of his death was a sudden heart attack, according to the coroner.
It was not three days before another heart attack death was reported. At noon on Saturday, April 25, the veterinarian and breeder of roosters Orlando Acevedo, 73, died in Jinotepe. And on April 28, exactly a week after Boaco’s security guard died, another Enacal security guard fell to the ground while working. Domingo Antonio Laguna, 51, was found dead at dawn in a company well located on the Carretera a Masaya. A relative said that Laguna had heart problems.
On April 17, Alberto Chinandegano, 58, woke up dead in his home. His partner called the police to investigate the case. La Prensa
“They are warning signs,” he says. Deaths that “raise the red flag that the virus is already circulating, because it has the capacity to affect the heart and paralyze the system suddenly,” says epidemiologist Álvaro Ramírez.
In his opinion, the secrecy of the Government in the handling of information has been a fundamental problem.
“Trying to minimize the impact of a pandemic is what has increased doubt, uncertainty, and the number of rumors and insecurity of the population,” he says. “Also, here in Nicaragua no autopsy is performed, so all we have left is conjecture. To say that this is not associated with heatstroke is very difficult, but it cannot be ruled out that these are cases of coronavirus either”.
We will be seeing it more frequently during this process,” he says. “Although temperatures will drop, sudden deaths will continue to occur in the streets,” added Dr. Ramírez.
Covid-19 clots
As the number of sick and dead increases, doctors discover that Covid-19, the infection caused by the new coronavirus, is much more complex than initially thought.
“It can affect not only the respiratory system of patients but organs such as the liver, kidneys, intestines, heart and brain,” said the BBC World on May 5 in the article Coronavirus: blood clots, (in Spanish) the worrying pathology that many severe patients present with Covid-19.
In the CNN article of May 12, says Covid-19 isn’t just a respiratory disease, it hits the whole body and that doctors treating coronavirus patients are seeing a range of odd and frightening syndromes, including blood clots of all sizes throughout the body, kidney failure, heart inflammation and immune complications.
Currently one of the most worrisome complications is the unusual formation of blood clots in many patients with Covid-19, even in those who were receiving anticoagulants. These clots can reach organs such as the lung, heart, or brain, causing heart attacks or strokes, with fatal consequences.
In the United States, the main epicenter of the pandemic, where almost 1.5 million cases and more than 80,000 deaths had already been confirmed last week, many doctors already place clots among the main causes of death in patients with Covid- 19, only behind severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Article translated from La Presna El misterio de las muertes súbitas en las calles de Nicaragua published May 9, 2020.
MEDICAL NEWS TODAY – This three-drug combination also shortens the duration of viral shedding — that is, the period during which the virus is detectable in a person’s body and transmissible to others.
The results of the new multicenter, prospective, open-label, randomized trial now appear in the journal The Lancet.
The researchers recruited 127 participants between February 10 and March 20, 2020. These participants came from six hospitals in Hong Kong, China, where doctors had tested them for SARS-CoV-2 and obtained positive results.
On average, 5 days passed between the onset of symptoms and the start of treatment with the drug combination.
The team randomly assigned 86 of the participants to a group that received the combination and 41 of the participants to a control group.
In the combination group, participants took a combination of “lopinavir 400 [milligrams (mg)] and ritonavir 100 mg every 12 [hours], ribavirin 400 mg every 12 [hours], and three doses of 8 million international units of interferon beta-1b on alternate days.” The treatment lasted for 14 days.
In the control group, participants took lopinavir 400 mg and ritonavir 100 mg every 12 hours, also for 14 days.
Combination may ‘rapidly suppress’ virus
The results revealed that the three-drug combination was safe and more efficient than lopinavir-ritonavir in relieving COVID-19 symptoms, reducing the period of viral shedding, and shortening the length of hospital stays.
Specifically, nasopharyngeal swabs showed that the average time before the virus cleared was 7 days in the combination group, compared with 12 days in the control group.
Side effects across both groups included nausea — which resolved with no intervention — and diarrhea, with no difference between the two groups.
“Our trial demonstrates that early treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 with a triple combination of antiviral drugs may rapidly suppress the amount of virus in a patient’s body, relieve symptoms, and reduce the risk to healthcare workers by reducing the duration and quantity of viral shedding (when the virus is detectable and potentially transmissible).” Lead researcher Prof. Kwok-Yung Yuen, University of Hong Kong
“Furthermore, the treatment combination appeared safe and well-tolerated,” adds Prof. Yuen.
Trial strengths and limitations
However, Prof. Yuen also warns that “[d]espite these encouraging findings, we must confirm in larger phase III trials that interferon beta-1b alone or in combination with other drugs is effective in patients with more severe illness (in whom the virus has had more time to replicate).”
Dr. Jenny Lo, from Ruttonjee Hospital in Hong Kong, echoes this sentiment. She says, “[I]nterferon beta-1b may be a key component of the combination treatment and is worth further investigation for the treatment of COVID-19.”
“Interferons are naturally occurring proteins, produced in response to viral infection, and the hope is that interferon beta-1b will boost the body’s ability to fight SARS-CoV-2,” she adds. “Future phase III trials will soon confirm or refute the usefulness of this candidate drug as a backbone treatment for COVID-19.”
The study authors also highlight some limitations to their study. For example, they say that the open-label nature of the trial meant that both the researchers and the participants knew which treatment they were giving and receiving, respectively, and that there was no placebo group.
Still, Dr. Sarah Shalhoub — from Western University in Ontario, Canada — mentions the strengths of the trial a linked comment: “Most published studies so far have been retrospective or observational. Therefore, this prospective, randomized controlled design adds notable value to the growing evidence on treatments, eliminating a number of limitations inherent to retrospective studies.”
She adds, “This study presents a step toward finding a much-needed therapy for SARS-CoV-2. However, as the authors acknowledge, future studies to examine the efficacy of interferon beta-1b alone or in combination with other drugs to treat severe or critically ill patients with confirmed COVID-19 compared with placebo are warranted.”
Conferencia de Prensa_Covid-19_Foto Julieth Ménde_12/05/2020
(QCOSTARICA) The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus covid-19 is now at 804, confirmed the Minister of Health on Monday, that is 3 cases more over Monday.
Health Minister Daniel Salas, during the Tuesday noon press conference, recommended the use of masks and spent time explaining its proper use.
One day after the plan to relax measures against the pandemic was announced, Salas was emphatic that now is not the time think the pandemic is over and be careless.
The Minister recommends the use of the mask on public transport, in face-to-face meetings and for caregivers of patients with covid-19.
Salas was emphatic that “it is not that the use of masks is going to replace hand washing, especially before touching your face, nor the social distancing of 1.8 meters.”
He clarified that the mask is to protect the people around you and not for the protection of the user.
The Minister also reminded people not to fall into a sense of security when using a mask and to continue the practice of good hygiene, that includes:
Wash your hands with soap and water before putting on the mask.
Make sure the mask is free from tears.
Make sure there are no gaps between the face and the mask.
Do not touch the mask once it is in place.
Do not take it off in public.
Discard it in closed containers.
Change it when it is already wet (never leave it all day long, let alone use it for several days).
It is not recommended for use in children under two years of age, people with respiratory problems (asthma, lung diseases) or with reduced capacity.
How to verify that the mask meets the requirements?
It must have multiple layers, if only one, the protection level is very low, it does not provide any benefit.
“A good mask should not let air or light through”
It shouldn’t even allow drops of water to pass through
The Minister spoke about the different masks, the ones used in medical centers, especially with covid-19 patients and general use masks. He also stressed that making a mask at home can be both a benefit to the user and the health system, so as not to deplete stock fo medical services.
On the Ministerio de Salud website, there is a detailed instruction of how to make a mask at home and the correct use of a mask.
Back to the numbers
Of the 804 confirmed cases, they are 430 men and 374 women, and that 520 patients have fully recovered.
Of the 277 active cases, 21 people are in hospital (6 of them in intensive care), while the rest are recuperating at home.
Of the number of confirmed cases, they are 691 Costa Ricans and 113 foreigners (of various nationalities).
There has been debate on social networks over the use of “foreigners”, that is, a foreigner is not necessarily a person illegally in the country, but also includes residents, who are technically foreigners in the country.
(QCOSTARICA) The Ministry of Health has said it will not allow the use of “disinfection tunnels” in Costa Rica, a system activated by sensors to release a disinfecting substance as a person passes through.
Such a system was installed recently at the main entrance of the Central Market (Mercado Central) in downtown San Jose.
Other businesses and even sports clubs see their use as a way to prevent contagion of COVID-19.
However, the Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, will have not of this.
“It is not recommended, it is not allowed given the health risk it represents. We are going to follow up on the disabling of those who are currently in use,” said the Minister at Monday’s press conference.
The manager of the Mercado Central, Roberto Campos, commented that the tunnel was removed almost immediately after the call by the Ministry of Health and that all guidelines issued by the Ministry will be respected.
“We did not have any adverse reaction at the moment, but it could because we are not all used to it,” Campos explained.
“It was one more option that we studied, an alternative for Mecado,” he added.
The Guadalupe FC soccer club had also implemented the technology. “We have not received any notification about it, but we are going to talk to them (Ministry of Health) to come and investigate, to analyze it and if they say that it does not bring any benefit, we would remove them. We hope that they give us somewhat more formal information,” said team manager Robert Garbanzo.
The Ministry of Health did not detail how many tunnels have been installed and in use in the country and whether they have already issued formal notifications for their removal.
Gay Pride parade in San Jose, Costa Rica June 28, 2015.
(QCOSTARICA) A group of 24 legislators presented a motion on Tuesday to ask the Constitutional Court or Sala IV as it is commonly known in Costa Rica, to extend the entry into force of same-sex marriage for at least a year and a half after the pandemic of the new coronavirus.
On August 8, 2018, the Court declared the article of the Family Code that prohibits same-sex marriages unconstitutional, after the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) considered that prohibition as discriminatory.
In January 2018, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) ruled that Costa Rica and the court’s 19 other member states must recognize the validity of same-sex marriages.
The bloc of legislators (making up 43% of the legislators) proposing the motion argue that, since the ruling, they have had to focus on other bills such as tax reform, the regulation of strikes and legislation to alleviate the economic crisis caused by the covid-19.
“The Legislative Assembly has been, in these months that have elapsed of term, only in six of them in ordinary sessions (May-July 2019 and September-November 2019); the rest (11 months in total), as a priority, knowing the agenda of the Executive Power in extraordinary sessions”, defend the proponents.
The motion was presented by the following legislators:
Partido Restauración Nacional (PRN): Carlos Avendaño, Xiomara Rodríguez, Mileidy Alvarado, Floria Segreda, Melvin Núñez and Geovanni Gomez
Nueva República bloc: Jonathan Prendas, Carmen Chan, Nidia Céspedes, Marolin Azofeifa, Ignacio Alpízar and Harllan Hoepelman.
Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN): Luis Fernando Chacón, David Gourzong and Luis Antonio Aiza.
Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC): Shirley Díaz, Aracelly Salas and Óscar Cascante.
Partido Integración Nacional (PIN): Patricia Villegas and Wálter Muñoz.
Partido Christian Social Republican (PRSC): Dragos Dolanescu and Otto Roberto Vargas.
Independents: Ivonne Acuña and Érick Rodríguez.
Last Friday, May 8, after the announcement of measures for the economic reactivation of the country in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, President Carlos Alvarado supported the prompt entry into force of equal marriage.
One of the arguments of the legislators to request the extension is that, for same-sex marriage to be enforced, it is necessary to reform at least nine laws, among others, the Civil Code, the Family Code, the Law of the National Financial System for Housing and the Creation of the Banhvi (Housing Mortgage Bank), the Law on Penalization of Violence against Women and the Constitutive Law of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS).
“We would also have, in a very possible way, a triggering of judicial decisions and jurisprudence that could become contradictory to each other, which would affect legal certainty. As a result of the foregoing, it is highly probable that a torrent of judicial consultations of constitutionality began before the Constitutional Court, ” defend the legislators.
“The contradictions and vices in judicial processes and rulings could cause uncertainty in the application and interpretation” argue further the bloc of legislators.
In their arguments, they also point to delays in procedures related to the Constitutional Court decisions of August 2018 and publications of notices in 2019. “This fact also prevented legislators from getting to know the substance of the matter,” the proponents cite.
On March 3, 2020, the Court rejected a request made by 11 legislators to postpone the entry into force of same-sex marriage.
The Nicaraguan trucker who passed out after crossing to the Costa Rica side of the Peñas Blancas border tested positive for Covid-19
The Ministry of Health confirmed on Monday.
“The trucker who passed out yesterday, who had suspected that it was Covid-19, was indeed diagnosed as Covid-19 positive and is currently being treated,” said Health Minister Daniel Salas during Monday’s press conference.
Costa Rica is requiring all truckers to be tested for Covid-19 prior to entry into the country, the man, whose identity has not been disclosed publicly, left his rig on the Nicaraguan side of the border, presumably knowing he would receive immediate medical attention, something that is non-existent in his country when it comes to the coronavirus.
La Prensa in Nicaragua says that the Ortega regime has not reported on the coronavirus in Nicaragua for six days, keeping the number of confirmed cases at 16 and deaths at 5.
American retiree James Horner and his Costa Rica wife were found dead on May 3
(QCOSTARICA) James Allen Honer and Bianca Mena Sibaja (30) had been living together for more than a year, before their charred bodies were discovered in a ‘charral’ in Sabana Larga, Atenas, some 600 meters from their home.
American retiree James Horner and his Costa Rica significant other were found dead on May 3, their bodies burned beyond recognition, in a brush fire set by the killers not far from their home in Atenas
James, an American lawyer retired in Costa Rica and his young Costa Rican significant other from Escazu, lived in the posh residential known as Vista Atenas. They had a maid.
On May 3, the fire department received a call of a brush fire in an area near Calle Loma. While putting out the fire, they found one body and a short distance away, another, burned beyond recognition.
It wasn’t until May 10 that the Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ), released the details of the double murder, including their identity, early Sunday morning raid the house of victims and the arrest of four people.
Investigators believed the victims were killed elsewhere, their bodies dumped in the charral and set the fire deliberately to cover up their deed or at least slow down the process.
Brush fires are common during the dry season.
The Ministerio Publico (Prosecutor’s Office) on Monday confirmed the arrest of four people, including the maid, her son and two other friends.
Authorities presume that the suspects were with the bodies for at least three days and then set them on fire.
The defendants are a woman (the maid) with the surname Suárez Jiménez who worked in the home of the victims, her son, with the surname Salas Suárez, and two other men, accomplices, with the last names Reyes Villalobos and Esquivel Castro.
Police secured and protect the scene where the bodies were dumped and set on fire
At first, it was believed the four were arrested in the residence in the home of the victims, however, the Ministerio Publico confirmed the four were detained on Saturday after being stopped by the Policia de Transito (Traffic Police), traveling in two cars, for violating the vehicular restrictions.
The Prosecutor’s Office already had information that linked the four to the double murder. The OIJ was called to the scene of the traffic stop, where, on inspection learned that one of the cars belonged to the victim, James Horner.
The next morning two raids were executed, at the house of the victims and that of the suspects, also in Atenas.
Among the evidence found by investigators was the American’s credit card.
The four detainees, suspected of murder, are under a six months preventive detention while the investigation continues.
Atenas is a very popular area for expats in Costa Rica.
This Monday, the authorities announced the relaxation of the vehicular restrictions due to the covid-19 pandemic.
The Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, was emphatic that the vehicular restrictions will remain nationwide, and starting Saturday, May 16 to May 31.
Basically all the current restrictions and sanctions continue to apply until May 31, the only real change is ending later during weekdays, 10 pm instead of 7 pm.
Weekdays
Daytime restrictions apply from 5:00 am to 10:00 pm Monday to Friday based on the last digit of the license plate as follows:
1 & 2 on Mondays
3 & 4 on Tuesdays
5 & 6 on Wednesdays
7 & 8 on Thursdays
9 & 0 on Fridays
Nighttime restrictions from 10:00 pm to 5:00 pm apply to all vehicles, save for those exempted.
Weekends
The daytime restrictions on Saturdays and Sundays are from 5:00 am to 7:00 pm:
On Saturdays, only vehicles with plates ending in even numbers (0,2,4,6,8) cannot circulate
On Sundays, only vehicles with plates ending in even numbers odd numbers (1,3,5,7,9) cannot circulate
Nighttime restrictions from 7:00 pm to 5:00 pm apply to all vehicles, save for those exempted.
Public transport
Buses can operate at their regular scheduled hours, with the provision no standing passengers
Taxis can operate 24/7
The sanctions for violating the vehicular restrictions is a fine of ¢110,000 colones, six points on the driver’s license and seizure of license plates or vehicle.
Starting Monday, May 18, twelve national parks will reopen, but limited to operating at 50% capacity, and under new dynamics to prevent the spread of covid-19, and as part of the gradual reactivation of economic activities.
The reopening of parks will be done simultaneously with hotels of not more than 20 rooms adjacent to natural attractions, as part of the roadmap announced the previous week by the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) to reactivate the activity nationwide.
The Minister of Tourism, María Amalia Revelo, announced that, unlike previous internal tourism campaigns, when the private sector offered promotional packages, the ICT will now contribute with raffles, activations and prizes aimed at reducing prices.
The parks that will open from the 18th are:
Irazú Volcano National Park
Poás Volcano National Park.
Guayabo national monument.
Braulio Carrillo National Park.
Carara National Park (you can cross the beach but NOT stay on it).
Corcovado National Park (you can cross the beach but NOT stay on it).
Manuel Antonio National Park (you can cross the beach but NOT stay on it).
Cahuita National Park (you can cross the beach but NOT stay on it).
Arenal Volcano National Park.
Rincón de la Vieja Volcano National Park.
Tapantí National Park (Massif of Death).
Los Quetzales National Park.
Also opening on Monday the 18th is the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve, privately owned but, being a site of major tourist attraction, it was included among the openings.
Starting June 1, another 16 national parks will open, including those with beaches.
Outside of 28 national parks, Costa Rica is home to other visitation points for scientific and tourist reasons, including 58 wildlife refuges, 32 protected areas, 15 swampy wetlands, eleven forest reserves, and eight biological reserves.
The reopening, however, comes with new sanitary rules and strict protocols reconciled between the Minae, ICT and Health, among them are:
The purchase of tickets to enter the parks will be made mainly with debit or credit card on site. No cash.
As not all the parks are capable of offering a prior reservation service, Rodríguez clarified that each one will have social distancing measures between visitors when buying tickets on the site.
Some of the common areas will be kept closed to avoid crowds and protect the physical distance between hikers.
In all parks, for example, it will be prohibited to use common areas such as ranchos, lunch areas, depopulated forest areas, camping areas; as well as viewpoints and trails that imply a long stay.
Visitor centers, souvenir shops, coffee shops and showrooms will remain closed.
In the case of parks with beaches, visitors can move through the beach. Under no circumstances will visitors be able to extend their stay on the beach to sunbathe, eat, sleep or any other activity that implies being in the sand.
Parking areas will have one parking space between vehicles.
Authorities asked the population to be vigilant in the next few days to announcements and additional details planned by each of these parks.
On Monday, May 11, nine new cases of COVID-19 were announced in the country, for a total of 801 confirmed.
The age range is between one year and 87. There are 373 women and 428 men, of whom 688 are Costa Rican and 113 foreigners.
Positive cases are recorded in 68 cantons of the 7 provinces. By age they are 759 adults (41 of whom are seniors) adults and 42 minors.
In addition, Health Minister, Daniel Salas, explained that the nine truckers who tested positive for covid-19 at the Peñas Blancas border with Nicaragua were denied entry. All truckers, as a condition of entry, are required to be tested. The minister noted the 9, given they were turned away at the border, are not included in the confirmed cases count in Costa Rica.
A total of 517 people have recovered, ranging in age from one to 86, of which 251 are women and 266 are men.
Regrettably, seven deaths have been recorded, all men ranging in age from 45 to 87.
As of Monday, 21 people are hospitalized, six of them are in Intensive Care Units.
Private security officers thwarted an assault this Saturday, May 9, at the EPA hardware store in Escazú.
The facts were confirmed by the Escazu Municipal Police but did not provide any details because everything happened inside the premises.
Apparently the assailants arrived in a Hyundai sedan intent on robbing the mega hardware store. However, they were stopped by store security before committing the crime and managed to flee the site.
Major League Baseball owners gave the go-ahead Monday to making a proposal to the players’ union that could lead to the coronavirus-delayed season starting around the Fourth of July weekend in ballparks without fans, a plan that envisioned expanding the designated hitter to the National League for 2020.
This could benefit 200 people who lost their jobs in Turrialba after Rawlings Costa Rica laid them off in the face of the crisis affecting the world due to the coronavirus.
Rawlings Costa Rica, at its plant in Turrialba, manufactures the baseballs used in Major League Baseball (MLB).
The Coalition of Development Initiatives (Cinde) said, on April 21, in a statement, that Rawlings reaffirmed its commitment to Costa Rica and “will continue to operate in the country, hoping to rehire staff.”
MLB officials are slated to make a presentation to the union on Tuesday. An agreement with the players’ association is needed, and talks are expected to be difficult, according to ESPN, USA Today, The Athletic and NBC Sports.
The official major league ball is made by Rawlings in Costa Rica. Attempts to automate the manufacturing process were never entirely successful, leading to the continued use of hand-made balls. The raw materials are imported from the United States, assembled into baseballs and shipped back.
The MLB plan becomes the first formal proposal for a major U.S. sports league to break out of the coronavirus-led hiatus, with the seasons of the NBA, Major League Soccer (MLS), and National Hockey League (NHL) detained by the pandemic.
The proposal would have players report to training camps starting in mid-June for about three weeks, either at baseball stadiums or at training sites in Florida and Arizona, where confinement rules have been relaxed.
The season would begin July 1 to 4 and the playoffs would expand from 10 to 14 teams, with two additional wild card clubs in the National and American Leagues. The playoffs would end in early November, just a little later than normal.
The teams would mainly play against clubs in their own division, minimizing travel and expenses. They would also face clubs from the same division in the opposite league.
CBSSports reports what the 2020 season may look like:
All games will include a designated hitter.
There will be no mound visits during the game, and pitching changes would be done from the dugout.
There will be no spitting of sunflower seeds or chewing tobacco permitted.
Once a player is removed from a game, he will be forced to leave the dugout, shower in the clubhouse and leave the facility.
There will be absolutely no visitors, media members or any other people allowed in the clubhouse.
There will be no instant replay.
There will be no first- and third-base coaches on the field.
Players may invite up to four people to each game, however, all guests must agree to be tested for COVID-19 and agree to contact tracing.
All personnel, including players, will be temperature checked before gaining entrance to the ballpark.
Players will also have to agree to contact tracing and every other day testing.
Some industries are suffering worse than others due to the lockdown. Advertising is hard hit. Most businesses cut their marketing and advertising budgets when the cost-cutters take over from the growth junkies.
Tourism, airlines, live entertainment, real estate, and their supply industries are well-publicized examples of those hard hit by the pandemic and panic. For them, the question is whether the recently impoverished masses will want, or be able to afford, a return to past excesses. And how long that might take.
Pre pandemic, the newspaper industry was in a steady decline. Press circulation in all major economies was falling, due to the availability of faster, and often free, on-line news. Much advertising migrated to the more fragmented on-line media, slashing an important revenue stream for the papers.
The pandemic has dramatically accelerated this trend. Papers are reporting between 40% and 80% recent falls in advertising revenue. Their other major income stream was from sales at kiosks and other outlets. That has collapsed. Sales outlets are in lockdown.
There are fewer commuters. Many, who once enjoyed reading the news on the train or bus, are either working from home or unemployed. The home office has turbo-charged the computer skills of many former readers, speeding the domination of online sources.
So, we can feel sorry for the printers, newsstand staff, and professional journalists, in an already declining industry. They join the long list of those displaced by change, from coal miners to small farmers. They will have to adapt, reskill or face hardship. The virus has caused widespread hardship, especially for those at the bottom.
On the other hand, who owns the news industry? Ownership is highly concentrated in the hands of very wealthy and often ruthless media moguls, keen to manipulate public opinion. Sadly, they also control the online media. Maybe we will be no better off.
Trust in the veracity of newspapers is low in many countries.
The plethora of competing on-line media increases opportunities for fake news and manipulation. It also allows for faster access to alternative views and information.
Surfing in Costa Rica will resume on May 16. Surfers will be able to hit the waves almost two months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Daniel Salas, Minister of Health, announced Monday that the beaches will be open from 5:00 am to 8:00 am and that surfing will be allowed.
“Together with the advisory commission we have evaluated the proposal presented by the Surfing Federation, we have exchanged many criteria and finally we have achieved a rigorous approach, which is adapted to the conditions imposed by the current situation. With this we allow a gradual return of a sport that is key for our country, for its successes and for everything that it also represents in the field of tourism”, explained Hernán Solano, Minister of Sports.
Within the guidelines established, surfers must arrive at the beaches ready to enter the water, likewise, there will be no sharing of equipment, including clothing, and once finished, it is mandatory to disinfect the equipment.
Another important aspect is social distancing of at least five meters must be maintained between people in the water and surfers will not paddle or take the same wave.
Additionally, athletes must carry the card that accredits them as such, issued by the Costa Rican Surfing Federation.
It is also established that if upon reaching a significant number of users, another nearby beach should be found.
“The Surf Federation appreciates all the management that the government has done in the face of the covid-19 emergency. In addition, he wishes to express special thanks to the Minister of Health, Daniel Salas Peraza, and to the Minister of Sport, Hernán Solano Venegas, for their concern and willingness to gradually reactivate the national sport,” Rándall Chaves, hierarch of Costa Rican surfing.
Finally, the protocol establishes that: “if it is identified that an athlete has entered to surf with symptoms such as fever, cough or sneezing, they will be exposed to a disciplinary sanction by the Federation”.
Although it does not give up on diplomacy, Costa Rica is taking measures to prevent the social-health crisis in Nicaragua from impacting our territory.
President Carlos Alvarado (checkered shirt), vice-president Epsy Campbell (in white), and Security Minister Micheal Soto (red shirt), in a pep talk with the men and women working the northern border with Nicaragua
For example, covid-19 testing is now mandatory for cross-border truckers, with emphasis on the northern border with Nicaragua.
Those truckers who test positive (or refuse to submit to testing), may not enter. The Ministry of Health reported over the weekend nine truckers tested positive. They were denied entry.
In addition, a large number of law enforcement officers have been mobilized at the borders – for weeks now – to prevent the illegal entry of foreigners.
The Minister of Security, Micheal Soto, announced on Friday that those providing transport to migrants or illegals will face severe penalties, including shutting down businesses who provide the vehicles.
Although in their summary of the border controls, Costa Rican officials not mention Nicaragua by name, the majority of efforts and resources is dedicated to the northern border.
Minister Salas confirmed that he is in constant communication with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Central American Integration System (SICA) and the Council of Ministers of Health of Central America (Comisca) about the regional situation and the particular case from Nicaragua.
He said that they have advocated “having much greater access to information and what would be the actions that should be taken.”
In Nicaragua, the Health measures issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) have not been promoted or implemented by the administration of Daniel Ortega; in fact, the government promotes massive activities and insists that everything is safe and that all is normal.
As of Monday. Nicaragua officially reported 16 confirmed cases of the covid-19 and five deaths. Numbers that have not changed much in weeks.
Unofficially, the non-governmental media report the existence of thousands of infections and dozens of deaths that are not included within the official data, as well as the alleged intimidation of the population in the sense that, if they say that their relatives died from the new coronavirus, the police would not deliver the bodies to them.
Despite, his detractors and even his former minister of health denouncing the risk of disrespecting the measures in the midst of the pandemic, in a public appearance, President Ortega said the situation is under control and that recent deaths are associated with “atypical pneumonia” and not with COVID-19.
Rico’s Digest – As of now, borders are restricted until June 15. In today’s announcements, neither President Carlos Alvarado nor Health Minister Daniel Salas talked about the borders, a date when tourists are allowed to return.
Monday’s announcement was all about what businesses and activities can begin reopening and to what degree, surfers can surf, beaches open for a few hours each morning, some parks will allow visitors, small hotels hosting guests and the expected relaxing of the vehicular restrictions.
As emphatically pointed out both by the President and the Minister, if we behave, follow the rules, we can move to through the progressive phases and get back to normal, whatever the new normal is.
Perhaps, another way of looking at it, as a people, we know our future, as in our recent past, depends on tourists. Thousands of jobs and families, our way of life, depends on tourist dollars coming into our economy.
If we behave by maintaining social distancing, washing our hands, being responsible in our interactions with others, we can see tourists coming back soon. Maybe as soon as July. Or August.
This is a “we will see” approach, a reasonable approach, in my opinion.
If we keep our numbers in check, there is no spike in the curve, there will be more relaxing of restrictions, borders start to re-open, at least the air, sea and southern border, for I am really concerned about what is going on to the north of us by an administration that lives in denial and prefers to cover up and bury rather than admit it was wrong and work on fixing it.
But it doesn’t only depend on us, on “Team Costa Rica” as President Alvarado said Monday, but on what happens beyond our borders, Europe and the United States, mainly, and their progress with the pandemic.
I don’t see a big bang happening, but a slow, gradual return of tourists. We can write off the low or green or rainy season we are just coming into, but we could be in good shape for high or dry season that is six months away.
So, when will tourists return? It’s anyone’s guess, but I do believe by October or November we can start to feel the rewards we’ve all put in during this time of coronavirus and move forward.
President Carlos Alvarado announced this Monday its plan for opening and gradually enabling activities for the next 80 days, consisting of a process in four phases, established for the gradual reopening of the national economy.
Presidetn Carlos Alvarado (right) and Minister of Health, Daniel Salas (Left)
It consists of a process that will keep the population on trial in each phase, allowing the gradual reopening of shops, entertainment venues, sports facilities beaches and even the return to face-to-face classes for some grades.
Both President Alvarado and Health Minister Daniel Salas warned that if there are increases in the number of cases during a phase, a rollback in the process could be contemplated.
Throughout the eleven weeks social distancing and hygiene will be the focus, which are part of the so-called “golden rules” Minister Salas explained in detail.
The first phase will run from May 16 to 31, the second from June 1 to 20, the third from June 21 to July 11 and the fourth from July 12 to August 2.
“Costa Rica has made an effort to abide by the measures imposed by the Ministry of Health and the results achieved allow us to project some of the actions that we will be implementing in the following months,” explained President Alvarado, who recalled the importance of not letting our guard down and continue to follow hygiene and health protocols to avoid setback, that is an increase in the number of cases.
Minister Salas stressed, whether or not to advance to the next phase will be decided, finally, by the curve of infections of covid-19.
“If we do not do what we have indicated, not following the rules, this will mean a collapse and we would have to go backward and even reach a general quarantine,” the minister warned.
Though Minister Salas and President Alvarado were the key speakers at Monday’s press conference, for the first time in many weeks held live in person and with a limited press corps, joining the stage was the Minister of the Environment and Energy, Carlos Manuel Rodríguez; Minister of the Economy, Victoria Hernández; Minister of Culture and Youth, Sylvie Durán; Minister of Sports, Hernán Solano; and Minister of Tourism, María Amalia Revelo.
“We have to take this process with all seriousness because if with the advance of this opening we had an increase in the number of cases, and the curve goes up, we would be forced to go back,” confirmed the president.
The new reopening measures are announced at a time when the number of infections in the country reached 801 cases, since the first case in the country on March 6.
Costa Rica has been praised around the world for its excellent management of the pandemic, keeping the number of infections low, but more important the number of deaths, which as of Sunday stood at 7, following the death of an 80-year-old patient with underlying issues. There had not been a death in the country due to covid-19 since April 20.
The 4 phases that will be implemented from May 16 to August 2.
In the diagram, phase I is highlighted and depending on the results (not an increase in cases), the country moves to phase II, III and IV
Both President Alvarado and Minister Salas were emphatic that the progression of the phases will depend on the attitude of the population, which so far has been excellent.
Phase I, from May 16 to 31
The opening of some national parks with 50% of their capacity will be allowed.
Beaches will be allowed open during the week from 5:00 am to 8:00 am.
Recreational sports without direct physical contact, high-performance contact sports without spectators, is permitted.
Monday to Friday vehicular restriction is from 5:00 am to 10 pm; on Saturdays and Sundays, from 5:00 am to 7:00 pm.
Nighttime vehicular restrictions will continue from 10:00 pm to 5:00 am weekdays and 7:00 pm to 5:00 am weekends).
Business with health permits will be allowed open; hotels with a maximum of 20 rooms with 50% of their capacity.
Motels can be open for business.
Phase II, from June 1 to June 20
The opening of more national parks continues with 50% of its capacity.
Museums (with pre-purchase entry)with 50% of its capacity.
Restaurants with 50% of its capacity can be open on weekends.
Hotels with a greater number of rooms is enabled, but at 50% of their capacity.
Public parks are enabled to 50%.
Phase III, from June 21 to July 11
Opening of stores at 50% of their capacity on weekends.
Places of worship can open applying a minimum distance of 1.8 meters between each person and with a maximum of 75 people.
cinemas, theater and museums are maintained at 50% of their capacity with pre-purchased tickets and during weekends.
The opening of bars at 50% during the week will be authorized.
Sports centers at 50% (activities without physical contact)
Phase IV, from July 12 to August 2
The capacity is expanded to 100 people in places of worship – always respecting the minimum distance of 1.8 meters between each person.
The school year progressively according to the conditions of each school and education coexisting at a distance, when health conditions allow it
The opening eaches during the week with extended hours.
What will NOT be allowed during each phase:
Mass gatherings and public shows.
Casinos and gambling activities
Community fairs.
Amusement parks.
Discos and dance halls.
The ‘Golden Rules” for a successful re-opening
With an emphatic tone, the Minister of Health enunciated the “golden rules” that the population must apply so that the reopening measures can gradually advance. Important to note, the following are recommendations and not orders.
No one with a cold or flu should leave their home. A person who already has symptoms is exposing all people who come across the virus, which could be covid-19. Managers and business owners should prevent people with symptoms from entering their facilities.
People with risk factors should avoid going to public places. This applies, for example, to those with high blood pressure, diabetes, lung diseases, low immunity and seniors.
mobilization to public places should be in “social bubbles”. The social bubble is the members who share in a close nucleus, such as a family who live together. “Groups of friends, family members who are not living together, and co-workers are not social bubbles. It is not about throwing parties with family or neighbors,” said the Minister.
Never touch your face in public places if you have not washed your hands before. The virus enters through different points: the eyes, nose and mouth.
Do not sing, shout, or speak loudly in closed public and meeting places. This can simulate a cough and increases the risk of transmission.
We recommend the use of face masks in public places, especially in public transport, for people who are serving passengers and in meeting places where the exposure is greater than 15 minutes.
It is recommended to take a temperature at the entrance of establishments where people gather.
“If we neglected and forget about the pandemic, if people start to think that it is over, we could reach 52,000 cases or more in less than two months, and we would also have a significant amount in the saturation of health services,” Minister Salas stressed.
Important note: The plan laid out by the government is in development, that is, over the coming days and weeks, there will be adjustments, shifts, changes, additions and retractions, dependent on the attitude and actions of the population.
At QCR, we committed to bringing you the latest official information as it is made public.
In the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, being sent to prison for not paying alimony can be deadly, especially if the person suffers from an illness that could be complicated by the new coronavirus.
That’s because this type of prisoner does not have the same access to get out of prison process and safeguard their life.
A prisoner serving out a sentence for other than not paying alimony (pension alimentaria in Spanish) and has health risk factors, can ask prison authorities to analyze their case so that, eventually, can be let relocate to a half-way house.
If a person in preventive detention (accused of a crime but not had heir day in court) is a chronic patient, they can access the Public Defense (Defensa Pública) – legal aid – so to ask a judge for a change in the precautionary measure imposed (preventive detention) for a less burdensome one.
However, if an alimony debtor is in prison and suffers from a disease that could be complicated by the new coronavirus, he does not have the same access to get out of prison and safeguard his life.
Why?
Prison authorities cannot help them because they (alimony debtors) are not under their jurisdiction and of that of the Defensa Pública. In other words, other than for their self defence, they have no one to defend them. They are unprotected.
This situation is of particular concern because, currently there are 325 people being held in the “Apremiados” unit, as confirmed by the Ministry of Justice and Peace.
In addition, in the women’s prison, the Vilma Curling, in Desamparados, there are five women being held for not paying alimony, confirmed the Ministry.
They are bounced around
In the circular 4-2020, of April 21, of the National Institute of Criminology (INC), an entity attached to the Ministry of Justice that is in charge of granting prisoner benefits, the following is stated:
“As cases with risk factors for covid-19 are detected among people in Apremiados and in preventive detention, the prison centers should send the list of cases to Mrs. Laura Arias Guillén, coordinator of Public Defense office of sentencing, who will be in charge of directing the cases to the corresponding instances of the Judicial Power”.
It seems that prison authorities are concerned about the health of alimony debtors who are imprisoned; however, the Defensa Pública confirms the situation is not within its competence.
In a statement, the Defensa Pública said that those held for non-payment of alimony do not have legal aid from the Defensa Pública and should be referred to Defensoría de los Habitantes (Ombudsman’s Office) for the protection of their rights.
For their part, the Defensoría de los Habitantes says, “it is essential that the Costa Rican State assumes a transparent and clear position on the matter that guarantees all protected rights. (…) It is an obligation of the State to ensure that the conditions in which people remain in detention centers comply with the minimum measures that reduce the risk of contagion and, at the same time, that families who are entitled to the pension (alimony) have an alternative of social assistance that allows them survival conditions.”
In reality, unless the Ombudsman’s Office intervenes, the alimony debtor has few options.
According to a report by La Nacion asking the Judiciary on what alternatives an alimony debtor, with proven risk factors in tines of covid-19, the press office of the Judiciary responded that “according to articles 31 and 32 of the Ley de Pensiones Alimentarias (Alimony Law), alimony debtors have the possibility of asking themselves for a judge for an authorization to look for work (outside the prison) or to pay the arrears.”
If the alimony debtor requests a hearing, the same articles establish that “(the alimony debtor) must provide the corresponding evidence that will be resolved without the need for a hearing of the parties.”
That is, the applicant must demonstrate the condition of unemployment or inability to pay. And all this without the help of legal aid and while being imprisoned.
In the event that the judge agrees to the request, the alimony debtor must immediately be ordered free, or the court suspends the enforcement order issued against him, for a period of one month and, in exceptional cases, it may be extended for the same period.
A Nicaraguan trucker crossed the Peñas Blancas border Sunday morning, approached the health checkpoint and fell unconscious to the surprise of those present.
The man was taken to a medical center to determine if he is ill with COVID-19 or if he suffers from something else.
This Sunday afternoon images of the incident began to circulate the social networks and, later, the fact was confirmed by Rodrigo Marín, director of Health Surveillance, who said that the driver left his truck on the Nicaraguan side of the border, and walked across the border.
Marín was not able to confirm if the man, whose identity was not released to the press, was infected with the coronavirus and that it is not yet known what caused the fainting.
On the Costa Rica side of the border, all truckers entering the country must submit to a coronavirus test, which results will be available between 24 and 48 hours, as a condition of entry.
Speculation is that the man, who may or may not be infected, wanted to be tested given that in his country testing is almost none and reports of infections even less.
Nicaragua, as of this morning, Monday, May 11, officially reports only 16 cases of coronavirus and 5 deaths.
Unofficially, the number of infected is said to be in the hundreds and that at least 88 have died from the covid-19, deaths that Nicaragua health authorities attribute to pneumonia.
(Insightcrime) Criminal groups across Latin America have been forced to dig deep by the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown. Moving drugs and contraband, shaking down extortion victims and getting migrants across borders have all become far more difficult amid increased scrutiny and the lack of human activity.
On the other hand, the global shutdown has allowed enterprising criminal minds to find opportunities: cybercrime, false contracts, the theft of medical equipment and more.
Below, InSight Crime explores the principal ways in which the coronavirus has shaken up organized crime dynamics in the region.
1. More Social Capital for Criminals
Criminals were a de facto state prior to the virus. In many places, they have now become the state.
In El Salvador, gangs like the MS13 and Barrio 18 have watched over specific neighborhoods, telling people to stay indoors, although reports have emerged of favored traders and shops being allowed to remain open despite the curfew.
In Venezuela, pro-government armed groups known as “colectivos” were the ones to announce the very first lockdown measures in certain areas, even before the government or healthcare services.
And as the weeks passed, some of these groups have taken on a broader social role. In Mexico, a range of criminal groups from the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación — CJNG) to Los Viagras have distributed packages of food and essential items. The lockdown affords them a chance to consolidate their control, ingratiate themselves with residents and cultivate support.
2. New Black Market for Medicine and Equipment
Countries like Mexico and Guatemala have long contended with an active black market for medicine, facilitated by corruption in their healthcare and social security systems. But the coronavirus pandemic has seen the rest of Latin America threaten to catch up due to a boom in the theft of medical supplies, including masks, hand sanitizer and even coronavirus detection kits.
The most notable case came when 15,000 coronavirus testing kits and over two million personal protective items were stolen from São Paulo’s Guarulhos Airport in early April, although these were later recovered. In Honduras, boxes of N95 masks have been arriving at hospitals with dozens missing as the country continues to suffer from a severe shortage.
And Colombia has seen repeated seizures of illicit medicine, especially paracetamol, considered the painkiller of choice to relieve symptoms of coronavirus.
The pandemic has exposed a severe lack of supply chain control in the medical field, which allows for products to be easily stolen. As cases of coronavirus continue to rise, this criminal economy may become more permanent.
3. More Graft
Powerful political actors and government officials across the region have leveraged their positions to corrupt everything from national health systems to the processes used to dole out public works contracts and select attorney generals. The coronavirus has provided just the latest opportunity for corruption.
In Colombia, the Comptroller’s Office has documented some “$20.6 million in apparent overcharges in some 8,100 contracts signed by mayors and governors” involving food and medical supplies to help citizens of the Andean nation handle the outbreak, according to a Reuters report.
Health systems have been ripe for corruption all across Latin America in years past, and early evidence suggests that corrupt officials may also be eyeing the current pandemic as yet another way to line their pockets at the expense of citizens.
The Attorney General’s Office in Honduras has launched an investigation into potential irregularities regarding the country’s Permanent Contingency Commission’s (Comisión Permanente de Contingencias — COPECO) handing of purchasing resources and awarding contracts in response to the coronavirus outbreak. The National Anti-Corruption Council (Consejo Nacional Anticorrupción — CNA) has also warned of corruption involving government purchases of overpriced medical supplies.
4. More Cybercrime
Criminal hackers are taking advantage of the rapid rise in online activity from individuals, companies and governments.
A malicious app, which claimed to provide interactive maps of the virus’ spread, has already spread widely in Costa Rica, hijacking users’ devices to demand they pay ransom in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Email phishing schemes promising government stimulus money and phony coronavirus tests have also proliferated.
Latin America is already home to a significant portion of the world’s malware attacks, where experts say governments, individuals and financial institutions are all vulnerable. Hackers in Mexico managed to successfully infiltrate the country’s state-run oil company in 2019 and the Ministry of Economy in 2020. Luxury hotel chains in Brazil were targeted in 2019 by phishing schemes that allowed criminals to gain access to databases with customer credit card information. Colombia saw 49 billion cyberattack attempts last year, with the banking industry being the most frequently targeted.
Brazil, Mexico and Colombia are the top three countries in Latin America for malware attacks, according to the Russia-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky.
Critical infrastructure is also at risk with four out of five Latin American countries lacking a cybersecurity strategy infrastructure protection plan, according to a 2016 report by the Inter-American Development Bank.
In addition, organized crime groups are increasingly laundering money through cryptocurrency and looking to hackers for help, according to a report by the global cyberthreats firm IntSights Cyber Intelligence. With the coronavirus pandemic disrupting drug supply chains, the report’s author, Charity Wright, told InSight Crime that these same groups may turn to cybercrime to “diversify their financial flows.”
5. Less Human Smuggling
As adept as human smugglers may be at moving migrants, even they must have been dismayed at the layers of extra security seen along the borders since the pandemic began.
US President Donald Trump shut down the entire border with Mexico to migrants, and hundreds of extra troops were deployed to patrol it. The Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras quickly followed suit. Even Costa Rica, long one of the region’s more welcoming countries to migrants, has deployed various security force units to turn back anyone seeking to enter from Nicaragua.
The prices charged by “coyotes,” as human smugglers are known, had already been increasing due to hard-line policies in Central America and the United States. The coronavirus pandemic has only tightened the screws, both on migrants and on the families they leave behind.
And even once quarantine measures abate, measures to control and restrict migration are likely to continue.
6. Less Illicit Drugs, Higher Prices
With borders shut to most transit and authorities widely checking vehicles, drug traffickers are struggling to move their product during the quarantine. This has led to a precipitous drop in supply for traffickers across the region.
Street prices for marijuana have doubled in Argentina, according to a local dealer in Buenos Aires who spoke with Vice about a shipment from Colombia that was stranded in transit. Germán de los Santos, a journalist and investigator, told InSight Crime that marijuana is particularly expensive now because its volume makes it “harder to transport” and conceal. Poorer neighborhoods have also seen a return of solvent abuse, he said.
In Mexico, the Sinaloa Cartel reportedly told dealers to sell methamphetamine at five times the previous price, Vice reported. Designer drugs like MDMA have seen a massive drop in sales due to the shuttering of nightclubs, according to the Vice report.
Colombia has seen “basuco” — a crude, adulterated form of cocaine paste — increase four times its usual per gram street price, according to El Espectador.
Local drug gangs must also contend with transport restrictions and increased patrols to enforce quarantines. Bike and motorcycle messengers, who are considered essential workers, have been caught carrying illicit substances, including some sporting bags from popular delivery app services. Authorities have also found so-called “narco-ambulances” circulating, vehicles that have been used in the past to move drugs.
This impact has also been felt in the United States. In New York City, the street price of marijuana has risen 55 percent since March, with cocaine and heroin now 12 and seven percent more expensive, respectively, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
(QCOSTARICA) A retired American lawyer and his Costa Rican sentimental partner are the two who were murdered on Sunday, May 3, and dumped in a charral (brush) that was set on fire in Atenas, Alajuela.
This is the entrance to Vista Atenas residential in Sabana Larga de Atenas, where the murdered couple lived. Photo courtesy of Diario 5 Atenas.
The information was released on Sunday by the Organimso de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ).
On Saturday, the OIJ raided the victims’ house, which is located in the Vista Atenas residential in Sabana Larga. There, they detained four people – three men and a woman – who reportedly had taken over the house. The woman was the victims’ domestic servant (maid).
The OIJ raided the house were the victims lived. Photo courtesy of Diario 5 Atenas.
Authorities did not disclose the identities of those involved as their investigation continues.
Diario 5 Atenas identified the American as “James” and his sentimental partner as Bianca Mena Sibaja. Photo courtesy of Diario 5 Atenas.
The American is a native of Nevada County, California. According to his Facebook profile, he had a romantic relationship with a 30-year-old Costa Rican from Escazú, since April 2019.
The OIJ reported that they are awaiting autopsy results to determine the exact identity of the deceased. The man is said to be between 55 and 60 years old, had a pacemaker, a knew replacement and surgery on his left shoulder.
The American and his sentimental partner had been reported missing since the end of April.
The presumption is that the couple was killed in another place and they were taken to the charral where they were set on fire to destroy any evidence and delay their identity.
The vehicle presumed to have been used to move the bodies from the murder scene to the charral. Photo courtesy of Diario 5 Atenas
“According to the preliminary data we have from the autopsy, we are talking about a homicide and the possibility that they have been executed in a different place from the one we found them,” Walter Espinoza, director of the OIJ, said on Wednesday.
Photo courtesy of Diario 5 Atenas
The couple’s murder was discovered on Sunday, May 3, at night when firefighters were called to a fire in a charral in Calle Arredondo.
Héctor Chaves, director of the Bomberos said, at that time, that a unit was dispatched at 8:45 pm to the site to put out a brush fire, not an uncommon call during the dry season, and while putting out the fire, firefighters discovered the body of a “practically charred” man.
Police took control of the scene after the charred bodies were discovered. Photo courtesy of Diario 5 Atenas
Then at 8:59 pm, they found the other corpse.
Freddy Rodríguez Aguilar, Atenas fire chief, added that the bodies were three meters apart.
This was the exact place where yesterday they burned a couple.
The closest houses to the charral are about 200 meters from the mango farm. To reach the charral, there is a trail, explained the area fire chief.
(QCOSTARICA) On Sunday, the Colombian airline, Avianca, filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, to reorganize its debt “due to the unpredictable impact” of the coronavirus pandemic.
No word from the airline how the filing affects its Costa Rica operations, Avianca Costa Rica, formerly known as LACSA (Lineas Aéreas Costarricenses S.A.).
In a letter to customers, the airline says business is as usual. Well, as usual as it can be in this time of the coronavirus pandemic.
Because our relationship with you is important, I wanted to reach out directly to let you know about the actions Avianca is taking to make sure we have the financial strength we need to continue serving you well into the future.
Today, Avianca voluntarily filed for reorganization proceedings under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. We did so to protect our business as we continue to navigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as comprehensively address our debt and other commitments. We considered many other possibilities before determining that a reorganization made possible by the Chapter 11 process is the best path forward to protect the essential air travel services that we provide across Colombia and important locations throughout South America, Central America, North America and Europe.
Avianca has flown the skies for more than 100 years, and we are committed to our purpose to connect people, families and businesses. We look forward to returning to the skies and helping you and your organization safely travel across Latin America and the world.
Here is what you need to know:
Avianca will continue to operate through this process, and Avianca will return to the skies and continue to fly once COVID-19 travel restrictions are gradually lifted.
Customers’ safety and well-being remain a top priority for us today and moving forward. Customers can be confident that they can continue to depend on Avianca for safe, reliable air travel and high-quality service. To that end, Avianca has implemented a number of measures to ensure the safety and well-being of our employees and customers. Additional information on the steps Avianca has taken can be found here.
Customers can expect to continue to arrange travel and fly with Avianca in the same way they always have. We plan to honor all customer programs throughout this process.
Customers will be able to use tickets, vouchers, travel coupons, gift cards and any additional travel services purchased before we initiated this process.
Additional frequent flyer benefits remain active, including access to VIP Lounges, priority check-in, upgrades and other benefits.
Given the impact COVID-19 has had on travel plans, we will continue with our Flexibility Policy. Subject to government policies, we expect to continue to allow changes free of penalty and fare difference charges for previously booked tickets and/or newly purchased as long as the original and changed flights are until October 31, 2020. All customers who have booked travel or will purchase flights during this period can be confident they can rely on Avianca for their travels.
The LifeMiles™ program is administered by a separate company and is NOT part of Avianca’s Chapter 11 filing.
Avianca customers will continue to accrue miles when they fly with Avianca, and can continue to redeem miles earned through LifeMiles™ to purchase tickets with Avianca during this process. Tickets purchased through redemption of LifeMiles™ miles will continue to be exempt from penalty fees until October 2020.
We are proud of our 100-year legacy, and look forward to continuing to serve you. Thank you for your continued loyalty.
The arrivals level at the Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO), also known as the San Jose airport
Costa Rica awaits the arrival of several flights of nationals and residents (who left Costa Rica prior to March 24) returning to the country in the midst of the world health crisis due to the new coronavirus.
The arrivals level at the Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO), also known as the San Jose airport
This Sunday, May 10, Health Minister, Daniel Salas, reported that all the repatriation flights will only be through the Juan Santamaría airport (SJO).
According to the minister, the Government took this measure to guarantee better sanitary control of people who return to the country.
Thus, the Daniel Oduber International Airport (LIR), in Liberia, Guanacaste, will not receive such flights of Costa Ricans and legal residents, the only that are permitted entry.
All Costa Ricans and residents entering the country are subject to a mandatory quarantine, a decision the Ministry of Public Health made since the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in the country.
The objective that the passengers arriving stay isolated for a period of 15 days, with the aim of mitigating any risk of contagion of the viral respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.
During the development of the pandemic, the Government promoted a reform of the legislation to toughen fines and penalties for those who violate sanitary orders. The monetary sanctions for violating a Health order range from ¢450,000 to ¢2.2 million colones and possible criminal charges, depending on the case.
“Nicaragua is the only country or territory in the Americas where the type of transmission is undetermined, according to our reports,” he indicated. “As you recall, more than a month ago, PAHO expressed its concern regarding the evidence, regarding the follow-up of contacts, the reporting of cases, and these concerns remain.”
