President Carlos Alvarado said earlier this week that lifting bank secrecy should not be a concern for honest people or for any business person or investor, nor should it be an excuse to defend “things that affect the country.”
“The lifting of bank secrecy does not affect any farmer, does not affect any housewife, does not affect any student, any formal business person in lawful activities and generating employment.
“It does not affect any investment because foreign investment coming here is from countries that do not have banking secrecy, so it is not true that it affects the attraction of legitimate investment, I do not see where the concern is,” he questioned.
His words stem from the ongoing discussions by the legislative committee on tax matters and the words of the Minister of Finance, Rodrigo Chaves, who told legislators that the bill proposed is in inline with the government’s objective, in the first instance, to combat tax evasion.
“If there are countries to which we aspire to be that they do not have it, why does Costa Rica play with different rules if it is a matter of transparency? If it does not affect the farmer, the housewife or the honest entrepreneur and does not affect the investment, what is the problem? ”, said Alvarado in response to those sectors that have spoken out against lifting banking privacy.
l Instituto Costarricense de Investigación y Enseñanza en Nutrición y Salud (Inciensa) es el centro encargado de procesar las muestras y próximamente podrá hacer la prueba para diagnosticar si una persona tiene el nuevo coronavirus COVID-19. Fotografía: Jonathan Jiménez Flores para Grupo Nación.
In less than a month, the new COVID-19 could be detected in the country without the need for the sample to be sent to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the United States.
The Instituto Costarricense de Investigación y Enseñanza en Nutrición y Salud (Inciensa) – Costa Rican Institute for Research and Teaching in Nutrition and Health – is in charge of processing samples and will soon be able to locally do the test to diagnose if a person has the new coronavirus COVID-19. Photo: Jonathan Jiménez Flores
Daniel Salas, Minister of Health, confirmed that they have already requested the specific test to be sent to Costa Rica and that it will arrive between the end of February and the beginning of March.
By the time the test arrives, a microbiologist from the Costa Rican Institute for Research and Teaching in Nutrition and Health (Incense), who will receive training at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), will be able to conduct and analyze tests here.
The Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a method widely used in molecular biology to rapidly make millions to billions of copies of a specific DNA sample allowing scientists to take a very small sample of DNA and amplify it to a large enough amount to study in detail. PCR was invented in 1983 by Kary Mullis.
Salas said that the PCR is so good that it will hardly be necessary to send samples to the CDC, it would be so only in specific cases.
How would a case of suspected coronavirus be managed in Costa Rica?
SOURCE: NATIONAL GUIDELINES FOR THE MONITORING OF INFECTION WITH CORONAVIRUS. || J.C. / La Nacion
The Ministry of Health says there have been no suspicious cases as such in Costa Rica.
For a person to be considered a suspect, not only are symptoms of a respiratory illness enough. In addition, he or she would have to have returned from China 14 days or less before the onset of symptoms, or had to be in contact with someone who did have COVID-19.
The Ministry has followed up what it calls “incidents”, cases that could be suspicious but are discarded by not meeting the definition of a suspect case. So far, 17 people have been known to have been in China and had some type of respiratory infection.
All cases have already been ruled out, as initial tests (not specific to COVID-19) indicated that they were infections of other viruses.
What is done in these situations? Persons remain isolated for 14 days under a CCSS disability and the Ministry of Health records their evolution. Once the quarantine time has passed, they return to their normal life.
The relatives of these individuals are not isolated and can go about their normal life outside the home, but they must keep distance with the person in quarantine and use masks if they are nearby.
The decision of the Ministry of Finance to once again discuss the lifting of bank secrecy (banking privacy) once again raised voices of support and rejection among the different sectors.
The Treasury proposal to lift bank secrecy is also defended by the OIJ, but finds voices of rejection in different sectors. Will it affect you?
The Government is promoting the measure as part of its proposals to reduce the growing debt based on the need to combat tax evasion.
While the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) is looking forward to being included in the discussion, looking towards that the lift not only deals with tax matters but that of a criminal nature.
But should the discussion concern only (tax) evaders and criminals?
Wálter Espinoza, director of the OIJ, argues that the lifting of bank secrecy should not be seen as an absolute elimination of the privacy that currently prevails in the financial market.
“The lifting of bank secrecy does not mean that we will go out to the community to say how much money a person has or their financial transactions, this is limited by legality and also by an investigation.
“This has been done for years and that is why I am struck that people suddenly freak out when talking about bank secrecy and their desire to protect something that is legal, not constitutional, and that anyway it has already been opened to the judicial system and also in the administrative system and it seems to me that it could give very good returns to the Public Ministry, the OIJ and also to the tax issue,” he said.
Historically, the OIJ Director has been an advocate of lifting bank secrecy as a way to accelerate judicial investigations, allowing that in cases where a company or individual is investigated, a judge does not have to be involved to be able to access information movements of money.
“It seems inconvenient, inappropriate,” said the OIJ chief in explaining that without the bank secrecy investigators can follow the money trail immediately and “not three months later when a judge allows it”.
“The bureaucratic wait to be able to follow the money trail thwarts investigations,” Espinoza criticized.
“This is not simply about suspects in a crime, this means that people from the Tax Administration will have access to the bank accounts of people without a court order, that means there is room for abuse and that the information be disseminated for other purposes that do not necessarily have to do with the commission of a crime.
“This is not simply about being a suspect in a crime, this means that people from the Tax Administration will have access to the bank accounts of the people without a court order, that means there is room for abuse and for that this information be disseminated for other purposes that do not necessarily have to do with the commission of a crime.
“If you review the news of recent years you will see different instances where information that was supposed to be private is abused by the authorities, so this is a blatant case of a situation where the rights of the citizen would be being put at risk by the Government if bank secrecy is eliminated,” analyst Juan Carlos Hidalgo questioned.
“What if you have an enemy that works at the Treasury and has unrestricted access to your bank information? Would you sleep peacefully?”
Espinoza argues that “The information is not going to be public, just as when bank secrecy is lifted by order of a judge, it does not appear in the media”.
The OIJ director agrees that there should be discussions to establish mechanisms and penalties abuse, in particular for those who reveal classified or confidential information.
Former legislator and former presidential candidate Otto Guevara pipes in, saying that lifting bank secrecy, coupled with other proposals such as the domain extinction project or the registry of shareholders, is a “perfect recipe” to scare capital and foreign investment from the country.
Legislators and sectors against lifting bank secrecy also argue that the measure is also a threat to competitiveness.
16/08/2019 San José. Fachada del Banco Central. Foto: Rafael Pacheco
Legislators of the Legislative Committee on Tax Matters negotiated to establish a ceiling of a 55% interest rate on loans of less than ¢675,000 colones, and 39.4% for loan amounts over.
Facade of the Banco Central de Costa Rica (Central Bank) in downtown San Jose.Photo: Rafael Pacheco / El Financiero
Those rates are based on a technical calculation that is currently still part of the discussions between legislators of the different political parties and with the involvement of the General Superintendent of Financial Institutions (Sugef), Bernardo Alfaro
The actual ceiling on for rates, before they are considered to be usury depends on the prevailing rates of the Central Bank (Banco Central) and the salary of a class 1 employee of the judiciary that is, currently ¢675,300 colones.
To calculate the ceiling rate on loans, the proposal is multiplying the average active rate calculated by the Central Bank which, the previous week, was 12.75%, according to Welmer Ramos, legislator for the Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC).
Based on the current salary and Central Bank rate, the ceiling rate is 55%, defined as a “microcredit cap”.
For loans in amounts higher than ¢675,000 colones, the calculation changes, the multiply rate is 3.1, thus the maximum interest would be 39.4%, the “conventional credit cap”.
Simple enough. However, the Sugef head explained that, if the ceiling for ordinary loans is less than 40%, this would exclude vulnerable sectors of the national financial system; although, he acknowledged, that a limit of 38% excludes less than a ceiling, for example, 35%.
“What they are looking for is which multiplier is the one that makes the average active rate close to that maximum level (45%) that our methodology has already recommended and, as the average active rate of the system is quite stable and reflects, in In effect, what are the credit levels established by all entities, we see that it can be a very good reference,” explained the superintendent.
Legislators of the Comisión Legislativa de Asuntos Hacendarios ( Legislative Committee on Tax Matters) in discussion over interest rate caps
The politicians argue that setting the conventional cap rate at 39% would protect some 127,000 families due to their socio-economic conditions, that is, they would no longer be excluded from the national financial system.
Regardless of which rate cap is adopted, legislators agree to use the average active rate as a reference so that the cap can move according to market conditions.
In the proposal, the conventional rate would be reviewed every year to avoid legal uncertainty.
I have practiced law in Costa Rica for over seventeen years. Prior to moving to Costa Rica in 1998, I had practiced law in Victoria, B.C., for fourteen years. Over the thirty-one plus years that I have practiced law, I have acquired a wealth of legal knowledge, largely imparted to the ex-pat law clients (primarily U.S. and Canadian) that I have served in Costa Rica.
My main areas of practice have been Residency Applications, property rentals and purchases, company incorporations, business documentation, and the like, all oriented toward the ex-pat community, and particularly those ex-pats who are recent arrivals.
I am now stepping-back from offering a full-service law practice and instead, offering to share the legal due diligence information required for the legal processes that one would encounter in moving to Costa Rica, through seminars and online, or personal consultations.
I chose Tamarindo for my new home, in Guanacaste’s Pacific “Gold Coast”, the prime location for ex-pats moving to Costa Rica, located near the Liberia International Airport (LIR).
I have modeled my new legal offering on the International Living Conference Business Model, an organization that I represented as their Costa Rica lawyer for over twelve years. The goal is to produce informed ex-pats, who will understand the legal processes involved in moving to Costa Rica, and will “get it right the first time”.
Limited attendance seminars are offered once per month, on the second Tuesday of each month, at a location in the Gold Coast area. The seminar for Tuesday, February 11, 2020, will be held at the Tamarindo Diria Hotel Convention Center, from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM.
The seminars consist of a one hour narrated PowerPoint presentation, followed by a one-hour open question and answer session, covering the following topics:
How To Choose Your Correct Costa Rica Lawyer, or Realtor
The Differences Between The U.S./Canadian And Costa Rica Legal Systems
How To Apply For Residency Immigration Status In Costa Rica
The Legal Process For Renting Or Purchasing Property
The Procedure and Benefits of Incorporating a Company
The Costa Rica Banking System And Escrow Account Process
Online Consultations and Personal Consultations in the Flamingo, Tamarindo, and Playas Del Coco Areas also available.
Information and inquires At Email:
Rick is a member of the Costa Rica College of Lawyers, and practices law in Costa Rica in the areas of real estate and development, corporate, commercial, contract, immigration, and banking. Contact Rick at rick@costaricacanadalaw.com. Website: www.costaricacanadalaw.com.
A note from the editor of the Q:
Rick Phelps has been a contributor to Q Costa Rica since its beginning days in 2012. In addition, Rick is a personal friend of many years, way even before the Q. There is a cost to Rick’s seminars. The Q does not benefit from any consideration, implied or otherwise, from this article.
Stefaniak was found dead on December 3, 2018, in a mountainous area of Escazu
The trial for the murder of Carla Stefaniak is winding down, with closing arguments expected to begin on Friday, February 14.
Stefaniak was found dead on December 3, 2018, in a mountainous area of Escazu
On Wednesday, Valeria Ávila Araya, a former Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ) agent, pointed to Bismarck Espinoza Martínez, as the main suspect of killing the American-Venezuelan tourist.
Stefaniak was found dead on December 3, 2018, in a mountainous area of the hotel Le Mas de Provence or Villas Linda Vista, located in San Antonio de Escazú. She had disappeared five days before.
From the first days of the investigation, judicial officials set their sights on Espinoza Martinez, the security guard on duty the night of Carla’s disappearance, after finding inconsistencies in the man’s story to the OIJ.
Espinoza is charged with homicide.
In her testimony, Ávila Araya, who at the time of the murder was an agent of the OIJ’s Miscellaneous Crimes Section, said that the main indications for having the security as a suspect was that he lied about Stefaniak, who had been reported missing by her family in Florida, having left the property where she was staying in an Uber.
Former OIJ agent Valeria Ávila Araya on Wednesday giving testimony in the trial for the homicide of Carla Stefaniak. Photo Jeffrey Zamora
“He told me that she had left at dawn and gave us the details of the vehicle, which was modern, with dark windows, but that vehicle is not seen in the videos at the time he says that Carla left,”Ávila Araya told the court.
The former OIJ agent added that the videos were recorded in houses near the villas, located in the only street to the property, which had no electronic surveillance system.
The witness also added that after they found the body, agents checked Espinoza’s room in the hotel, where they found very few belongings, which led investigators to presume that he intended to flee. “Even the owner of the place told us that not even he knew that Bismarck had so few things. It seemed that he prepared to leave the site,” she added.
Ávila Araya added that the same owner of the hotel told them that Bismarck had some bags, but when they checked his room those bags were not there.
Valeria Ávila also said that during the investigation it was possible to determine that the tourist was killed in the room in which she was staying. It is presumed that she was killed between the night of the 27th and the morning of November 28, 2018.
Likewise, the witness mentioned that she interviewed Karla González, the person in charge of cleaning the villas, who told her that she was a witness to a call received by Espinoza’s mother, a woman named Veronica, from her daughter-in-law (Espinoza’s) who told her that Bismarck had told him that he killed the Venezuelan tourist.
Carla Stefaniak arrived at the hotel after spending more than a week in Costa Rica, as part of her 28th birthday celebration, and had visited national parks such as Manuel Antonio and Monteverde, as well as Jaco beach, with her sister-in-law, who left the morning of her disappearance.
Carla had wanted to spend her last night in Costa Rica in the villas atop the Escazu mountains with plans to return to Florida (where she resided) the next day.
Ávila Araya added to her testimony that they were able to verify Carla’s arrival at the property in an Uber, but could not verify that another car had arrived on the morning of the 28th to pick her up, as the accused told investigators looking into Carla’s disappearance.
The trial that began on January 27 is taking place in the Pavas Criminal Courts. President is the three-judge panel led by Eduardo Rojas Sáenz, Simón Guillén, and José Alberto Vargas.
An Alaska Airlines plane had to make an emergency landing at Juna Santamaría Airport (SJO), shortly after taking off at 11:06 am, declaring an alert in flight.
The plane, with 142 aboard heading for Los Angeles, was forced to return to Alajuela with engine problems, forcing the authorities to dispatch a large number of first responders – Bombers (Fire Department) Cruz Roja (Red Cross), Transito and airport security.
Apparently, a bird strike had occurred in one of its engines. The plane landed safely and without incident, passengers were taken to a special area and were finally able to leave Costa Rica on another plane.
According to Aeris, the airport manager, the incident caused delays in 7 other flights – 5 arriving and 2 departing.
This is the fifth air emergency that has occurred in recent days, the most recent being last weekend, with an American Airlines plane.
Civil Aviation explains that it maintains a crew at the country’s international airports – San Jose, Liberia (LIR) and Pavas – to keep birds from interfering with flight operations. A spokesperson for Aviacion Civil stressed that the birds are not endangered in any way in their measures to stay them clear of the airports.
Supreme Court Iris Rocío Rojas said in Monday's Full Court session, "The secret of the journalist's source is not unlimited." Photo: Rafael Pacheco / La Nacion
The College of Journalists of Costa Rica and the Institute of Press and Freedom of Expression (Iplex) described the suggestion made by Judge Iris Rocío Rojas Morales as unacceptable, that journalists’ telephones should be intervened for the judiciary to know their sources.
Supreme Court Iris Rocío Rojas said in Monday’s Full Court session, “The secret of the journalist’s source is not unlimited.” Photo: Rafael Pacheco / La Nacion
Raúl Silesky, president of Iplex, said: “we are concerned that a magistrate suggests actions against that fundamental right. It is unacceptable as it goes against the Constitutional Court (also known as Sala IV) vote of April 30, 2008, and of the international standards of freedom of the press. That would mean a serious setback for our democracy.”
Silesky also noted that the organization expresses its total opposition to Rojas’s proposal, while calling on the Judiciary to promote internal training processes for its magistrates, “in order to promote the strengthening of our fundamental freedoms” and not the opposite.
Meanwhile, Belisario Solano, president of the College of Journalists of Costa Rica, openly censored Judge Rojas’ proposal to intervene in the telephones of journalists.
“It is not possible for the Costa Rican press to suffer such an attack, much less coming from the Judiciary. I invite Judge Rojas to put aside that proposal and to ask the Court to investigate whether or not there is information leakage”.
In Solano’s opinion, the judge’s proposal could be taken “as a way of attacking freedom of the press, against the secrecy of the sources and against the right to information that Costa Rican society has. We censor such a proposal and ask the magistrates to stop any progress in that direction.”
Iris Rocío Rojas, a member of the Supreme Court, proposed in Full Court session the “possibility of” a reform so that journalists’ telephones and communications can be intervened in order to find out their sources within the Judiciary, in case of possible leaks”.
“The secrecy of the journalist’s source is not unlimited,” Rojas said in reference to the eventual leak of information from police operations that may fail to leak into the press.
On Tuesday, Iris Rocío Rojas clarified her comments on Monday, saying “…I am convinced it is necessary to investigate the internal leakage of information (in the Judiciary).” She also pointed out that her comments “do not represent the will of the Court”.
Tuesday afternoon, at the press conference at Casa Presidencial (Government House), the Minister of the Presidency, Víctor Morales Mora, also spoke against the magistrate’s suggestion.
“Of course we do not agree with an intervention on the phones of journalists. It seems to me that our commitment to press freedom should lead us to express ourselves against such initiatives,” he said.
In April 2008 and in March 2014, the Constitutional Court ruled on the issue of the intervention of journalist’s telephones in response to two recursos de amparo (appeals).
The first involved an individual who requested La Nación gave him a copy of the documents that supported the publication of an investigative report in 2007. The appeal was filed after the journalist refused to hand over the documents, citing it violated the right of journalists not to disclose their sources.
In March 2014, the magistrates received an appeal filed by journalist Manuel Estrada of the Diario Extra, who reported that the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) and the Ministerio Público (Prosecutor’s Office) had, without the authorization of a criminal judge, intervened his phone in order to know his source.
The magistrates considered that the evidence obtained by the judicial authorities was void.
Mexico’s President Andrés Obrador, or AMLO as he refers to himself
Only a short time ago, a headline like that above would have referred to the opening of a brand new purpose-built airport in Mexico City, a beacon for the country and a benchmark for other Latin American countries to aim at. Work had indeed started on it.
Mexico’s President Andrés Obrador, or AMLO as he refers to himself
But in his wisdom, Mexico’s President Andrés Obrador, or AMLO as he refers to himself based on the initial letters of his name, abandoned that US$13 billion dollar project in favor of upgrades to the existing Benito Juárez airport, some tinkering with the secondary Toluca Airport and the transformation of a military airbase at Santa Lucia into a commercial facility by adding two runways (while retaining one for the military). In other words what has been described as an inefficient three-airport operation when centralization into one had previously been planned.
This headline now refers to Santa Lucia. The President affirmed that the Santa Lucia Airbase construction will be inaugurated on March 21, 2022. Obrador said, “I will stop calling myself Andrés Obrador if we do not inaugurate the airport on 21-Mar-2022”. In Jul-2019, Obrador had announced the construction would be completed by June 2021.
The cost of the construction was announced at around US$1 billion in 2018, then increased to US$3.6 billion in February 2019 and further increased to US$4.7 billion in August 2019, almost five times the original estimate in a year. The project was classified as a secret by Obrador and no further costs have been updated. SEDENA (Mexico’s Defence Department) claims that making such details public could “harm the project.”
That US$4.7 billion (which is probably more now) is significant. A previous The Blue Swan Daily article in August 2019 pointed out that the cost is preciously close to the US$5 billion that had already been invested in the proposed new six-runway airport AMLO stopped in October 2018 and which was effectively written off. The same article went on to say that the costs of the three-airport system were stacking up and that they would soon approach what had been the budget for the new one.
Now it seems as if that budget could even be exceeded. Recent estimates have it that the cost of canceling the new airport project, including written-off construction costs and an estimate of the settlement of legal claims by contractors and bondholders, are as high as USD9 billion. Add that to the expenditure on Santa Lucia and it adds up to US$13.7 billion and counting.
So by that calculation, the country is already US$700 million out of pocket as well as going without a brand new airport. Sometimes it can be worth sticking with the ‘Taj Mahals’. And to that might be added the value of the land at the Juárez airport had it been closed and sold, or even used as a functioning location for alternative activities. It is owned by Grupo Aeroportuario de la Ciudad de México (GACM), and operated by Aeropuertos y Servicios Auxiliares, which are respectively partly and wholly-owned state organizations.
CHART – Traffic growth has slowed in recent years at Mexico City Juarez International Airport with lack of capacity an important factor. Source: CAPA – Center for Aviation and Mexico City Juarez International Airport reports
While Santa Lucia is being converted (presumably that won’t be abandoned as well but stranger things have happened), responsibility for handling the capital’s growing air traffic rests with the Juárez and Toledo airports and mainly Juárez.
Toledo, some distance from ‘downtown’ but in a heavily commercialized area, is a bit-part player with passenger traffic around the half-million per annum mark. Juárez is quite different, being the busiest passenger airport in the whole of Latin America.
It is more than a sympathy vote for the government which has prompted Aeroméxico to announce that it wants to invest in the (re-)construction of the Juárez airport’s terminal 3. The project is expected to commence construction in 2H2020.
Aeroméxico is the country’s largest airline, the flag carrier, and it has 36% of scheduled capacity at Juárez. In Jun-2015, Aeroméxico was reported to be considering becoming a shareholder of the new Mexico City International Airport, provided changes were made to the criteria for carrier participation in airports.
It is profitable (at least at the operating level), privately-owned and operated, and well-funded, with assets exceeding liabilities by almost US$12 billion in 2018. If the man that may have no name knows what is good for the country Aeroméxico should actively be encouraged to provide whatever assistance it reasonably can in Mexico City’s airport infrastructure plans.
(CNBC)A British businessman who likely contracted coronavirus in Singapore, and traveled to France, Switzerland and England, is being dubbed a “super spreader” of the virus, because he has infected at least 11 people, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.
The man, Steve Walsh, said he has “fully recovered” from coronavirus, which was renamed COVID-19 on Tuesday. COVID-19 has infected a total of 43,100 people in China and caused 1,018 deaths to date. The infection has spread to 24 countries, although the majority of the cases are in China.
COVID-19 is believed to spread from person to person through respiratory droplets from coughing and sneezing, according to the Centers for Disease Control. However, researchers are still figuring out how easily COVID-19 spreads. Given the latest news, here’s what you need to know about so-called “super spreaders”:
What does it mean to be a super spreader?
A “super spreader” is a generic term that means someone will disproportionately infect a large number of people with a virus, Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security and member of the Infectious Disease Society of America, tells CNBC Make It. In other words, super spreaders spread a virus more efficiently than the average person.
What qualifies as a super spreader varies depending upon the virus or disease and its usual infection rate. For example, during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, one index case was likely to directly infect 2.75 other people (known as the R-0 number), while a “super spreader” was classified as someone who directly infected 10 or more other people. With coronavirus, experts believe an index case is likely to directly infect 1.5 to 3.5 other people, however it is unclear what the super spreader threshold is.
What makes someone a super spreader?
The different factors that make someone a super spreader are complicated, Robert Amler, dean of New York Medical College’s School of Health Sciences and Practice and former chief medical officer at the CDC tells CNBC Make It.
Some of them are related to biology, according to Amler. A person may produce more of a virus or get infected with a strain that spreads more easily or rapidly, and therefore infect more people. Or, if someone has a compromised immune system, they may not recover as fast as other people, so they keep spreading the infection for longer, he says.
“Another possibility is just the places that they go,” Amler says. “If it’s a person who tends to be in big populated areas all the time, they’re going to have a chance to spread the infection to more people.”
For example, during the SARS outbreak, five super spreader originated in a hospital, and one was a doctor who then stayed in a hotel. And Walsh is believed to have caught the coronavirus while at a business conference in Singapore and spread it when he then traveled to a French ski resort.
Most of the time super spreaders are just part of the mix of people in a community who are sick and spreading the virus, Amler says.
Do you need to worry about super spreaders?
In general, super spreaders aren’t very common, according to Amler. But the best defense is still a good offense, he says.
That means washing your hands frequently with soap and water (or using at least 60% alcohol hand sanitizer), avoiding touching your face and staying home if you’re sick. It’s also important to avoid close contact with people who are sick, and cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, according to the CDC. Although many people are wearing facemasks for protection, the CDC only recommends them for people who have symptoms of COVID-19, or healthcare workers who are at risk.
(Billboard) Deep in the jungles of Costa Rica, the origami stage of Ocaso Festival shimmers in fractal explosions of color. More than 20,000 LEDs trace the 80-plus production panels, seemingly glowing from within.
Ocaso Festival 2020. Photo Sean Davis
At the center of this pulsing lotus, Maceo Plex takes the stage, and the roughly 5,000 attendees segue into a kind of collective euphoria. The American DJ has never before set foot in this littoral Central American nation, and almost none of the Ticos, as locals call themselves, have ever seen him play live. But the sophisticated crowd, well versed in the world of underground music, levies great expectations.
Too often the first sets you see of a hyped DJ underwhelm. Whatever Maceo Plex proceeds to feed the locals on this night is the exact opposite of that: a set chopped heavy with electro — clear evidence of the artist’s Miami roots — and plenty of breakbeats, such as Chemical Reaction Food’s aptly named “Is No Way That the Crowd Can Sit Down.” The impeccably architected set is scheduled to end at 4:00 a.m., but Maceo Plex is hearing none of it. He plays until 5:00, and even then doesn’t seem remotely ready to leave. The crowd, bathed under a beaming full moon, revels in the madness; buses heading out of the festival remain empty until the final track.
“This place is full of vibes,” the producer tells me on the shuttle ride home. He’s clearly not ready for bed.
Fans at Ocaso Festival 2020. Photo Sean Davis
At the inaugural Ocaso in 2017, festival co-founders Devin Ellis and Brett Ballou let everyone in for free. In 2018, attendance nearly doubled to 3,500, last year hit 5,600, and this year eclipsed 6,000. With an attendance of 65 percent locals, Ocaso’s renown is resonating not just with foreigners, but also from within Costa Rica. Consider this small nation hasn’t funded a military since a failed coup in 1949; they block out 25 percent of the country for national parks and ecological protection and spend more money on education than any other Central American nation. It’s no wonder the people themselves are consistently mentioned as a standout element of the festival.
And recently, these locals have had myriad dance festivals to choose from, with Ocaso happening Jan. 9-13 and The BPM Festival, the Canadian-based international electronic festival brand, making its Costa Rica debut just days after — from Jan. 15-19. But the closeness of these parties on both the calendar and in proximity — both events happened in Tamarindo — pitted the events against each other as they vied for both attendees and talent.
Given how important Costa Rica is to the success of Ocaso, it’s noteworthy that the decision to host the party here near Tamarindo on the Nicoya Peninsula — on the Pacific Ocean not far from the Nicaraguan border — was pure luck. Ellis was searching throughout Central America for a large outdoor venue capable of hosting an old school party — the type he and Ballou grew up throwing in the ’90s in L.A.’s nascent rave scene.
They found what they were looking for in Tamarindo. At a site located on an earthen amphitheater carved out of an open meadow, the stage, cocktail bars, food stalls, tents, and live art walls are surrounded by a wall of giant trees lit bright with lasers. The site features a hidden labyrinth made of cacti planted in concentric circles, a thorny pochote tree at its center. This secret meditation maze is meant to ground visitors, but its power is dubious, as most attendees appear to be orbiting the fifth moon of Jupiter. [Editor’s note: The writer of this article attended Ocaso 2020 as part of a paid press trip.]
The festival remains quite rough around the edges; at times the skeleton crew seems to keep the seams from bursting with bubble gum and duct tape. But that’s really Ocaso’s shaggy charm. Critical factors such as bathrooms and shuttles are never an issue; they have a surfeit of the former, and the latter are plentiful and run on time.
Fans at Ocaso Festival 2020. Photo Sean Davis
L.A. house legend Doc Martin points out that Costa Rica has been happening for years. A decade ago, he came to the capital of San Jose and played Vertigo — considered one of the top clubs in the world for years — as well as rooftop and warehouse parties. “There’s always been somewhat of a special vibe with Costa Rica,” he notes. “The fact that Ocaso has come in and not tried to ream the Ticos for every dollar they have… is really commendable, to say the least.”
Affordable Ocaso ticket prices — $19 for single day and up to $119 for full five-day passes — made entry possible for locals. With no VIP area or velvet rope, nor a single sponsor banner flapping in the wind, it was also one of the most egalitarian festivals we’ve attended. Conversely, BPM also maintained low cost tickets, with early-bird five day passes available for $125, ten free daytime and nighttime events and discounts on five-day and three-day passes available to Tamarindo residents at the box office. Standard five day festival passes for BPM ranged between $175 and $350.
Before arriving to Costa Rica in 2020, the previous Central American version of BPM happened in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. That is until 2017, when a single gunman opened fire into the Blue Parrot nightclub during a party on the last night of the event and took the lives of four people, sending another 15 to the hospital, with another individual killed during a post-shooting stampede. (Mexico’s Zetas cartel claimed responsibility for the shooting.) BPM left Mexico in the wake of the event, continuing their planned expansion to Portugal in 2017. (BPM will host the fourth year of its Portugal in 2020 and also expanded to Israel in 2019.) Returning to Central America in 2020, BPM also chose the shores of Tamarindo.
The BPM Festival 2020. Photo Alive Coverage
“It’s extremely frustrating,” Ellis admits of BPM’s encroachment. Capitalism is brutal business, of course, but Ellis questions why BPM would target Ocaso’s location and dates to host their own event. After all, there are thousands of beaches across Costa Rica, nevermind Central America. BPM organizers stated that part of the location choice was due to Tamarindo’s infrastructure and ability to service international tourists and that they selected the Tamarindo location before Ocaso was on their radar.
“We chose Tamarindo for the beautiful beach location which has become a trademark for BPM,” says BPM founder and director Phillip Pulitano. “We wanted to introduce Tamarindo and all its beauty and eco-tourism to a whole new audience.”
Answering questions via email, Pulitano notes that the winter edition of The BPM Festival has always taken place during January, and that the Costa Rican edition had no concurrent days as Ocaso, even if they were only days apart. Additionally, he says, of the event’s 5,600 attendees, 90 percent came from outside of Costa Rica, with 70 countries represented. (Thirty-five percent of Ocaso attendees arrived from outside the country.)
Clearly, Costa Rica is emerging as a magnetic destination for underground dance music events. Consider the prestigious Envision Festival, which occurs about six hours south in Uvita. Celebrating its 10-year anniversary this Feb. 17-24, many think the seven-day transformational festival laid the foundation for the Costa Rican festival scene while also popularizing locations in Guatemala and other Central American spots.
But in what locals are now jokingly referring to as the Battle of Tamarindo, can both Ocaso and BPM flourish in Costa Rica, or even survive?
With a 13 year history of booking and promoting festivals and events, BPM has longstanding relationships with many artists in the worldwide dance scene, with BPM Costa Rica featuring more than 130 acts including Loco Dice, Masters at Work, Nicole Moudaber and Skream. BPM organizers note that it is these relationships, rather than just money, that make it possible for them to book such a stacked lineup.
After BPM, many artists took to social media to express their enthusiasm for the festival, with Fredo Cortez. the owner of Club Vertigo in San Jose, Costa Rica who DJs as Mr. Fredo writing, “First time in Costa Rica and you guys killed it from start to finish. My hat goes off to the BPM Festival and the entire crew in uniting the locals of Costa Rica and people across the globe in the beautiful beach of Tamarindo, where everyone becomes one with the frequencies and each other’s beautiful vibe in this magical event.” Meanwhile, Ocaso 2020 featured more than 60 artists, including Maceo Plex, Seth Troxler, Âme and Justin Martin.
It also takes time to navigate the red tape and bureaucracies of developing nations. For instance, despite a large production staff and budget, BPM failed to secure the correct permits, which forced police to shut festival gates at 2 a.m. during one night of the five night festival. This caused understandable ire from festival goers who were not allowed to enter, despite having tickets.
Urs Schmid is president of the ADIT (Asociación de Desarrollo Integral of Tamarindo, the local business council). As part of this volunteer organization, it is Schmid’s responsibility to steer local commercial and social growth in a sustainable way. “The ADIT represents the community and we are currently conducting a community survey in order to understand what the community’s perception of the BPM event was,” Schmid writes via email.
“What we can tell so far,” he continues, “is that the [BPM] event organizers did not respect the opening hours they were given by the local government.” Schmid confirmed that BPM’s permit for their jungle location was valid only until 2 a.m., which explains why police shut down entry at that time.
“Police from over an hour away shut down entry at one point on Saturday at 2:00 a.m.,” BPM’s Pulitano says. “For the last night on Sunday, we asked everybody to enter by 1:00 a.m. to avoid any issues, but there were none.”
The BPM Festival 2020. Photo Alive Coverage
For now, for Ocaso to compete with the larger BPM machinery, Ellis and his team are aiming to expand the festival’s offerings in every category, growing its already stacked musical lineup, art program — adding celebrated San Francisco street artist Sam Flores this year — and an elaborate food program that included 14 local and international chefs serving traditional Costa Rican cuisine. Meanwhile, The BPM Festival is making plans to return in 2021 with, as Pulitano says, “many more Costa Rican editions to follow.”
In the end, Ocaso itself can be distilled into the motto of its host country: Pura Vida, the good life. Ticos sling the phrase as greeting, farewell, “sorry,” “thank you,” “oops, my bad” and just about any occasion they can. It is as essential to the fabric of this golden nation as the siesta is to Spain, or “mahalo” is to Hawaii. The motto represents a little bit of the soul of the Costa Rican people: Be grateful, for everything. This is a country that invests in itself, and the people feel invested in it.
One could say Ocaso is aiming for the same goals — its survival will likely depend on it.
A tent with a skylight? These new camps in Costa Rica, Canada and the American Southwest range from simple and modern to borderline decadent. In the foothills of the Cariboo Mountains, Siwash Lake lodge reopened last summer, two years after a devastating wildfire.
The lodge launched Siwash Star Camp, two canvas tents set on a ridgetop platform deck with views of the lake and mountains. The tents are done in a traditional style, with patchwork quilts and antique furniture; the camp has a separate, heated washroom, an outdoor cedar hot tub, and loungers for stargazing like a pasha. Stays include meals sourced from the ranch’s farm and surrounding wilderness, and activities such as horseback riding and river-rafting, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The Costa Rican Banking Association expressed its opposition to the proposal of the Minister of Finance, Rodrigo Chaves, to lift bank secrecy as one of the measures to reduce tax evasion.
Chaves made the proposal, on Monday, February 10, before legislators, as one of the measures to reduce the fiscal deficit and thereby begin to lower public debt.
“Banking secrecy is a very Costa Rican issue because most countries do not have it for the purposes of the Tax Administration,” Chaves said in the Legislative Assembly floor.
The minister gave the example of countries like the United States, where the tax authority, through international agreements, can even ask a country like Costa Rica for a person’s banking information and Costa Rica has to give it to them.
“However, the Government of Costa Rica does not have the authority, for tax purposes, for audit purposes, to see what is the tax liability of a company or a person with respect to the government of Costa Rica.”
Currently, the General Directorate of Taxation (Dirección General de Tributación) may have access to information of a person with the prior authorization of a judge as established in the Code of Tax Rules and Procedures (Código de Normas y Procedimientos Tributarios).
“Financial institutions must provide the Tax Administration with information about their clients, including information on transactions, operations, and balance sheets, as well as all kinds of information on the movement of checking and savings accounts, deposits, term certificates, loan and credit accounts, trusts, individual investments, investments in joint portfolios, stock market transactions and other operations, whether active or passive, as long as the information is foreseeably relevant for tax purposes,” establishes article 106 bis of the Code.
For this, the procedure begins with the submission of a written request to the administrative contentious court (juzgado de lo contencioso administrativo).
“The Asociación Bancaria Costarricense (ABC), for reasons of principle, has always defended the position that mediates the request of a judge to lift bank secrecy; it is important to consider that the data is extremely sensitive and for security that procedure must be maintained,” said Mario Gómez, legal advisor for the ABC.
“The ABC considers that it is not convenient to lift bank secrecy in the way in which it is being proposed, giving access to all information, without discrimination of any kind, so that they process it and draw conclusions, that is prohibited in the vast majority from developed countries and even in OECD countries (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development),” added Gomez.
The ABC advisor added that the right to privacy is a constitutional right of Costa Ricans and is assigned to specific cases, provided there is the intervention of a judge of guarantee.
Minister Chaves said that people don’t express concern about the public information of a house, some very valuable, some that reflect extraordinary well-being, information that is in the public property record that is open to everyone, yet object to information of how the money they have in the bank.
“Mexico, imagine a country with criminality, kidnappings, that Mexico has, that thank God, in Costa Rica we don’t have, handle these things well, all normal countries, those of the OECD, handle the systems,” said the Minister.
There is currently a bill in the Committee on Tax Matters (omisión de Asuntos Hacendarios) presented by the fraction of the Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC) that proposes to modify articles 106 bis and 106 ter of the Code of Tax Rules and Procedures and one of the most important changes is the elimination of the application before the court. This takes up an initiative of the Frente Amplio that was presented in the previous legislative period (2014-2018).
Currently, banking secrecy laws are in effect, which means that no one can access your account information, be it at a State or private bank, without a court order.
Rodrigo Chaves, Minister of Finance. Photos: Jorge Navarro
In an interview with La Nación, the Minister of Finance (Ministro de Hacienda), Rodrigo Chaves, answers why his diagnosis of public debt differs from that projected by the Central Bank and explains the handling of Eurobonds money.
Rodrigo Chaves, Minister of Finance.
In addition, he defends the need to borrow to invest in public works amid a deficit situation and criticizes the creation of specific destinations that tie public finances.
What would happen if the debt exceeds 70% of GDP?
The first thing we have to understand as Costa Ricans and the Legislative Assembly, the Executive, the business sector and the people of this country is that, if we do nothing, this year we will surpass 60% of the debt to GDP.
“And that will mean that the budgets of future years limit the growth of total spending, both current spending and capital spending. And that is not going to be good for the country, because it will slow the economy too quickly. It is very good for the country because it limits the explosion in which we were debt-GDP.
That means that there is less investment, less confidence, less consumption, and we could get into a vicious cycle of deceleration until we reach a crisis. Hopefully not”.
In the latter part of the interview, Chaves was asked about bank secrecy.
Why the idea of lifting bank secrecy?
“Bank secrecy sounds very scary,” replied Chaves.
The minister explained that in 153 countries bank secrecy does not exist. “What is the difference? The privacy of knowing how much money a person has in the bank and the privacy of knowing how much the house in which you live is worth. Philosophically speaking, it is an asset, you can convert your cash in the bank into properties, you can convert it into vehicles …there is no privacy to know how much your car is worth, your home … but in money, yes, and look, the G20, the OECD, declared 2019 the year of the end of bank secrets.”
On the subject of bank secrecy, the bankers oppose total opening of customer information.
The Asociación Bancaria Costarricense (Costa Rican Banking Association) expressed its opposition to the proposal of the Minister to lift bank secrecy as one of the measures to reduce tax evasion.
What are the means of public transport used most in Costa Rica? According to a recent study by the Institute for Social Studies in Population (IDESPO) – Institute of Social Studies in Population, of the National University, the majority of the population uses buses.
According to the IDESPO, the response of the 1,003 people were surveyed revealed that almost half of the respondents (460) always or almost always use the bus, followed by 1 in 4 (240) who take an Uber, 17% (166) take a ‘piarata’ (informal) while 12% (116) ared (formal) taxi and few, only around 1% (14) take the train.
Buses in Costa Rica are cheap and var in price; they can be taken both inside and outside the greater metro area of San Jose (GAM), with service schedules ranging from 4 am until 11 pm. Frequency is greatest during the morning and afternoon on weekdays.
1 out of every 4 Costa Ricans take an Uber (Didi had not yet started operations when the survey was taken), being the most used transport service only behind buses and 9 out of 10 people share the idea that Uber must remain in the country, but regulated by the State
The reason train service is used by few is speculated that this service has very limited coverage. The commuter train only operates in the GAM, from Alajuela to Cartago and Heredia and operates only during weekday mornings and afternoons.
Constant traffic incidents involving the train also make this mode of public transport unreliable.
Respondents were also asked how satisfied they are with the service they receive; 97% of Uber users say they are completely satisfied, followed by buses with 72.3% favorable opinions and the last place was for “piratas” with only 16%.
The number one for cheap and safe to retire is Austria, dubbed the Swiss alternative… number 3 is Costa Rica, the Swiss of Central America…where you can judge the friendliness of town by how friendly their stray dogs are.
Costa Rica’s Kevin Rivera emerged victorious in the queen stage of Petronas Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) 2020 on Monday but it was second-placed Danilo Celano who moved into the overall lead in Genting Highlands.
Two kilometers from the finish, the duo timed their moves to perfection to overtake Terengganu Cycling Team’s Artem Ovechkin, who had led for much of the last 10 kilometers, reports New Straits Times.
Rivera of Team Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec, won the 156.1km stage, which started in Putrajaya and ended in Genting Highlands, in four hours, 18 minutes and 55 seconds. Celano of Team Sapura Cycling was second.
Protesters shout slogans in front of riot police guarding the Congress during a national strike against a bill that would include Education among the essential services, in San Jose on Sept. 3, 2019.
Photographer: Ezequiel Becerra/AFP via Getty Images
(Bloomberg) Costa Rica’s fear of protesters is proving to be greater than its fear of credit ratings agencies, putting its public finances back on shaky ground less than two years after the nation narrowly dodged a financial crisis.
Protesters shout slogans in front of riot police guarding the Congress during a national strike against a bill that would include Education among the essential services, in San Jose on Sept. 3, 2019. Photo: Ezequiel Becerra/AFP via Getty Images
Moody’s Investors Service on Monday downgraded the country to B2, five notches below investment grade, citing its repeated failure to narrow one of the region’s widest deficits, reports Bloomberg.
The government of President Carlos Alvarado has rejected tough austerity measures of the kind that triggered violent unrest in Chile and Ecuador in recent months. That’s helped Costa Rica to remain a peaceful oasis in an unstable region, but it’s also meant that the fiscal deficit ballooned to 7% of gross domestic product last year, the widest in 40 years.
A decade of high deficits brought the country close to full-blown panic at the end of 2018, when its bonds and currency plunged over fears that the government wouldn’t be able to raise enough money to fund itself, and the central bank stepped in with an emergency loan. After years when congress held up unpopular tax increases, that shock helped convince lawmakers to pass a value-added tax.
It wasn’t enough to restore the country to fiscal health.
“What the 2019 deficit shows is how difficult it is for Costa Rica to reduce the deficit,” said Gabriel Torres, an analyst at Moody’s, in an interview after the downgrade. “This is an ongoing issue that they can’t seem to resolve.”
On Monday, Finance Minister Rodrigo Chaves announced the government would sell the state-owned liquor distillery and a public bank to help narrow the spending gap and use nearly $400 million in budget surpluses from some government institutions to pay down debt. He also urged legislators to approve a $4.5 billion global bond package he plans to present to congress.
“Costa Rica can and must consolidate its public finances without more taxes and without cutting public services,” Chaves told the legislature Monday. “Let’s give Costa Rica a confidence boost and create the fiscal space for a more prosperous country.”
The Finance Ministry and the presidency didn’t reply to requests for additional comment.
Austerity Measures
The economy expanded 2.1% in 2019, the slowest pace in a decade as construction projects came to halt and consumers reduced spending after new taxes took effect, according to the central bank. Unemployment rose to 12.4% in December, one of the highest rates on record.
Slow growth and rising unemployment make shrinking the deficit harder, and also make people more reluctant to swallow austerity measures, Torres said.
In a country where people are accustomed to a strong welfare state, Costa Rica allocates $2,193 on a per-capita basis to social spending versus $562 in El Salvador and less than $300 in Honduras and Guatemala, according to the World Bank.
The government will need to tread carefully this year to avoid either unrest at home, or another asset sell-off, said Nathalie Marshik, director of emerging market fixed income for St. Louis-based Stifel Financial Corp.
“They did not want to face a Chile or Ecuador situation at home, however this means they have absolutely no room for error in 2020,” Marshik wrote in a response to questions.
Fiscal Rule
After the 2018 sell-off, bondholders were reassured by the passage of a balanced-budget act, or “fiscal rule,” set to take effect this year, to limit public spending as debt levels rise. The rule addresses current spending while shielding public investment and tightens when public debt passes 60% of GDP, which the central bank projects it will this year.
If the government backtracks on its fiscal commitments or congress blocks its efforts to sell bonds overseas, the country could see another dive in its bonds and currency, Marshik said.
After Monday’s downgrade, the nation’s dollar-denominated bonds due in 2045 fell 1.5 cents to 105.2 cents on the dollar, the biggest one-day slide since October. Chaves said the downgrade will cost the government $250 million annually.
The central bank said in its 2020 outlook that a “strict application” of the fiscal rule will reduce the deficit to 5.9% of GDP this year and 5.7% next year. The Finance Ministry has pledged “strict and robust” implementation of the fiscal rule, though that’s easier said than done with institutions such as public universities and the judiciary vowing to resist spending curbs.
“The implementation of the fiscal rule will definitely have some risks around it,” said Carlos Morales, director of the Latin America sovereign team for Fitch Ratings. “There has been political and social resistance from autonomous institutions to decreasing the wage bill, so the government will likely face more social backlash on its expenditure restraint program.”
Authorization for external borrowing requires support from two-thirds of congress, forcing the government to negotiate with opposition parties. Any signs that the government is straying from its promise to narrow the deficit will make working across the aisle difficult, according to Eurasia Group analyst Risa Grais-Targow.
Debate over the borrowing request will likely be drawn out, and “fiscal consolidation challenges may also complicate some pending multilateral loans,” Grais-Targow wrote in a research note Feb. 3. “Such dynamics will leave the government more dependent on local market sentiment and increase financing uncertainty.”
Bukele gestures as he speaks to supporters during a protest outside the Legislative Assembly on Sunday.
Armed soldiers and police officers accompanied El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele as he stormed the nation’s parliament on Sunday afternoon.
Members of the Salvadoran military inside the country’s legislative assembly on Sunday.
The president demanded that opposition lawmakers vote to approve his plan to secure a US$109 million loan that he says would be used to better equip military personnel and law enforcement officers in their job of tackling out-of-control gang violence in the country, CNN reports.
Tensions had been on the rise between the president and opposition lawmakers over the loan, which is intended to finance the third phase three of the so-called Territorial Control Plan. This plan includes additional resources to provide the police and army with better tools to combat crime in El Salvador.
El Salvador has one of the highest murder rates in the world. According to figures from El Salvador’s National Civil Police, the average daily killings in the country fell from 9.2 in May 2019 — the month before Bukele took office — to 3.8 in January 2020. The government says that the decreased death count is a direct result of the Territorial Control Plan.
At the time of his election, Bukele was seen by many as an outsider, populist candidate, who campaigned on slogans criticizing those who’d come before him, such as “there’s enough money when nobody steals” and “return what was stolen,” referring to the alleged disappearance of funds during the administrations of former presidents Francisco Flores and Antonio Saca.
Bukele gestures as he speaks to supporters during a protest outside the Legislative Assembly on Sunday.
Lawmakers had previously failed to reach an agreement on Bukele’s proposal because of concerns about the size of the loan and the president’s justification of some of the expenses that he had included in the application for the loan.
After storming the parliament, Bukele said a prayer from a seat normally occupied by the president of the parliament, Mario Ponce. Before leaving the building, Bukele gave lawmakers one week to approve his loan proposal.
CNN en Español’s Daniel Silva Fernandez reported from Miami and Merlin Delcid reported from El Salvador. Written by Maija Ehlinger in Atlanta and Luke McGee in London.
Although in 2019 the arrival of tourists to Costa Rica increased 4% compared to 2018, the sector continues to face complex procedures to open a new business and the high costs of basic services.
Data from the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (DGME) – immigration service – reveals that between 2018 and 2019 the number of foreign visitors to the country grew by 122,000, from 3.01 million to 3.14 million.
The country’s figures are encouraging, but there are obstacles preventing businessmen in the sector from being more competitive.
Sary Valverde, president of the Cámara Nacional de Turismo (Canatur) – National Chamber of Tourism (Canatur), told Elobservador.cr that “… tourism and accommodation operators in the country continue to face complex procedures to get business off the ground. In some institutions we have to do a lot of paperwork to get a business up and running.”
Valverde added that “… that the cost of electricity and water distribution in the country are part of the factors that affect the competitiveness of tourism.”
Although the Banco de Costa Rica (BCR) closed 2019 with an increase in profits, last week it announced the closure of five of its branches in the country and the reduction of 20 jobs.
Courtesy BCR
BCR spokeswoman, Hilda Durán, confirmed that this measure is taken in order to “rationalize expenses”.
The branches closed are located in Herradura (Garabito), Malpaís (Central Canton of Puntarenas), Plaza del Sol (Curridabat), Pocora and Río Jiménez (Guácimo).
“Basically, what the bank does is rationalize expenses, so when it sees that some measures have to be taken, it is applied administratively in branches that have a problem,” Durán said.
Regarding the officials who work in the agencies, Durán said that each case will be studied individually to make a decision. In other words, if they will be kept on, relocated to other areas of the bank, or let go.
“These closures are also due to the implementation of a series of innovation and self-management processes, without this leading to increased administrative expenses,” added Durán. “In other cases, when some branches are closed it is because the economic zone of influence tends to suffer some detriment”.
The spokeswoman was asked if the bank plans to continue with this reorganization but did not elaborate.
The bank’s spokesperson also denied that the bank carried out some type of internal restructuring.
According to Duran, the BCR currently has approximately 4,000 employees.
The BCE had a net operating income of ¢46.3 billion colones in 2019 (higher than the industry average of ¢37 billion) and 69% higher than in 2018. The bank closed 2019 with equity of ¢564.85 billion colones.
(Breitbart.com) Frank Biden, the youngest brother of former Vice President Joe Biden, saw his business interests benefit from millions of dollars in taxpayer loans to Caribbean nations during the Obama years.
Frank Biden first set his sights on the region in 2009, as the Obama administration began to repair the U.S. relationship with Costa Rica. Tensions between the two countries flared under President George W. Bush, most notably on how to deal with drug trafficking.
When President Barack Obama entered the White House, he set out to mend fences in the region in hopes of inaugurating a new era of global cooperation. Leading the charge on that front was Joe Biden, who had long standing ties to the region from his tenure leading the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Shortly after the new administration took office, Frank Biden began scouting real estate opportunities in Costa Rica. A lawyer by training, Frank was undeterred by his lack of background in international development and decades old legal troubles at home.
As Schweizer notes, despite the professional and personal handicaps, business opportunities were plentiful for Frank, especially after his brother paid a visit to the country.
“Just months after Vice President [Joe] Biden’s visit, in August, Costa Rica News announced a new multilateral partnership “to reform Real Estate in Latin America” between Frank Biden, a developer named Craig Williamson, and the Guanacaste Country Club, a newly planned resort,” Schweizer writes in his book, a copy of which was exclusively obtained by Breitbart News.
The venture—officially sold to investors and the public as an opportunity to protect Costa Rica’s “breathtaking beauty”—amounted to little more than decimating the country’s natural wilderness to build a luxurious resort for wealthy foreigners.
“In real terms, Frank’s dream was to build in the jungles of Costa Rica thousands of homes, a world-class golf course, casinos, and an anti-aging center,” Schweizer notes. “The Costa Rican government was eager to cooperate with the vice president’s brother.”
The project, which is still in the development phase, has made Frank Biden a well connected figure in Costa Rica’s political landscape. A letter the country’s president, Luis Guillermo Solis Rivera, penned praising the project even made its way on the internet in what appears to have been a botched attempt to solicit further investors.
In order to execute a project of such scale, however, Costa Rica would need to update and expand its electrical grid. Located on the Central American Isthmus, more than 51 percent of the country’s landscape is forested, with nearly half of that being land that has not been disturbed by human activity. As such, much of the area suitable for the type of resort Frank Biden wanted to build lacked access to electricity.
Frank, perhaps sensing a chance to make even more money, entered into a partnership with the Costa Rican National Power and Light Company* (CNFL) to build a solar power complex in the country’s northwest region. The new facility would provide enough electricity to Frank’s resort, which was to be built in the vicinity.
The partnership with CNFL was secured even though Frank and his company, Sun Fund Americas, had no experience in the energy sector.
“Frank did not have any background in solar energy, but it was quite clear who he was when he pitched the project to investors,” Schweizer writes. “His brother Joe’s name figured prominently in his biography.”
In October 2016, the Costa Rican government signed a letter of intent with Sun Fund Americas to build a solar power facility in the country. The project, which involved a company called GoSolar, specifically earmarked more than US$6.5 million in taxpayer-backed loans that had been approved in 2015 by the Obama administration’s Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).
Having found Costa Rica fertile ground, Frank next turned his attention to other parts of the Caribbean, like Jamaica. Once again Frank’s business pivot coincided with a new development in brother’s political career.
The Obama administration had announced in June 2014 it was launching the Caribbean Energy Security Initiative (CESI) under the direction of Joe Biden. Officially, the program was meant to support energy sustainability projects in the region, with American tax dollars helping put together deals for local projects.
One of those projects was the building of a 20-megawatt solar power plant in Jamaica, for which OPIC had approved a $47.5 million loan. Around the same time that project was announced, Sun Fund Americas confirmed that signed a power “purchase power purchase agreement to build a 20-megawatt solar facility in Jamaica.”
In total, between 2009 and the end of the Obama administration, Frank Biden’s Caribbean projects benefited from more than $54 million in U.S. taxpayer loans.
The loans, though, are not the only example of Frank Biden’s business interests intersecting with his brother’s political influence, as Profiles in Corruption reveals.
Article by Haris Alic is from “Joe Biden’s Brother Frank Linked to Projects Receiving $54,000,000 in Taxpayer Loans from the Obama Administration—Despite No Experience” that appeared on Breitbart.com. Read the original here.
* Editor’s note: The CNFL – Compañía Nacional de Fuerza y Luz – is a division of the State electrical power and telecommunications, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE)
Trump hugs the American flag at a 2019 convention of political conservatives. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
The U.S. Senate has made its judgment in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, acquitting the president. Fifty two of 53 senators in the Republican majority voted to acquit the president on the abuse of power charge and all 53 Republican senators voted to acquit on the obstruction of Congress charge.
Trump hugs the American flag at a 2019 convention of political conservatives. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
All 47 Democratic senators voted to convict the president on both charges. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah was the only Republican voting to convict for abuse of power.
The Republican senators’ speedy exoneration of Trump marks perhaps the most dramatic step in their capitulation to the president over the past three years.
That process, as I wrote in The Conversation last fall, recalls the ancient Roman senate’s compliance with the autocratic rule of the emperors and its transformation into a body largely reliant on the emperors’ whims.
Along with the senatorial fealty that was again on display, there was another development that links the era of the Roman Republic’s transformation into an autocratic state with the ongoing political developments in the United States. It’s a development that may point to where the country is headed.
Leader is the state
Trump’s lawyers argued that the president’s personal position is inseparable from that of the nation itself. This is similar to the notion that took hold during the ascendancy of the man known as Rome’s first emperor, Augustus, who was in power from 31 B.C. to A.D. 14.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who led the GOP response in the impeachment trial, leaves the Senate floor on Feb. 4, 2020. Alex Edelman/Getty Images
Trump defense attorney Alan Dershowitz asserted that “abuse of power” by the president is not an impeachable offense. A central part of Dershowitz’s argument was that “every public official that I know believes that his election is in the public interest” and that “if a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.”
This inability to separate the personal interests of a leader from the interests of the country he or she leads has powerful echoes in ancient Rome.
There, no formal change from a republican system to an autocratic system ever occurred. Rather, there was an erosion of the republican institutions, a steady creep over decades of authoritarian decision-making, and the consolidation of power within one individual – all with the name “Republic” preserved.
Oversight becomes harassment
Much of Rome’s decline into one-man rule can be observed in a series of developments during the time of Augustus, who held no formal monarchical title but only the vague designation “princeps,” or “first among equals.”
But in fact the senate had ceded him both power (“imperium” in Latin) over Rome’s military and the traditional tribune’s power to veto legislation. Each of these powers also granted him immunity from prosecution. He was above the law.
Augustus’ position thus gave him exactly the freedom from oversight – or what Trump calls “presidential harassment” – that the president demands. Such immunity is also the sort that Richard Nixon seemed to long for, most famously in his post-presidency declaration that “when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.”
In Augustus’ time the idea also emerged that the “princeps” and the Roman state were to a great extent one and the same. The identity of the one was growing to become inseparable from the identity of the other.
So, for example, under Augustus and then his successor Tiberius, insults against the emperor could be considered acts of treason against the state, or, more officially, against “the majesty of the Roman people.”
A critic of the “princeps” – be it in unflattering words or in the improper treatment of his image – was subject to prosecution as an “enemy of the people.”
A physical demonstration of the emerging union of the “princeps” and the state came in the construction of a Temple of Roma and Augustus in cities across the Mediterranean region.
Here the personification of the state as a goddess, Roma, and the “princeps” Augustus were closely aligned and, what is more, deified together. The message communicated by such a pairing was clear: If not quite one and the same, the “princeps” and the state were intimately identified, possessing a special, abiding authority through their union.
Many higher-ups in the Trump administration, from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to former Secretary of Energy Rick Perry to former Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, have spoken publicly of Trump as a divinely chosen figure. And Trump himself declared earlier this year, “I do really believe we have God on our side.”
To this point, however, a Temple of Lady Liberty and Trump along the lines of the Temple of Roma and Augustus has not yet been constructed.
But the Senate impeachment trial has shown us how far along the identification of leader and state has moved in the Trump era. A central part of the president’s impeachment defense is, as we have seen, that the personal will of the president is indistinguishable from the will of the state and the good of the people.
Will the GOP-led Senate’s endorsement of this defense clear a path for more of the manifestations – and consequences – of authoritarianism? The case of the Roman Republic’s rapid slippage into an autocratic regime masquerading as a republic shows how easily that transformation can occur.
This article by Timothy Joseph, Associate Professor of Classics, College of the Holy Cross is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The impossibility of continuing a life in common in marriage, due to incompatibility, will be a new cause for divorce. According to child custody lawyers, with a vote of 30 in favor and 14 legislators against, the bill to reform Article 48 of the Family Code, to allow the dissolution of marriage even if one of the spouses disagrees, was approved in the Legislative Assembly.
Married couples who have been married at least six months can claim the “incompatibility of characters” as the basis for divorce.
The bill was approved in the first debate on Tuesday.
Voting against the bill came mainly from the legislators of the Restauración Nacional, e and the Nueva República parties, PLN legislator Luis Antonio Aiza and Shirley Díaz of the PUSC.
“The project should not be approved,” said Jonathan Prendas of the Restauración Nacional, who argued that he is not amused that bills by former legislators Patricia Mora are approved. He added that the “incompatibility of characters” is a legally undetermined term, which cannot be verified materially.
“A slight, a word said in anger, an ‘I did not like that toothpaste, you do not lock the door, you never pick up your clothes, wash the dishes, or take out the trash’ can be grounds for divorce,” said the legislator.
The reform was proposed by former legislator Patricia Mora, who is now the current president of the National Women’s Institute (Inamu).
The current law contemplates that adultery, mistreatment and the attack of a spouse or the children, either towards their life or to corrupt them, or prostitute them, that there is a disappearance of one of the spouses or that there is a de facto separation of 3 years, are grounds for divorce in Costa Rica.
What the bill seeks is to add a non-contentious cause where it is not required that there be an accusation or a guilty spouse, in that only one spouse can claim is the impossibility of life in common,” explained legislator José María Villalta of the Frente Amplio.
He said that “current legislation causes that if there is no mutual consent, the law requires to remain married indefinitely or invent a cause for divorce against the other.”
“It is irrational and anachronistic to pretend to force a couple to remain married against the will of one of them,” he added.
The bill is expected to be presented for the second and final debate on Tuesday, February 11.
The new president of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, is suggesting that Costa Rica should extend the “open skies” proposal that the president of El Salvador has already agreed on.
“The open skies policy is necessary for passengers to have the greatest benefit at the level of comfort and cost to travel,” said Ronny Rodriguez, director of Volaris Institutional Relations for Central America. Courtesy Volaris Costa Rica / La República
Open skies would mean a sharp reduction in the cost of regional flights because they will be classified as domestic — rather than international taxation, La República reports in Spanish.
Airlines such as Volaris would sell their cheaper tickets as a national flag airline benefiting from an eventual tax exemption, confirmed Ronny Rodríguez, director of Volaris Institutional Relations for Central America.
Currently, taxes represent more than 60% of the price of airline tickets. On domestic flights, the traveler would only pay airport taxes.
Less taxes mean a reduction in the price of tickets and an increase in frequencies, which motivates competitors to reduce their fares for flights within Central America.
With fewer regulations, procedures for travelers will also be more agile.
Currently, there are no frequency restrictions with Guatemala, so in some ways both countries are already immersed in an open skies policy, with the proviso that Costa Rica can refuse any request with which it does not agree.
The Guatemalan proposal was presented in January to Carlos Ricardo Benavides, president of Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly.
A week ago, Giammattei signed, together with Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, an open skies agreement that will allow domestic flights between their countries and free movement of people, something similar to what happens in the European Union.
The same deal with Honduras is intended, a country that expressed interest.
The plan is to integrate the regional air market through domestic flights and extend the Cooperation and Facilitation Agreement for the Development of Air Operations, signed in 2006 by Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
Costa Rica could be integrated under its own interests, Volaris’ Rodríguez explained.
“To review the position of the president of Guatemala, it is necessary to consider macroeconomic, statistical and market indicators, according to the objectives of the country and the different industries that may be involved,” said Álvaro Vargas, general director of Civil Aviation.
Experts from the aeronautical and tourism industry agree that it is not a bad idea to sign an open skies agreement with neighboring countries if Costa Rica’s interests are respected.
Walmart and Mas X Menos locations in Costa Rica now sell Great Value coffee grown in Tres Ríos, Naranjo and Tarrazú, according to a press release from Walmart de Mexico y Centroamerica.
The company says it is the first Great Value product made in Costa Rica and suggested the coffee may be sold in other markets in the near future, the Tico Times reports.
As part of a 20-store development deal, Quiznos is on track to open five new restaurants this year in Latin American markets including Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua and El Salvador, where strong brand awareness and a pioneering franchise partner make this region ripe for brand expansion, Quiznos says in a press release.
The new Quiznos in Sabana Costa Rica is one of many new locations opening in Latin America this year. (Photo: Business Wire)
“As we dive into the next phase of our long-term growth strategy, our Latin American presence is one vehicle to accelerate the reinvigoration of the Quiznos brand and drive further expansion of our innovative platform,” said Tom Harper, Vice President of International Development, REGO Restaurant Group, owner of Quiznos. “Along with our trusted and dedicated partner, Master Franchisee Richard Eisenberg, we see considerable potential to benefit from this as a targeted investment approach.
In Costa Rica, the Contentious Administrative Court ruled in favor of the companies who accused the government of damaging the local market, after the Solis administration banned the import of Mexican avocado in 2014.
The conflict, which remains unsolved, dates back to several years ago, when in May 2014 Costa Rican authorities decided to ban the import of avocados from Mexico, arguing the existence of the disease known as sunspot.
As a result of the ban, six avocado importing companies decided to go to court to seek a millionaire compensation, arguing that the decision caused damage to the companies, since according to the plaintiff was caused damage to the market.
Crhoy.com reports that after the case was known “… the Contentious Administrative Court condemned the State of Costa Rica for the ban on importing Mexican Hass avocado, during the administration of Luis Guillermo Solis Rivera.”
The Chamber of Exporters and Importers of Perishable Products confirmed the resolution of the case, “… however, the amount to be paid was not defined and it was transferred to the Execution of Judgment where a new expert’s report should be made.”
The presence of the Mexican product in the country has fallen dramatically since in 2014 purchases made to companies in Mexico represented 83% of the total, but since 2016 there are no reported imports of Hass avocado from the U.S. country.
A 13-year-old Costa Rican indigenous girl from Talamanca is pregnant with a man almost 50 years older than her. Under unknown conditions, both were to Panama.
It is unknown for how long and why the minor was in Panama; that will be up to the judicial investigation to determine. Photo for illustrative purposes.
The minor, who is in the last trimester of pregnancy, was repatriated to Costa Rican on January 17. However, the case was not made public until Thursday.
The information was confirmed by Patricia Hernández, director of the Patronato Nacional de la Infancia (PANI) – Chile Welfare Agency – who explained that the girl is from Bribrí, Talamanca.
“It was detected by Panamanian authorities. The girl was there and the repatriation is requested. We looked at the case and saw that it has an aggravating factor and it is that of a 13-year-old girl in an advanced state of pregnancy. Apparently by a senior adult,” she said.
Hernandez said it is not known how long the minor was in Panamanian lands or with whom she lived there. “Those are details that are already part of the judicial investigation and confidentiality must be respected,” she said.
Upon arriving in Costa Rica, the Board of Trustees was responsible for making all relevant medical check-ups, since, as the victim told them, he had never carried out a prenatal check.
“Both (the girl and the baby) are in optimal health,” said Hernandez. Both are under special protection.
The suspect, whose identity has not been revealed, was arrested in Panama. It was reported that he is being prosecuted for an alleged crime of rape.
The PANI indicated that, for the time being, its role in the criminal proceedings against the suspect is passive. “We maintain communication and follow up on the process, especially if they require the participation of the girl at some stage,” explained Hernandez.
A case as such processed in Costa Rica, the accused could be prosecuted, among other crimes, of maintaining an improper relationship with the child, with punishment ranging from three to six years in prison when the victim is older than 13 and under 15, and the perpetrator is five or more years older.
If the victim is over 15 and under 18, and the accused is seven or more years older, the punishment is two to three years in prison.
Also, when the relationship between the offender and the victim is family, trust or authority, the penalty is four to ten years.
The lawyer specializing in family law, Gustavo Koutsouris, told La Nacion that the suspect could also be prosecuted for rape since, at age 13, a minor does not have the necessary reasoning and maturity capacity to determine if something is good or bad.
Koutsouris emphasized that rape should not necessarily mediate violence, it can also be a product of deception or against the will of the victim.
Meanwhile, Federico Campos, a criminal lawyer, added that, though the events occurred in Panama, they could also be tried in Costa Rica, because the jurisdiction of international child protection laws is unrestricted.
My main areas of practice have been Residency Applications, property rentals and purchases, company incorporations, business documentation, and the like, all oriented toward the ex-pat community, and particularly those ex-pats who are recent arrivals.
The plane, with 142 aboard heading for Los Angeles, was forced to return to Alajuela with engine problems, forcing the authorities to dispatch a large number of first responders – Bombers (Fire Department) Cruz Roja (Red Cross), Transito and airport security.
