As in the case of Panama, Chinese authorities gave their endorsement for the processing plants Porcina Americana and Carnes Zamora to start selling pork products to the Asian giant starting in January 2020.
Costa Rica’s pig farmers predict a strong impact on employment generation in rural sectors where most pig farms are located, reported the National Animal Health Service (Senasa).
Bernardo Jaén, director general of Senasa, explained that “… The People’s Government of China officially opened its market to the import of Costa Rican pork to its country, after the approval was issued by the Bureau of Food Import and Export Security of the General Administration of Customs of China.”
The statement adds that “… This result is the product of a negotiation process that began in 2013 with the signing of the protocol on veterinary and sanitary requirements. In 2016, the authorities of China audited possible exporting establishments after an inter-institutional work between Senasa, the Ministries of Agriculture and Livestock and Foreign Trade (Comex) in conjunction with the Promoter of Foreign Trade (Procomer).”
So far this year, the Costa Rica has exported more than 7 million kilos of beef to China and forecasts that in 2020 will be able to sell a thousand tons of pork.
Almost a year after Walmart’s attempt to acquire Grupo Gessa’s supermarket chain in Costa Rica was not approved by government regulators, a new agreement is now announced between Grupo Gessa and Grupo Empresarial de Retail SA, which belongs to the Yan family of Chinese origin.
File photo
In January of this year, it was reported that local authorities ratified their ruling against Walmart’s request to buy supermarket chain Gessa – Perimercados, Súper Compro, Turribásicos and Saretto – arguing that the transaction presented problems of eventual concentration.
Walmart, besides the superstores under the brand, also owns and operates the Masxmenos, MaxiPalí and Palí chain of supermarkets in Costa Rica.
The new attempt by Grupo Empresarial de Supermercados SA (Gessa) requires the approval of the Comisión para Promover la Competencia (Coprocom) – Commission to Promote Competition.
La Nacion reported the agreement of sale was communicated to supermarket suppliers on Wednesday (December 11) evening that it had presented the Coprocomm the approval request that same day.
Thursday (December 12) afternoon, the advisory firm Grant Thornton reported that it served as a consultant in the process of the sale. In a statement, Thornton added that Gessa’s 1,200 employees will keep their jobs, and that current suppliers and providers would be maintained.
Through a press representative, the president of Comeca (owner of Gessa), Víctor Mesalles, indicated that he would not refer to the dale until he received pronouncement from Coprocom.
Nor was it possible to know the amount of the transaction.
Without giving details, Mesalles informed suppliers that “… The Yan family has a business trajectory of more than 50 years in Costa Rica, as it has been dedicated to the export of wood and fruit and the import of products in general.”
Despite a tradition by authorities to provide details of applications, Coprocom confirmed to the Q that there is an open process and it has 15 business days to verify compliance with the formal requirements.
If the sale is approved, Grupo Comeca would manage to part with a business (52 supermarkets) in which it decided to divest approximately four years ago and from which it was close to saying goodbye at the end of last year upon reaching an agreement with Walmart.
Raúl Castro, Nicolás Maduro and Daniel Ortega, the men behind the dictatorships of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua
In Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, above all, no reference will be made. Or if any is done it will sound ironic. Like the one made on the morning of December 10 by Granma, the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, regarding a new anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Raúl Castro (left), Nicolás Maduro (middle) and Daniel Ortega (right), the men behind the dictatorships of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. Image from Infobae.
“Human rights in Cuba enshrines the full dignity of humankind,” surprises one of Granma’s main headlines. A strange interpretation when the Havana government systematical persecutes its opponents and holds dozens of political prisoners —with opposition activist Jose Daniel Ferrer arrested, tortured and in solitary confinement, heading the list.
The transcendental document was signed on December 10, 1948 —71 years ago today—, in Paris three years after the end of World War II. In that dark period, in the Nazi concentration camps against the Jewish population, the most sinister of the spirit of mankind was synthesized. The horror had been engraved in those who managed to survive and gave testimony of the aberrations suffered. The world leaders tried to put in writing those basic parameters that no enlightened Messianic leader should trespass: justice, equality and dignity.
The day became historical.
Latin America remembers the today with unequal plenitude. Justice is one of the profound and most persistent debts in the region. It is perhaps the weakest institutional base with the resurgence of caudillo strongman leaders that sooner rather than later emerge as saviors.
Institutions are rammed and trampled with the sole and fallacious argument of establishing themselves as the exclusive defenders and interpreters of the popular will. They are installed by votes and from there many violate democratic structures and justify their subsequent excesses. Justice, that should be the retaining dike and the constitutional safeguard, does not act, instead, it is ransacked or dismembered by the imposition of these leaders.
Equality in the region is another structural deficit that no administration —even the most organized, like the Chilean—, manages to balance. When the macroeconomic figures of those efforts that benefit from the jumps in the international value their natural resources flourish, the heads of state are tempted into a fictitious distribution instead of laying down the foundations for achieving permanent development.
Subsidies, embezzlement and corruption on the one hand; constitutional reforms, and friendly courts on the other. That path is the one that makes possible the long-awaited reelections over the bronze of history. The examples abound. Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil. Golden eras of full pockets with no structural and educational development.
Dignity continues to be one of the great pending debts. Especially in those nations whose leaders trample upon the human rights of their people. The dictator Nicolas Maduro’s record causes chills: 7,000 are the victims of his tyranny. The human debt of Caracas is absolute. So much so that the United Nations, the cradle where that Declaration was born, was responsible for enumerating the violations that the regime embodies.
The report was signed by Michelle Bachelet, High Commissioner for Human Rights of the UN, former President of Chile and whose family suffered in their own flesh the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The authorized voice of the Chilean infuriated Maduro’s Miraflores Palace. It exposed to the entire world the tortures and extrajudicial executions that the Chavista leaders ordered against those who rose against them.
The diaspora is another of the humanitarian dramas that Maduro promoted. In total there are 4,769,498 displaced Venezuelans who had to start a new life, mainly, in the rest of the region. Most of them sought refuge in Colombia (1,630,903), Peru (863,613) and Ecuador (385,042). The data belongs to the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. Each one of them suffered some type of abuse by members of the regime, went hungry or did not have the necessary resources to survive. It’s the story of a nation that bleeds to death.
The Nicaragua of Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice-president Rosario Murillo is just one step behind Venezuela but does not escape international calls to cease their political persecution against opponents.
“The government must end the persistent repression of dissent and arbitrary detentions, and refrain from criminalizing and attacking human right defenders, political opponents and any other dissenting voice,” points out one of the UN reports on Nicaragua
In November, it was the European Union (EU) that urged the autocrat to put an end to his methods. “The UE calls on the Government of Nicaragua and its security forces to release all people arrested and withdraw charges, lift the siege of the Church and guarantee full respect for the constitutional rights of the entire Nicaraguan population, in particular, freedom of expression, assembly, religion and peaceful protest.”
Ortega ignores it. Since the beginning of the protests in April 2018 (now more than 600 days) over the Social Security reforms, according to the Ortega government around 320 people lost their lives as a result of government repression. The number is most likely much higher.
In Nicaragua, the emigration of its citizens began slowly.
Behind Nicaragua is Cuba.
Havana functions as the ideological bastion and the advisor who orders how to act in each adverse situation. Their leaders are experts in gaining time and avoiding the demands of their population. They have been doing it for more than 60 years.
Their interference in the regimes of Caracas (Venezuela) and Managua (Nicaragua) is absolute. They are the ones who dishonor that Declaration that 71 years ago changed the planet.
This article was first published in Spanish on Infobae and translated by the Q, with files from Confidencial.com.ni.
The economic overview for Latin America and the Caribbean in 2019 is occurring in a particularly complex context, reports the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
Alicia Bárcena, ECLAC Executive Secretary, during the presentation of the report. Photo: Carlos Vera/ECLAC
The region is exhibiting an economic deceleration that is widespread and synchronized among countries and sectors, topping off six consecutive years of low growth, the ECLAC reported in its last annual report released at its central headquarters in Santiago, Chile.
In its Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean 2019, the United Nations regional organization indicates that the deceleration in domestic demand is being accompanied by low external aggregate demand and more fragile international financial markets. This context is compounded by growing social demands and pressure to reduce inequality and increase social inclusion.
In this way, the macroeconomic situation in recent years shows a deceleration trend in economic activity, with a reduction in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, a decline in investment, lower consumption per capita, fewer exports, and a sustained deterioration in the quality of employment.
All of this will lead to the region growing just 0.1% on average in 2019, and growth projections for 2020 will remain low at around 1.3% for the region as a whole. As a result, the 2014-2020 period will mark the lowest growth in the last seven decades for the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Given this scenario, the region cannot withstand adjustment policies and needs policies to stimulate growth and reduce inequality. The current conditions require that fiscal policy be centered on the reactivation of growth and on responding to growing social demands,” stated Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), at the presentation of the document.
The report emphasizes that an active fiscal policy requires in the medium-to-long term a strategy to ensure its sustainability over time. This implies that it must be linked to growth capacity and productivity dynamics, and to strengthening the State’s capacity for revenue collection (improving the progressive nature of the tax structure through an increase in direct taxes; reducing tax evasion, which represents around 6.3% of regional GDP; reevaluating tax expenditures, which represent 3.7% of GDP in the region; and implementing a new generation of taxes related to the digital economy, the environment and public health).
In terms of growth projections, according to the report, 23 of 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries (and 18 out of 20 in Latin America) will see their growth decelerate during 2019, while 14 nations will record an expansion of 1% or less by year’s end.
Furthermore, the report verifies that the region’s GDP per capita will have contracted 4.0% between 2014 and 2019.
Meanwhile, national unemployment will rise from 8.0% in 2018 to 8.2% in 2019, which amounts to an increase of one million people, reaching a new maximum of 25.2 million. This situation is compounded by a deterioration in job quality due to growth in self-employment (which exceeded salaried employment) and in labor informality.
The Preliminary Overview forecasts that in 2019 the country with the greatest expansion will be Dominica (9.0%), followed by Antigua and Barbuda (6.2%), the Dominican Republic (4.8%) and Guyana (4.5%). In contrast, Venezuela will experience the greatest setback, with a contraction of -25.5%, followed by Nicaragua (-5.3%), Argentina (-3.0%) and Haiti (-0.7%). Central America will grow 2.4%, the Caribbean 1.4% and South America will contract -0.1%.
For 2020, ECLAC’s projections indicate that Caribbean nations will continue leading regional growth (with a subregional average of 5.6%), led by Guyana (85.6%, due to oil production starting in 2020), Antigua and Barbuda (6.5%), Dominica (4.9%) and the Dominican Republic (4.7%). On the low end of the spectrum, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Argentina will have more moderate economic contraction rates (with -14%, -1.4% and -1.3%, respectively).
Meanwhile, Central America will expand 2.6% and South America 1.2%.
According to the report, despite the difficulties and limitations that policy spaces currently face, in contrast to prior periods, the majority of the region’s countries find themselves today in situations of historically low inflation levels (a 2.6% regional average, without taking into account Venezuela, Argentina and Haiti), relatively high international reserves, the economies generally preserve access to international financial markets, and international interest rates are at low levels. These conditions favor the capacity to implement macroeconomic policies that would tend to reverse the current low-growth scenario.
To that end, it is critical to reactivate economic activity through greater public spending on investment and social policies, ECLAC indicates. In addition, to address social demands, short-term redistributive efforts must be complemented with an increase in the provision and quality of public goods and services, the Commission underscores.
As millions, either in person or at home on tv, watched the miracle of the Festival de la Luz Saturday night, I bet no one took a second to think post-event.
This is Paseo Colón after the Festival de la Luz as posted on Facebook by Ahora Noticias. As always, the lack of culture was present in our country.
The Colombian government agency, Agencia Jurídica de Defensa (Legal Defence Agency) has threatened to sue Walmart over a Christmas sweater that associated the country to cocaine.
The sweater, offered by a third-party seller on Walmart’s Canadian website featured an image of a bug-eyed Santa Claus seated in front of three white lines. The sweater’s tagline: “LET IT SNOW”.
The director of the Legal Defense Agency, Camilo Gómez, told EL TIEMPO reporters that “the Walmart sweater is an offense to the country that generates damage to the legal products of Colombia, to the country’s reputation, regardless of any circumstance. It is a damage that must be attacked, and although Walmart apologized, the damage was done. ”
“It is a historical heritage, rooted internationally, which comes from the 90s and is the fault of drug trafficking. Noxiously Colombia is seen only as a coca producer. It is a stigma that can not be separated from the increase in illegal crops or the violence they generate, ”Álvaro Pretel, a researcher at the Universidad del Valle, told EL TIEMPO.
For those who weren’t quite sure what the sweater might be suggesting, its product description read:
“We all know how snow works. It’s white, powdery and the best snow comes straight from South America. That’s bad news for jolly old St. Nick, who lives far away in the North Pole. That’s why Santa really likes to savor the moment when he gets his hands on some quality, grade A, Colombian snow.”
On Saturday, the retail giant issued an apology about the sweater and removed it from the Canadian website, along with several other pieces of risqué Christmas clothing.
“These sweaters, sold by a third-party seller on Walmart.ca, do not represent Walmart’s values and have no place on our website. We apologize for any unintended offense this may have caused,” Walmart said in a statement.
But some unsatisfied Colombian officials still believe Walmart should pay for the insulting Colombia-cocaine connection.
According to El Tiempo, the Legal Defense Agency is preparing legal filings and if the chain does not comply, it will move forward with the legal process.
In addition to monetary damages, Gomez, who in 2014 ran to be the country’s vice-president, said Colombia will demand that Walmart promotes legal Colombian products and spends 10 times the amount invested in advertising cocaine-related products.
The funds will be donated to foundations that support the families of members of the police and military forces who were killed or wounded fighting drug trafficking, it said.
“Colombia must be respected,” Gomez said, according to El Tiempo.
“What will the family of a person who died in the fight against drug trafficking feel when a firm like Walmart promotes a bag of cocaine from Colombia?”
Agricultural analytics company CropX has partnered with Costa Rican agroforestry equipment vendor FarmAgro to provide satellite-powered precision agriculture tools to farmers in Central America.
The partners will deploy applications such as automated irrigation, soil- and crop-specific management, and Geo-tagging to more than 205 million hectares of banana, coffee, sugarcane, pineapple, melon, and mango plots, reports Satellite Today.
The services will be based on CropX farm management platform, which integrates data from its proprietary soil sensors with above-ground data layers, weather forecasting, satellite imagery, and crop models.
“Climatic variations across Central and Latin America are creating a new set of risks for farmers in the region. We are excited to collaborate with FarmAgro to help manage those risks and improve yields by increasing the penetration of our crop management tools in the entire Latin American market,” CropX President John Vikupitz said in a statement.
“As we focus on our global expansion, CropX aims to become the leader in soil data science by delivering the only farm analytics platform with global deployments that offers integrated and accurate soil data gathered by an advanced, soil sensor network.”
After deployment in Central America reaches critical mass, FarmAgro plans to expand CropX distribution to the entire Latin American region.
Starbucks brand coffee is already on sale in Walmart and Másxmenos supermarkets in Costa Rica, ground and packed, distributed by Nestlé. It is offered in presentations of 250 grams, in various types and origins. Photo: Courtesy of Nestlé
The market of fine or “gourmet” coffee is the one that is most generated new brands and competitors in Costa Rica, although it represents only about 4% of the total consumption of the country.
Starbucks brand coffee is already on sale in Walmart and Másxmenos supermarkets in Costa Rica, ground and packed, distributed by Nestlé. Photo: Courtesy of Nestlé
The launch of the Starbucks brand to supermarkets is another step in this direction. The company is adding different products of roasted and ground coffee and in capsules.
The products that will be marketed initially in the Walmart and Másxmenos stored, distributed by Nestlé, which bought the retail distribution of Starbucks products globally.
José Manuel Hernando, president of the Cámara Nacional de Tostadores de Café (National Chamber of Coffee Roasters), explained that companies affiliated with that organization also have presentations of the highest quality segment, as part of their market strategies.
The toaster entrepreneur and industry leader said that traditionally, when international grain prices are low, industrialists launch new brands, particularly quality, in search of placing the product in the local market. When the rebound in external price returns, some ways cease to circulate in local commerce, he recalled.
Hersel Orozco, partner and manager of Alimentos y Bebidas Regionales SA, explained that to La Nacion that “… three things call attention to the entry of Starbucks. The first is that the international prestige of the brand increases consumption per person in the country, the second is that they are aimed at a market with a lot of purchasing power, and third, that they bet very aggressively on a small country.”
Regarding the behavior of coffee consumption at the local level, Orozco added that “… stagnated, especially due to the economic situation. For this reason, the same cake should be distributed among more actors, with more competition in the most part fine”.
In mid-October it was also reported that Walmart began marketing high-quality coffee in the country under the Great Value brand, owned by Walmart.
The Walmart bean is of Costa Rican origin (with grains from Tres Ríos, Naranjo and Tarrazú) while the Starbucks brands distributed by Nestlé are of diverse origins, packed in the United States, with 100% Arabica coffee.
The National Chamber of Coffee Roasters has 22 companies are affiliated, which represent around 90% of the demand. Hernando explained the Chamber has about 60 brands in the market, but if they are broken down by sub-brands, roasts and areas of origin, the number is more than 110.
Presenting its incursion into the Costa Rican retail market with Starbucks, Nestlé said it is based on notable consumption figures for ground coffee in Costa Rica.
For example, according to Nielsen, a global leader in consumption measurement, Costa Ricans (Ticos) buy 43% of roasted and ground coffee sold in the Central American region.
Also, a study by Nestlé Central America found that almost 30% of Costa Rican households buy roasted and ground coffee twice a week, that 76% of Ticos consume coffee at home and that nine out of 10 prefer to prepare it to their liking.
The consumption per person of coffee in Costa Rica is 4.3 kilos per year, making the country the second among the producing countries in this indicator, only behind Brazil with 6.3 kilos per person per year.
For Costa Rica, the figure is a slight increase compared to the 4.1 kilos of 2017, down from a high of 5.2 kilos per person per year in 2016.
On a global scale, the largest consumer per person per year is Finland, with 12 kilos, according to figures from the International Coffee Organization (ICO).
Hal Forsen, back center, a docent at the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente, speaks to a delegation from El Salvador while touring SHACC, a stop during their visit to Southern California to research and tour facilities related to the surfing culture on Thursday, December 5, 2019,
in San Clemente. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
How can El Salvador, a country rich with epic waves but trapped in the shadows of a war-torn past, shine a light on its world-class surfing and establish itself as a tourist destination — especially given continued State Department travel warnings?
Hal Forsen, back center, a docent at the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente, speaks to a delegation from El Salvador while touring SHACC, a stop during their visit to Southern California to research and tour facilities related to the surfing culture on Thursday, December 5, 2019, in San Clemente. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A group sent by the Salvadoran government toured coastal areas from Santa Monica to San Clemente the past few days on a surf safari aimed at learning how surf-centric destinations operate: from how businesses and retail shops cater to wave riders to how the hospitality industry can incorporate sustainability into its practices.
They made stops at surf landmarks and museums along the way.
The tour was the latest step in an effort by the Salvadoran and U.S. governments to find a common place – in the ocean – after visits earlier this year between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and El Salvador’s newly elected president Nayib Bukele.
The El Salvador initiative – called Surf City – brings together the small nation’s coastal towns, with the touring group taking back information learned from Southern California.
Karla Rodriguez, El Salvador’s director of planning, said the government is working on its master plan for tourism, fine-tuning ideas on how to get more infrastructure in remote areas and how to develop surf areas in a sustainable way.
The touring group had a mix of representatives, from a security expert to tourism officials to hotel and surf shop operators already entrenched in the coastal communities.
“It’s more than we expected,” Rodriguez said, of how big the surf influence is in Southern California. “Here, you breathe surf, you live surf, everything is surf.”
Moves by the defense team of the lawyers at the heart of the Panama Papers scandal have led to the second suspension of the preliminary hearing of a process for alleged money laundering.
The hearing for Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca Mora, the founding partners of the former firm Mossack Fonseca (MF), and 32 other people was scheduled for yesterday but suspended due to the presentation of a warning of unconstitutionality and the appeal of a nullity incident by defense attorneys, Newsroom Panama reports.
The hearing was scheduled for Tuesday, December 10, but suspended due to the presentation of a warning of unconstitutionality and the appeal of a nullity incident by defense attorneys.
In November the hearing could not be carried out because one of the accused changed his lawyer and asked for more time to get acquainted with the file.
UPDATED (8:53am) The following is from a post on Facebook, from the U.S. Embassy in San Jose, American Citizen Services saying it has received reports from U.S. citizens living in Costa Rica reporting receiving telephone calls from individuals purporting to work for the U.S Embassy in San Jose.
The callers state the Embassy is updating profiles of U.S. citizens for Costa Rica’s Ministry of Hacienda (Ministry of Finance) in relation to Costa Rica’s recent tax law (tax reform) changes.
The callers request personal information such as passport and social security numbers.
The callers have also been directed to a website that solicits bank account login and password information.
The notice has not been added to the Embassy website and an email from the Q has yet to be answered.
Note, the United States Embassy (or embassies of most other countries) staff will not initiate calls to its citizens offering assistance with host government legislation and regulations.
Though we have not been able to verify that U.S. Citizens are being targeted, we do caution to take extreme care – do not provide any information of any kind – if you receive such a call.
This applies to all foreigners living and/or visiting Costa Rica.
From the US Embassy San Jose, they replied to our email, saying they sent the message directly to U.S. citizens registered with the Embassy and are now we are posting it on their website.
The US Embassy San Jose recommends the actions to take:
Do not provide personally sensitive information such as social security numbers or bank account information to callers purporting to work for the U.S. Embassy.
If you receive a call, file a complaint report at your local OIJ office.
Contact the U.S. Embassy at 2519-2059 and ask to speak to a Citizen Services Specialist if you have additional questions or concerns.
A shortage of high-quality arabica coffees has boosted spot prices in Central America, Colombia, and Brazil, catching speculators who bet on falling futures prices by surprise.
Coffee prices in reals are at their highest level since January 2018 , deterring exporters from buying.
Traders and analysts say the shortage is a major factor behind the surge in arabica prices on ICE Futures U.S., which have catapulted some 25% since mid-October amid a scramble for exchange certified ‘washed’ or quality arabica stocks.
The stocks have fallen from 2.5 million bags in March to 2.1 million with the harvest in Central America, Colombia, and Peru, the main source of washed arabicas, off to a slow start and with semi-washed Brazil arabicas tight amid crop quality problems.
The jump in prices has hurt speculators. The latest CFTC data showed they have now covered about 85% of the net short position of more than 50,000 lots held in early September, helping fuel the recent run-up in prices.
Brazil semi-washed arabicas can usually be substituted for washed coffee, but the quality problems have left them in short supply this year despite an overall abundance of unwashed arabicas.
In Honduras, washed arabicas are at a premium of around 6 cents over ICE futures versus a discount of some 4 cents in January, deterring traders from delivering the stock to ICE where it wouldn’t fetch a premium.
Honduras accounts for less than 10% of global arabica production but it makes up more than three-quarters of ICE certified stock and thus has a disproportionate impact on futures prices.
“For producers, Christmas has come early,” said a Switzerland-based trader.
“Roasters can go look at smaller (arabicas) origins, they’re normally at a discount (to the futures) but not anymore. All washed arabicas went up despite New York (futures) going up,” he added.
Traders say washed Colombian arabicas are at a premium of some 32 cents over ICE futures versus 16 cents in January.
The shortage has been brewing for much of this year, with historically low prices prompting farmers in Central America, Colombia and Peru to abandon their farms and head to the United States border.
ICE futures fell to 13 year lows in May, leaving spot prices in most regions save Brazil at or below production costs.
More recently with the price uptick, there are talks of exporters in Colombia and Brazil not honoring contracts and asking importers to roll them forward or cancel them for a fee.
“I heard some people are trying to roll over delivery to the next Brazilian crop,” said José Marcos Magalhães, head of Brazilian co-op Minasul, adding it is possible exporters are unable to fulfill the contracts on time either due to high prices or lack of quality lots.
Coffee prices in reals are at their highest level since January 2018, deterring exporters from buying.
The government of Carlos Alvarado is about to impose a 40.5% tax on the sales of properties used for business purposes.
Costa Rica has one of the highest taxes in the world.
The new rate has been in effect since July 1, 2019, in Costa Rica, and is be one of the highest of its kind in the world. The assets most affected will be real estate, La República reports in Spanish.
In its analysis, La República explains how the rules work, and how they will affect you.
A company uses the property for business. The property can be a real estate, such as a farm, school, warehouse, retail store, tortilla factory, or intellectual property such as a brand or license, among others.
The State taxes up to 40.5% of the profit (the value above the original purchase price or valuation – plusvalía in Spanish) following the sale of the property.
The proceeds obtained on the sale is considered as income, which means the company must pay up to 30% of the profit from the sale, plus 15% of the remaining 70% when it compensates its investors, for a total tax of 40.5%.
The State charges a 15% on the sale of some properties: jewelry, an empty lot, a work of art, etc, but the low rate applies only to assets not used in production.
As far as the capital good used in the business is concerned, it is one of the highest rates in the world.
Before July, no sale of any capital goods was charged.
Don’t be confused
Many people believe that the State charges 15% on the increase in the value of any capital good in the year it is sold; However, that is not always true, since there are now two regimes applicable to this type of transaction, depending on the nature of the good (data in percentages).
Regime 1
Asset Capital asset not used in any business
rate*:
(a) About the increase in value 15%
(b) On the total value of the sale 2.25%
* (a) or (b) at the taxpayer’s option
Regime 2
Asset Capital asset used in the business
rate:
Same as income, usually 30%
Dividend Tax** 10.5%
Total 40.5
** 10.5% of the total amount of margin, equivalent to 15% of the balance after paying the income tax
The above is from Chapter I, Title I, of the Ley 7092 del impuesto sobre la renta (income tax of law 7092), effective as of July 1, 2019.
Please note, the information contained in this article is not to be considered as tax advice, rather for information purposes only. You should consult a tax expert for advice on your specific situation.
There are a number of digital marketing techniques that can be used to help attract new customers online. There are over 4 billion internet users in the world, but getting your product, service or website in front of them is not always easy.
Here is a rundown of some of the most important digital marketing techniques that you should consider utilizing to help attract new customers.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing content that is designed to be relevant and valuable to your target audience. The idea is to create useful content (guides, news updates, how to explainer videos etc.) that a potential customer will want to click on. This helps to show your expertise, which builds trust in your product or service, and can drive traffic to your business page.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization involves taking actions to help get more relevant traffic to your website for free. Search engines, such as Google and Bing, use sophisticated algorithms to determine which websites are shown when a user enters a specific search query. In order to ensure that your business is shown to the maximum number of relevant searches, it is important to carry out a number of SEO techniques, such as:
Keyword research
Implementing appropriate title tags, descriptions and metadata
HTML formatting
Building backlinks
Search engine optimization is a complicated task that requires specific skills and up to date knowledge of the latest trends. For this reason it can help to employ the services of an agency, such as clickintelligence.com, to maximize your SEO efforts.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is all about using social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, to reach new people and develop meaningful relationships with customers. This is best achieved through a mixture of paid and organic social media posts.
Paid social media content is great for reaching new, targeted customers and driving conversions.
While organic social media posts can help to create a sense of community between your business and your customers. There are also many services available to boost social media marketing. Increditools has this list of services to increase online marketing sales.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
Pay per click advertising refers to a model where you are charged each time somebody clicks on your advert. This method is most effective for search engine ads, where it is possible to pay to appear at the top of the search engine results page for specific queries even if your website does not currently rank well for those terms. This is especially useful for new businesses who are looking to gain new clients and break into an industry.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is the process of partnering up with another business who you think can drive traffic from their website to yours in exchange for a commission on sales. In order to form a successful affiliate marketing partnership, it is important to look for websites that are relevant to your target audience. Otherwise the traffic that they drive to your website is unlikely to convert into new business.
The Aguinaldo is a historical conquest and a triumph of the Costa Rican people. It has been around since 1954, enacted to be paid to workers of the State, Central Administration, autonomous institutions, semi-autonomous and municipalities.
The aguinaldo is untouchable, protected by law, non-negotiable, inalienable, an indisputable right, a benefit independent of other social or labor benefits.
In 1959, the right was extended to public sector workers. That same year, the opposition of the Compañía Bananera (Banana Company) to pay the aguinaldo caused a great strike, which lasted 26 days. Finally, these workers got paid.
The aguinaldo, for simplicity sake, is an amount of money, equivalent to a month’s salary, without legal deductions, paid to all salaried employees by their employer, at the end of the year, currently not later than December 20.
The operative is “without legal deductions”. This means the aguinaldo is untouchable, protected by law, non-negotiable, inalienable, an indisputable right, a benefit independent of other social or labor benefits. The employer and any other entity is forbidden to make any reductions of any kind.
But.
Marisol Álvarez is a telephone operator at the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS).
She, like other workers of the Caja, received her aguinaldo on November 28. Many employers pay the aguinaldo early. The Central Government paid on December 6, while other employers do not pay until the last day. Some not at all.
In the Marisol, as she told her story to La Teja and now in the hands of the Defensoría de Apoyo al Deudor (Debtor Support Advocacy), on November 29, her aguinaldo of ¢293,000 colones was gone. Her bank Banco Popular account, where the aguinaldo was deposited, was debited that amount and wiped clean.
Marisol’s story is not an isolated case. Though the Defensoria doesn’t give out numbers, it is believed there are many more cases, even more if counting cases not reported.
So what happened in Marisol’s case?
According to her story, she had taken out a loan for ¢1.1 million colones from “Beto le presta”, a loan company.
Despite the law prohibiting any type of deduction of the aguinaldo, the loan company, based on an authorization Marisol signed, was able to have the bank deduct the amount from their client’s account.
Stephanie Portuguez, legal advisor to the Defensoría de Apoyo al Deudor with David Segura, counselor
After recording a decline in sales and loss of formal jobs this year, Costa Rica’s retail sector predicts a rebound in revenues for 2020.
The current year has been a year of economic and retail contraction, mainly because of the loss of consumer confidence and the consequent reduction in sales, which in turn reduced the capacity for investment and employment generation by companies, says a statement from the Camara de Comercio de Costa Rica (CCCR) – Costa Rican Chamber of Commerce..
According to the CCCR, from the 1st Quarter 2018 to the 3rd Quarter 2019, informal employment in the retail sector increased by 24% and formal employment decreased by 22%, demonstrating a shift from the formal to the informal sector.
The report notes that “… By 2020, the Chamber of Commerce of Costa Rica has identified some priority areas or issues for the sector, which should be on the agenda of the Alvarado Administration. These issues are: Promotion of Business Formality, Fight against Smuggling and Illicit Trade, and Trade Facilitation.”
Yolanda Fernandez, president of the CCCR told Nacion.com that “… they are optimistic for 2020, with prospects for stabilization and the beginning of recovery, both because it is expected a rebound in consumer confidence and because the impact of the Law to Strengthen Public Finance (tax reform) would already be diluted, after six months of implementation. The combination of factors would make the consumer decide again to buy again.”
Regarding consumer confidence levels, the most recent report from the University of Costa Rica *UCR) explains that, despite the fact that between August and November 2019 the confidence index increased 13%, consumers still have a significant degree of uncertainty.
For the rest of the year, the CCCR expects Christmas sales to increase 10% compared to the same period of 2018.
The first restaurant McDonald’s opened outside the United States, in 1970, was right here in Ticolandia (Costa Rica) and is still in the place where it started, in the heart of San Jose, across from the Banco Central.
But that is about to change 49 years later.
The restaurant will soon relocate 100 meters (a block) away from the current location, on the boulevard (Avenida Central), between Calles 2 and 4.
The new home will be in a three-story building that is expected to be ready on December 30.
The new restaurant to open on Dec.30
Wendy Madriz, communications director at Arcos Dorados Costa Rica, the company that owns McDonald’s licenses in the country, explained the reasons for the change.
“In Arcos Dorados we continue to look for growth opportunities to be closer and closer to our customers. Soon we will be announcing where we will surprise with the experience restaurants of the future,” said Madriz.
Like the McDonald’s of Pérez Zeledón, the first MacDonalds the franchise opened outside the Central Valley, which was recently remodeled and open 24/7, the new Mac Banco Central is expected to be “something else” with its cutting-edge technology when it comes to fast food businesses.
The company calls it the “experience of the future”.
Customers will find digital kiosks to place orders through screens, and without using the traditional cajas (cash registers), customers can place their orders both to eat in or take out.
Not to worry, if you want to continue ordering as usual, you will still be able to.
“Soon we will be announcing where we will surprise our customers with the experience restaurants of the future,” said Wendy Madriz.
With the arrival of this new technological era, Arcos Dorados will be tripling the number of workers dedicated to this experience and recruiting more than 100 people for the new openings.
The number of same-sex marriages soared 61.7% between 2017 and 2018, according to data released this week by IBGE, Brazil’s government statistics agency.
While the survey data indicated a 1.6% drop in the country’s total number of civil marriages, same-sex marriages jumped from 5,887 to 9,520 during that time period.
Same-sex female marriages represented 58.4% of those unions. The largest increase was observed in Brazil’s Northeast Region (85.2%) and the Central-West Region (42.5%).
President Jair Bolsonaro, who once called himself a “proud homophobe,” took office on January 1, 2019. One-fifth of the 9,520 marriages took place in December 2018.
LGBT+ advocates say the newly released data reveal citizens’ fears that Bolsonaro would violate their rights.
LGBT+ community fears legal limitations
In 2013, Brazil’s National Council of Justice legalized same-sex marriage. However, rights advocates said Bolsonaro’s election accelerated LGBT+ couples to tie the knot, in fear he might pass legislation to restrict their right to wed.
The right to marry also allows same-sex couples in Brazil to share health care benefits and inheritances.
“The LGBT community knows its rights, and this conservative wave led to a reaction, to reaffirm this right and defend it,” Claudio Nascimento from Brazil’s LGBTI National Alliance, a nonprofit group, told Reuters news agency.
Far-right President and former military officer Bolsonaro said in a 2011 Playboy magazine interview that he “would be incapable of loving a homosexual son,” adding that he would “prefer my son to die in an accident than show up with a mustachioed man.”
In May 2002, Bolsonaro said that if he saw “two men kissing each other on the street” he would “beat them up.”
Same-sex marriage is currently legal in 27 countries. Austria, Ecuador and Taiwan recognized the legal right for gay couples to wed this year.
For centuries his mission has been holy — on December 6, St. Nicholas comes to Europe to bring sweet treats to all the good children. No path is too far, and he even manages to be everywhere at the same time.
Saint Nicholas was a 4th-century bishop who lived in Myra, a town in what is today Turkey. According to legend, this son of rich parents gave his entire wealth to the poor. This made him the forerunner of Father Christmas or Santa Claus and Germany’s Christ Child, as well as becoming a symbol of the Christmas season.
4. Of, and for the masses
Saint Nicholas was used by a cola company in 1931 in the United States to advertise their beverage, showing him in what has become the accepted attire of all red with white trimmings. These days those outfits must be flexible enough to withstand sporting activities, like the Father Christmas race in Michendorf in the German state of Brandenburg.
3. Cold feet are not a problem!
At the annual global conference of Father Christmases in the Danish capital Copenhagen, hundreds of men and more recently an increasing number of women, from 15 nations ready themselves for the busy and stressful festive season. A bracing dip in the water can only help boost energy.
2. A friendly exchange
St Nicholas can be flexible when it comes to mode of transport. On a bike in Germany, on a sleigh drawn by reindeer in Finland or on the back of a dromedary like here at the Red Sea in Egypt — and thanks to his white beard, fur-trimmed coat and hat he is also recognized in Muslim countries.
1. High-flyer
How St. Nicholas or Santa Claus manages to be in lots of different places around the world at the same time will remain a mystery. But one thing is known that he will return next year and stay on course when flying across the sky, like here over Lake Geneva.
Costa Rica’s Telecable has gotten into the spirit of Christmas giving by doubling the speed –at no extra cost– to its residential Internet clients.
Telecable is 100% Tico owned
The double speed began on December 1 and will remain on a permanent basis. Telecable, of 100% Costa Rican capital, says the measure will help Costa Rica to rise up in international rankings for quality and consumption of Internet, La República reports in Spanish.
“When you achieve something good, you have to celebrate it, but the next day you have to be thinking about how to improve to keep making a difference. The growth that Telecable has had in recent years is no secret to anyone. Sharing this excellent news with our clients today confirms that we are on the right track,” said Ronald Jiménez, Telecable’s director of the residential services.
To take advantage of the offer, users must visit telecabletedaeldoble.com and enter their personal data; The system will give the option to double the speed for free.
“We invite you to use the link to verify that you can now access at much higher speeds at incredible prices,” said Jiménez.
The offer also applies to new subscribers who purchase any of the Internet plans or some television combo plus Internet.
“This is how things are, both our current clients and those who decide to move over and join the Telecable family can enjoy the best service with the best rates in the market. One of these examples is our 100 megabyte Internet + Digital TV combo for only ¢34,600 monthly,” said Luis Carlos Monge, Telecable Corporate Communication coordinator.
You can reach Telecable at 4080 4000, by email at ervicioalcliente@telecablecr.com or visit their website or Facebook page.
Air safety for pilots and crew members, job stability and suspensions of national routes are part of a list of concerns outsourced by the Asociación Costarricense de Pilotos Aviadores (ACPA) – Costa Rican Association of Aviator Pilots – to the Government.
Image for illustrative purposed. Shutterstock.
The union is going through an alleged deterioration in its working conditions, as expressed in a statement sent by ACPA.
The massive layoffs of national aeronautical personnel, the hiring and turning over of routes to foreign pilots, and possible irregularities in the closure of routes, are other consternations.
The Association insists that it is essential for air safety that the crew be free from harassment, economic or social problems.
In addition, they request an investigation of the possible irregularities committed in the procedure applied for the cancellation or temporary suspension of routes that at the time were concessioned to Costa Rican Airlines – Lacsa- today Avianca Costa Rica.
“We also need an investigation of the mass dismissal of pilots and employees in general, as well as the possible hiring of foreign pilots for some similar business model,” adds ACPA in the statement.
The annoyance of the aviators comes from the fact that Avianca Costa Rica apparently has not announced in advance the closure, cancellation or temporary suspension of routes due to financial problems or any other cause.
“We must enforce our rights as workers, the commitment to work together with the related authorities is presented through this letter, we want to help our country with a responsible position and dignify aviation in all its parts,” the statement concludes.
The concession of an efficient and modern intercity electric train that connects to the four provinces of the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM), promoted by Costa Rica’s First Lady, Claudia Dobles, could be derailed because of dilly-dallying by legislators.
“The train is a transformative project that will change the lives of thousands of people in Costa Rica,” said Elizabeth Briceño, president of Incofer. Image from La Republlica
Some 40 legislators who together form a majority are skeptical concerning the US$1.2 billion cost that would include a US$550 million loan from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), in addition to a very substantial contribution from State coffers.
It will be up to the legislators of the Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN), Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC), Nueva República and Restauración Nacional, who would define with their votes the success or failure of the main urban mobility project.
They question the proposed by the Government of Carlos Alvarado given the fact that the country is going through fiscal problems and that government spending has not been contained according to the legislators’ criteria.
Carmen Chan, head of the Nueva República, described the project as “illusory,” while Gustavo Viales, of the PLN, questioned the Government’s commitment to contain the expense and accused it of continuing to waste, La República reports in Spanish.
The president’s goal is to leave the project under concession in 2022 when his mandate ends; to that end, in the first quarter of 2020, it will present a bill that structures the loan, confirmed Elizabeth Briceño, executive president of the Instituto Costarricense de Ferrocarriles (Incofer) – the Costa Rican Railway.
The electric train is to run 73 kilometers, through 15 cantons and four provinces. It would be bidirectional, at ground level, with some overpasses. The idea is that it runs every five minutes and does not require expropriations, a major project killer in public works in Costa Rica.
An example is the current expansion project of the Ruta 32 (Guapiles to Limon), which after two years of the start of the project, it is less than 20% complete.
The electric train project will be concessioned and so far, companies from ten countries have shown interest. However, the project is in doubt because opposition deputies would not be willing to approve the loan to boost it.
In principle, it would allow the hiring of 1,000 temporary employees for construction and generate about 461 permanent jobs once completed.
An ambitious plan
The intercity electric train planned by the Government would be the center of a modern and orderly public transport.
“The (electric) train is a transformative project that will change the lives of thousands of people in Costa Rica, has benefits in times of transfers, reduced costs to people and the country, improvements in health and air quality; as well as reducing the country’s carbon emissions,” says President Alvarado.
Dante Mossi, CEO of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, “It is a project that marks the beginning of the rail plans to the region and that, in addition, is friendly to the environment as it is an electric train in a country where most of the electric power is renewable, and that will serve as a model for the others Similar projects in the region.”
Doubtful
Gustavo Vials, legislator of the PLN says, “It seems to us that the Executive Power must begin a clear, consistent and firm signal of containment of public spending.”
For her part, María Inés Solís, of the PUSC, “We still have to know what the plan is, what is the small letter of the loan that the Government is asking the Central American Bank for Economic Integration for the electric train, so I think it is a bit premature to talk about the issue.”
“The electric train is an expensive project that indebts the country even more and would only mitigate the issue of congestion (in the GAM) for a while,” is the sentiment of Eduardo Cruickshank, head of the Restauración Nacional.
The Costa Rican goalkeeper, Keylor Navas, reveals in the interview with Spanish journalist Edu Aguirre for the program ‘El Chiringuito’, that when he retires, he will not return to Costa Rica and most likely will live in Spain.
“When you retire, are you leaving for Costa Rica?” Was Aguirre’s question to Navas who plays as a goalkeeper for French club Paris Saint-Germain SG or simply PSG, and the Costa Rica national team.
Navas was very direct in his response, “No, I’m going to live in Spain, probably. But today I think of living in Spain.”
Similarly, the Tico declared that the first year after leaving soccer, he plans to dedicate time to his family, something he currently cannot do enough due to his professional commitments.
(Reuters) – Costa Rican coffee exports slid 30% in November compared with the same month last year due in part to continuing fallout from an outbreak of the tree-killing fungus roya (coffee leaf rust), the Costa Rica coffee institute ICAFE said on Monday.
In addition to the lingering effects of roya, higher costs and bad weather have also hit production.
November shipments totaled 15,796 60-kg bags, according to ICAFE data, marking 13 consecutive months of falling exports.
“Farmers, in general, are in a very tough situation due to low productivity per hectare,” ICAFE head Xinia Chaves said, adding that needed investments in plantations have declined.
Coffee exports from Costa Rica, one of Central America’s smaller producers but well-known for its high-quality beans, reached 25,627 bags during the first two months of the current 2019/2020 harvesting season, down more than 40% compared with the same two-month period in the previous 2018/2019 cycle.
In addition to the lingering effects of roya, also known as coffee leaf rust, ICAFE said higher costs and bad weather have also hit production.
The institute, however, sees exports eventually rebounding to reach 1.42 million bags during the 2019/2020 season, which would mark a jump of about 10% compared with the 1.28 million bags shipped during the previous cycle.
The coffee season in Central America and Mexico, which together produce about a fifth of the world’s arabica beans, runs from October through September.
Although in the last ten years the average expenditure per primary and secondary student increased by about 15% in OECD countries, most of their states do not report significant progress in education.
According to a ranking by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), in general, the abilities of 15-year-old students in reading, mathematics, and science have not improved.
The latest PISA assessment confirms that Costa Rica, Panama, and the Dominican Republic – the only countries in the region to appear in its ranking – are far from the average results obtained by the OECD group of nations.
At the presentation of the 2018 Report, PISA Secretary-General Ángel Gurría explained that in relation to the 2015 data, only seven countries have made significant progress in the three areas analyzed, and only one of them is a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Elpais.com reports that, for Andreas Schleicher, director of the PISA program, education “… has not been up to the task. In recent years, ‘the real world and the digital world have integrated and it is clear that the world of education has not responded, it has not changed’.”
The countries of the region that have been taken into account for this ranking show distant results, as Costa Rica remains in a relatively average position, while Panama and the Dominican Republic are in the last places.
In reading, Costa Rica ranked 49th out of 79 countries examined, Panama ranked 71st and the Dominican Republic 76th.
In science, Costa Rica fell to 60th, Panama to 76th and the Dominican Republic to 78th. In the area of maths, Costa Rica ranked 63rd, and Panama and the Dominican Republic remained at 76th and 78th, respectively.
At the global level, the best-evaluated countries were China, Singapore, and Macao, as in all the areas examined they ranked 1, 2 and 3, respectively.
Promotional photos of the Escobar Fold 1 feature Pablo's grinning mugshot as a default background and ads for the phone features scantily dressed models.
The brother of Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar has launched a foldable gold smartphone, the “Escobar Fold 1” and is aiming his sights on Samsung and Apple.
Promotional photos of the Escobar Fold 1 feature Pablo’s grinning mugshot as a default background and ads for the phone features scantily dressed models.
Similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, the Escobar Fold 1 features a flexible screen that allows users to fold it into a tablet, reports Q Colombia.
Thousands of people protest this Tuesday in the central Plaza Italia during a new day of protests in Santiago, Chile (EFE).
The continent has never faced such a brutal, systematic attack as the current one on the institutions of democratic countries. What is happening, far from being simple acts of rebellion of political factions, is a war in every way.
Thousands of people protest this Tuesday in the central Plaza Italia during a new day of protests in Santiago, Chile (EFE).
The gentlemen representing the left in Latin America, commanded by Cuban Castroism and Venezuelan Chavismo, have undertaken a crusade to regain lost power. And far from resorting to the mechanisms established by the constitutions of each country, they have decided to break the established order, set fire to the central transportation systems in Latin American capitals, destroy buildings, vandalize businesses, plunder markets, pit civilians against security forces, destroy economies, and, in short, watch the world burn.
It is no secret that in the last decade, Latin America turned red with socialist governments elected thanks to the influence of petrodollars that Chavez injected into the region. Although after Chavez’s triumph, authoritarian and interfering mechanisms began to be seen, nobody can deny that his arrival to power was democratic, as was that of Lula, Evo, Kirchner, Bachelet, Correa, among others.
But time always bears witness to the failures, and these gentlemen sustained a socialist fallacy maintained by the existing reserves in their respective nations. The financing granted to the late former Venezuelan president, to consolidate his authoritarian, inefficient, and expansionist model. It is not in vain that Venezuela, the country that supported the economies of half of Latin America in the previous decade, is today suffering through the worst economic crisis in modern history.
A decade was enough for half the people to wake up from the spell of populism. All it takes is for the money that underpins the enormous public spending of these systems to run out for nations to hit rock bottom and return to reality.
Socialism is not so difficult to explain, it is precisely the same thing that an infatuated and unconscious teenager does when he receives a big inheritance: the first thing he does is to party with his friends, get drunk, buy a luxury car, brag about it, continue the party, do some other charity work to justify his own waste, and so on, until the money runs out, and he has to start blaming others for his own stupidity.
Although in the previous decade the continent turned red, what is happening now is much more serious because after exhausting the fallacies and lies, knowing that it will be difficult to deceive the electorate again, the left has opted to destabilize the countries of the region to impose their agendas. Without the economic support of Chavez and Venezuelan oil, they will have to resort once again to the old practices of unconventional and asymmetric wars and what today is called hybrid warfare.
That socialism does not work and that the leftists try to impose it by force is not an opinion. It is facts; it is scientific data; it is happening right under our noses. Socialism has been a failure wherever it has been applied. Numbers prove it, and that is why they always end up resorting to aggression, resentment, hatred, lies, indoctrination, populism. For them, truth and facts will never be on their side.
The war, the struggle for the truth is in its darkest hours, well, besides the evident destabilization announced from Caracas with fanfare, indoctrination, and communist propaganda, the messages against the “system,” against capital and the economy, are increasingly latent.
In recent weeks, I have visited Santiago de Chile and Buenos Aires, where red propaganda abounds. Walls full of graffiti calling for the death of neoliberalism, the boycott of the economy, the return to systems of social organization by communes. It is a latent and constant threat to take us all back to the age of darkness, to the gloom, to misery, to hunger, just as it happens in my native country: Venezuela.
More than 40 days have passed in Chile, and the capital city is still in chaos, in flames. The clashes between civilians and police continue to occur, even though or perhaps because Piñera has been extremely weak and permissive with the criminals who have destroyed the capital of Chilean.
Something similar is happening in Colombia today.
The Transmilenio stations, Bogota’s most important mass transportation system, have been attacked and broken by criminals, who have even dared to film themselves doing it to call it a continuation of the chaos, arguing that the state must pay for their destruction; damaging their fellow citizens, damaging themselves. All thanks to subversion, lies, the infiltration of agents of chaos, and the propagation of hatred and resentment as a symbolic political movement.
If the good people are cowardly in the face of evil, then we will have to kneel forever before the establishment of the misery distribution systems that they themselves seek to establish. The envoys of evil are not besieging the most serious thing; the most serious thing is the permissiveness of those who have the power to confront this great tragedy.
When the democratic factors of a region or country seek to confront the subversive and tyrannical attacks of rebel groups with conciliatory actions, they all begin to lose ground and democracy loses ground because whoever disrespects the right of others to impose their agenda is not framed within the constitution, and cannot be treated with caresses and dialogues.
The only destiny for any subversive must be a prison. And if that subversive gets out of control, forms a state, and a terrorist group to attack the other territories, then that gets out of all democratic logic and enters the field of war. There is no other option: we have to fight, take out our weapons, shoot or otherwise be complicit in how democratic systems gradually collapse, and we give in to cowardice in the face of evil.
It’s time to speak loud and clear. Individuals like Nicolas Maduro and Diosdado Cabello cannot and should not have human rights. Individuals who infiltrate evil cells to destroy democracies are not lambs of good light. Criminal systems and mafias are precisely that, criminal mafias, and these have never, ever in the history of humanity, been defeated with dialogue, reason, or appeasement. All the begotten of evil have been overcome with only one element: force, and in this case, either we impose the power of good, or we let ourselves be overwhelmed by the greatest scourges of Latin America.
The heads who lead the region’s unconventional war must fall. Until this happens, there will never be democratic guarantees, legal security, or economic growth in Latin America again. Poverty will continue to proliferate, and we will stay in this vicious circle of political instability and underdevelopment.
The Castros have been in Cuba for more than 60 years, Chavez’s remnants have been in Venezuela for more than 20 years. How many more years must pass? How many more misfortunes must happen until the leaders of the region understand that these criminal systems will never come to fruition? How far should this misfortune extend to decisively put a stop to it?
Opinion is by Emmanuel Rincón, first published at Panampost.com. Read the original here.
Tens of thousands of protesters across Colombia took part in anti-government demonstrations Wednesday during the country’s third general strike in two weeks.
Thousands of people — trade unionists, students, teachers, farmers and indigenous people among them — gathered to dance and sing in Bolivar Square and marched through Bogota to protest right-wing President Ivan Duque’s social and economic policies.
“It’s a time for lots of sectors in our country to wake up. The poor are very poor and the rich have everything,” said protester Silvia Torres in Bogota.
Protests largely peaceful
Wednesday’s protests in the capital and in other cities hampered traffic but were largely peaceful, though clashes with police were reported in Cali and Medellin.
Five people have died in connection with the protests that began in mid-November, including an 18-year-old high school student who died from injuries he sustained from being hit by a teargas canister. Some 500 have been injured.
Anti-government protesters march in Cali, Colombia on December 4. Protests have drawn anywhere from hundreds to several thousand people who often bang pots and pans as they demand president Ivan Duque change his policies.
Authorities said the protesters on Wednesday numbered 40,000 nationwide, a marked decline from the 250,000 people who marched on November 21 against alleged government plans to raise the retirement age and decrease the minimum wage for young workers, as well as a funding shortage for education and Duque’s proposed tax reform to lower duties on businesses.
“The Colombian people have woken up!” shouted Paola Jiminez, a 41-year-old lawyer taking part in a pot-banging “cacerolazo” demonstration in Bogota. “Colombians are finding it more and more difficult financially,” she said.
A student taking part in one of several peaceful protests in Bogota, who gave his name as Nicolas, held up a banner saying: “The state lies more than my ex.”
An anti-government protester holds a sign reading ‘Down with the Tax Reform’ as they block a bridge in Cali.
Strike leaders keep up pressure on Duque
Strike leaders intend to sustain pressure on conservative President Ivan Duque and his government after they failed to reach a deal to end protests that have carried on for two weeks.
The strike leaders dismissed appeals by President Duque to stop the strike because it was damaging the country’s economy.
The Colombian National Strike Committee met on Tuesday with Duque’s advisers for the first time, but no agreement was reached.
Colombia’s largest union, the Central Union of Workers (CUT) is expected to meet with government representatives on Thursday.
Some indication that the demonstrations have caught the attention of lawmakers came earlier this week when legislators changed the most controversial aspects of a proposed labor reform and added new components to a tax bill that would benefit low-income Colombians.
Colombia’s protests are part of a wider wave of unrest sweeping many countries in Latin America where citizens are rising up against presidents across the ideological spectrum.
A report by the Organization of American States found "malicious manipulation" in favor of Evo Marales in Bolivia's October presidential polls. The ex-president rejected the rigging allegations as politically motivated.
In its final report released on Wednesday, the Organization of American States (OAS) published details of “deliberate” and “malicious” tactics to rig Bolivia’s October election in favor of former President Evo Morales.
A report by the Organization of American States found “malicious manipulation” in favor of Evo Marales in Bolivia’s October presidential polls. The ex-president rejected the rigging allegations as politically motivated
“The audit team detected malicious manipulation of the elections,” the OAS said in its nearly 100-page report.
“Based on the overwhelming evidence, what is possible to say is that there was a series of malicious operations aimed at altering the will expressed at the polls,” it added.
The OAS also alleged that a hidden computer server was used during the election to tilt the vote toward Morales.
OAS findings included “deliberate actions to manipulate the result of the election” that make it “impossible to validate” the official results.
Morales rejected the claims, saying the OAS was “in the service of the North American empire.”
Deep divisions
Morales, who was seeking a fourth term as president, claimed a narrow victory in the October 20 election, but opposition parties accused him of rigging the results.
The leftist politician resigned on November 10 at the request of his country’s military and fled to Mexico, where he was granted political asylum. After his departure, right-wing senator Jeanine Anez declared herself interim leader and authorized a new ballot that excludes Morales.
After Morales took asylum in Mexico, claiming he had been ousted in a coup, his supporters began protesting in the streets of the capital, La Paz. At least 30 people have died in clashes between protesters and security forces since the election — most of them since Morales resigned from his post.
Analysts say the dispute and resulting civil unrest in Bolivia exposed divisions between indigenous people loyal to Morales, the South American country’s first indigenous president, and its urban middle and upper classes.
Since declaring herself interim president, Anez has taken a number of measures to rewrite Bolivia’s foreign policy. Breaking ties with socialist countries Cuba and Venezuela is one of her major decisions. Last week, the interim government appointed the country’s first ambassador to the United States in 11 years in an attempt to reset ties with Washington.
U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, highlighted on Monday the pressure exerted by the Trump administration on the administration of President Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, which has been the target of several sanctions for human rights violations.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
“The United States is taking action to restore democracy in Nicaragua,” Pompeo wrote on Twitter, where he noted that 10 senior Ortega government were sanctioned in the last year since the signing of an executive order that enables retaliatory measures.
“Who’s next? We will continue to press the Ortega regime accountable until freedoms are restored,” Pompeo added.
The U.S. is taking action to restore democracy in #Nicaragua. After @realDonaldTrump‘s signing of Executive Order 13851 last year, we’ve sanctioned 10 high-level officials & 1 entity. Who’s next? We will continue to hold the Ortega regime accountable until freedoms are restored.
Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump extended an executive order that allows the United States to punish officials of the Government of Nicaragua, in that the situation in the Central American country poses an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the security of the United States due to “violence” Daniel Ortega responded to the protests to demand his resignation.
The U.S. and Nicaragua flag together
Since April 2018, Nicaragua has been experiencing a socio-political crisis that has left at least 328 dead, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), although local organizations raise the figure to 651, while the Ortega administration recognizes 200 and denounces an alleged “Coup”.
Ortega, a 74-year-old former guerrilla, has been in power since 2007 under accusations of nepotism and corruption by the opposition.
Central America’s textile and apparel exports are on course to miss growth targets this year as Trump’s impeachment concerns and rising political instability in Latin America cripple orders and freeze investments.
“We were expecting double-digit growth of at least 10%, especially after how we did last year,” when the maquila industry targeting brands such as Target and Fruit of the Loom grew 12% in value, says Alejandro Ceballos, president of Vestex (Asociación del Vestuario y Textiles de Guatemala).
DR-CAFTA shipments in the first nine months of this year are up 7.36% to $8.6bn in value and 2.43% to 2.99m square metre equivalents (SME), according to Ceballos. However, that compares with gains of 12% and 9% on the same basis respectively in 2018, a record year for the sector. In 2019, Central American spinners had also expected gains of 7% in SME, just-style reports.
Early last month it was reported that Grupo Aval de Colombia S.A., owner of BAC Credomatic, signed an agreement to acquire Multibank Financial Group of Panama, and according to the business group, the transaction process is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2020.
After Grupo Aval took over the shares of two financial institutions in the Panamanian system, the decision was announced that both institutions will operate independently.
Rodolfo Tabash, president & CEO BAC Credomatic Network, told Elcapitalfinanciero.com that “…’When you merge two banks or two companies it is not an arithmetic sum where 1 plus 1 is 2, because when two companies merge that one plus one is going to give you 1.75, because there is a lot of value destruction. Why? Because there are always customers who leave, many employees leave and many businesses are lost. And what we saw is the experience we have in Colombia, where Grupo Aval is the largest financial group in deposits, portfolio and profits and that has been achieved with four banks, Banco de Bogotá, AV Villas, Banco de Occidente and Banco Popular, which operate in the same plaza, but with market niches, culture and specific segments’.”
Tabash added that “… both entities will share the same technological platform since BAC Network has invested almost US$1 billion in technology in recent years, which means that on day one of Multibank’s incorporation into Grupo Aval, it will have access to a platform that will allow it to improve in areas such as customer service, digitalization of services, security and development of new products.”
According to Aval, this transaction represents an important step in the development of its regionalization strategy, since up to June 2019 Multibank Financial Group (MFG), holding company of Multibank Panama, had assets of approximately US$5 billion and a net worth of US$560 million.
An ambitious plan
