Costa Rican cable TV and broadband operator Telecable has requested permission from the country’s telecommunications regulator Sutel to acquire regional operator Cable Costa for an undisclosed sum, the El Financiero reported.
Cable Costa operates in the Turrialba and Jimenez cantons of Cartago province and Telecable is looking to buy its residential client portfolio and some of the company’s assets, said the report.
The telecom regulator, the Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones (Sutel) added that interested parties would be given 5 days to submit comments on the possible acquisition before it issued its decision.
From the unbelievable to the ultra-ridiculous in Costa Rica, Doctors who commit mala praxis – malpractice – are exposed to a suspension, yes, a suspension and a ¢200 colones fine, due to an obsolete law dating back to 1962.
If the Ethics Tribunal of the College of Physicians (Tribunal de Ética del Colegio de Médicos) or Medical Association determines the liability of one of its members in a case of malpractice, it only has the power to suspend the medical doctor for a period of 4 months.
In addition, as there is a principle of innocence, medical professionals suspected of negligent injury can continue to practice their profession, despite the suspension.
The debate on this issue has resurfaced with the death of a 41-year-old woman, identified publicly only by her last name Méndez, on November 3, who underwent a liposuction and was-apparently-sedated by a general practitioner, and not an anesthesiologist.
The case is now being investigated by the Ministerio Público (Public Prosecutor’s Office) for the alleged crime of negligent injuries in the form of malpractice.
Authorities raided the Clínica Costarricense de Medicina Estética, located in Rohrmoser, where the operation was allegedly carried out.
The raid also included the offices of the Emergencias Médicas company, which had transferred the victim to the San Juan de Dios hospital, after the complication.
In the clinic, a cell phone, a computer and the medical file of the deceased woman were confiscated; while at the transport company the call sheet was sequestered and the testimonies of those who were responsible for attending to the patient were taken.
Mauricio Guardia, a prosecutor of the College of Physicians said that at the level of the Code of Ethics of the entity and judicial level the principle of innocence is maintained until it is proven otherwise, so, while the process is carried out, there is no suspension of license.
“When there are wrongful injuries or there is intent, an attempt on the life of the patient, then the case goes to the courts and they are the ones who can order preventive detention (remand) or other sanction. At the College level, it is obvious that as long as it is not possible to verify, we cannot suspend the practitioner. Unfortunately this is the law that governs us,” he explained.
The prosecutor described the law as “ridiculous and obsolete” because the economic fine in that law in case of finding the doctor guilty of malpractice is ¢200 – two hundred – colones. That is 31 US cents at today’s exchange rate or about two US dollars when the law went into effect.
As to the suspension, the maximum the College can levy on a member is 120 days and that is for a ‘very serious’ infraction.
“The Ethics Tribunal will decide whether to consider it (the infraction) serious, very serious or a minor offense. The maximum sanction we can give is 120 days for what the law says. That’s ridiculous! (…) they (the doctors) know that the law is so weak, they do not care (…),” explained Guardia.
In recent years aesthetic clinics have proliferated and are promoted with “combos” (multiple procedures) at ridiculous prices, where general practitioners perform the techniques.
For its part, the Ministry of Health says it does not correspond to them to establish limits to the medical function, because that is the task of the College and that its function is reduced to grant operating permits to establishments: that is, permits for the compliance with the infrastructure standards (ie building and sanitary conditions), the documentation for same is up-to-date and that human resources (doctors) are duly integrated in the College of Physicians.
The Anonos, South Savannah. Campus of the National Company of Force and Light (CNFL) where several electric vehicles are used. A decree this morning obliges the Central Government to start acquiring cars of this type. / Photography Marcela Bertozzi
In an effort to limit the emission of polluting gases, the government signed on Wednesday several executive decrees, one of which exempts used electric vehicles from the payment of the excise tax upon entering the country.
In the photo, in Los Anonos, Sabana Sur, the Compañía Nacional de Fuerza y Luz (CNFL) – a subsidiary of ICE – plant were electric vehicles are used. Photo: Marcela Bertozzi
The decree was signed by the Minister of Environment and Energy (MINAE), Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, and the Minister Public Works and Transport (MOPT), Rodolfo Méndez, the Minister of Finance, Rocío Aguilar and President Carlos Alvarado.
The decree that extends the benefit to used electric vehicles only – those that operate with electricity or other technology without emissions and without a combustion engine – whose age is equal to or less than 5 years old.
The benefit covers both automobiles, motorcycles, cargo transport vehicles, minibuses and buses.
The exoneration will only apply to vehicles with a CIF value at customs of US$30,000 and under. The limit, however, will not apply to public transport vehicles or freight transportation.
In addition, the used electric vehicles will not be subject to vehicle restriction and may use blue parking spaces within public parking lots, as well as supermarkets, shopping centers and other private parking, as stipulated in Law No. 9518, Incentives and Promotion for Transportation Electric, of January 25, 2018.
The decrees will be in effect once it is published in the official government newsletter, La Gaceta; which publication scheduled for next week, said first lady Claudia Dobles who coordinated the process that led to the drafting and signing of these decrees as part of the mobility projects promoted by Casa Presidencial (Government House).
Electric filling station in front of ICE building in La Sabana norte
Dobles emphasized that the exemption for cars with a CIF value equal to or less than US$30,000 is specifically to make this type of ca accessible to the middle class.
“This is aimed at people for whom the payment of new and luxury electric vehicles in the range of US$60,000 or more is inaccessible,” he said.
Bad news for hybrids
Apart from the decrees benefiting electric vehicles, decrees were signed to eliminate, in one year, the tax exemption on hybrid vehicles (vehicles that use electricity and internal combustion engine to drive) that has been in place for importers of hybrids.
The Wednesday signing thus repeals Executive Decree number 33.096 of March 14, 2006, ‘Incentivo al uso de vehículos Híbridos-Eléctricos’ (Incentive to the use of Hybrid-Electric vehicles), which exempted them from the excise tax upon entering Costa Rica.
According to data by the Dirección de Energía del Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía, between 2006 and 2018, only 1,844 hybrid vehicles applied for the tax exemption benefit. ANd according to statistics, hybrids do not exceed 0.1% of the circulating vehicle fleet and, therefore, has generated an impact much lower compared to the all-electric technology in terms of improving air quality and air quality, and emissions of greenhouse gases.
Nogui Acosta, Deputy Minister of Finance: "If you ask me today if I have the money for Christmas bonuses, I say no ...
If you ask me today if I have it, I say no (…). There is never that liquid money in an entity like the Ministry of Finance in the circumstances in which it is. Today, the Treasury is, as we say there in Guanacaste, ‘coyol bankrupt, coyol eaten’, which means that the money that goes in, is spent,” said the deputy minister of Finance, Nogui Acosta.
Nogui Acosta, Deputy Minister of Finance: “If you ask me today if I have the money for Christmas bonuses, I will tell you no …
This means that public sector workers who normally get their year-end bonus in the first in December may have to wait like many others, near Christmas to get and spend their aguinaldo due to the financial crisis the government if facing, scrambling to find the funds to pay the year-end bonus.
Although he does not rule out the early payment of the ‘Aguinaldo’, President Carlos Alvarado on Wednesday did not rule out that this year the government will pay the aguinaldo near the ‘legal’ deadline, which is December 20.
President Carlos said that the Minister of Finance, Rocio Aguilar, is making all the necessary efforts to get money to meet the payment of the Aguinaldo for all is 165,000 Central Government employees.
In an interview with La Nación, President Carlos declared that “there is significant pressure” in the search for resources to pay this year’s bonuses for government worker which amounts to some ¢210 billion colones.
Important to note, that the aforementioned amount is due workers of the central government. Employees of public institutions such as ICE, Recope, AyA, for example, are paid from their respective employers and are not part of the central government worker pool.
When asked how much of the ¢210 billion does the government have, Acosta replied with only one word: “Nada” (nothing).
The situation is worse.
The deputy minister went further, saying that problem is not only with the aguinaldo, but extend to the payment of wages and the payment to investors who lent money to the government to finance their expenses, for example.
“I’m going to tell you what is happening. Here you have to take into consideration several things. There are maturities of holders of securities that are going to be paid before the payment of the aguinaldo,” said Acosta.
The deputy minister explained that the money comes in and goes out.
“I get the money for salaries and pay salaries, and again I am left with nothing. I mean, I have to refill the ‘buchaca’ (pocket) until the next ‘quincena’ (payday). And I also have to be aware of the deadlines and pay suppliers and all that kind of things. In other words, I live day-by-day,” continued Acosta.
The senior government official maintains that the government will honor its commitments.
But at what cost to do so?
Faced with the growing fiscal deficit (excess of spending on income), the Treasury has to borrow more and more money to finance its expenses, because the money that comes through taxes is not enough.
“The problem is that investors, when they perceive a risk that the government does not have the resources to pay, are reluctant to contribute money or they charge very dearly for it. The market is very dry,” explains Acosta.
What would happen if, as of December 20, the last day by law to pay the aguinaldo, the government did not get the money?
The deputy minister was frank in his response: “What happens when people are in a distressing situation? They go to the bank and, if the bank does not lend them, they go to the usurer (loan shark) at the corner who charges 100% per month. Well, I’ll go to that and, then, the interest rates are going to shoot up a lot; that’s what we’re trying to keep from happening.”
Not the first time
This is not the first time that the government is so tight to pay its expenses. The same occurred last year.
In 2017, the government of Luis Guillermo Solís denied it at the time, though the truth was revealed last August by the national treasurer and former deputy minister of Expenses, Marta Cubillo, before the legislators of the Commission for the Control of Income and Public Expenditure.
She related that, in December of 2017, they lacked the resources to pay the aguinaldo on the same day they had planned to do so and, finally, they were able to do so when money came from a sale of bonds to investors.
Since then, the country’s fiscal situation has worsened.
Plug for Fiscal Reform
Deputy Minister Acosta maintains that a resolution of the Constitutional Court favorable to the processing of the tax reform would change the perception of investors.
“These people (the investors) are going to say ‘this country is willing to make changes, it is willing to tighten the belt’, and that will give me the peace of mind that, in the future, with good management of public finances, we will have the resources to pay,” he said.
“Every time we are in a slightly more convulsive situation,” explained Acosta, who likened the government’s situation to that of a company, that does not have all the money (to pay its expenses) at all times.
“Due to the same dynamics of the cash flow that we have today due to the fiscal situation, I am facing my payments depending on how much I collect from taxes and how much I am going to borrow from the market to be able to meet those payments,” said Acosta.
In the interview with La Nacion, Acosta said, “People think that the fact that I have a budget means that I have the money, and that is not the case. When I make a projection of income, I assume the money that is going to enter is so much, and also I assume a position of indebtedness (…)”.
So, what is the answer to “Does the government have the money to pay the bonuses for this 2018?”
In a word “no”.
But Acosta and President Carlos seem to be sure that they will find it and meet their obligations, no matter the cost.
The crisis in Venezuela has eroded the migratory situation, which has had a great impact in countries where thousands of people have come to seek refuge. In this sense, Colombia has maintained an open migration policy that includes healthcare, labor, and migratory support.
The vast majority of Venezuelan migrants to Colombia are between 18 and 45, and come to work (Twitter).
This migration is having significant impacts, according to a new study presented by the World Bank, in which it points out that migrants’ lifestyle challenges are becoming increasingly complex due, in part, to difficult socioeconomic conditions.
According to the analysis, in the short term, Venezuelan migration demands greater social services, which means increased spending by the governments that are providing humanitarian assistance. As a consequence, migration is placing significant pressures on institutions, social services, the labor market, and the social dynamics of the host countries. However, the World Bank warns that this situation does not necessarily imply a negative effect, since Colombia could benefit economically from this phenomenon.
“The country needs to properly manage migration, prioritizing the rapid incorporation of migrants and returnees into the labor market and the early mitigation of vulnerabilities created by migration that can become poverty traps,” argues the study.
Approximately 1,235,593 people with intent to stay have entered Colombia from Venezuela, including returning Colombians and legal and illegal migrants, as well as a significant number of migrants who are in transit to other countries.
The World Bank estimated that Colombia will spend up to 0.26% of its GDP to serve this number of Venezuelans who are in the country.
Benefits of the Venezuelan exodus for Colombia
The PanAm Post spoke with María Clara Robayo, researcher of the Venezuela Observatory at the Universidad del Rosario, about the positive economic scenario of the Venezuelan exodus in Colombia.
According to the researcher, Colombia has the possibility of benefiting from the situation.
The migrants provide important consumption for the economy. Likewise, it is a workforce with diverse qualifications that comes to be inserted, either informally or formally, into the economy. That is, they come to contribute with work.
She added that Venezuelan migration in Colombia was not a new phenomenon since the outbreak of the humanitarian crisis in that country, headed by Nicolás Maduro. On the contrary, she assured that the phenomenon dates back to when Hugo Chávez assumed power.
“In the case of Venezuelan migration we find that it is a highly heterogeneous population; it is migration that stems not only from the humanitarian crisis, but since 1999 when Chávez came to power, prompting a migration of the elites. The migration of political elites, then economic migrants with vast amounts of capital, was a phenomenon that took place first. More than USD $1 billion arrived in Colombia through Venezuelan foreign investment.”
As the situation in Venezuela has worsened, other sectors of society have also begun to flee. The middle classes, students, and working professionals traveled between 2010 and 2014, then after the diplomatic crisis in 2015 when there was a border closure, said the researcher.
She stressed that for a long time Venezuela was one of the countries with the most developed education in the region. This is how Venezuela became a regional hub for doctoral programs in the 1980s, while other countries in Latin America, including Colombia, only did so at the beginning of the 21st century.
She added that 95% of the Venezuelan migration to Colombia is of migrants at an economically active age that ranges between 18 and 45.
They may aid in our demographic pyramid; that is to say, our demographic pyramid is increasingly flattened because over time, because the elderly retire, and must be supported by society with pensions. Let’s say that this new population, which is very young in age and insofar as they can be coupled with economic formality, could strengthen and contribute to social security payments.
She also argued that in the cultural realm Colombia can also obtain very important benefits: “In Colombia we have not had major migratory influences. In this case, the Venezuelan migration represents a factor so that finally there is a recognition of two historically unknown sister societies. Several writers point out, for example, that Colombia and Venezuela are two sisters attached at the back who do not know each other. Migration is reversing this situation.”
That is why Robayo points out that “the opportunities are there, however, the fact that a country adequately manages migration does not depend on this happening spontaneously. It has to have a regulation, it has to see migration as an opportunity and not as a threat. It has to overcome this vision of migration beyond the migration crisis, it has to think about a long-term migration policy, since this population has come to stay. The rates of return of almost all migratory processes are low, and particularly more so when Venezuela does not have a promising future at this time.”
In her opinion, what the Colombian state needs to understand is that there are opportunities, that the rigid rules that existed should be made more flexible due to the fact that there were no migratory processes before, and the Colombian government should start considering how it benefits from the income of foreign citizens.
“You also need to open the minds of Colombians so that they understand that other migrants can contribute, and not be seen as a threat. The dimensions of migration and the way they are arriving and the discourse of humanitarian crisis has generated xenophobia in our society, which is preventing the Venezuelan population from entering Colombia,” she concluded.
The majority of Central American migrants, who have been staying in a temporary accommodation center in Mexico City on their way to the United States have refused to receive the status of refugees in Mexico, the country’s Interior Ministry said.
Photo AFP
The migrants had also refused to join the government’s support program, which allows applicants to receive access to job opportunities, education and medical care, the ministry said in a communique on Wednesday.
Venezuela, the country with the largest oil reserves in the world, faces a shortage of gasoline of 80%; a situation that has kept all regions of the country on the edge of chaos.
Venezuela has 300 billion barrels of oil, but its oil industry is crumbling thanks to socialist mismanagement (CrudeOilPeak).
Although Venezuela has 18 refineries throughout the world and six in national territory, today most states face a shortage of gasoline that is reflected in endless lines of cars waiting for service.
Iván Freites, secretary of the Unitary Federation of Oil Workers of Venezuela (Futpv), pointed out that the endless lines at gas stations are due to low fuel production.
“There is no gasoline, the production of gasoline in the country is practically paralyzed. The Amuay refinery has no product to produce…In addition, 70% of the gasoline produced in the country is not converted into end consumer product,” he explained.
According to the representative of the oil workers, what little is produced is being exported to countries such as Cuba or China to comply with international agreements.
“There was an order from Nicolás Maduro to the Minister of Petroleum, Manuel Quevedo, to send one million barrels of oil to China. They stopped the refineries and loaded the barrels. It is even more the amount that they send to Cuba,” he said.
He informed that in Amuay, one of the main refineries of the country, 70,000 barrels of oil are being produced daily, when the current capacity is 1,300,000: meaning that the refinery is operating at just 5.4% of production.
The nation, which is facing a shortage of food and medicines unique in its history, has not been able to escape from gasoline shortages, which affect a large part of the population and keeps it paralyzed. Both private vehicles and public transport are forced to make long lines to access a gasoline supply that can last from 4 to 12 hours, depending on the region of the country.
Users on Twitter report that the shortage of gasoline is mainly in the interior of the country. They report that the main affected cities are: Valencia in the state of Carabobo, Maracay in the state of Aragua, Barquisimeto in Lara, and San Carlos in Cojedes.
Oil crisis
According to the Reuters news agency, the four distillers of the Cardón refinery, the second largest in Venezuela, are being held for lack of oil and one of the units due to a technical failure.
While this is happening, and Venezuela is paralyzing its refineries and the population is running out of gasoline, the Maduro regime has made it a priority to “give” 11 million barrels of crude oil to Cuba.
Reuters reported that the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) resumed the supply of oil to the island, totaling since January 11.74 million barrels (about 49,000 daily), but just between the months of June and August it has sent the regime 4.19 million barrels, which translates into USD $248 million. All this, in the middle of the worst situation that PDVSA has faced, with oil production at historical lows.
Liquidation of PDVSA
The Chavista and illegitimate Constituent Assembly of Venezuela is currently seeking to liquidate the state oil company PDVSA due to the millions in debt that this company has on its books.
The liquidation of PDVSA was a situation unimaginable two decades ago, when the company was the envy of the region, and one of the best corporations in Latin America.
According to the economist José Toro Hardy, PDVSA is the company that most contributed to the growth of the Venezuelan economy. Today it is the company that contributes most to the impoverishment of the country.
Its current production of 1,200,000 barrels per day, is insufficient to meet foreign debts. The current situation is a result of abandonment, embezzlement, and massive Chavista corruption.
According to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Venezuela is the country with the largest proven reserves of crude oil in the world with an estimated 296 billion barrels. However, paradoxically, crude oil and its commercialization is not a profitable business for the South American country after the brutal neglect of socialism. PDVSA no longer produces oil or dollars.
Since Daniel Ortega unleashed a brutal repression against the demonstrations demanding the end of his term, after eleven years of authoritarian rule, more than 30,000 Nicaraguans have fled the country to go to Costa Rica, confirmed immigration authorities in that neighboring country.
Many of them actively participated in the roadblocks/barricades and are accused of crimes related to terrorism or persecuted to “settle old scores” for their active role at the municipal level against the regime.
A team from Confidencial travelled in mid-October to document this new exodus of Nicaraguans in Costa Rican territory, to gather their stories and the difficulties they face in that country. This special report brings together some of those personal stories of dedication, courage and commitment of Nicaraguans seeking refuge in Costa Rica.
The unfulfilled dream of Andres
Andres, a medical student, had to flee because of his involvement in the protests in Leon.
At five o’clock on the afternoon of a day in mid-October in downtown San Jose, Costa Rica, there is a frenzy of pedestrians, public transportation buses, taxis and private cars that try to advance in what is a tide of vehicles that move at an infuriating slowness.
The temperature has dropped to 18 degrees Celsius (64 F) and the sky has dressed in a menacing gray, prelude to a storm, which has darkened the alleys of the center of this capital and gives a mournful air to the masses of stones like the Jade Museum, located in front of the “Plaza de la Democracia” (Democracy square), which commemorates the abolition of the Army in this country that sells itself to the world as a place of peace.
Andres, a 23 years-old young man, comes down the square at a hurried pace. It is the peak hour of traffic and he is afraid of being trapped in the “dam”, as the “ticos” (Costa Ricans) call these devilish traffic jams.
The boy stops abruptly and greets us: he has recognized the team of Confidencial that for a week has traveled to Costa Rica to document the exodus of thousands of “nicas” who fled the terror unleashed by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
We hugged each other as if it were the reunion of old friends. Andres gave a quick account of his departure from Leon—where he was studying medicine–, the escape by trails from Matagalpa (his home), and paying 150 dollars to a “coyote” to help him cross the border through unmonitored passages and his days in Costa Rica, where he lives as a refugee in the house of a supportive family, where he sleeps on a mattress on the floor. “It is difficult,” says this young man, who was close to graduating as a doctor from the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN-Leon).
The awakening of the students
We had interviewed Andres in April in Leon. He was part of a group of rebellious students who protested against the hijacking of the university autonomy and demanded the end of the Ortega regime.
Those were hopeful days, despite the fact that the repression had already caused dozens of dead, most of them young university students like him. The young people had organized themselves to gather food, medicines and to resist the violent charge of the regime. They expected the dictatorship to fall soon and that they finally could live in a free and democratic country.
Ortega, however, unleashed the worst massacre suffered in Nicaragua in times of peace, a Clean-up Operation carried out by paramilitaries and police agents that has already left 325 murdered according to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) of the OAS and which caused an exodus of Nicaraguans that was not seen since the Contra war of the 1980s.
Nicaraguans protest
A group of young Nicaraguans protest in front of the Nicaraguan Embassy in Costa Rica. Life in San Jose is difficult for most of them. Carlos Herrera / Confidencial
Immigration authorities of Costa Rica confirmed that more than 30,000 Nicaraguans have sought refuge in this country, fleeing from terror. A statistic that has faces, names, stories of courage, of commitment and dedication. Like Andres.
“The first day they did let us protest in peace, they said that the university was our house and that we had the right to protest. But the following day the picture changed and they saw that what Leon students were doing was going fully forward, when there was a sit-in with a lot of people. That is when FETSALUD (Federation of Health Workers), Health Minister Sonia Castro, the Director of HEODRA (Oscar Danilo Rosales Medical Training Hospital) and the Dean of Medicine arrived with paramilitaries and riot police, says Andres.
The repression and fear of being apprehended made Andres flee from Leon. He spent weeks wandering around in Nicaragua, until he was able to cross the Costa Rican border through unmonitored passages. We interviewed him in Escazu, a high-class neighborhood in San Jose, for fear that his true whereabouts could be identified.
The young man, who in April was looking forward to his medical degree, now walks around San Jose looking for any job. He has worked as a gardener, with a salary of 260 dollars that he had to stretch as in an act of magic. Today he still has 20 dollars left, which he intends to save until the guy who hired him looks for him again to do gardening in a house in the good neighborhoods of San Jose.
The difficult life in Costa Rica
“This country is very expensive and finding work for an illegal is more difficult. Sometimes you get some work. What you earn you have to save to have food as long as the money lasts. Most Nicaraguans that I have been able to see are in even worse conditions, because when they run out of money they don’t know where to go. Some of them brought some savings, but in this country it doesn’t last, that is why you need to work, so you can maintain yourself,” he explains.
In spite of these difficulties, he says that he’s been lucky: a friend introduced him to a Nicaraguan lady with a stable job that gives him shelter. But there are people who live in worse conditions, a fact corroborated by Luis Vargas, IACHR rapporteur for migrants, who visited Costa Rica in mid-October to verify the situation of Nicaraguans who have fled to that country.
“There is a quite complex situation for them here in Costa Rica. There are people who are enduring hunger, and have no housing,” said Vargas in an interview at San Jose hotel. “Despite the efforts the Costa Rican Government is making to try to provide them with a shelter, they say that they are living in very precarious situations. The Government is somewhat optimistic in the sense that the measures it has been taking are sufficient and suitable. There is a contrast, consequently, with what civil society presents in this regard and what the Government maintains,” the rapporteur warns.
Vargas affirms that he alerted President Carlos Alvarado to consider the possibility of decreeing an emergency given the flow of new immigrants arriving in the country. This is a decision that the Costa Rican authorities refuse to take possibly because of the political cost that this could mean for a government in full political crisis due to the discussion of a fiscal reform.
Raquel Vargas Jaubert, Director of Immigration of Costa Rica. Carlos Herrera / Confidencial
Raquel Vargas Jaubert is the Director of Migration of Costa Rica and assures that the country is prepared to assimilate the Nicaraguan exodus, because they took precautions after the wave of African and Caribbean migrants that they had to attend to two years ago. However, she admits that if the crisis in Nicaragua does not come to an end, they will have to request more international support.
“That at this moment we are contained and that we have our plan of attention does not mean that if the situation gets more critical we will not require international support,” admitted this official. “The emergency is not yet a fact. That is why we have not made a declaration. We have tried to remain calm, to attend the population with the resources we have, of convoking international cooperation, but it is possible that at some point another type of international call for assistance will be made.”
Nicaraguans, like Andres, are sure that the wave of migration will not stop and that in the streets of San Jose they will continue to bump into their old school and barricades companions. Along with him, the team of Confidencial that visited Costa Rica interviewed dozens of Nicaragua who fled for their lives, and who actively participated in the civic protest.
Teacher Alvaro Gomez and the betrayal of his party
Alvaro Gomez, a disabled former member of the Sandinista Army, tries to rebuild his life in Pavas. His son died during the protests in Monimbo.
Teacher Alvaro Gomez, ex-combatant of the Popular Sandinista Army, decided to start a new life from zero with his family in Pavas, the most populous district of San Jose.
He has a temporary home in a stifling rooming house. To access the rooms that the family rents in this building of hazardous construction, you have to access from the street through a long, dark and narrow corridor, which leads to a kind of tiled patio, a clothesline and a meeting area, all at the same time.
It is here that he receives us, to tell us about the betrayal suffered from his party, the Sandinista Front, which he supported so that Daniel Ortega could return to power in 2007.
“In the eighties I participated in the war against what they said was imperialism. I was a 17-year-old young man, I joined the fight and there I lost my leg,” relates Gomez.
“Then, in 2007, I was active in political activities to take the Sandinista Front to power, but when I saw that the Ortega Murillo family was grabbing all the power I withdrew. In recent years I did not want to know anything about the Ortega Murillo family.”
The assassination of his son
His son, Alvaro, who was studying the fourth year of banking and finances at UNAN, also believed in the Sandinista Front, until Ortega unleashed the repression against those who opposed a Social Security reform in April.
Then, he joined the protests. He was murdered, says his father, by killers of the regime. The assassination of his son lead teacher Gomez to support the kids at the barricades in Monimbo.
Gomez was fired from his job as teacher from the Central High School of Masaya, where for 20 years he taught physics and mathematics, and he began to be threatened.
On August 4th, Alvaro Gomez decided to flee to Masaya with his current wife and two children. In Pavas they hope to rebuild their lives.
“The real traitors of the revolution are not us, but the Ortega Murillo family, because they betrayed all the revolutionary principles. They have no principles to talk to me about the revolution,” stated this former combatant.
Juan Gabriel Mairena: to escape from death
The story of Juan Gabriel Mairena, a man who miraculously escaped from death after the brutal attack on the roadblock of “Lovago.”
Juan Gabriel Mairena, brother of the peasant leader Medardo Mairena, is alive and exiled in Costa Rica. The 34-year-old man escaped an attack by police and paramilitaries in the roadblocks located at the entrance to Juigalpa and Santo Tomas, in the department of Chontales, in central Nicaragua.
His friends thought he was dead. The version provided by some residents to the media was that the peasant leader’s brother had been left in a thicket mortally wounded. After the attack carried out last July 14th, the Police restricted access to human rights organizations and authorities of the Catholic Church who wanted to enter the area to investigate and search for bodies of people supposedly left between the road and the nearby hills.
The attack by police and paramilitaries was excessive. They arrived in Hilux pick-up trucks armed with war weapons, Dragunovs and RPG 7. They shot mercilessly at the peasants.
“We were escaping, but at the entrance of Santo Tomas they ambushed us. They had some flags to calculate the strength of the wind and be able to shoot us with high-caliber weapons, with telescopic sight and RPG 7 grenade launchers. They threw four at us, it was horrible,” stated Mairena in an interview with journalist Carlos Salinas, in Costa Rica, for the television program “Esta Noche” (Tonight).
Mairena was transported by truck. At the time of the ambush, and before the imminent capture by the armed groups, he threw himself from the truck even though the officers and paramilitaries continued shooting. One of those shots went in and out of his left arm and penetrated his side fracturing his collarbone. “It broke the bone,” he said.
Despite being wounded, Juan Gabriel continued running without looking back. His other companions did the same. Stopping to confront the armed men and respond with stones would have been certain death.
“A day before, many people had left the roadblock, because they already had us surrounded, so we were only a few. Since some of us managed to run, they took it out against the truck drivers that remained in the road. They received a burst fire and it is unknown the number of people that died there. The Police did not let anyone enter to lift those bodies. The priest from “Nueva Guinea” asked permission to pick up the bodies, but they only let him go through on the road. They told him that they will shoot him if he went into the hills, there at the entrance to Santo Tomas,” Mairena said.
During the months of May, June and part of July, the peasants at the center and the north of the country blocked the main roads of Nicaragua as a form of protest against the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. The peasant leader Medardo Mairena, a member at the Dialogue table, insisted that the roadblocks were spontaneous and that they represented a legitimate demand of citizens in several localities.
The escape from Santo Tomas
The bullet that is lodged near Juan Gabriel Mairena’s clavicle fractured the bone. He has not yet been operated because the surgery is “very risky.” Courtesy / Confidencial
The attack by police and paramilitaries began at eight o’clock in the morning and ended around three in the afternoon. Juan Gabriel and the rest of the peasants who managed to escape, went into the mountains to save their lives. Mairena continued to bleed profusely and he fainted along the way.
“No one rescued us. We left on our own. I ran about 80 meters and fainted. They carried me about 35 more meters, but they (the other peasants) thought that I was dead and they left me in the stump of a tree. Later, I woke up, I sat down and I felt dizzy. I stayed a little while longer and then I left and fled for the mountains,” said Mairena.
Juan Gabriel walked as best he could and left the area where the attack occurred during the night. The next morning, he took refuge in the house of a citizen who offered him rice and beans to eat. Then he walked for three days until he reached “Nueva Guinea.” There he was treated by a doctor.
“When I was running away, I did not receive medical attention. The bullet wound bathed me in blood. It is a miracle of God (that the bleeding stopped), only Him could have given me the strength to get out. In ‘Nueva Guinea’ a doctor prescribed an antibiotic and stitched one of the wounds. Later, with tears in his eyes, he gave me a medication and told me that he could not do surgery because if the Government found out they would kill him,” he stated.
Mairena rested for four days in “Nueva Guinea.” He then decided to leave the municipality for fear that the police or paramilitaries would find him. He walked in the middle of trails through the mountains, with the bullet lodged in his body. Sometimes he was able to advance great distances and in other occasions he was able to cover only short sections of the track. That went on until on September 21st he finally arrived in Costa Rica.
“I entered Costa Rica through an unmonitored passage. Here I received help with identification. I told them that I was running away because in Nicaragua the law could grabbed me and the Government would kill me. It is embarrassing to call it a Government, because in reality it is only this man (Daniel Ortega) who is in power because Roberto Rivas wanted it,” expressed Mairena.
Life in Costa Rica
Juan Gabriel is thin. He has big bags under his eyes and he occasionally complains of the pain caused by having the bullet lodged near his collarbone. Costa Rican authorities gave him an ID card that accredits him as a citizen who is expected to obtain his refugee status.
Costa Rican Immigration has received at least 30,000 refugee claims from Nicaraguans since June 18, who have fled the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. The latest statistics of that institution indicate that some 17,100 people have a provisional ID card, which is an identification of permanence in Costa Rica.
“I only have this card. But I cannot get a job, and besides I have the bone broken in two parts. It has been very hard to be here. In these days, the Church has helped me with food. A doctor took six X-rays plates to find out where the bullet was, but I have not had medication to recuperate. I have not been operated, and they told me that it was risky to take out the bullet from where it is,” Mairena informed.
From Costa Rica he has followed the news about the situation in Nicaragua. He is paying attention to the information related to his brother Medardo Mairena’s trial, and he suffers in silence when he reads about the cases of torture reported by the lawyers handling his case.
“It is very painful to read that. The Government of Nicaragua does not take into consideration that Medardo is a humble person and is an example for the whole world. Medardo always told the people to fight in a peaceful manner. If it were not for that call to protest peacefully, the people would have reacted differently. And I can assure the Army, who is watching this (interview), that if the people were acting like them, Daniel would have gone to hell long ago,” Mairena said.
Juan Gabriel says that he is “ashamed by what the Police and the Army are doing,” because they are not fulfilling their role. They act as “gang members” of the Daniel Ortega regime. He insisted that the role of officers and soldiers is to safeguard the people, not staining their hands with blood with so much injustice.
“It was painful and sad for us the day of the attack. We all were crying for what happened and because we did not deserve that. As peasants, we are the ones that cultivate the plantains, cassava, “malanga”, beans, cheese, and everything that feeds the Police in the capital. He (Daniel Ortega) eats what we produce. It is painful that the Government decided to bite the hands that feed it,” concluded Mairena, who said that he will only return to Nicaragua when the “delinquent of Ortega is imprisoned.”
The baptism of fire of “El Aguila” (the Eagle) and “La Burra” (the she-donkey)
“El Aguila” and “La Burra” participated in the roadblock of Rivas and fled to Costa Rica for fear of being captured. In San Jose they spend their days without studying or working and await the end of the regime
“La Burra” and “El Aguila” are two young men who participated in the roadblock in Rivas and fled in fear to Costa Rica. Here they await the end of the regime.
Most of the thousands of Nicaraguans who fled to Costa Rica are youngsters that supported the roadblocks/barricades, like “La Burra” who is 19 years-old and “El Aguila” who is 18.
They are very young, therefore, are bold. Both were university students—of veterinary studies one and the other communication. They decided to participate in the barricades that were set up in Rivas. Both asked us to omit their identity.
The adrenaline filled them in those days when the whole country decided to raise barricades against Ortega and these youths thought they were making their own revolution. They met face to face with brutality when Ortega sent his death caravans to attack Rivas.
“In the main barricade they decided to begin to destroy them. We had about 30 people and were attacked by 80, 20 of them riot police and the rest paramilitaries,” tells “La Burra.” Many were wounded, some of them seriously. “A boy got hit on his foot and he was a great baseball prospect but regretfully that will not be, because of two bullet wounds in the knee. They were going to cut it, but thank God they did not, but he is crippled from that knee,” recalls the youngster.
These boys assure that the barricades were a form of pressure to generate change in Nicaragua. When Ortega decided to dismantle them, their families, who supported their participation in the barricades, fearing for their safety, sent them to Costa Rica.
They share a house with other four other friends in San Jose, among them two girls, which is financed by their parents. They receive food support from organizations, such as “Nicamigrantes” (Nicaraguan migrants).
These boys spent their days in this house in San Jose. They rarely go out. They spend their time mostly playing “Free Fire” lying on the mattresses in a windowless room, damp and suffocating. They follow the news online, and cook their own food. They are the “ni ni” (neither work, nor study) produced by the crisis in Nicaragua. Their hope is to return to the country soon.
“I miss my relatives; they are making a lot of effort so that I can be well here. It was painful to leave all my friends, my university, not being able to continue studying. I had high hopes and now I do not know when this will end. Here we are, waiting for a positive outcome,” says “El Aguila” regretfully.
“La Xavi” and Maria, survivals of a massacre
“La Xavi” and Maria supported the roadblocks of Jinotepe and managed to flee when Ortega ordered the “Clean-up Operation” against this municipality.
“La Xavi” and Maria supported the roadblocks of Jinotepe and managed to flee when Ortega unleashed the “Clean-up Operation.”
A wooded area on the campus of the University of Costa Rica is the ideal setting for “La Xavi” and Maria to tell us their story.
The young women attended the appointment with their lips painted in carmine, a nod to the campaign of #SoyPicoRojo (I am red lips) that defies the Ortega regime.
They were together in the roadblocks of Jinotepe, where one of the worse massacres unleashed in the context of the “Clean-up Operation” was registered.
This is narrated by “La Xavi”: “They attacked at five o’clock in the morning of July 8th. I was in the command post of the main roadblock and we were beginning to receive information from the various roadblocks that they were attacking. They attacked from all fronts, they were paramilitaries, soldiers and police officers shooting with high-caliber weapons.
That was a massacre: more than 20 dead, she says. These young women were able to flee after a tiring and dangerous journey, as Maria explains: “we were changing buses because it was the safest way, if you use a private car it is more likely to be checked by the police. When we managed to cross the border we arrived at Costa Rican immigration to request refugee status. We found many of our (companions) and felt welcome.”
Every day, together, they walk around the city searching for work. “It has been very hard, most of us experienced difficulties. Personally, I have experienced some difficulties, separated from my family, far away from my daughter, with a life complete lost, having lost everything,” regretted “La Xavi.”
Meikel Espinoza, the discontent of a government journalist
The former editor of the official website the “19 Digital” speaks from his exile in Costa Rica and assures that Vice-President and spokesperson Rosario Murillo ordered journalists to ignore the truth about the repression that has left 325 dead.
Since the civic protests against the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo began in April, official media outlets have disqualified the demonstrations as an “attempted coup d’état by the right,” and that is no coincidence. “Anyone who opposes the Sandinista Front or Daniel Ortega, is (categorized) as a rightist,” assures the former editor of the official outlet 19 Digital, Mikel Espinoza, now exiled in Costa Rica, in an interview with journalist Carlos Salinas, for the program “Esta Noche.” (Tonight).
Espinoza says that in the government media there are guidelines that do not allow them to discuss, inside the newsroom, the journalistic coverage of the crisis in Nicaragua.
The “compañera” (comrade), as they are told to call Murillo, is the person in charge of the “communication council” of official media outlets. She ordered that the main objective of the media was “not to inform” about what was happening in the country. “The only thing that was to be reported was press statements from the National Police and whatever the “compañera” said, everything official,” expressed Espinoza.
The journalist added that reporters from that media were not going to cover the first protests and were guided by what the Communicators’ Network, aligned to the governing FSLN, sent them. “We were not going to the protests, the Communicators’ Network was there to pass photos, videos, but the journalists were not there,” he said. However, he says that starting April 20th, two days after the social outbreak, they began to provide coverage.
Espinoza is now exile in Costa Rica. After presenting his letter of resignation, he left Nicaragua because he wanted to “detoxify.” I felt out of breath, I wanted to detoxify. Living in Nicaragua is frightening, especially for someone like me who worked for the Sandinista Front,” he commented.
What finally made him resign
For Mikel, the burning of a house in the Carlos Marx neighborhood, where six members of a family (including two children) died on June 16th, was grotesque. “The crying of those children when they were burning and the manipulation by the government,” were the trigger for the journalist to make the decision to leave the newsroom of this government media.
At that time, he drafted his resignation letter regardless of whether he was paid. “I didn’t care if they did not pay my severance payment, I didn’t care, I could no longer stand it,” he said.
Mikel had already witnessed the May 30th Mother’s Day massacre, which left more than a dozen dead, one wounded with “brain death” and dozens hospitalized. “I had seen so many people die, so many children, so many things that I did not agree with,” he stated.
The ex-editor of the ruling party media adds that he did not want to have problems with his co-workers, nor with the Sandinista Front. “I saw the reaction in my colleagues when other colleagues resigned, and I did not want to be exposed to that,” he explained.
The journalist added that he has never fired a weapon and that while he was editor of 19 Digital never did anything for which he could be reproached. “I never did things for which I could be reproached, I even softened many of the attacks, but all that was accumulating until I said I am leaving, I couldn’t stand it anymore,” he said.
Espinoza said that as a journalist he felt a “tremendous blow” when he saw that the official media policy was to omit information. He confessed that there were attacks in which the police participated, and supporters of the government, and they as official media had to say that it was the “right.” “Even though there were images and witnesses who said that the attacks were done by police, we had to say that it was done by the right.”
With leftist ideals
Espinoza stated that he had a political conviction with the Ortega regime and believed that he could do journalism in a media like 19 Digital. “I felt quite comfortable, I agreed with many things that the Front did,” he noted.
He recalled that in the 90’s, as a teenager, he used to protest against previous governments. Ideologically he was closer to the Sandinista Front than to other political groups. However, he assures that now for him the Sandinista Front “is dead.”
“They finished killing it, they were killing it little by little, but beginning on April 18th, they killed the Sandinista Front,” he emphasized.
Espinoza maintains that journalism is his life and that he wants to continue practicing the profession, which he continues to do from a personal blog. Now, from Costa Rica, he follows every day what happens in Nicaragua. “I have not disconnected myself at all from what is happening in Nicaragua,” he added.
The total amount ‘aguinaldo’ – the year-end bonus – that entered the economy of Nicaragua at the end of 2017 was US$377.1 million, according to official estimates, but at the end of 2018 there would be US$23 million less, due to the loss of jobs since mid-April, estimates the Nicaraguan Foundation for Economic and Social Development (Funides).
This calculation was made taking of reference the reduction in the formal labor market of workers inscribed to the Nicaraguan Institute of Social Security (INSS) and the average salary of contributors.
According to data from the Central Bank of Nicaragua (BCN), INSS policyholders have decreased by 134,347 people between March and August. In this context, Funides estimates that around 182,000 people would be out of the formal labor market at the end of November.
People consulted in shopping centers in Managua say that this end of the year they will be more careful with the use of the aguinaldo – equivalent to one month’s salary -, foreseeing spending less than in previous years.
When asked how he would invest his bonus, Mauricio López replied that originally he thought of adding it with other savings for the purchase of a house; however, he will postpone those plans and assign it to support the Purísima of his mother and repair his vehicle.
Lopez lost his job, he was a trainer in a call center. Now he has another job, but the salary is lower. “Before April I had other plans, I had another job and higher income, now we have to adjust,” he told El Nuevo Diario.
Jordan Fonseca, executive of an electronic lottery company, says he will combine his bonus with that of his wife’s to purchase some appliances. Before the crisis, his project was to build a room, with a full bathroom and other amenities.
In the week of April 18, Rosario Jiménez was about to start a new job and thought that with the aguinaldo she would buy a vehicle. She works in an advertising company and when she does not make the move to the new job, with her bonus she still plans to buy a vehicle, but smaller than the one she had her eyes on in April.
Similar stories, reducing their expectations, careful on how and what they spend their aguinaldo is common in main shopping centers in Managua and most likely throughout smaller communities around the country, as Nicaraguans are keeping a closer grip on their earnings.
President Carlos Alvarado on Tuesday requested the Attorney General to file an appeal on the appeals court decision, declaring the Recope worker’s strike legal.
The appeals court decision overturned an earlier court decision. As pointed out by the Q legal expert, Rick Philps, the decision ” was more of a finding of judicial error by the judge hearing the case in the first instance, rather than a finding of the legality of the strike by the RECOPE workers.”
The government’s decision to appeal is “In order to exhaust all available legal mechanisms to ensure the safeguarding of public property before the damage and damage caused by the strike,” in the words of President Carlos.
Additionally, in reference, to the appeal court saying that Recope is not an essential service, the President said, “The activity of transportation and commercialization of fuel by RECOPE presented serious effects as a result of the national strike, which represented big losses to our country, as well as a serious impact on our economy. The storage, transportation and distribution of fuels constitute an essential public service”.
The long-running public sector strike got a boost on Monday with the Labor Court decision declaring legal the movement by the Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo (Recope).
The Tribunal de Apelación de Trabajo del II Circuito Judicial de San José said the judge who qualified the strike in the first instance on September 28 made errors.
The Tribunal pointed out evidence in the first judgment was not properly assessed, that judge Alexánder Contreras Barrantes, essentially based his decision to opt for a non-peaceful movement for his observations in a reconnaissance visit to the El Alto campus (Ochomogo, Cartago) where he stated that about 60 tankers and about 40 people prevented the entry of vehicles to load fuels that day.
The Court of Appeals affirmed that the judge should have been much more precise in the confirmation of the impact (of the strike) and other evidentiary facts to consider the movement as non-peaceful.
The Court of Appeal panel was composed of Judges Adriana Chacón Catalán, Bettzabé Gutiérez Murillo and Luis Eduardo Mesén García.
“The judicial inspection is an important probative element, but the most important because of the immediacy. The judge had to be more precise, indicate in the minutes the details of the observed without the need to record what third parties may indicate,” dictates the resolution dated November 2.
Thirty-two court filings, between pubic ministries and state institutions, were filed with the courts.
While most have been resolved in first judgment, 23 of the resolutions are still in the appeal process.
One of them is the teachers’ movement, The teacher’s union have asked their membership, teachers and public education support staff, to maintain on strike while it appeals, affecting thousands of students due to school closings.
The prolonged strike means many students will have lost their year, with the ministry of Education trying to find a solution before the end o the school year next month.
Today is day 58 of the strike that began on Monday, September 10.
Ortega has been defeated. It’s a strategic defeat, one that’s clearly evident. But it’s a defeat that’s fundamentally occurring in the field of foreign diplomacy, due to Ortega’s own mistakes.
Site-in front of the Central American University in Managua demanding the release of politial prisoners. Photo Carlos Herrera / Condifencial
His extraordinary criminal assault on human rights has isolated him on a global level. It’s also an objective defeat via an increasing economic strangulation that makes his regime unviable. However, while his continued rule may be unviable, there’s no national opponent that can claim the victory over the dictatorship.
The fool’s thesis, for those who want to avoid a struggle, is that Ortega will reflect and eventually assist in artificially dismantling his own dictatorial model. To evade a fight, they need Ortega to direct his own tactical defeat.
This creates a contradictory phenomenon very seldom seen: there’s been a strategic defeat in the absence of a national tactical defeat. The unfortunate consequence of this is not only the prolonged repression, but also the current crisis of governance with devastating effects for society.
Ortega’s strategic political defeat through his own actions
In April, a criminal repression was unleashed against the students. The events irreversibly moved the entire nation, provoking a legitimate rejection of the Ortega followers’ brutality. His own followers, scandalized, distanced themselves from him. Nonetheless, this spontaneous discontent couldn’t overcome the political defects that form part of our national idiosyncrasies. The result is the unique phenomenon of a dictatorial regime that’s been defeated as an option due to its own clumsiness, irrationality and cruelty, yet continues to survive indefinitely due to a lack of revolutionary leadership.
Holding on to power, however, isn’t the same as governing. It’s an incredible and terrible thing, but it happens, especially with a very backwards people with no foundation in revolutionary theory. In addition, a majority of the workers in Nicaragua (80% of the economically active population) work in the informal sector and thus have no collective links as workers. This means that an individualist view is predominant, making workers little inclined to organized social action making it very difficult for them to form the vanguard in the struggle to transform society.
So, where are we going with a power that doesn’t govern?
Absolute rule produces an unstable situation, bringing explosive contradictions at the first sign of economic crisis. You don’t need to strain your ears these days to hear the creaking of a society that is rapidly falling apart, as the regime – unviable though it may be – remains in power. The economy drags toward depression, with a drop in the GNP of over 20% predicted for 2019.
The political power of a failed State dissolves into criminal anarchy. The lack of a tactical national victory over Ortega leads us inevitably to ruin as a nation, through civil war or barbarity.
Political conflicts don’t develop, nor are they resolved, in accordance with personal tastes. In no case does a society get organized by their own free will, like you’d cook a special recipe to satisfy your own taste-buds. For that reason, it’s necessary that we make efforts to methodically define the dialectic interrelationship between means and ends in this new political situation.
The people, militarily defeated, have still not suffered a political defeat. When the economic crisis surpasses a certain threshold, and human dignity becomes gravely affected, workers fall into social disarray and lose the capability to fight to reorganize society. For that reason, this new stage of the struggle is decisive.
The April struggle was unequal, but subject to the rules of war
Our youth responded heroically to a violent but unequal fight. They fought back with stones, slingshots, homemade grenades and mortars, against high-caliber, long-distance modern weapons of war in the hands of trained troops of criminals. A technologically unequal war, like that of our indigenous peoples who used bows and arrows against the cavalry, cannons and thundering weapons of the Spanish.
The unequal levels of technology transformed that war of Spanish conquest into an infamous genocide of the indigenous population. Here, as well, genocide has been committed against our youth, who were crushed by the dictatorial apparatus whose objective is absolute domination.
There’s no peaceful genocide, because unilateral peace doesn’t exist. The inability to fight back against aggression leads to a military defeat with dramatic consequences for the defeated. A people who want peace learn to fight and defend themselves, as the Roman writer Vegecio wrote in his volumes of military techniques.
What happened in April was a static and unequal struggle, where a small band of well-armed criminals were easily able to surround and destroy, with great losses for those surrounded.
Struggle without arms and without leadership led to the military defeat
It was a fight without leadership and without efficient arms or ammunition. After the barricades were destroyed, with more than 400 dead, a war of repressive persecution followed, aimed against all the combatants in retreat. What happened next was a “run for your life” for tens of thousands of combatants, with hundreds of prisoners and missing among those who were most combative. Defense is also a form of warfare, and a disorderly rush to disband isn’t a peaceful struggle but a military defeat. And, when it happens, it’s the worst kind of defeat militarily.
Later came the capture of all the logistics liaisons, who ingenuously kept all their information on cellphones. The seizure of organizational information and of the logistics intermediaries follows the laws of war. It’s a very serious military defeat that allowed the enemy to consolidate their victory in the field of military intelligence.
Ortega’s war has reduced the windows for popular expression
The war, although unilateral, is a use of force that has political consequences. Anyone can see that the windows for popular expression that had been explosively conquered by the youth all over the country have been spectacularly reduced. There’s been an obvious decline in the capacity to mobilize, although the latent discontent continues growing.
However, the different phases of the military defeat suffered have been hidden behind the childish thesis that this rebellion has been a peaceful struggle. There’s been a war, a massacre, against a people incapable of defending themselves. The traditional politicians praise that helplessness as a strategy. Weakness isn’t a strategy, just like slavery isn’t.
Despite the braveness displayed during the population’s heroic resistance, the rebellion was militarily defeated. However, despite his military victory, Ortega has been defeated politically, be it through his own mistakes.
The revolutionary energy continues to accumulate internally in society. There’s an explosive contradiction latent, as much for the advancing economic crisis as for the repression people have suffered. There will soon be a new tide rising among the masses, with new forms of struggle. However, everything hinges on the revolutionary leadership.
Ridiculous notions of the new leaders
The fervent admiration for the youth’s combativeness is now being undermined by the ridiculous orientations of the traditional politicians, those sowers of apathy who have united as the “Blue and White National Unity” coalition have taken the reins of the rebellion in this time of ebb. Their national combative strategy is a nonsensical ritual of periodically changing the color of one’s clothing: on the 18th of the month, wear white, and on the 19th wear black.
Now, without marches, they call it a national strategy to abstain from consuming drinks and tobacco for three days. Someone should explain the combat effects of this, because what’s not combative is depressing and induces people to passivity and indifference.
They call on men and women to put on red lipstick every Monday. Perhaps they think that the paramilitary will flee terrified on Mondays and that those with red lips will thus recover control of the streets that day.
And they call on people to avoid using electricity every night for one hour starting at 7 pm, for an indefinite period of time. This measure actually benefits Ortega, since the drop in usage means they can leave the most inefficient electricity generator turned off. The rationing leaves the distributor with greater profits, as well as reducing some of the fixed costs of the system. With the proposed rationing, the importation of fuel oil can also be reduced to the tune of some 17 million dollars a year, thus strengthening Ortega’s international reserves. In short, the entire plan favors Ortega.
Meanwhile, the rationing affects the earnings of the population by affecting small production or industries that use electricity. Hence, this measure has an irrational or contrary effect. It’s embarrassing as a proposal for political combat.
Alternative for national independent power
History is a succession of struggles, with qualitative leaps in society that at times can be rationally led by revolutionary theory, when there are a series of favorable accidents that are exceptionally well taken advantage of. That’s the work of the strategist.
Our problem is not only the lack of a national revolutionary leadership, but also the fact that the international community doesn’t know and can’t help in the country’s political transformation. The economic sanctions merely increase the chaos in society but won’t help with its progressive transformation, unless an alternative national independent power is formed in this new stage of the struggle, before the social deterioration sets in.
Article by Fernando Bárcenas, an electrical engineer, originally appeared at Confidencial.com.ni.
“The order of the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Postal Services (TELCOR) to broadcast the programming of the government’s Channel 6 on Channel 15, a relay channel of 100% Noticias, has the purpose to besiege and violate freedom of the press,” asserted Miguel Mora, Director and President of this news outlet, who on Monday morning denounced through social networks the directive of this regulatory entity.
Miguel Mora, the Director of “100% Noticias” (News)
“I see this as an act of vindictiveness and a waste of time. They are not doing anything at all, except making a spectacle of themselves. They are going through stages: first the massacre and now is the turn of the media,” expressed Mora on the television program “Esta Noche” (Tonight).
The directive was delivered through a communiqué issued by Telcor—signed by Orlando Castillo, Managing Director of the institution—on Saturday, October 27, and it dictates that “Channel 15 on UHF belongs to the State and is managed by Telcor, it has not been granted to any individual or legal entity. It is the obligation of all subscription television operators to include all national, analog and digital channels in their programming.”
According to Mora, “100% Noticias” does not transmit on the UHF signal and only does so through fiber optic, which is distributed to cable companies in the country.
“No frequency is being used. Cable owners are not rebroadcasting any pirate or illegal signal because we are not using any channel of the air frequency. Our contract is direct and between private persons. We as news producers make a link via fiber optic from our master studio to the different cable companies,” he added.
However, the transmission of “100% Noticias” has not been interrupted at all. In Claro’s analog signal, it remains on Channel 63, while on digital, where it used to be Channel 15, it will be transmitted through another frequency that will “vary” according to the cable operator.
Guillermo Rothschuch Villanueva, writer and communications’ specialist, noted that the decision of the regulatory agency “is of a political nature,” because suddenly they recalled something to “sanction” a channel that has been persistently critical of the Ortega Government’s administration.
“Here there is an impoverishment of the information supply and one of the historical aspiration of many governments is that only their voice be listened to. In most countries of the world, the relationship between the government and the media is contradictory. Governments don’t like being criticized and the job of the media is precisely to monitor, to implement a control function of the Government’s management,” stated Rothschuch Villanueva.
The communication expert assured that the retransmission of Channel 6 on Channel 15 is not what the country needs. He explained that what is desirable for a media outlet is to develop a narrowcast, which is precisely what “100% Noticias” did.
“One of the serious problems we have in Nicaragua’s television is that they continue to provide, for certain people, frequencies to operate with a proposal that no longer meets the demands of Nicaraguans,” said this expert.
On October 21st, the Director of “100% Noticias” received the 2018 Press Freedom Grand Prize, awarded by the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), to independent journalism in Nicaragua. A recognition for the courage and bravery of Nicaraguan journalists that have been assassinated, persecuted, censored and who continue to be threatened by the regime of Daniel Ortega.
The “rounds” of the paramilitaries
In May, Mora denounced that a “paramilitary” aboard a vehicle that was guarded by three men on motorcycles, fired a shot in front of the facilities of this media outlet and then fled the scene.
The Director of “100% Noticias”, at that moment, held Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo responsible for “any attacks against our co-workers, and the entire leadership of the National Police because it does not provide any security to our physical integrity.”
One of the security guards was the one who observed the white colored vehicle pass in front of the TV station facilities. Immediately, he heard the detonation and informed his superiors on the incident.
Lucia Pineda Ubau, Press Editor of “100% Noticias,” said that since April 18th they have been victims of intimidation and threats and that what happened on Tuesday is part of the pressure they are putting on the media.
“We gave the warning because we have been victims of threats. They have told us that they are going to burn down our installations, threats that they will “bring down” the Channel Director with “plomo” (bullets). We have also suffered direct attacks from governmental media against journalists of the Channel,” said Ubau.
Threats against journalists of “100% Noticias”
As a result of the coverage that Jose Noel Marenco, journalist of “100% Noticias,” made of several university campuses during the months in which the youths were barricaded, his house was besieged and he received threats from paramilitary groups and agents of the National Police.
The threats were sent to him through friends and relatives, who were asked about Marenco’s supposed relationship with the university leaders who remained barricaded during the months of the protests.
“After the coverage of the attack by paramilitaries on UNAN-Managua students, in the Divine Mercy Church, I began to receive harassment, presence of paramilitaries and police officers outside my home, wanting to know what links I had with the students. My testimony served to divulge to the world the attack that happened there and to contrast the Government’s version, which tried to deny that the Church had been attacked and that students had died in it,” stated Marenco.
Marenco had to resign from “100% Noticias” and is currently living in Costa Rica. He regularly covers Nicaraguans who are exiled in the neighboring country of the south.
Verónica Morales Chaves, 26, decided to give herself an opportunity in the fashion market with her brand Verónica Wedding, aiming to bring something very different to the catwalk of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Guanacaste.
The designer will be presented for the first time in this edition and after months of preparation will adorn the catwalk with her collection inspired by Puntarenas “La Perla”.
The designer has as a following of “ventured brides” to wear a dress with a style inspired by Costa Rica’s culture of 1980 of the Pacific coast. Morales seeks to “break the clichés of being a bride according to what society dictates.”
She admits that after months of sketching and discarding ideas she feels satisfied and nervous about the experience that is coming.
As a designer, she explains that her work is also based on “global, sophisticated and simple trends”. She does not feel comfortable inspiring the work of other designers for the thin line that exists between having an original work or inspired by a work that unfortunately ends with many similarities to the others.
Her collection “La Perla” will feature the best of she and her brand. In addition to presenting a wide variety of wedding dress options, it will include beach bags and bikinis.
The Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Guanacaste is considered a meeting point for lovers of summer fashion, will take place on December 28 in Hacienda Pinilla, in Tamarindo, Guanacaste. This is the 5th edition of the event.
Leonora Jiménez, director of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, said “We will be presenting the best summer proposals of national design. After half a decade of carrying out this summer edition of Fashion Week, we strive more and more to improve, innovate and present a fresh product, both nationally and internationally.”
Saturday morning Sofia was born, giraffe number 13 that is gestated on Costa Rican soil by the hand of ‘Ponderosa Adventure Park’, responsible for the reproduction and breeding of this species in the country.
This is the fourth birth of the year. Preceding Sofia into the world are Maira, David, and Lydia.
Sofía’s mother is called Ili and her father is Mao, the 2-year-old alpha male of the Ponderosa.
“Costa Rica has a total of 14 giraffes and with this it already has a worldwide genetic reservoir of a species that is in danger of extinction because there are only 90,000 specimens left on the planet, that is, if this species ends Costa Rica saves them,” says José Luis Rodríguez, in charge of image and communication at Ponderosa Adventure Park.
The reproduction of these animals in the country is a resounding success.
At the Ponderosa Park(formerly called Africa Mia) – located in Liberia, Guanacaste – there are more than 300 animals among wildebeest, watusis, oryxes, zebras (two subspecies), dromedaries (also called the Arabian camel), ostriches, bongos, white-tailed deer, ponies, mules and other animals native to Costa Rica.
All the giraffes of the country are located in the province of Guanacaste.
The Turrialba volcano had an intermittent activity during this week, passive eruptions as the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (Ovsicori) describes them.
The passive activity continued into the weekend. On Sunday, at 2:40 pm, it had an eruption lasting about an hour, generating an ash plume 500 meters (1,600 feet) high above the crater.
Good weather conditions in recent days allowed the expulsion and the ash cloud that reached some area of San Pedro, to be observed clearly.
This Monday morning the eruptions continued, one at 5:15 am and the other at 6:21 am.
uan Carlos Bolaños, importador de cemento chino, seguirá en prisión.
Chinese cement importer Juan Carlos Bolaños will spend 6 more months concrete walls (pun intended), after this Friday the Criminal Court of the Second Circuit extended his preventive detention (remand), while the Ministerio Publico (prosecutor’s office) advances in their investigation into the “cementazo” case.
Juan Carlos Bolaños, importer of Chinese cement, will remain in prison while the criminal investigation continues
In addition, the former manager of the Bank of Costa Rica (BCR) Mario Barrenechea, will spend another 6 months under house arrest, also as a preventive measure for the same investigation.
Bolaños was arrested a year ago, on November 3, 2017, for the alleged crimes of embezzlement, influence peddling, slanderous denunciation and simulation of a crime, revolving around the processing of 2 lines of credit for about US$40 million dollars by the BCR, for the importation of cement from China.
One day after the arrest, on November 4, 2017, Bolaños was ordered to three months preventive detention and renewed since.
Another 5 members of the BCR credit committee were also given three months in preventive detention for their role in the Cementazo:
Marvin Corrales Barboza, retail banking manager;
Gilberth Barrantes, corporate manager of risk management;
Andrés Víquez Lizano, deputy manager of wholesale banking.
The first three, at the end of the three months, were released without precautionary measures, while the latter two were ordered to house arrest and in mid-September were freed without restrictions. All five continue to be investigated in the criminal proceeding.
In the case of Barrenechea, his house arrest continues.
Chancellor (and vice-president) Epsy Campbell is being investigated by the prosecutor’s office for irregularities in appointments in the Foreign Ministry.
Tourists passing through the Daniel Oduber airport in Liberia, Costa Rica, will be able to take home a bit of the longevity of the Nicoyans.
The Blue Zone store in the Liberia airport terminal
Tea and infusions, flour, pinolillo de maiz morado, café de ojoche, chileras, honey, chocolates, condiments criollos, cookies and carao, are part of the 100% Guanacaste products sold in the Blue Zone store, in the airport terminal.
Arnaldo Garnier, president of Alimentos Azul Zone Nicoya, said the store seeks to offer a gastronomic and lifestyle experience to visitors.
“Through attractive, healthy products, with a history of life and that are part of our culture. They are foods based on scientific studies led by Dr. Luis Rosero of the UCR, with representatives of the CITA (National Center for Food Science and Technology) and Ciprona (Center for Research in Natural Products), on the healthy diet of the centenary nicoyana population,” explained Garnier.
Nicoya is one of the 5 blue zones of the planet. They are places on the planet where people the most longevity.
Because of its climate, lifestyle and diet, the Guanacaste lowlands are recognized as one of the blue zones, along with Sardinia (Italy), Okinawa (Japan), Ikaria (Greece) and Loma Linda (California).
This afternoon they presented a study on the labor benefits of bilingualism. In the photo, UCR researchers Suráyabi Ramírez and Alejandro Abarca, and Labor Minister Steven Núñez (center). Courtesy Ministry of Labor.
People who speak English can earn on average ¢148,000 more (US$240) per month and work one hour less per week, than workers in the same conditions but who are not bilingual.
In the photo, UCR researchers Suráyabi Ramírez (lef) and Alejandro Abarca (right) with Labor Minister Steven Núñez (center). Courtesy Ministry of Labor.
The study, Los beneficios laborales del bilingüismo en Costa Rica (The benefits of bilingualism in Costa Rica), conducted by the Observatorio del Desarrollo de la Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR) – Development Observatory of the University of Costa Rica – analyzed for the “perks” of the last 13 years on English speaking workers.
Alejandro Abarca and Suráyabi Ramírez, researchers who developed the study, explained that the idea was to know the labor benefits both for all workers and for the private sector specifically since the latter are the ones who usually benefit more recognition for being bilingual.
“If you have an average person, average education, etc., who do not know English but learns, earns ¢148,000 more, that is ¢843 more per hour worked, works 0.8 hours less per week and has statistically significant probabilities of having more vacation time, health insurance, and bonuses,” Abarca explained.
In the case of workers in the private sector specifically, researchers found that if a person does not know the language and learns it, they can earn ¢185,000 more per month and works 1.1 fewer hours per week.
According to the researchers, the differences related to job benefits between those bilingual and those not has remained relatively stable during the years of research.
Abarca explained that this information is of special importance because it allows to know more about the benefits associated with bilingualism.
The researchers took into account a specific portion of the population, analyzing those people between 35 and 65 who work between 30 and 60 hours per week.
For his part, Labor Minister Steven Nunez said the country has been making important efforts to expand language learning.
The Policía de Fronteras (Border Police) at the Los Chiles border post with Nicaragua, in the north, detained two alleged human traffickers on Friday.
The Costa Rica–Nicaragua border is the line of 309 km long, east-west direction, separating the north of Costa Rica’s territory of Nicaragua, extending between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It passes almost directly on Lake Nicaragua and the River San Juan.
The men were surprised by the border police when they were entering the country through an illegal crossing with a group of nine Nicaraguans.
Apparently, the men offered Nicaraguans, the nine and other, their services of moving them through the border to the town of Los Chiles for a mere ¢3,000 colones (less than US$ 5) per person.
The detained are a Nicaraguan national identified by their last names Lopez and a Costa Rican named Sandigo, who are not under the order of the who were placed under the order of the Fiscalía de San Carlos (Prosecutor’s Office), where they face charges for human trafficking.
The Costa Rica–Nicaragua border is the line of 309 km long, east-west direction, separating the north of Costa Rica’s territory of Nicaragua, extending between the Caribbean Sea on the east and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It passes almost directly on Lake Nicaragua and the River San Juan.
Fuego Volcano starts a new eruption process in Guatemala
Guatemalan Authorities warned that the Fuego volcano registered about 14 explosions per hour, so they foresee that in the next hours or days it will erupt.
Fuego Volcano starts a new eruption process in Guatemala
Authorities generated an alert Friday, that the Fuego Volcano might start to erupt at any time.
The National Institute of Seismology, Volcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology (Insivumeh) announced that the Fuego Volcano registered around 14 explosions and a high column of volcanic ashes was present. In view of these activities, the authorities foresee that during the next hours or days a new eruptive phase will be registered.
The Institute of Volcanology recommended to the authorities of Civil Aeronautics to take precautions for the ash that is dispersed in the flanks “west and southwest of the volcanic complex”.
In June, the Fuego volcano caused the death of about 190 people and another 240 were missing due to the eruption of the volcano. The 3,763-meter (12,346-feet) peak, whose name means ‘fire’ in Spanish, is almost always active, which is why local residents and authorities failed to take immediate action.
On November 1 and 2, Mexico celebrates one of the most important and popular festivities – the Day of the Dead, Día de Muertos in Spanish.
Halloween and the Day of the Dead take place a few days apart. Though related, Día de Muertos is not a Mexican version of Halloween.
Whereas Halloween is a dark night of terror and mischief, the Día de Muertos festivities unfold over two days in an explosion of color and life-affirming joy. Yes, the theme is death, but the point is to show love and respect for deceased family members.
The event also goes by several different names “Día de los Difuntos” (“Day of the Dead”) or “Día de los Angelitos” (“Day of the Little Angels”).
Although marked throughout Latin America, Dia de Muertos is most strongly associated with Mexico, where the tradition originated.
Cementerio General, in San Jose, on Avenida 10. Also known as Cementerio de Obreros
In Costa Rica, the Día de Muertos is celebrated on November 2nd every year. Though the holiday is celebrated more in other Latin American countries, Costa Ricans remember the deceased by visiting the cemeteries and decorating their gravesites with flowers and candles.
Catholic masses are also common on November 2.
From Wikipedia, Frances Ann Day summarizes the three-day celebration, the Day of the Dead:
On October 31, All Hallows Eve, the children make a children’s altar to invite the angelitos (spirits of dead children) to come back for a visit. November 1 is All Saints Day, and the adult spirits will come to visit. November 2 is All Souls Day, when families go to the cemetery to decorate the graves and tombs of their relatives. The three-day fiesta is filled with marigolds, the flowers of the dead; muertos (the bread of the dead); sugar skulls; cardboard skeletons; tissue paper decorations; fruit and nuts; incense, and other traditional foods and decorations. — Frances Ann Day, Latina and Latino Voices in Literature
TAPANATEPE, Mexico (AFP) – With the national flag of Nicaragua draped over his wheelchair, 14-year-old Axel Sebastian Palacios cuts a distinctive figure among the thousands of mostly Honduran migrants traveling in caravan across Mexico.
Axel Sebastian Palacios is wheelchair-bound because a splinter in his shin prevents him from walking more than a block at a time. AFP / Guillermo Arias
Palacios and his parents say they decided to join the caravan because they feel safer on the treacherous migrant journey than back home in Nicaragua — suffering under the leadership of Daniel Ortega, aided by his brutal paramilitary supporters.
Yet despite being thousands of kilometers (miles) away from their tumultuous homeland, traipsing through Mexico toward the border with the United States, Palacios and his family still live in fear of being hunted down by those paramilitaries.
“I feel safe in the caravan, but also afraid,” said Palacios in a faint voice.
Palacios’s family take turns to push him in his wheelchair as they accompany the mostly Honduran migrant caravanthrough Mexico. AFP / Guillermo Arias
Already, the teen says he owes his life to his best friend, who threw him to the ground when pro-Ortega paramilitaries attacked his hometown of Diriamba in July.
He recounts that residents were barricaded behind makeshift cobblestone defenses, armed only with slingshots, when the Sandinista fighters arrived and opened fire, just as they had done in other nearby opposition strongholds.
He survived, but was later injured when trying to help a friend who was fatally wounded by a bullet in the chest.
Now Palacios now has a splinter in his shin that hampers his ability to walk more than a block at a time.
Death threat
After the paramilitary attack, Palacios and his father fled to the mountains and the whole family left the country a little over a month ago.
Idania Molina shows a newspaper article about her family’s flight from Nicaragua, where they were subjected to death threats by paramilitaries. AFP / Guillermo Arias
Having reached Tapachula, in Mexico’s south, the family immediately claimed refugee status.
But as time passed without a response from Mexican authorities, Palacios’s family opted a week ago to tag along with the largely Honduran caravan.
“I think it’s about us doing something, we’re all going to defend each other,” said Palacios of the decision to join the migrant wave.
Shortly after crossing into Mexico, Palacios’s mother Idania Molina says she received a text message from the Sandinistas, telling her they would find and kill her family.
Her son wakes up with a start every night, and has done so since July.
“I feel happy because we’ve left that place but also insecure,” said Palacios, as he watched his 12-year-old sister sleeping on the floor.
“They (the Sandinistas) sent us a threat and told us it would be easy for them to cross the border into Mexico.”
Palacios covered the first 200-kilometers (125 miles) on Mexican soil using crutches, until local authorities in the town of Tonala, in Chiapas state, saw the sores under his armpits and donated a red wheelchair.
Molina estimates there are around 30 Nicaraguans in the caravan, which the United Nations says is made up of 7,000 people, although organizers put that figure at 4,000.
Although the caravan’s original intention was to head for the US, after a vote it changed course and went to Mexico City so individuals could ask for migration documents that would allow them to move freely around the country.
‘Afraid they’ll kill us’
When unable to hitch a lift on passing trucks, Palacios’s family take turns to push his wheelchair.
The Nicaraguan family is unsure whether to claim asylum in Mexico or soldier on and try to reach the United States despite the dangers. AFP / Guillermo Arias
All he can do to help is hold on his emaciated legs the family’s biggest bundle of belongings, a blue plastic bag containing clothes, medicine and medical reports relating to his leg, as well as evidence to support an eventual asylum application in the United States or Mexico.
Having fled Nicaragua, the family’s Mexican journey is fraught with new dangers.
“The truth is, we came with the dream of crossing to there (the US), but we’ve heard lots of stories and I’m afraid they’ll kill us,” said Molina, 39, referring to Mexican gangs.
According to the Mexican authorities, in 2010, a group of 72 undocumented Central and South Americans were kidnapped and murdered by the Los Zetas drug cartel for refusing to work for them.
“We want Mexican asylum, but in Mexico City and before too long because I need care for my son,” said Molina, before breaking down in tears.
She dreams of meeting Mexico’s first lady, Angelica Rivera Hurtado, who she believes will “listen.”
Over the border meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has deployed troops to prevent the migrants from entering the country, while warning Central American countries they will lose aid if they don’t stop the caravan.
“We can’t go back to Nicaragua, because we’re persecuted,” said her husband Lesther Javier Velazquez, who voices hope that “God will touch the heart” of the US president.
The scene following the collision by the father (in the red vehicle)
A suitcase with food for children confirms the intention of the couple to kidnap the two-year-old boy last Thursday, in Santa Ana.
The scene following the chase and the father (in the red vehicle) of the kidnapped boy intentionally colliding witht he suspect’s vehicle (grey) in Calle Chispa, in Pozos de Santa Ana.
Friday afternoon, Wálter Espinoza Espinoza, director of the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) confirmed the intent of the couple was to kidnap the child and hold him for ransom.
Espinoza added that it was a premeditated plan.
“This was not a group that randomly kidnaps minors, on the street. It is a group that defined and chose their objective according to their perspective that could be of economic interest,” he said.
The suspects are a 22-year-old Nicaraguan woman surnamed Oporta and a 38-year-old Frenchman surnamed Mirc. The couple was ordered to three months of preventive detention while the OIJ continues to investigate and the Ministerio Publico makes its case for court.
According to immigration records, Oporta entered Costa Rica in 2008 and has resident status in the country. She is originally from the department of Boaco, in Nicaragua.
For his part, Mirc has been entering and leaving the country since 2005. This year he has an entry into Costa Rica recorded on April 8 at the Peñas Blancas land border post, then left on June 20 for the United States and returned to Costa Rica on July 10 from Spain.
Neither have any criminal record.
The OIJ raid on the couple’s apartment in La Uruca revealed the couple lived together and were in the real estate business. The car they used on Thursday was a rental.
Director Espinoza explained that they have yet to determine how the suspected were able to find vital information on the family given that, so far, there is no link between them.
How it went down
According to the information provided by authorities, it was at 8:45 am on Thursday, on Calle Chispa, in Pozos de Santa Ana, when the father left the family condo to take his son to school (kinder), some 800 meters (8 blocks) away.
Infograph by La Nacion
In contrast to the initial report, that the entire family was in the car, the father was alone in the front with his boy in the back, in a car seat.
The suspects had set up a fake police checkpoint with the intent of detaining the vehicle and snatching the child, using a vehicle and clothing similar that used by OIJ agents. Though, as Espinoza confirmed, their clothing had no indication of official police business.
“The kidnappers had the car parked with a (orange) cone, they wore black shirts without any description of Police. Apparently, the man (suspect) approaches the driver, asks for documents and takes the opportunity to pepper spray while, while the woman snatches the child from the back seat, “said Espinoza.
The suspects sped off, but the father gave chase, catching up some two kilometers. On the same road, he decided to collide with the suspect’s vehicle, forcing the loss of control.
The crash allowed the father to recover his son and with the help of people who came out to see the accident, who had no idea initially of what was really happening – just another spectacular crash in the neighborhood – and quick response of the Fuerza Publica (national police), were able to detain the suspects.
The couple face from 10 to 15 years in prison for anyone “who removes from the power of their parents, guardians, curators, guardians or persons in charge of a minor person under twelve years of age or a person who suffers from a disability that precludes their defense.”
The owners of 2,391,602 vehicles will feel a relief when paying the property tax on the vehicles for 2019. The Ministry of Finance announced a decrease of 7.76% less over 2018.
Ministerio de Hacienda building in downtown San Jose
The property tax on vehicles is payable by December 31 each year, and included in the annual Marchamo which is collected by the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS). The tax represents over 65% of the total cost of the Marchamo,
For 2019, the General Directorate of Taxation took into account three factors that affected the decrease: the legal depreciation of the vehicle, the accumulated inflation in the last year and the change in the tax burden applied to vehicles.
The collection of the Marchamo begins every year on November 1. However, this year, a dispute between the INS and the Insurance Superintendency over the insurance rate portion of the Marchamo (with represents 20% of the overall cost), has delayed the collection. Until?
To know the tax value of a vehicle and the property tax (not the Marchamo) click here. If the link does not work for you, visit www.hacienda.go.cr, go to Servicios más utilizados (bottom left of the screen) and click on Autogestión .
The Treasury expects to collect ¢175 billion colones from owners of vehicles.
It’s been a frantic week, a financial rollercoaster for the dollar exchange. In the week, the foreign currency appreciated by ¢18.39, opening last Friday at ¢601.25 and closing yesterday at ¢619.64 in the wholesale market.
At some banks we saw a high of ¢630 colones for the sell as the reference rate by the Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR) – Central Bank – continued on its spiral upwards.
This morning, Saturday, November 3, 2018, the Central Bank reference rate is ¢613.16 for the buy and ¢622.08 for the sell.
At the banks, the rate buy rate this morning ranges from ¢612 to ¢614, and the sell between ¢625 and ¢627.
Vidal Villalobos, economic adviser to Grupo Prival, speaking to La Nacion said that the rapid increase in the price of the dollar during this week caused people and companies to get scared and go out to buy the foreign currency.
“There is a component of fear and protection at this time in the foreign exchange market,” emphasized Villalobos.
The economist stressed that the relevant actor that presses the price of the dollar is the imbalance in the Government’s finances, which forces the Ministry of Finance to obtain, from the Central Bank, large amounts of foreign currency to pay its bills.
Central Bank Intervention
During this week, the Central Bank was the protagonist with its interventions in the wholesale market, providing 61% of the dollars that were negotiated. BCCR statistics show that US$74.4 million were traded, of which the bank sold US$45.5 million.
“Yes it has been intervening strongly to mitigate the impact on the exchange rate if the intervention had not occurred, the exchange rate would be much higher,” explained Rodrigo Cubero, president of the Central Bank.
Cubero explained that every day they have intervened either by selling currency in the Monex or the non-banking public sector, mainly the Ministry of Finance.
In the last six months, the Central Bank used US$1.6 billion of its reserves to smooth the movement of the exchange rate and make it less abrupt.
While tension with the appreciation of the dollar (or devaluation of the Colon) is strong, the Central Bank also announced on Thursday, November 1, the increase in its monetary policy rates and the rates of its term savings instruments.
With these measures, the Central Bank seeks to curb inflation and encourage people to save in colones and thus reduce the pressure on the exchange rate.
A crazy week
For William Porras, an economist at Ecoanálisis, this week the private sector “went crazy” to obtain the foreign currency (US dollar) and pushed up the exchange rate.
“The Ministry of Finance has needed reseve dollars of the Central Bank and the entity has not had the capacity to satisfy the demand of the private sector. Hacienda and Recope will always have dollars, but in the case of a private company that uncertainty generates speculation,” said Porras.
The economist pointed out that the volumes of currencies traded, both in the wholesale market and in the banks are low, which reflects the uncertainty of the market.
“People came out (this week) to buy and those who had dollars decided not to sell, to wait for the exchange rate to reach its highest level,” Porras said.
Mariela Pacheco, Deputy Manager of Corporate Affairs at Walmart. Esteban Monge / The Republic.
The Christmas season has officially arrived in retail stores in Costa Rica and with it the hope to significantly increase their sales, which according to Alonso Elizondo, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, the expected is 17%.
Mariela Pacheco, Deputy Manager of Corporate Affairs at Walmart. Photo Esteban Monge
Christmas in Costa Rica is the most active retail period of the year, that now also includes Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
“We are forecasting an increase in sales; however, compared to previous years, a lower growth rate is expected due to a slowdown in consumption that has been reflected throughout the year as a result of less disposable income and a fall in consumer credit,” said Elizondo.
Despite the situation, the outlook is positive not only in terms of sales but also in hiring, as companies add temporary staff for the season – an estimated 6,500 people this season, an amount similar to that of previous years.
Among the retailers looking for the season to boost their sales are Carolina Madriz, marketing manager of Aliss, who says her stores have new collections and variety to appeal to different personalities.
Marisya Federspiel, public relations manager at Tiendas Universal, said with the innovation that we bring a variety in product, intended to satisfy the needs of their customers and continue to maintain their leadership in the market and consolidate the Universal chain even more as the official store of Christmas.
Marco Torres, general manager for Pricesmart in Costa Rica, said the warehouse retailer expects a 10% increase in sales on seasonal items. “The permanent strategy of PriceSmart is to offer quality items at a great price with an outstanding shopping experience.” said Torres.
Over at Walmart, Mariela Pacheco, deputy corporate affairs manager, said the projection of sales for this year is greater than last year, but more important than that, is to satisfy a greater percentage of customers. “We have many innovations (five collections with a variety of colors), as well as low prices since the beginning of the season, very competitive, said Pacheco.
Walmart kicked off the start of the seaon with the “Día Más Barato del Año” (Cheapest Day of the Year) at all its Walmart and Maxi Pali stores, with discounts as high as 50% on more than 400 products.
The “Día Más Barato del Año” at Walmart began Friday morning at 7 am and will stay open for 41 hours continous until midnight tonight (Saturday). And tomorrow, Sunday, from 7 am to midnight. At the Maxi Pali are extende from 7 am to 10 pm each day.
November is here, but the 2019 Marchamo is not ready, as has been the custom, because of the clash between the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS) and the Superintendencia General de Seguros (Sugese) – Insurance Superintendency.
Check your Marchamo payment (if in arrears) here. If you are current, the result is “Este vehículo no tiene marchamos pendientes” (this vehiclehas no marchmos pending).
Even resolving this issues today, it could still take a couple of weeks before owners of vehicles can start paying the annual circulation permit that includes property on the vehicle, the mandatory insurance and other costs.
This has never happened in previous years.
Everything was set for the collection to begin on November 1. But the national insurance company (INS), mandated to collect to collect the Marchamo, cannot do so until it has the regulator’s endorsement on the rates.
The Sugese rejected the INS rate proposal to apply basically the same 2018 rate for the 2019 period. INS argued that any increase on the insurance portion of the Marchamo – the Seguro Obligatorio de Automóviles (SOA) – an amount that represents 20% of the overall cost, would only increase delinquency. The Sugese considers keeping the rate the same as not profitable.
INS has appealed to the courts to be allowed to continue to start collecting the annual fee.
That is where we are today.
The consequences
If the collection does not start soon, the INS points out the big losers:
INS itself. The institution will not have enough resources to face the benefits derived from traffic accidents that occur beginning in the new year
The State. It affects the flow of money to the Ministerio de Hacienda (Ministry of Finance) for the collection of property tax, funds needed by the Treasury to meet its obligations, for example, bonuses, investments, interest, among others
Owners of vehicles. As per the various regulations that concern the Marchamo, come January 1, 2019, if there is no resolution, that is the Marchamo is not paid, drivers may face fines and surcharges.
The 2018 rates approved by the Sugese and that the INS wants to apply for 2019, on the SOA, are as follows:
Buses ¢86.821
Motos and bicimotos ¢70.415
Taxis ¢61.900
Private vehicle ¢21.380
Heavy trucks ¢19.741
Lights trucks ¢16.194
Special equipment ¢6.628
Check your Marchamo payment (if in arrears) here. If you are current, the result is “Este vehículo no tiene marchamos pendientes” (this vehiclehas no marchmos pending).
A 26-year-old man, suffering from a neurological disorder, was arrested Thursday morning as a suspect of threatening to kill the United States ambassador in Costa Rica.
The man, with surnames Soto Cordero, was arrested by agents of the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) in San Juan de La Union, Cartago, after having raided two houses within the same property.
During the raid, another man, a 34-year-old computer scientist, named Ortiz Sanabria, who lives in the same place, was also arrested.
Heiner Cortés Carrera, of the Departamento de Investigaciones Criminales of the OIJ, said that Soto is a nephew of Ortiz and lives in a house that was built in the back of the main house.
The OIJ official explained that the threats were made through a single email that, apparently, Soto sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on September 7 of this year. US authorities communicated with the OIJ for the investigation of the case.
“The FBI determined that the IP address is from Costa Rica, so it communicates with the OIJ, the IP is in the name of a man named Ortiz, owner of the house. Behind, the main house there is a recent addition, in which a relative with a special condition lives,” explained Cortés.
In the raid, OIJ officials confiscated all electronic equipment that was on the property, including a computer and cell phones.
Though no medication was found on the premises, investigators learned Soto is autistic, but it will be up to the forensic examiners to make the final determination.
“We assume that maybe it is this person (Soto) who sent the email with the threat, a death threat to the ambassador and his entire family, the email always referring to the ambassador being male. As the young man has this condition, we will take him for a psychiatric assessment before starting the (criminal) process,” said Cortés.
According to article 195 of the Penal Code “a fine of 15 to 50 days or a fine of ten to 60 days will be imposed on anyone who uses unfair and serious threats to alarm or threaten a person, if the act were committed with weapons of fire, or by two or more people, or if the threats were anonymous or symbolic. ”
Sharon Day was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica on September 25, 2017.
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Heiner Cortés Carrera, of the Departamento de Investigaciones Criminales of the OIJ, said that Soto is a nephew of Ortiz and lives in a house that was built in the back of the main house.
The FBI determined that the IP address is from Costa Rica, so it communicates with the OIJ, the IP is in the name of a man named Ortiz, owner of the house. Behind, the main house there is a recent addition, in which a relative with a special condition lives,” explained Cortés.