A total of 512 people are still in shelters following the flooding and damage caused by the tropical storm that hit area of the Pacific coast in Guanacaste and Puntarenas.
While residents of those areas, in particular, Jicaral and Paquera, the hardest hit, work to return to normal, the Comisión Nacional de Emergencias (CNE) – national emergency commission – has called for people to be ready with the arrival of two new tropical waves to hit the country starting today, Wednesday, October 10.
Tropical wave 40 should be over Costa Rica by Thursday, followed by 41 by the weekend.
Areas of the Central and South Pacific and the Central Valley will be most affected.
the areas of Cóbano, Lepanto and Paquera remain on RED alert, while La Cruz, Santa Cruz, Nicoya, Nandayure, Barranca, El Roble and Pitahaya remain in YELLOW.
As reported Tuesday (October 9) afternoon by the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT), the Constitutional Court or Sala IV confirmed that all persons who in vehicles must identify themselves if asked by police.
Constitutional Court confirms that people traveling in vehicles, including non drivers, must identify themselves is requested by police
The Sala IV resolution 2018-016698 delivered on Friday, October 5, results from an appeal filed by a citizen, who on August 29, while riding in a vehicle where she was not the driver, was asked by a Transito (traffic) official to identify herself. She refused.
The driver had been stopped, in Alajuela, for the illegal transport of persons. The MOPT report does not indicate if the driver was an Uber or “pirata” (gypsy cab).
Later, explained Alberto Barquero, Deputy Director of the Policia de Transito, the lady filed a writ of habeas corpus with the Constitutional Court.
The Sala IV declared the filing without merit. The woman never proved that she had been deprived of her freedom in any way and, to the contrary, based on the video evidence she submitted, the treatment of the officers was correct, respectful and attached to legality: the officers had simply asked she identify herself and she was free to go.
“For the Traffic Police, the resolution of the Constitutional Court is of great value, because although the Habeas Corpus Appeal intended to attribute some wrongdoing on the part of the police, it rather confirms that every citizen traveling in a motor vehicle has the duty and obligation to identify themselves when a police authority, as are the officers of the Traffic Police, as requested,” said Barquero.
What does this all mean? What happens if a person refuses to identify themselves? As far as we can tell, nothing really. The police have the right to ask and in the words of Barquero, the citizen “has the duty and obligation”, but the Constitutional Court resolution does not stipulate sanctions for refusal.
Use the comments section below or post to our official Facebook page your opinion and/ot experience with this.
Following months of the “acumulado” ball not dropping in the three weekly draws, it did Tuesday, with the lucky winner(s) taking home a whopping ¢1.790 tax-free billion colones.
Screen capture from Teletica
According to the Junta de Protección Social (JPS) – state lottery – the entire winning number and series was purchased in Cuidad Quesada (San Carlos), in the province of Alajuela.
This morning (Wednesday), television crews were camped out in the northern city’s park waiting on the winning ticket selling vendor to show for work, to get her opinion.
The last time the acumulado ball was drawn in was last June. Since, the JPS has been reducing the number of blank balls by one with each draw the acumulado did not fall and the jackpot increasing by ¢20 million. In Tuesday nights draw there were 26 blanks.
In the last month especially, ticket sales for lotteries draws on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays was an almost sell out. Many vendors reporting selling all their tickets and long lines in many points of sale.
NEW Acumulado with more prizes
Screen capture from Teltica
The acumulado now goes back to the drawing board, with the JPS announcing a higher starting jackpot, double the accumulation each draw (if the winning ball does not fall) and fewer balls.
This Friday, the jackpot will start at ¢400 million colones instead of ¢100 million, for each draw the acumulado ball does not fall the jackpot increased by ¢40 million instead of ¢20, and the tombola will have 50 balls instead of 75.
The national strike, now in its 31 day, may be coming to a close with the ruling on Tuesday by the Juzgado de Trabajo de Goicoechea declaring the strike by public school teachers illegal.
The decision by judge Francisco Quesada was made known at 10:50 am Tuesday morning.
In the ruling, the court declared strike action by the public school teachers illegal the strike against the Ministry of Education (MEP), because it was not a peaceful movement.
In his ruling, Quesada wrote, “Regarding the actions of trade unions, including the contradictory of the present case, which participated – collectively – of the demonstrations that led to total blockades of many national communication channels (major roads), it must be indicated that their actions are reprehensible and that cannot be considered as a peaceful movement. In addition, as it was touched in the initial part of this ruling, apart from the evidence in the case, that action is a notorious fact, of collective transcendence, in which the right to free transit was totally violated.”
The judge added that “(…) given that although demonstrations are the living expression of the strike movement, they must not exceed the limits of rationality and proportionality of the action of any guild.”
The judge also ordered the Sindicato de Educadores Costarricenses (SEC), the Asociación Nacional de Educadores (ANDE), and the Asociación de Profesores de Segunda Enseñanza (APSE) are ordered to pay ¢1 million colones for procedural costs and ¢5 million for legal costs.
Following the ruling, MEP officials called on the more than 23,000 striking teachers to return to the classroom.
“From the MEP we call all the teaching staff, administrative, janitors, cooks and guards to resume their work immediately to reactivate the school year 2018,” said the Ministry of Education this morning through social networks.
Unions defiant of ruling However, the union leadership does not see why teachers must return to work just yet, given that the 24-hour’ return to work’ rule doesn’t apply until the court decision is firm meaning it has gone through the processes of notifications and appeals, a process that mostly like will take weeks.
Roblin Apú, head of the APSE was the first to publicly state the union will appeal the decision of the Labor Court.
Gilberto Cascante of the ANDE called on his membership to “stay calm”.
“The fact that we get the sentence of illegality is only in the first instance,” he said through his Facebook account.
MEP will look to recover wages paid to MEP workers
For its part, the Minister of Education, Edgar Mora, took a tough stand, saying the MEP will look to recover the ¢90 billion colones (¢3 billion a day) it has paid in wages to striking workers once the illegality issue is resolved.
“The figure is not trivial, the figure of this badly spent investment is about ¢ 90,000 million or more. It is almost a quarter of what the country expects to recover with the fiscal plan, it is a very high figure that must be recovered by the State (…),” Mora said in a statement.
According to the minister, the MEP will proceed with the corresponding reduction in pay because that would imply covering of “immunity and impunity” the expenses made this month in payments to the workers.
The MEP minister’s stand is contrary to the CCSS and MAG that in the last week signed an agreement with their respective trade unions, guaranteeing returning workers would not face reprisals and the question of reduction of wages is a “we will see”.
The nations strike began on September 10 and this Monday it entered its fifth week. Since then, two salary payments have been made, the 15th and 20th of September, deposited directly into the accounts of all employees, striking or not.
Students are the real victims
In the case of the MEP, as of today, 52% of the schools across the country remain closed, while the rest have been affected in some way.
Mora appealed to the “intelligence” and “will to work” of each worker of the MEP.
“We hope that each one will reflect with caution about the need to return to work (…) that is in the place where you will be safe with your students in the classroom, the kitchen for the cooks, the offices for the administrative staff. The risk of not doing so is exponential,” Mora added.
The minister emphasized that for the students, the lost lessons are irrecoverable, and acknowledged that there will be no remedial plans that can cover the lost time.
The minister added that the victims are the students, who will feel the consequences of the lost lessons because of the strike movement. “I call on teachers to present themselves without delay to their jobs,” he insisted.
Michael Rodríguez is 38 years old and has a story to tell. During his childhood and adolescence, he was an altar boy at the Catholic churches in Tres Ríos and Patarrá, in which Mauricio Víquez Lizano was the priest.
Michael Rodríguez
Rodriguez is one of two men who has filed a complaint with the Catholic Church for alleged sexual abuse by the priest, who is currently under investigation and prohibited from the working as a priest.
Michael remembered that the alleged abuses and touching he is denouncing occurred inside the cars of the Parish of Patarrá or in the presbytery. Then, when he stopped being an altar boy, he noticed how the priest followed the “same cycle” with the other children; and he imagined what was happening.
According to Michael, although the abuses occurred when he was a minor, over the years he had not found the courage to tell his family what had happened.
Michael when he was an altar boy.
Some years ago he announced his marriage; his parents – who did not know what had happened – almost demanded that Víquez be the priest to officiated his marriage because he (the priest) had been like “a father” to Michael and his parents had great affection for him.
To avoid conflict with his parents, he accepted and he called the priest to ask him to officiate at his wedding.
The first time he told his story was in confession, about 6 years ago and never mentioned the subject again.
But just a year ago, he found the courage he needed and told his dad that he had been abused by that “man of faith” to whom they had so much love and respect for.
Also, at that time – the only time – he confronted his abuser.
On May 15, 2018, Michael filed a canonical complaint. Before that, he went to the Archbishop, Jose Rafel Quirós, to whom he told everything he lived through, from the time of abuses to the present. Michael assures that from Quirós he only received an apology and offered psychological help.
Michael describes the process with the Catholic Church as “hard”.
Michael calls on all victims of sexual abuse to denounce and, with that action, they can prevent the aggressors from committing crimes that will mark more lives.
In addition, he said that since he and the other complainant came out of anonymity, they have received messages from people who may also have been victims of Víquez, including two former altar boys who are waiting for a hearing before the highest authorities of the Catholic Church.
Priest under investigation
In August, the Archdiocese of San José confirmed that it received an accusation of sexual abuse against Víquez and ordered an immediate investigation, with the evidence sent to the Vatican.
The Archdiocese confirmed the complaints were filed by 3 men, all of legal age and the alleged abuses go back more than 20 years, when the plaintiffs were minors, between the ages of 15 and 16.
The Minister of Labor, Steven Nuñez, holds the document signed with the trade unions
The Government had given to 5:00 pm Monday, October 8, for the public sector unions to call of the national strike and their membership to return work. Despite the line in the sand, only seven unions, from five institutions, have signed the agreement with the Ministry of Labor.
The Minister of Labor, Steven Nuñez, holds the document signed with the trade unions. Last Monday, the unions were given to October 8 to sign or face the consequences. To date, only 7 unions signed.
They are: the Sindicato Independiente de Trabajadores Estatales Costarricense (Siteco); the Unión Nacional de Empleados de la Caja (Undeca), the Sindicato Nacional de Enfermería (Sinae), the Sindicato Nacional Empleados de Salud Pública y Afines (Sinaespa) , the Sindicato de Trabajadores del INA (Sitraina), the Unión de Nacional de Empleados del Inder (Uneinder) and the Sindicato de Profesionales del Inder (Siproinder).
All these agreements signed by different government institutions share very similar points, among them, that there will be no reprisal or discriminatory measure against workers who return to their posts.
The Government gave in to accep the condition of the unions against reprisals for public sector workers in exchange for calling off the their respective strike action, which up to now more than half (17) of the court actions have ruled the strike illegal, while two deemed legal.
As to docking wages of workers for the days off the job, Steven Núñez, Minister of Labor, explained that the agreements stipulate that once the court rulings of illegality are firmed (have exhausted the notification and appeal process) and that “the administration (Government) will act according to the legal system and will meet with the parties to take administrative measures, which include salary reductions, as established in article 379 of the Labor Code, to define together with the union, how the application of this article will be made.”
For his part, Marco Durante, partner at the law firm BDS Asesores, explained to La Nacion, “the reduction of wages should be made in the month following the illegal strike is firm and must be done in a minimum of four payment periods, without interest.”
Durante added that the employers and unions have the possibility to agree on other ways to replace the hours.
“It is the right and the obligation because it is public funds. The employer has to recover in some way the wages paid during the entire time the workers were on a strike declared illegal,” Durante explained, adding that the workers on strike should have never been paid.
According to the Labor Code, the employer (in this case the Government through its institutions and agencies) can recover all the effective days of work not worked from September 10, when the movement began.
There are two positions on this: That of of the unions is that the reduction must be made from the declaration of illegality of the strike; that of the Government, is from the first day of the strike.
Though is clear that, if there was no work, the employer would be justified in not paying the salary when the employee doesn’t show for work, save for days when there is a justification not to work, for example, leave with pay, paid vacations and holidays.
Today, Tuesday, October 9, the national strike enters its 30th day.
On Monday, to separate courts declare the strike by ICE and INS workers illegal.
On Monday, two separate courts declared strikes illegal at the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) and the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS).
On Monday, two separate courts declared the strike by ICE and INS workers illegal. Foto: Alonso Tenorio
In the case of ICE (the State electricity and telecom), labor judge, Yadir Jiménez, of the Primer Circuito Judicial de San José (First Judicial Circuit of San José), ruled that, there was no evidence that the unions tried to reach a conciliation prior to the call for a strike, “besides that the sector of electricity and telephony is an essential public service, so it fits within the prohibition of the right to strike, since you cannot deprive the Costa Rican population of such rights.”
The judge mentioned, for example, that the Committee on Freedom of Association of the International Labor Organization (ILO) has determined that electricity is an essential public service, so that those whose job is to provide electricity to the population cannot join work stoppages.
Despite the declaration of illegality, the Court rejected the request made by the ICE administration to dock wages.
In the case of the State national insurer, INS, Judge César Roberto Delgado Montoya, of the Juzgado Civil y Trabajo del III Circuito Judicial de Alajuela (Civil and Labor Court of the Third Judicial Circuit of Alajuela), considered that the Union Union of INS Staff (UPINS) did not comply with the requirements of exhaustion of conciliation, nor with the minimum of support established in the Labor Code.
Of the INS payroll, only 28 people joined the strike called by the trade unionists, when the Labor Code requires, for the strike to be legal, that at least 50% of the workers support the work action.
“(…) The UPINS failed to prove that the strike movement complied with the minimum support, since no evidence was submitted that proves that the participation reached the minimum of the Law, this is the 50% required, nor is there any document regarding the General Assembly of the Union where the strike call is agreed to, as established in the aforementioned articles.
“It was considered that only 23 people from the San Ramón regional office, 4 from Liberia and one from Ciudad Neilly, for a total of 28 people, were accredited to the strike movement”, reads the arguments of the court ruling.
Payment of costs
In addition, the courts ordered UPINS to pay ¢1 million colones (US$1,750 dollars at today’s dollar exchange) in costs and eight ICE unions to pay ¢500,000 (US$865 dollars) for the same reason.
In the case of UPINS, the judge considered that the conviction was admissible because the union acted with negligence. According to the ruling, the leaders of the union went on strike without noting “that all the necessary conditions were in place so that the rights of the workers who attended the summons were not affected”.
In the ICE rulings, the trade uions to pay the fine are: the Asociación Sindical de Trabajadores de Telecomunicaciones, Electricidad y Afines (Anttea), the Asociación Nacional de Técnicos y Trabajadores de la Energía y las Comunicaciones (Anttec), the Asociación Sindical de Empleados Industriales de las Comunicaciones y la Energía (Asdeice), the Sindicato de Ingenieros del Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad y Afines (Siice), the Sindicato de Profesionales del Grupo ICE (Siproice), the Sindicato Industrial de Trabajadores Eléctricos y de Telecomunicaciones (Sitet), the Asociación de Abogados y Profesionales del Grupo ICE (Abogaproice) and the Asociación Sindical Costarricense de Telecomunicaciones y Electricidad (Acotel).
With ICE and INS rulings, a total of 17 strikes have declared illegal and two others declared as legal. In total, 32 institutions and autonomous agencies (such as ICE and INS) made court filings.
The national strike today continues in its 30th day.
,(OPINION) San Jose – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body tasked with providing scientific evidence and consensus on climate change and its implications for decision-makers and the public, has just issued its latest, long-awaited report.
The challenge it presents to all of us is huge.
To avoid severe economic and social shocks and protect essential ecosystems, we urgently need to limit the increase in global temperature to within 1.5 degrees Celsius of the pre-industrial level. Achieving the required reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will require boldness, creativity and some hard choices. But Costa Rica’s experience shows that, in the long run, what is gained far outweighs the sacrifices for all.
Climate change is not the first daunting challenge our country — among the world’s most biodiverse countries per square meter — has had to overcome to preserve its natural beauty. Deforestation for cattle grazing nearly halved the land covered by forest over the four decades prior to 1986. Government investment in protecting these natural assets was essential, which meant eliminating subsidies for the cattle industry and perverse incentives for agrarian reform.
With subsidies and negative incentives gone, Costa Rica’s cattle population dropped by a third, taking pressure off grazing lands. In the decades since, forests have recovered and now cover more than half the country. And while forest cover doubled, Costa Rica’s per capita income tripled. From this foundation, the economy has grown sustainably and the country has become a world leader in eco-tourism.
Now, as this latest IPCC report makes clear, rising temperature is the new threat to both biodiversity and our economy. We all must combat it.
Costa Rica, for its part, has set what President Carlos Alvarado has called the “titanic and beautiful task” of decarbonizing the economy. One of the goals of the national decarbonization plan, which will be launched in December, is to ensure that the market properly accounts for the costs of climate change.
This policy has the effect of rendering fossil fuels economically uncompetitive — and creating incentives to use Costa Rica’s nearly 100 percent renewable power in the transportation sector to cut our dependence on oil. A moratorium on oil and gas exploitation, respected by five different governments, reinforces these incentives. Making the energy sector work properly — an objective that unites both environmentalists and economists — means recognizing that a short-term economic boost cannot justify the long-term costs of fossil fuels.
As a minister and a climate activist, we both agree that government has an important role to play in achieving decarbonization. But the work of non-state actors such as local businesses and communities will also be essential. For this reason, government policy has focused on boosting community-based low-impact tourism initiatives that value local knowledge. The Costa Rican experience shows that environmental stewardship is a job done best by alliances between local people and national leaders, united by the common cause of conservation.
At its heart, Costa Rica’s approach to climate change is about people, not industry and markets. Our commitment to tackling climate change is based on an understanding of the enormous health risks and costs that arise from inaction. Costa Rica devotes significant resources to tackling problems like dengue fever and malaria because our people remain our most important asset. And staying below the 1.5 C limit will mean 3.3 million fewer cases of dengue fever annually in Latin America and the Caribbean, fewer people at risk of malaria, and less food instability and poor nutrition caused by higher temperatures and unstable weather patterns.
Costa Rica is proud to be leading the world by putting this approach into practice. As a result, we are one of the few countries ready to exceed our commitments under the Paris climate agreement. Not all of the changes will be easy, and getting them right will require perseverance and a commitment to adaptability. Other countries that agreed as part of the Paris agreement to boost the ambition of their national climate plans by 2020 can learn from our experience in aiming for decarbonization, investing in natural assets and recognizing the importance of the climate for a healthy population.
One of the most obvious lessons is the interdependence of these policies. Climate change is a collective problem, no single policy is enough, and no country can solve it alone. But this interdependence cannot be an excuse for paralysis. Limiting warming to 1.5 C is a goal around which we can all unite in diverse ways.
Next month’s Climate Vulnerable Forum will bring together leaders from the countries that are most vulnerable to climate change for the first entirely virtual summit of heads of state. Together with the next key intergovernmental meeting, COP24 in Poland this December, political leaders have an opportunity to prove they understand the science underpinning the IPCC report, and are ready to take ambitious steps to achieve the 1.5 target.
Unless all of us do so, the consequences will spare none of us.
Article by Monica Araya & Carlos Manuel Rodriguez. Araya is founder and executive director of Nivela, the citizens group Costa Rica Limpia, and is vice president of Costa Rica’s Electric Mobility Association. Rodriguez is the Costa Rican minister of environment and energy.
Talking to people on planes is a hotly debated topic. Some stick with their plan to stay silent: wine, window seat, eye mask. Others open themselves up to conversation, and even end up meeting their soulmates. Bottom line? Most people have a story about meeting someone on a plane—good or bad.
“We tend to remember things that are negative, positive, very emotional, or unexpected,” says Nicholas Epley, Ph.D., a psychologist who studies social cognition at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Epley also says positive social interactions aren’t just that—they’re often unexpected.
In his research, Epley found that we often mistakenly assume we’ll be happier sitting in silence than talking with others, and we underestimate how interested others are in talking to us. In one study, Chicago commuters had a better trip when they connected with a stranger than when they didn’t, despite predicting the exact opposite outcome.
It’s this paradox—plugging in headphones, ignoring strangers sitting mere inches from us—that has steered Epley’s work. “The capacity of the [human] mind to connect with others is the thing that makes us uniquely smart on this planet, and it also seems critical for happiness and well-being,” he says. “Yet, I would look around and see highly social people totally ignoring others. It’s the kind of thing that strikes a psychologist as odd.”
Some stories of connection are small. I remember flying to visit my grandparents in Tampa some 20 years ago with my brother—our first trip without our parents—and meeting a kid our age who confidently introduced himself: Chris, Chris Walker. He introduced himself to everyone around us like that—Chris, Chris Walker—the entire flight.
We laughed, shared Starburst, and, after a fast two-plus hours, landed. I have no idea where Chris Walker is today, but thinking about him makes me smile. A seemingly inconsequential conversation can ease a transition, too, as it did for 26-year-old Kylie Gilbert, who, on a flight from New York City to Paris in 2012 for a college study abroad program, exchanged phone numbers with her French seatmate, and wound up with a new friend. “It was a great way to get out of our American bubble, hang with local students our age, and practice French,” she says. Eight years later, the two, both living in New York, are still friends.
Sometimes, those meetings on planes have bigger implications. In 2007, while flying between Aspen and Chicago with his father, 28-year-old Andy Drane met a man who would go on to help heal his brother’s debilitating anxiety.
“My dad forced me to take the middle seat, and the guy next to me saw me reading a book and started talking to me,” says Drane. “He asked a ton of questions.” The man was not just a nosy neighbor—he was a Chicago-based psychiatrist who specialized in anxiety and panic. Though the doctor initially said he wasn’t taking new patients, by touchdown, he had agreed to take on Andy’s brother, Nick, who suffered from severe, daily panic attacks during high school and had seen little relief from treatment.
Nick ended up seeing the doctor for years. “He taught me how to effectively deal with anxiety, such that I don’t get anxiety anymore,” he says. “I don’t pay anxiety much attention at all today.” The doctor has since passed away, but for Nick, the plane conversation was a life-altering encounter: “I found the treatment profoundly effective and, without a doubt, it completely changed my life.”
Then, of course, there are the love stories. Lindsay McHugh, a 32 year old based in Brooklyn, met her husband on a flight between Sydney and Los Angeles after wandering the aisles and striking up a conversation with a group of Australians, one of whom she hit it off with. “We exchanged contact details on a napkin,” she says. “I got a call the next day.” The two are now married, expecting their first child.
These are the good examples—and of course, not all plane encounters are good. Being too much of a Chatty Cathy can be an annoyance, and people speak of rude, or worse—abusive—encounters with fellow passengers, too. Even more? There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a little peace and quiet and not talking to anyone on a flight.
To this, Epley clarifies his research: It doesn’t suggest conversations are always pleasant, or that you should talk to everyone—but in general, conversations tend to be better than we think they will be. “The mistake that we make is in psychological barriers that keep us from engaging with someone we’d otherwise want to talk to,” he says.
That’s why his advice is to follow your urges to say hello, give a genuine compliment, comment on someone’s book. Conversation pulls for commonalities, Epley says, which is why we quickly unearth stories of shared anxiety, connect with strangers over place, and find friendship.
When my husband was a kid, he and his brother took a trip to Jamaica with their father, a former professional tennis player who had picked up a coaching gig at a Caribbean resort. On the flight, they met another family with two young boys heading to the same resort.
After the initial meeting and a week playing tennis in the sun, the families had become fast friends. Years later, the friendship remains: That same family was at our wedding last September.
In Costa Rica, October 12, is called “Encuentro de Culturas” (Encounter of Cultures), changed from “Dia de la Raza” and is a de no pago obligatorio (non-obligatory) holiday.
Most holidays in Costa Rica are celebrated the day they fall on, like Mother’s Day (August 15) and Independence Day (September 15), for example.
What makes the difference in “de no pago obligatorio” holidays is the form of payment, so that only those who receive a salary per working day see a difference between compulsory payment and non-obligatory payment. For these employees, unless they work, they are not paid for that day; and if they work it, they get paid their normal day wage.
For the rest of the workers, – public sector, private sector, including commercial activities with weekly payment, be it a national or international company, they will be paid the day, working it or not.
What happens if you work on October 12? Unlike day workers who receive their regular day wage if they work the day, salaried employees get an extra day pay if they work the holiday.
Important to note, the Costa Rica Labor Code does not force a worker to work the holiday and protects them from retribution by the employer if they choose not to work the day.
The owner and the manager of the strip club (nightclub) Pantera Rosa, identified by their last names, López Calderón and López Rojas, respectively, arrested last Friday for proxenetismo (pimping) will have to sign in once a month and cannot leave Costa Rica.
The pair, while the investigation against them continues, are barred from entering the club and prohibited from pimping.
During the raid, authorities say they found 25 (alleged) victims in the club, both Costa Rican women and foreigners.
The club was raided in the early hours of Friday morning by authorities following an investigation that commenced in 2016.
For its part, the club announced on the social networks it would remain closed Friday night, and reopen Saturday with and business as usual.
“We clarify that at Club Pantera Rosa we are working 100% with the corresponding authorities so that the investigation can be facilitated,” they reported.
The Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT) announced Monday, October 8, 2018, the resumption of ferry service between Puntarenas and Playa Naranjo (and back) will be normalize starting Tuesday, with the first sail at 6:30 am, as usual.
On Saturday, ferry service to Paquera was resumed and also the boat to Isla Chira.
The three routes had been suspended last Friday due to the severe weather conditions that flooding and landslides in the Nicoya Peninsula.
Starting in 2020, retailers will be able to sell only efficient and cost-saving appliances to meet the new guidelines set out by the Instituto de Normas Técnicas de Costa Rica (Inteco) -Institute of Technical Standards of Costa Rica.
The new technical requirements augur an opportunity to lower the monthly consumption as compliance with the minimum of these standards would be equivalent to a savings of between 5% and 10% depending on the equipment.
Alexandra Rodríguez, director of the Inteco, explained the new guidelines incorporate 13 standards to determine if electricity consumption in appliances is efficient or not.
The standards include LED bulbs, commercial and domestic refrigerators, air conditioners, AC motors, ovens, electrical jigs, stoves, electric showers and instant water heaters that are manufactured, imported or sold in Costa Rica.
This regulatory framework will be mandatory when the competent national authority (the Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía – Ministry of Environment and Energy – in this case) includes the standards in future technical regulations to be in place as of 2020.
Currently, in Costa Rica energy efficient devices that meet the Inteco standards are already in the market, yet not all devices meet the standards, including some that hogs when it comes to energy consumption.
Energy efficiency depends on two aspects: the devices in use and how long they are used, according to Fabián Morera Sibaja, of the Energy Efficiency Area of the Compañía Nacional de Fuerza y Luz (CNFL) – National Power and Light Company, a subsidiary of the State power and telecom, ICE.
According to Inteco, for now, the key when choosing is to determine which model is lower in consumption, taking as a reference the limit established by Inteco.
Inteco recommends reviewing the energy label of the product and comparing the indicated values.
After the unprecedented event in the recent history of Costa Rica, in which protesters proffered insults and vulgarities against President Carlos Alvardo, even pushed him and an object was thrown at this waiting vehicle, the president has asked his security team to not isolate him from contact with the people is his upcoming events.
The president is under the security of the Dirección de Inteligencia y Seguridad (DIS), the government’s intelligence service, headed by Eduardo Trejos, who is reportedly investigating the fail of last Wednesday, October 3, when what appears to be a lapse in protocol President Alvarado was mobbed by angry protesters when leaving the Teatro Nacional, in the heart of San Jose, after attending a Urban Mobility event.
To ensure that the President could not sneak away, protesters against the tax reform bill, took up space in all four corners of the block that includes the Teatro and the Plaza de la Cultura.
On the way to the waiting vehicle, parked on the boulevard (Avenida Central) in front of the McDonalds, the people got a bit too close for comfort.
Later in the evening, President Alvarado recorded a video that he transmitted on his Facebook page, to show that the events that took place in the morning did not represent our country.
In the video this time everyone was friendly as the president delivered his message, “Let no one take away our peace. This is Costa Rica, peaceful people, quiet people, people who live in peace,” while walking through the Plaza de la Cultura and chatting and taking pictures with passers-by.
In the social media, Alvarado was criticized for creating a “staged” environment.
Will the security protocol surrounding the president change? In an interview with La Nacion, Trejos said, “It is our duty to generate an effective security process. After the events of yesterday (Wednesdy), we have the report and we will have to make forecasts for the next activities. Each of them is analyzed separately. The president has requested that, in any case, we maintain our civilian vision of presidential security.”
Eduardo Trejos is the head of the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS), the body in charge of protecting the president. Photos: Melissa Fernández.
Trejos explained that the DIS will maintain the “traditional course” of the President’s contact with the citizenry, so that it is not interrupted, but always have security protocols.
Six DIS agents accompany the president, who protect him during official activities.
Wind source becomes second in contribution after water, as in 2017.
Costa Rica surpassed 98% of renewable generation in its Sistema Eléctrico Nacional (SEN) – National Electric System – for the fourth consecutive year. As of Wednesday, October 3, electricity from water, wind, geothermal energy, biomass and the sun has accounted for 98.15% of the total produced in the country. (See infograph below).
Wind source becomes second in contribution after water
The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) – Costa Rican Institute of Electricity – projected that, for the rest of the year, the thermal backup will be used at a minimum or that it will not even be necessary. This will lead to the accumulated percentage of renewable generation remaining above 98%.
ICE says that the reservoirs – Arenal, Cachí, Reventazón, Pirrís, and Angostura – have been vital to achieving four consecutive years with such a high clean production. These have saved the water from intense periods of rain for electricity generation when rainfall has decreased.
In addition, reservoirs have allowed variable sources – such as wind – to be integrated more widely into the national matrix. 2018 will be the second year in the history of the country in which wind occupies the position number two in contribution, behind the water.
“The national system is sufficiently robust to adapt to climate variability or eventualities without losing its renewable profile. The clean generation of electricity provides a significant boost to national decarbonization goals and contributes to a healthy environment for all Costa Ricans,” explained Luis Pacheco, ICE’s corporate director of Electricity.
The last day registered in which the ICE had to resort to thermal backup with the Garabito plant due to electricity demand was on May 17. Since then, they have spent 140 consecutive days of 100% renewable generation in the SEN.
Workers at public hospitals and clinics (Ebais) were back at work this Monday morning, following an agreement reached in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Hospital San Juan de Dios, in San Jose
Hospitals like the San Juan de Dios, Calderon and Mexico and others are now busy rescheduling appointments and surgeries lost or missed during the 26 days that a number of workers took part in the national strike against the tax reform.
As a condition of accepting the agreement proposed by the Government is that workers who participated in the movement will not face reprisals.
In the second of the five points of the agreement, “The CCSS will not establish any discriminatory conduct, disciplinary sanctions or retaliation against the workers who participated in a peaceful manner in the strike movement that was carried out as of September 10 of this year. Interim workers may not be dismissed, their appointments cut or affected in any way, directly or indirectly by their participation in the strike movement. In addition, they will continue working in the same position in which they were appointed at the beginning of the execution of the strike, in accordance with the labor regulations in force at the institution. ”
The information was confirmed through a press release by the executive president of the CCSS, Román Macaya Hayes, who was present during the negotiation.
However, workers may have their wages (for the time they were off work) docked if the strike deemed illegal by the Labor Court completes the judicial process to final judgment
According to the Ministry of Labor, “if the strike is declared illegal, by a final judgment, the public administration will apply the administrative measures provided for in articles 379 and 385 of the Labor Code, which indicate that the institutions may establish sanctions once the strike has been declared illegal by the courts, as well as ordering the dismissal when the workers do not return to work 24 hours after the notice of illegality of the strike.”
During the 26 day long strike, more than 111,900 appointments with medical specialists and the 3,552 scheduled operations were cancelled.
Along with the CCSS workers, there are now three institutions have come to terms with the employees. Back at work are also the workers of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) and the CEN-CINAI, under the Ministry of Health.
Despite these agreements, the strike contiunes, now it is 29th day.
Spirit Airlines, known for offering low-cost rates, has duplicated the number of flights between San Jose (SJO) and Orlando (MCO) to four flights weekly and starting November 7, to daily.
“We are very excited to be expanding our service in Costa Rica,” said Matt Klein, Commercial Director of Spirit Airlines. “Connecting the Orlando area to San Jose will bring family and friends together, and offer even more connections to other destinations in Spirit’s network across the United States.”
The Minister of Tourism, María Amalia Revelo, said that the expectation of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) is that it “increase arrivals to Costa Rica from different parts of the United States, connecting with Orlando, using Spirit. At the same time, that increased the number of Costa Rican tourists traveling to Orlando and connections. ”
The North American market continues to be the main source of tourists for Costa Rica. In 2017, a total of 1,199,241 international arrivals were from the United States. Meanwhile, from January to June 2018 there were 813,321 arrivals originating in that country, an increase of 5.7% compared to the same period in 2017.
The United States offers a potential market of 24 million people to Costa Rican tourism.
Spirit Airlines operates more than 400 daily flights to 60 destinations in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean.
(Panampost) – The international wave of cyber censorship has now arrived in Latin America, via Veracruz state, in southern Mexico, this time under the guise of a new “anti-meme” law.
Both civil society organizations and users of social media have argued that the “gag” strategy within the reform is an affront to the right to freedom of expression.
The bill in question consists of a reform made to Article 196 of the local penal code that considers as “cyber-bullying” the dissemination of lascivious or malicious information about a person, which causes psychological, family, or work-related harm.
Passed by unanimous consent, the bill, proposed by a deputy José Kirsch Sánchez, of the leftist PRD party, will impose “from six months to two years in prison, and up to one hundred days of work in favor of the community to whomever, using any means of digital communication, disseminate harmful or malicious information about another person, revealing, transferring, or transmitting one or more images, audio-visual recordings, or texts, which damage their reputation or self-esteem and cause them to be affected by psychological, family, or work situations, or in their daily environment.”
In principle, the reform seeks to protect citizens from possible personal attacks. However, its scope is so wide that it has the potential to completely suppress humor and, above all, criticism of the political class. This is why it is not a surprise that this reform has arisen at the behest of the political class, because they will enjoy the greatest benefits.
It is clear that the diffusion of unverified information is both irresponsible and dangerous. However, a measure that can criminally penalize citizens for this fact sets not only a precedent for censorship of freedom of expression, but also gives politicians the power to determine what information can be disseminated and what can not.
All the elites in the governing class will have to do is declare something to be a “rumor”: be it a fact, figure, or important event. Those who question authority will be ostracized, and even potentially criminally penalized.
The first inconsistency with the bill arises is in the name of the term “cyberbullying” itself. According to the deputies, it entails “putting on the Internet a compromising image (real or photomontages), sensitive data, things that can harm or embarrass the victim, or damage their relationships.”
Although the measure refers to the disclosure of confidential or false information, in the example it does not provide exceptions for sharing true information. So it is sufficient in the eyes of the law, that the information disseminated damages the other party, even if it is completely true information.
Although the reform was proposed by the PRD, it was supported by independent deputies Miriam Judith González Sheridan and Eva Cadena Sandoval, and by PAN legislators María Josefina Gamboa and María Elisa Manterola Sainz.
In 2013 the Supreme Court of Justice declared unconstitutional a law that was approved by the Veracruz legislators with which they intended to punish the issuance of false statements through social networks.
It should be noted that this law was approved during the Government of Javier Duarte, who is now imprisoned for corruption and drug trafficking. Among other complaints, during his tenure, he built a mansion of USD $2 million, while 25 billion Mexican pesos disappeared under his watch.
Data provided by the pollster INEGI showed that 95% of the inhabitants of Veracruz think that corruption is common, or very common, which is why the state was ranked second most corrupt in all of Mexico in a study.
With this reform, when dealing with a case of corruption, a phenomenon that reaches the highest echelons in Veracruz, those who denounce the act are attacked and those who commit the corruption reap the benefits.
Thus, a law that is purported to protect citizens, in reality serves to prevent the dissemination of any incriminating information about those who are criticized the most on social networks: politicians.
International precedents
In September of this year, in spite of the resistance of tech leaders like Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and internet guru Sir Tim Berners-Lee, European legislators managed to incorporate Article 13, known by its detractors as the “meme killer”, because it puts an end to this creative way of illustrating that which diffuses ideas with images.
Like Article 11, what the European reform aims to control is copyright; thus, all information disseminated on social networks must be authorized, even when it means paying for the dissemination of images.
Thus, the bureaucracy and the political class that feeds, is now threatening our very sense of humor: our ability to make jokes.
The political scientist, and historian of ideas, Mark Lilla has coined the term tyrannophilia to explain the love of tyrants shown by many intellectuals. Lilla is a self described liberal with book titles such as “The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics,” where he argues that American liberals need to emphasize commonalities in their politics rather than differences of identity.
Fidel Castro
The “identity politics” that Lilla criticizes are those political positions based on the interests and perspectives of social groups with which people identify such as age, religion, social class, race, sexual orientation, etc. Identity politics are strategic for minorities and civil rights organizations. No wonder that Lilla has been described as a liberal with as many critics on the Left as on the Right.
Psychologist Steven Pinker singles out in “Enlighten Now,” that tyrants have enjoyed the support of intellectuals. He lists Martin Heidegger and Carl Schmitt as Hitler acolytes; Ezra Pound, George Bernard Shaw, William Yeats, Wyndham Lewis as devotees of Mussolini; Shaw and Wells also prized Lenin; Sartre, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, Bertolt Brecht, W. E. B. Du Bois, Pablo Picasso, Lillian Hellman, were admirers of Stalin; add, Michael Foucault, Louis Althusser, Steven Rose, and Richard Lewontin as devotes of Mao. And, most offensive to me as a Cuban, the gushing over Castro of Sartre, Graham Greene, Günter Grass, Norman Mailer, Harold Pinter, Susan Sontag, and others.
Western intellectuals have a long history of loathing their own society and romanticizing its enemies. I am sure my readers can add to this list of tyrannophilic intellectuals.
I can not think of a more offensive passage to illustrate the intellectual’s love of tyrants than the paragraph, cited by Pinker, from Susan Sontag’s “Some Thoughts on the Right Way (for us) to Love the Cuban Revolution.” Sontag, who passed away in 2004, was a beloved intellectual icon of the Left. In the passage below, she is referring to the forced labor camps of the Military Units to Aid Production or UMAP operated by the Castro tyranny in the mid 1960s. The UMAP were concentration camps for undesirables considered counter-revolutionaries that would not serve in the military; they included Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seven-Day Adventists, Protestant ministers, Catholic priests, and homosexuals.
Sontag writes: “The Cubans know a lot about spontaneity, gaiety, sensuality and freaking out. They are not linear, desiccated creatures of print-culture. In short, their problem is almost the obverse of ours-and we must be sympathetic to their efforts to solve it. Suspicious as we are of the traditional Puritanism of left revolutions, American radicals ought to be able to maintain some perspective when a country known mainly for dance music, prostitutes, cigars, abortions, resort life and pornographic movies gets a little up-tight about sexual morals and, in one moment two years ago, round up several thousand homosexuals in Havana and sends them to a farm to rehabilitate themselves.”
Among my readers will be some of the 35,000 Cubans forced to work in the UMAP camps under deplorable conditions 10 to 12 hours per day, seven days per week. Reportedly, 507 ended up in psychiatric wards, 72 died from torture, and 180 committed suicide. Before Night Falls, the moving autobiography of Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, deals with themes from the UMAP camps.
I am not sure I will ever understand the tyrannophilia of these intellectuals, but Pinker suggests that it may begin with affinity to the ideas of German philologist Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). Nietzsche has had a profound influence on Western philosophy and modern intellectual history. Nietzsche’s concepts of “will to power” and the “superman” (übermensch), who transcends good and evil to realize heroic glory, encouraged the romantic militarism that inspired many of the conflicts of the 20th century including both World Wars.
I favor the explanation of “professional narcissism” offered by Thomas Sowell and Paul Hollander. They suggest that intellectuals may feel unappreciated by the bottom-up mechanisms of liberal democracies. Their disdain for the common man is more in line with tyrannical top-down mechanisms. To professional narcissists, their worth is better appreciated by the tyrants they love.
Fernando Haddad from the Workers Party (PT) will face far-right Jair Bolsonaro from the Social Liberal Party (PSL) in the second round of the presidential elections, Oct. 28.
With over 90 percent of the ballots counted, far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro wins the first round with 46,3 percent of the vote but fails to reach the 50 percent necessary for getting elected the new president of Brazil on the first round. Fernando Haddad of the PT who got 28,9 percent is now in second place and will face Bolsonaro in the second round on October 28.
Fernando Haddad from the Workers Party (PT) will face far-right Jair Bolsonaro from the Social Liberal Party (PSL) in the second round of the presidential elections, Oct. 28.
The abstention rate more than 20 percent according to the official estimate, while GloboNews reported that 39 percent of people abstained in total. Voting is mandatory in Brazil.
Haddad, in his first speech after the vote, thanked the party and the voters, but warning that Brazil could face another episode of dictatorship, encouraging the voters to take the opportunity of maintaining democracy and social justice for the second round. He also repeated his commitment to a pacific and respectful campaign, using “arguments” as only “weapons.”
The President of the Electoral Tribunal called the vote a “celebration of democracy.”
Jair Bolsonaro has been criticized nationally and internationally for his authoritarian, sexist, racist, homophobic and fascist comments and behavior. His running-mate Mourao, a retired general, has suggested a military coup is possible in Brazil.
Speaking at an event in Brasilia and referring to Lula, Mourao said either the judicial system removes from politics “those elements involved in all those illicit acts” or the army would “impose” its will.
He added that “very well elaborated plans” for a military intervention had already been developed.
Both Mourao and Bolsonaro have repeatedly praised Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964-1985), which tortured, forcibly disappeared and murdered thousands of people.
Torrential rain in Central America that caused floods and landslides have killed nine people in just a few days, rescue and emergency authorities across the region said on Sunday.
Heavy rains that began on Thursday have battered countries from Guatemala to Costa Rica, and prompted a landslide in Honduras that killed two children and their mother while they were sleeping.
The rain destroyed houses and crops and forced thousands to leave their homes for temporary shelters.
In total, six people were killed in Honduras and 7,000 evacuated their homes, local authorities said.
In Nicaragua, three people lost their lives, one missing and thousands of people were affected mostly in the regions of the Pacific coast and some parts of Central Nicaragua.
The head of El Salvador’s civil protection agency said two people were killed, one after a tree fell on a car, and 10 others were injured by a wall that collapsed.
In Costa Rica, almost 3,000 people had to be housed in shelters, as the storm battered the Pacific coast of Guanacaste and Puntarenas provinces.
Strikers take their fight to the Supreme Court on Monday, the 29th day of the indefinite strike
A group of striking public sector workers concentrated in the outskirts of the Corte Suprema de Justicia (Supreme Court of Justice), in downtown San Jose, Monday, to appeal to the magistrates their discontent with the Plan Fiscal (Tax Reform) approved last Friday by the Legislative Assembly.
Strikers took their fight to the Supreme Court on Monday, the 29th day of the indefinite strike
The majority of the protesters were from the different teachers’ unions, the Asociación de Profesores de Segunda Enseñanza (APSE), the Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos y Privados (ANEP) and teachers of the Asociación Nacional de Educadores y Educadoras (ANDE).
Joining the teachers were also demonstrators from other public sector unions and in general citizens oppose the plan fiscal.
Following Friday’s approval (in first debate) of the tax reform, union leaders reconfirmed “the fight in this war against the fiscal combo.”
Despite three unions, the largest the workers of the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), this Monday, October 8, the indefinite strike against competed 29 days.
Also on Monday, the Labor Court declared illegal the strike by INS workers, being the 14th (of the 32) petitions filed by the various government institutions and agencies.
The persistent rains of the last two days have caused in Nicaragua the death of three people, dragged by rivers grown in Jinotega, Boaco and Siuna. A missing person was also reported.
The precipitations has continued for more than 48 hours non-stop, have saturated soils of all the regions of the Pacific coast and some parts of Central Nicaragua.
The storm, caused by a low pressure area with cyclonic potential located in the Pacific Ocean, has caused damage in more than 84 communities and has affected more than 1,950 homes in 11 departments, according to official reports.
One of the victims of the rains was Jerlin Sujey Castro Duarte, 34, who was passing by the bridge La Boca del Monte, in the city of Jinotega, when she was swept away by the currents of the Viejo river. The woman was originally from the community of Wale, in Santa María de Pantasma.
The second, Marvin Guido Méndez, about 60 years old, was dragged by the strong currents of the Sacal river, when he tried to cross it. The corpse was found downstream on Saturday afternoon, moments after it was swept away. The victim was originally from the Tule Oriental, in Boaco.
The third victim is Imer García Blandón, 33 years old. The young man was dragged along the Las Quebradas river, in Siuna, on the road to Peñas Blancas, where he was from. According to locals, Blandón had disappeared on Wednesday afternoon, around 4:00 pm, when he tried to cross the river; however, the body was not recovered until Saturday.
The Government reported that a fisherman is missing, after his boat was shipwrecked on the coast of Chinandega, in the community of Mechapa. The search continues.
At kilometer 14, on the new road to León, an ambulance raced into a channel, The six people in the vehicle were able to get unharmed.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami warns that the phenomenon has been stalled in Central America and that it will continue producing rains at least until the beginning of next week.
In the Pacific
More than 15 rural communities in the municipality of La Conquista, in Carazo, were isolated by the flooding of the Cascalojoche river. Among the most affected communities are La Solera, San Gregorio, La Pita and La Pitilla. On Saturday the water reached the bridge that links Casares with the communities of Tupilapa, Huehuete, El Tamarindo, Playa Hermosa, El Ojochal, among others.
“Transport has been suspended since yesterday, the river overflowed, the bridge cannot be seen, you can not go by car, and less on foot, the force of the current in this river is brutal, the same thing happens here every year”, said Francisco Guido, an inhabitant of La Conquista.
In León, local authorities reported flooding of rivers and dozens of self-evacuated families in La Paz Centro, Nagarote, El Jicaral and the departmental capital (León)
On Saturday, the Tamarindo river, in La Paz Centro, increased its flow and according to local authorities, the rains could affect some 20 families settled on its banks.
In Masaya, some four houses were destroyed in the Monimbó neighborhood, after trees fell on them that are mostly made of boards and zinc. Those affected reported that at the time of the incident there was no one person inside, so they thank God that they only had material losses.
The strong winds have also caused the lifting of some roofs because the houses have been left out in the open.
In Rivas, strong waves that were registered in San Juan del Sur dragged to the coast a fishing vessel, identified as El Vikingo 2. The boat remained anchored in the bay about 200 meters from the coast and according to San Juan del Sur tourist entrepreneur, Jorge Aguilar, it did not resist the strong waves.
In the central and north
In the Esteliano municipality of Pueblo Nuevo, families from at least 12 communities located in the southern part of the town were isolated due to the huge flood of the Rio Grande. In La Trinidad there was a landslide in the sector located opposite the west side of Cerro La Mokuana.
This fact partially affected the walls of two houses, located in the Linda Vista neighborhood. Two families made up of seven people were notified that they would be evacuated.
In Matagalpa, Madriz, Estelí and Nueva Segovia, 40,000 people did not have electricity until yesterday.
The rains have caused the floods of the different rivers and streams, in Boaco, Santa Lucia, San Lorenzo and Teustepe. The overflows do not allow passage on some roads, such as the Santa Lucia bridge, coming to Boaco, the Teustepe bridge and El Recreo, among other streams and fiords.
Yesterday afternoon the bus transport that covers the route of the Floripón-Siuna community was dragged by the Yaoya River when it tried to cross it.
The river was swollen by the heavy rains and fortunately, the driver and his passengers were unharmed in the incident.
The low pressure that in the Pacific Ocean is also affecting the neighboring countries of Nicaragua
In El Salvador up to yesterday, there was a deceased and 253 homes flooded in the last 24 hours, according to the General Directorate of Civil Protection.
Honduran civil protection authorities declared a red emergency alert for 48 hours in the departments of Valle and Choluteca (south), bordering El Salvador and Nicaragua, and Francisco Morazán (center)
In Costa Rica, some three thousand people were evacuated from their homes and taken to shelters in the north and central Pacific.
The government authorized 29 shelters to receive 2.793 people who had to leave their homes because of the downpours that began on Thursday and caused flooding in several communities, especially in the north-western Nicoya Peninsula.
The U.S. has ratcheted up the pressure on the government of Daniel Ortega for its crackdown on political opponents, with the U.S. Treasury Department officials warning American banks to be wary of corrupt officials moving cash from embattled Nicaragua into the U.S. financial system.
Anti-government protesters march outside the Central American University (UCA) in Managua, Nicaragua
Specifically, Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has advised financial institutions to watch for senior members of President Daniel Ortega’s government or people acting on their behalf illegally transferring assets to the U.S.
“Given the oppressive and corrupt conduct of the Ortega regime and resulting unrest in Nicaragua, people and companies associated with or linked to the Ortega regime may try to move corruption-related assets out of Nicaragua,” FinCEN Director Kenneth A. Blanco said in the press release Thursday.
“U.S. financial institutions are an important line of defense against corrupt and bloodstained money flowing through our system, and we are advising our partners in the financial sector to be on high alert,” Blanco said.
Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker said in a statement, “For years, Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega and his government have held fraudulent elections, suppressed civil society and independent media, and stolen money from government funds. The violence that Ortega’s regime has perpetrated against the Nicaraguan people is despicable, and the international financial community must be on guard to prevent exploitation by corrupt regime insiders.”
Ortega has lost control over most of the country since April when peaceful demonstrations morphed into a revolt against his government and its allies, with almost 400 reported dead in clashes since then.
The Trump administration has already levied sanctions against three allies of Ortega, targeting them in July for alleged human-rights abuses and corruption. A fourth official was blacklisted by Treasury for allegedly amassing huge wealth while earning a meager government salary.
This Friday the members of the legislative assembly approved the law on strengthening public finances in the first debate.
Rain or snow (OK now snow in Costa Rica) detained protesters against the Plan Fiscal (Tax Reform) outside the legisltive buildings on Friday afternoon
Friday afternoon, by a vote of 35 in favor and 22 against, legislators approved in first debate bill 20.580, known as the Plan Fiscal (Tax Reform), in which the Government intends to collect some ¢422 billion colones in taxes, less than 2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and alleviate the fiscal deficit that now exceeds 7%.
The tax package includes changes in sales and income taxes, in public employment and in the fiscal responsibility of the Government.
Following are some of the highlights of the bill:
Taxes on consumption of goods and services
The Value Added Tax (VA) – Impuesto de Valor Agregado IVA) in Spanish – on goods and services replaces the current general sales tax on goods, but maintains the rate of 13%, with some exceptions. With this change, more services are incorporated that will pay the tax.
A reduced rate of 1% is imposed on the products of the basic basket.
On the other hand, services currently exempt will be charged, such as professional services, gyms, streaming applications (ie Netflix) and other services such as Uber.
Other services that will pay less are those of private medicine (4%, with a refund for those who pay by electronic means), in addition to the medicines (2%).
In the case of public universities, they will pay VAT on the purchase of goods and services, but they will be refunded what they pay for this tax.
Private education remains exempt, as well as public transport, purchases of boards of education and books in print or digital version.
The VAT applies to rents of ¢648,000 monthly or higher.
A 13% VAT will apply to the consumption of electricity that exceeds 280 kilowatts/hour per month and water that exceeds 30 cubic meters.
Tax on Income
Income tax is tiered, created so that those who earn more contribute a higher percentage of their income.
Salaries below ¢817,000 per month do not pay income tax.
Salaries of ¢817,000 monthly and up to ¢1,199,000, the income tax is 10% (the current income tax).
Monthly salaries of ¢1,199,000 and up to ¢2,103,000, tjhe income tax is 15%.
Monthly salaries of-of ¢2,103,000 and up to ¢4,205,000, a 20% income tax will apply.
On monthly salaries in excess of 4,205,000, an income tax of 25% will be paid.
Global income is a mechanism that would require paying more income tax to people who have more income. It implies including the totality of a taxpayer’s income by applying a single rate even on income that is currently taxed separately.
Tax on capital gains is a new tax that taxes 15% the profits when selling properties, such as houses, lots, stocks, software or licenses. The tax applies to personal and corporate gains. Exempt from capital gains a personal home, inheritance and lottery winnings.
Tax on investment income, profits generated by financial tools such as investment certificates, interest on loans or government bonds, would rise from 8% to 15%.
Cooperatives will see the tax that the cooperative members must pay on distributed profits, given that they are the owners increases from 5% to 10%.
How they voted.
Other changes
The tax year will be from January 1 to December 31. Currently, it is from October 1st to September 30th.
Performance evaluation: Only “very good” or “excellent” public employees will be entitled to an annuity incentive, with the exception of those who work in the municipal regime.
Cesantía (severance pay) is capped at 8 years. Currently, state institutions such as the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS), Banco Popular, Refinería Costarricense de Petróleo (Recope) and the Junta de Administración Portuaria y de Desarrollo Económico de la Vertiente Atlántica (Japdeva) pay up to 20 years. Employees covered by a collective agreement will be recognized for up to 12 years if they already have the right to seniority.
A salary cap on the President of the Republic, ministers, executive presidents of institutions and boards of directors. For example, the president’s monthly salary would be ¢6.6 million and that of ministers ¢5.4 million. Board members would receive ¢2.6 million, while executive presidents ¢8 million.
Opponents to the Plan Fiscal watched while legislators voted
What happens next?
We’ve been down this road before. A lot of euphoria and celebration by the promoters of the change, a lot of anger and frustrations by those opposed or do not see the benefit of this package, though believe some reform is needed.
President Carlos Alvarado, in his message Friday night, said it was a day to thank the Legislative Assembly “that in the midst of our democratic framework has approved in the first debate the project 20,580 of Strengthening of Public Finances, an important and urgent step in the goal of taking Costa Rica towards a healthy economy and stable.”
“We go ahead, there is still a way (to go), but I trust in the permanence of the commitment shown today. Each person in Costa Rica counts on that we continue to build. We are very close to adopting courageous and substantive measures.”
For its part, the business sector received the approval with optimism, but, at the same time, urged the Government not to delay actions to completely shore up the public finances.
Constitutional Court review
The bill, before legislators can begin their discussion that leaders to vote in second and final debate, will now be sent to the Constitutional Chamber and other government institutions for review and approval.
Strike continues
Albino Vargas, head of the largest and strongest public sector worker’s unions, on Friday called on other union leaders to continue the strike
The public sector worker unions have vowed to continue with the strike that began on September 10.
The secretary general of the Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos (ANEP) – National Association of Public Employees, Albino Vargas, recommended to his fellow unionists that the strike continues.
The ANEP is one of the largest and strongest unions.
On Friday, after learning of the approval of the Fiscal Plan, Vargas took the microphone on the outskirts of the Legislative Assembly building and spoke to those present that he had already spoken with the leaders of the other unions who are in agreement to continue the strike.
On the social networks, Vargas said, “My respectful recommendation is that the strike continues, I spoke now with other union leaders who think the same, we expect official statements soon.”
The union sector is pinning its hopes on the possibility that the Constitutional Court rejects the tax bill with the claim that 38 votes would be necessary for approval. The plan was endorsed in the first debate with 35 of the 57 votes.
According to Vargas, there are “specialists” and “experts” who have told him that 38 votes are necessary, which is why the legislators and the government should not “chant victory.”
The manager and the son of the owner of the strip club La Pantera Rosa, in Plaza González Víquez, San José, were arrested Friday morning, suspected of pimping (proxenetismo in Spanish).
The arrest of the men named López Rojas, 46, and López Calderon, 30, occurred following a raid conducted on the strip club around 3:00 am Friday, by the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) and the San Jose Municipal Police.
The men are not related even though they have the same last name.
Deytel Beita, director of the San Jose Municipal Police, reported that within the ‘nightclub’ at the time of the raid there were about 25 alleged victims, some of them foreigners. In appearance, the women were hired and subjected to commercial sexual exploitation. There were also about 80 clients at the time.
In the club police found a minor who was alleged to have been drinking liquor. Minors are prohibited in bars where liquor is served. The business could result in losing its liquor license.
In the same raid, an adjacent bar, Sport Bar Panterito, belonging to the same owner was also raided.
During the raid of the strip club police seized ¢3 million colones in cash, notebooks, video recorders and documents.
Worrying numbers
According to OIJ statistics, as of August 31, they have received 28 reports of sexual exploitation. In all of 2017, the OIJ dealt with 29 cases of this crime.
The sexual exploitation of people for commercial purposes is the most common way in which the crime of trafficking in persons manifests itself in Costa Rica.
According to the chief Trafficking management at the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería Costa Rica (DGMIE) -immigration service, Sandra Chaves, when we talk about ‘proxenetismo’ (procuring) it means that there is a profit made by a third person on the body of someone else, however, that person does not necessarily participate in the activity under threat or coercion. There is exploitation, but usually, even though the victim is consenting.
According to Article 169 of the Criminal Code, “whoever promotes the prostitution of persons of any sex or induces them or maintain them or recruits them for that purpose, shall be punished by imprisonment of two to five years. The same penalty will be imposed on anyone who keeps someone else in sexual servitude. “
It was around 9 pm Friday night when three individuals tried to rob a bus at knifepoint in Alajuelita, who wound up being beaten by passengers. The event occurred near the Ebais in Tejarcillos.
Photo from social media
According to police, when the officers responded to the call, the driver indicated to them that the men who tried to assault the bus of the San José-Alajuelita-Tejarcillos route and were confronted by the passengers.
The wounded men were arrested and taken to the San Juan de Dios hospital for evaluation. Their identify and condition, though they were beaten pretty bad, was not released to be press.
One by one, public sector workers vote to end the national strike that began on September 10.
In the early hours of this Saturday morning, the CCSS announced that a deal to end the strike was reached with the worker’s union, the Undeca and Sinae.
The president of the CCSS, Román Macaya Hayes, confirmed the agreement, adding that there will be no reprisals taken against the workers who joined the strike movement.
On the issue of wage reduction, the CCSS head said it is an issue that remains pending until there is the firmness of the illegality of the strike is settled.
The Juzgado de Trabajo del I Circuito Judicial de San José (San Jose Labor Court) last Monday declared illegal the strike by the workers of the Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social (CCSS) illegal. However, the process notifications and appeals process has not been completed.
The negotiation started yesterday at 2 o’clock Friday afternoon at the Ministry of Labor and concluded shortly before midnight.
A partir de la firmeza de la sentencia se atenderán los planes remediales y/o medidas administrativas en razón de los días holgados.
Friday night's draw again drew a blank. The acumuldo jackpot is now ¢1.37 billio colones
The ‘acumulado’ ball just won’t drop. It’s been since June since the last time the accumulated jackpot was one. Since, 47 draws = three draws a week – have returned a blank.
Friday night’s draw again drew a blank. The acumulado jackpot is now ¢1.37 billion colones
The next draw on Sunday with the jackpot now at ¢1,370,000,000 colones (some US$2.3 million dollars).
The Junta de Protección Social (JPS) – the Costa Rica Lottery – keeps reducing the number of blanks in the ‘tombola’ (wheel) and reports sales of almost 100% of the issued tickets for each draw. The acumulado is an additional draw to the regular lotteries on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.
This morning, Saturday, a total of 2,793 people are in temporary shelters from the storm that affects the country since last Wednesday.
From CNE Facebook
Sigifredo Pérez, chief of operations of the Comisión Nacional de Emergencias (CNE) -National Emergency Commission, said that most of these people are in 13 shelters located in the North Pacific. The rest are in the central Pacific.
In total there are 29 temporary shelters open after the heavy rains overflowed rivers and flooded houses, shops and schools.
From CNE Facebook
The CNE hopes to continue with the supply of food as well as being able to enter affected areas and that could be isolated, on Friday declared a “red alert” for cantons in Puntarenas, Nicoya, Santa Cruz, Nandayure, and Hojancha.
Two low-pressure systems affected the country, especially the central and northern Pacific.
From CNE Facebook
A “yellow alert” continues for Quepos, Parrita, Garabito (Jaco), Liberia, Carrillo, Bagaces, Cañas and Abangares cantons, and a “green alert” for the Central Valley, North Zone and South Pacific.
SAN JOSE (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Costa Rica has long monitored its forests and the carbon they hold but it hopes to soon have a cheaper and more effective way to do it: By drone.
Deep Forest, a project backed by environmental group Fundecor, semi-conductor manufacturer Intel and San Jose-based Aerial Robotixs, aims to give scientists a better idea of what is happening in the country’s forest canopy, and allow more frequent monitoring.
“There are many ways of taking these metrics but none with this level of resolution,” said Felipe Carazo, the executive director of Fundecor, a non-governmental organisation that works on sustainable forest management.
“Here the advantage is the precision in a scheme that is cost-effective,” Carazo said at a Congress of Sustainability, Ecology and Evolution in San Jose.
The project will use a drone to fly over remote areas of forest, using a built-in laser to “scan” the forest.
The effort, still in an experimental phase, will scan three forests near the Costa Rican city of Guapiles this year, said its backers, who are financially supporting the test.
They say the method could scale up to help many countries monitor their forests more accurately — a step both towards reducing emissions from forest loss and tapping into the market for carbon credits from forest protection.
“It could help the region to fulfil the commitments we signed in the Paris Agreement,” said Timothy Scott, Intel’s governmental affairs manager.
The project is not the first to use advanced technology to monitor Costa Rica’s forests. The Irazú project, a forest satellite monitoring system, also will track forests using a satellite launched in April.
Around the world, drones are being used increasingly to gauge the health of forests, monitor illegal deforestation, and even replant forests from the air.
For Ruperto Quesada, a researcher at the Centre for Research in Forest Innovation at the Technological Institute of Costa Rica (TEC), the technologies simply reinforce monitoring of forests that has gone on for more than 30 years in Costa Rica.
“In the end, the important thing in a country like ours is to guarantee the existence of forest,” he said. That, “in itself, guarantees the absorption of carbon, controls soil erosion, conserves biodiversity and provides other ecosystem services”.
In part because of its monitoring systems, Costa Rica is the only country in Latin America to substantially reverse its rate of deforestation.
The area of the country covered in forest has risen from a quarter in 1983 to more than half in 2010, according to United Nations data.
Fixing snags
Costa Rica’s decades of forest monitoring data make it easier to develop algorithms to analyse drone footage and judge what is changing in the forest, Carazo said.
But making the drone scanning technology work has been anything but simple, project backers said, not least because the drone needs to capture and store large amounts of data as it flies.
Simply flying the device at first took a big share of available processor time, and when the processor was overwhelmed, “the drone fell,” Scott said. “The pilot could not control it.”
Intel then set about increasing the capacity of the processor so that the pilot could both control the drone and at the same time scan the forest.
The drones used in the project also will use a high-definition laser — called LiDAR HD — to analyse an area of the forest that, until now, was difficult for researchers to access: treetops.
The LiDAR HD system has previously been used from airplanes or helicopters, both expensive ways to gather data, Carazo said. Putting the technology on a drone can help make the process cheaper – and more frequent, he said.
“We have been monitoring forests for more than 30 years, Quesada said. The new technology will be used to “reinforce” — not replace — that work, he said.
Reporting by SebastianRodriguez ; editing by Laurie Goering. Credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women’s rights, trafficking and property rights.
