Four out of ten companies that operate outside the formal market are more than 15 years old, which reflects the fact that for many of them, informality is not something transitory, but permanent.
A study by the Costa Rican Union of Chambers and Associations of the Private Business Sector (Uccaep) revealed that one of the main reasons why many business units that operate in the informal sector decide to continue doing so is the high cost of social charges.
Nacion.com reports that “…Jorge Araya, deputy executive director of the Uccaep, said that the issue of social charges is the one that most afflicts these types of companies and which helps explain why they remain in this situation. He explained that when the formal sector is consulted about its main cost, they point out that it is the cost of the payroll, influenced by the social charges, whereas when the informal sector is consulted, which is not paying social security, it points to the cost of locally purchased materials.”
“… Another result indicated by the study is that 84% of medium and large companies, and 54% of medium and small companies are run by people with higher education or university education; while, among informal businesses, 23% of them are run by people with higher education.”
On Sunday, President Daniel Ortega revoked the controversial law to reform the Instituto Nacional de Seguridad Social (INSS) – national social security fund – but the demonstrations continue and businessmen call the government to dialogue.
The revocation came Sunday afternoon, five days after the clashes began, escalating to massive rioting and looting Sunday morning mainly in Managua and Masaya, leaving up to 28 people dead and dozens injured.
Today, Monday, the day after the president’s announcement, the protests continue. And so does the violence prompted by a decision by the INSS board of directors early last week to increase worker and company contributions and reduce benefits. The decree was published on Monday, April 16, 2018.
Since the outbreak of the violence, the government has called the workers, employers, and pensioners to the dialogue table. Sunday’s revocation was to pacify the protesters. President Ortega asking the Catholic Church to mediate.
Elnuevodiario.com.ni reports that the Consejo Superior de la Empresa Privada (Cosep) – Superior Council of Private Enterprise – demands three conditions before it will agree to dialogue, “… the immediate cessation of the repression by the National Police and of the government-related forces, the release of the citizens detained for exercising their right to express themselves freely and peacefully and the guarantee of freedom of the press.”
Anti-riot police and pro-government gangs are being blamed for the violent confrontation with university students, the government last Thursday ordered off the air four independent news media outlets. In Bluefields, a reporter was shot dead during a Facebook Live report. The shooter is still at large.
In response to the request of the private sector, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said that “… a dialogue cannot be conditioned, a dialogue must be open. (…) the first issue that should be addressed is how to restore the security, stability, and peace of Nicaraguan families and subsequently discuss insurance, tax reforms and other issues.”
On Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Managua suspended routine operations and the State Department ordered family of embassy staff leave the country and updated the travel alert, warning Americans to “reconsider traveling to Nicaragua due to crime and civil unrest.”
The question being asked by many, can the Sandinista government of Daniel Ortega, who rose to power after overthrowing the Somoza rule of Nicaragua converting the country to a democracy, now accused of being a dictatorship, survive the current situation?
The U.S. State Department has ordered the relatives of U.S. government employees based in Nicaragua to leave the country. In addition, services at the US embassy in the capital in Managua will be curtailed.
The order comes after days of deadly rioting triggered by planned changes to Nicaragua’s social security system.
Even though Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega on Sunday revoked the changes, namely increases in payments and a reduction in benefits to the social security fund, the INSS, the situation remains tense as protests continue and more are expected.
The state department also said it would authorize US government personnel to leave Nicaragua but that those decisions would have to be taken on a case-by-by-case basis.
In a statement, it warned that “political rallies and demonstrations are occurring daily, often with little notice or predictability. Some protests result in injuries and deaths,” adding that buying food and fuel could become a challenge and access to the airport in Managua could be blocked.
The unrest first started on Wednesday when hundreds of people, mainly pensioners, took to the streets of the capital, Managua.
The protesters blame the police and pro-government gangs for the ensuing violence, that by Thursday escalated in clashes between the opposing factions, mainly university students, and anti-riot police.
The clashes spread across the country, all major centers reporting violence. By Sunday morning, stores in Managua and Masaya were looted, prompting president Ortega for a call to peace and announcing a revocation of the INSS board measures adopted days earlier.
Mario Calderón has called it quits, next week he will be leaving his four-year post as the country’s top traffic cop – director of the Policia de Transito – headed back to the Fuerza Publica (national police). Calderon resigned his position earlier this month, effective in the first week of May.
On Twitter, Calderon, who is still head of the traffic police, posted a thank you and farewell to his co-workers, and the letter sent to the current Minister of Transport, German Valverde. “Having the date close to rejoin FP, my thanks to all the staff of the Policía de Tránsito, there is a lot of human quality (…). Thanks,” Calderón wrote.
Teniendo próxima la fecha para reincorporarme a FP, mi agradecimiento a todo el personal de la Policía de Tránsito,hay mucha calidad humana, la responsabilidad en el cargo no se hubiera realizado sin la ayuda de muchos (as). Gracias pic.twitter.com/m1D65JnOwT
Calderon was on a leave of absence from the Ministerio de Seguridad Publica (MSP), appointed as director of Transito my then Minister of Transport, Carlos Segnini. On May 7, He will be returning to the MSP (that oversees the national police), continuing his 36-year career in public service.
Calderon departure coincides with the start of a new government on May 8.
In response to charges that Petro is too closely aligned with the Chavista dictatorship in Venezuela, Petro has a clever argument, which he employs to rave reviews on the campaign trail: he claims that it is the eight years of Alvaro Uribe and a further eight under current president Juan Manuel Santos that has led Colombia down the path to Venezuela.That Colombia’s ills stem from its supposed dependence on oil.
Gustavo Petro talking up his agriculture reforms at a campagin rally (Twitter)
And yet Venezuela has been far more dependent upon oil than Colombia has ever even dreamed of.
Petroleum has consistently accounted for near 50% of Venezuela’s GDP and an utterly astounding 95% of its exports. Since 1990, the petroleum industry in Colombia has typically accounted for between 2% and 4% of GDP, and between 20% to 30% of exports. That hardly places it in the same realm as Venezuela, which under years of Chavista economic demise, has become the world’s economic laughingstock, despite the perennial promises of Chavez and Maduro to “diversify” the Venezuelan economy away from oil.
Petro, who has dropped to second in the polls behind center-right Ivan Duque, has captured the imagination of both the Colombian left, and students, with his call for economic reform through an agriculturally-based “avocado economy.” Petro proposes to resurrect Colombian agriculture with a series of price controls, government loans through a state agricultural bank, and investments in technology and fertilizers. Reforms that are rooted in a fantasy, ludicrously suggesting that agriculture should be the foundation for resurrecting the Colombian economy.
A Facebook user writes ” How many avocado trees are required to equal the price of a barrel of oil that is $ 185,856 pesos per barrel?”
Petro is just the latest in a long line of strongmen, populist-type leaders, of both the left and the right, who appeal to patriotism and nationalism in the context of agriculture. In Mexico, left-wing presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, recently released a new YouTube video, directly appealing to the nation’s rural farmers, in which he pledged that their days of suffering were over and that Mexico would prioritize national agricultural production, over agricultural imports.
Their populism sounds good. It has a broadly non-partisan, non-ideological appeal. What could be less controversial than aiding your local farmer, who cultivates the food that feeds you and your family?
But populism involves erroneous economic thinking, as with Petro’s agricultural policy.
As wonderful as it might make one feel to purchase fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy products, meat, and poultry locally; would people still be as enthusiastic and patriotic about it if it meant that they could not properly feed their family? Slightly more than half of Colombians currently earn the monthly minimum wage of roughly US$275. Food is expensive in Colombia, and if consumers are obligated to subsidize local farmers by paying more for locally grown food, that is hardly beneficial for the working class people that Petro claims to champion.
These are fundamental contradictions that the Gustavo Petros of the world cannot explain away.
At a recent campaign stop in Duitama in the agriculturally rich state of Boyaca, Petro peppered his speech with accolades for the small Colombian farmer, repeatedly praising the Colombian potato farmer as the foundation of the country. He has a relatable talking point when it comes to their utilitarian function: farmers provide a critical role in society, feeding their families with their production, and then selling their excess to pay for other economic necessities.
However, the sad reality is that many Colombian farmers would be better off doing something else with their time. Currently, 17% of Colombia’s population works in agriculture. Colombians don’t want that percentage to increase. Contrast that figure with Pakistan’s, where 45% of the population works in agriculture. Now contrast it with the United States, where less than 2% of the population works in agriculture. Does Colombia want to look more like Pakistan or more like the United States?
The trend is simple. The poorer and less developed the country, the higher percentage of its economy works in agriculture, much of it backbreaking, subsistence agriculture.
Talk to today’s Colombian youth at a local middle school, high school, or university. Or for that matter in any country. How many of them are going to tell you that they want to work in agriculture? I am quite confident that the answer is very few.
Agriculture is poorly paid and extremely hard work. It requires living in remote places far from population centers. In the case of Colombia, it involves cultivating mountainous and inhospitable terrain.
It makes little sense to prop up the small, inefficient Colombian potato farmer, out of a misguided sense of patriotism, if that farmer simply can not compete with a potato farmer in the United States or Canada. But it is not merely propping-up uncompetitive industries: it is actually incentivizing artificial growth in an industry that would otherwise be shrinking without state subsidies.
Colombian society would be better off with a higher percentage of the workforce in the service or technology sectors.
A candidate like Petro, who constantly talks about economic inequality and social justice, should envision a Colombia that did not have the income that oil and mining sectors provide. How would the lost revenue, in any way shape or form, aid his attempts to address problems of economic inequality? There is no question that even a moderate boost in agricultural productivity could hardly compensate for the lost revenue from the oil and mining sectors.
Adam Smith explained this nearly 250 years ago with what he called the nature of comparative advantage in trade between nations. But subsequent generations of politicians still fail to heed his advice, especially when it suits them.
Admitedly, it is difficult to pinpoint a pithy path to economic greatness for Colombia. What is certain, however, is that agriculture is not the answer.
The aspiration for a 100% green electricity grid is no longer a dream. It is regularly being achieved in the real world for weeks or months on end. This development is absolutely crucial, since burning fossil fuels at the rate we are burning them is rapidly changing the climate in ways that seriously harm our quality of life.
In this past March, Portugal not only generated enough electricity from renewables to power the whole country for the whole month, it actually produced extra electricity this way. Portugal is constructing an underwater cable to export green electricity to Morocco, and hopes to strengthen the links of its grid to Spain and France. But the important thing is that Portugal, a country of over 10 million people, may soon regularly avoid burning fossil fuels for making electricity nationally. 100% renewables are becoming normal.
Portugal has an advantage in that some 30% of its electricity comes from hydro. Still, if it had not invested heavily in wind and in re-engineering its national grid, it would not have a chance of getting to 100% renewables. Portugal still has enormous untapped wind and solar potential, too, and the costs of both are falling.
Scotland, with over 5 million people, got 68.1 percent of its electricity from renewables last year. In 2016, the percentage of electricity from renewables was only 54%. Scotland’s renewables percentage is 45% higher than the United Kingdom as a whole. Scotland is now perhaps the world leader in renewables, and has innovated recently in offshore, in-the-sea wind turbines. Much of the advance in green energy, however, has been driven by onshore wind. Britain in general also greatly increased its renewables generation last year, to over 28%, a record.
Costa Rica, a country of nearly 5 million, ran on renewables for 300 days of the past year. It has hydro and geothermal as well as having put in a lot of wind turbines. Costa Rica has a great deal of untapped solar potential, as well. There does not seem much doubt that the country can generate its electricity completely from renewables in the near future (its stated goal is 2021).
When the news broke about the 300-day record, some critics pointed out that Costa Rica still burns a lot of petroleum to fuel cars and trucks. The electricity sector is only one generator of heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas. The transport sector is also key. Costa Rica’s leaders heard the criticism.
The incoming president of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, says he is going to decarbonize the transportation sector, making electric cars and trucks standard in the country. (He is a prominent journalist and novelist, and cleverly represented decarbonization as a national achievement on the scale of the 1948 abolition of the army). India has made a similar pledge, and this goal appears to be shared by more and more environmentally conscious countries.
In general,the world invested more in solar energy than in coal, gas, and nuclear combined last year. The Portuguese, Scottish and Costa Rican advances are not even very dependent on solar, which suggests that a whole new wave of further renewables implementation is around the corner.
Article by Juan Cole was originally published on Truthdig.com. QCostarica.com was not involved in the creation of the content. Read the original article.
On May 1, 2018 a new crop of legislators will start their four-year legislative mandate
Today, Monday, the tax reform bill “Ley de Fortalecimiento de las finanzas públicas’ will suffer a new impasse: a pause in the legislative process to make way for the new Legislative Assembly that forms on May 1.
On May 1, 2018, a new crop of legislators will start their four-year legislative mandate. File photo.
On April 30, the current crop of legislators will end their four-year mandate (their constitutional period) and the new legislative fractions will take their seats the following day.
The change implies a completely new set of legislators will be continuing work on the tax reform bill, many of whom will surely call for further review and study before the bill hits the legislative floor.
But, wait, there is more bad news, or good news, depending on your point of view on the proposed tax reforms, new legislative commissions have to be named and positions filled.
It must be noted here that the ruling party, the Partido Accion Cuidadana (PAC), led by Carlos Alvarado Quesada, does not have a majority in the Legislative Assembly, thus political alliances will rule and that could mean the legislative agenda could be ruled by an opposition coalition, that will elect the new president (speaker of the house) for the next 12 months
The advances on the tax reform, that has been a project of Luis Guillermo Solis and the PAC, will surely suffer yet another setback if the new group of legislators and their respective group leaders question the text agreed upon tex by the current legislators.
Luis Paulino Mora, the current vice-minister of the Presidency (chief-of-staff), sees the change as only a 15-day delay and is positive the new crop of legislators will approve – at least vote on – the bill before the end of May.
However, Mora is realistic that the process could be extended, despite the fiscal urgency of the country.
The main proposal in the tax reform bill is the change from a sales tax to a Value Added Tax or VAT.
For simplicity sake, under the VAT, the current tax of 13% on consumer goods would be extended to services, such as legal and accounting fees, the car mechanic, on rents over a certain amount and loans among other items.
Starting today, April 23, don’t be surprised to start seeing the autopitsta General Cañas all dressed up. You may think its September when the country celebrates its month of Independence. No, the installation of some 96 flags across the autopista from San Jose to Alajuela is in preparation for the inauguration of a new president (traspaso de poderes in Spanish) on May 8.
File photo
Crews of the Compañía Nacional de Fuerza y Luz (CNFL) – national power and light company – will be out from 8:00 p.m. to 3 a.m. installing at least 19 flags each night. The CNFL added that it will take advantage of the situation to replace bulbs and light maintenance to the street lighting as needed.
Drivers on the autopista are cautioned of the work crews on the road, taking up the left lane in either direction and slow down.
Following the signing of a free trade agreement between South Korea and Central American nations Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama in late February, the Costa Rican Embassy has opened a trade and investment office in Seoul.
The trade pact will eliminate duties on about 95% of traded goods and services for the participating countries. It is subject to each country’s parliamentary approval, and is likely to come into force at different times pursuant to the ratification.
“Costa Rica has diversified its economy while exporting over 4,500 different products to more than 150 countries worldwide,” said the embassy. “Our export items include electronic components, biomedical devices, software and agricultural produce.”
Meanwhile, the Trade Promotion Agency (Procomer) has secured the top spot in an annual report published by the International Trade Center — an agency affiliated with the World Trade Organization and United Nations — for the fourth consecutive year.
Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega announced this Sunday afternoon that the INSS board of directors revoked the reforms approved on April 16, which increased worker and employer contributions and reduced pensions by 5%, which generated a wave of protests and that left 27 people dead in the last five days.
President of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega Sunday afternoon
Ortega’s announcement today is to put an to five days of protests.
In his message on Saturday, President Ortega confirmed his willingness to dialogue with the private sector to seek a solution to the crisis unleashed after the Nicaragua Social Security reforms adopted on April 16, were made public.
The President began his message a few minutes before 2:30 p.m. by calling for an end to the violence in Nicaragua. Ortega stressed the call nade by Pope Francis Sunday morning in Rome.
“What we want is what all Nicaraguans want, that the violence stops,” said Ortega.
The President, in his Sunday afternoon speech, said he regretted the acts of violence and expressed solidarity for the families of those who died.
Near the end of his half-hour speech, Ortega said, “This is a resolution that annuls the previous resolution, that is, the slate is clear to discuss this issue, and with whom? With the employers, with the workers and we have to make particular space because of the relationship that we have developed with the free (trade) zones.”
To that last point, Ortega had earlier explained that he had had meetings with investors of Asia, America, and Europe who generate thousands of jobs in this country by way of the zona francas (free zones).
In closing, Ortega asked the Catholic Church of Nicaragua to participate as guarantor at the dialogue table, calling on all “to unite so that the peace we have all been enjoying be restored.”
President Ortega also said the country needs to review its battle against the gangs, following the wave of looting recorded Sunday morning. The President was firm that all those arrested will have their day in court.
Aaron Aalborg is a retired international banker, economist and business advisor now living in Grecia. He wrote this on return from a birding trip to Guatemala last week. He has written a number of thrillers available from Amazon.com
It is eight years since my wife and I flew to Guatemala as tourists from New York. Then, we were shepherded to see the best aspects of Guatemala. After a further visit is a good time to review parallels and differences from our Costa Rican home.
On this trip, we visited rural communities too, with more interaction with the locals. This real Guatemala is more depressing than the façade for tourists. According to the World Bank, income per head is less than half that of Costa Rica’s. Most of the people live in conditions similar or worse than Nicaraguan migrant workers here. Corruption and income inequality are seen as even bigger problems than in Costa Rica.
Published statistics do not accurately record income from the black economy, such as narcotics dealing and money laundering. Despite dodgy data, the lower standard of living of the average Guatemalan is obvious.
Despite this, Guatemala’s main airport and arterial roads are far superior to those of Costa Rica. Some highways have four lanes in each direction. Most do not narrow to choke points at bridges. Nonetheless, traffic jams are horrific.
Both countries need congestion management. That requires better public mass transport, highway improvements and road pricing. Road pricing means that every car has an electronic device, read from overhead gantries. Cars do not need to stop. Charges are billed according to traffic density. So, driving in the center of cities and in rush hours costs more. This encourages travelling off peak. Illegal driving is easily eliminated. Singapore has demonstrated the effectiveness of such a system for over 30 years.
Driving in both of these Central American countries is always an exciting experience. Buses in Costa Rica are carefully driven, more modern and less crowded.
Being overtaken by swarms of smoke-belching, gaudily painted and dangerously overloaded ‘chicken buses ’in Guatemala is a hair-raising experience. The prospect of poor passengers falling into the carriageway, from their precarious hanging on through an open back door, is just part of it. We debated why they are so named. Our driver claimed they provide transport for all goods, including chickens. Our theory is that the crazy drivers play high speed chicken with other road users.
Currently, Guatemala has over double the land area of Costa Rica. A referendum was in progress during our visit to encourage an a land grab from neighboring Belize. It would be around half of Belize. The idea is to go to the international courts on the basis of pre-independence Spanish territories. The motivation is on-shore and maritime oil and mineral rights. The People of Belize might have different views. Costa Rica’s border disputes with Nicaragua seem relevant.
Government and international statistics are questionable, especially in developing countries. Guatemala City officially has over 2.3million people and our San Jose only a third of a million. These numbers take no account of unrecorded, poor migrants, nor the urban sprawl beyond the cities’ boundaries. Guatemala City is big, pleasant in the center and nasty for those in corrugated iron hovels, clinging to precipitous surrounding mountainsides. Much of central San Jose is less attractive.
Most of us in Costa Rica benefit from a safe water supply, which we take for granted. Drinking water in Guatemala is dangerous. The well-off buy it bottled or filter their water. Most of the poor play Russian roulette with their health.
Which brings us to the big racial divide. According to the CIA World Fact Book, Guatemala has 41% Mestizos, 41% indigenous peoples and most of the rest are classified as, ‘white’. Due to the ethnic cleansing by the US backed government during the civil war of 1960 to 1996, the indigenous population went down from over 50%. The irony of referring to dubious CIA data, when they played an important supporting role in this, should be noted.
The indigenous people make up most of the poor. They have Mayan features, darker skins, smaller stature and speak a variety of local languages. Languages often differ just across Lake Tikal or in the next valley.
Times change. A guide related that his grandfather spoke no Spanish but three local languages. His father spoke a little Spanish. He Speaks Spanish, English and the local dialects.
His children understand little of the old tongues.
The CIA reports that 54% of the total population was living in poverty in 2009. We visitors towered above them. But they are tough, carrying enormous loads of wood bundles down from the lower mountain slopes for fuel.
In nature, the tops of high mountains are bare and trees dominate the lower elevations. In Guatemala the opposite is true. The government prohibits cutting wood higher up.
There are less tropical trees on the slopes and more conifers than in Costa Rica. This is due to a more northerly and elevated terrain. Cacti are scarce. Nights are chilly.
The benefits of Costa Rica’s 50 years of peace and not having an army are manifest when visiting Guatemala. Locals told us that during the vicious civil war of 1960 to 1996, people moved for survival. Those who could left the country. Many indigenous ran for the hills, to avoid torture, rape and massacre by the militia and armed forces. The government saw reduction of the indigenous population as part of its war aims. Those who felt safer in government-controlled areas fled to the cities. The guerillas roamed the mountains.
The war was everywhere, with government forces defending the cities and seeking to keep the roads open. As is commonly the case in Latin America, the landless and lowly paid wanted reform. The rich, the military leadership and US business interests rather liked the low wages, their minimal taxes, absence of social security and no responsibility for their workers welfare. Add the racial divide and it was a recipe for horror.
When President Carter stopped the US funding and arming of the Guatemalan military, supplies were brought in from Israel. We were told that after the peace accord many of the best weapons likely remain buried.
A farmer remembered these traumatic times. Like many, his farm was in a boundary area, because his finca included mountain and lowland terrain. The army occupied a few of his buildings. Some of his laborers were forced to act as mules, carrying supplies for the rebels in the mountains above.
The air force strafed some of his workers, as they labored in the coffee fields. A neighboring farm was burned and its occupants slaughtered. On another, the manager was murdered.
So how safe is Guatemala today? It was disconcerting to stay in city hotels with gates that need opening from within and are guarded by armed doormen. We were assured that it was safe to walk in the tourist hotel areas of both Guatemala City and other towns. There were cops on the streets, who seemed to stop and check on all motorbikes. With due respect to my biker friends, this should be emulated in Costa Rica.
We climbed halfway up an enormous mountain to be greeted by two black-clad, balaclava men with shotguns. They looked like terrorists or special forces. We were assured that they were also there to protect us, though we would not need it. Mmm. On balance, drug crazed, gun toting bandits in Costa Rica are at least as much a concern.
One advantage Guatemala has over Costa Rica is its enormous flat valleys between the fire spewing volcanos. The soil is rich and perfect for agriculture. This is why the notorious United Fruit dominated the country and encouraged US involvement in its politics for so long.
The main crops are coffee in the hills, bananas and vegetables. Much is exported to the US. Curiously, remittances to families in Guatemala from workers in the US are classed as ‘exports’. They account for an astonishing 2/3 of total official export figures. If the US says jump Guatemala is likely to leap high.
There are around 1.8million tourists visiting Guatemala compared to much smaller Costa Rica’s 2.6 million. Frankly, Guatemala’s exquisite Mayan sites are far more interesting than our mysterious stone spheres and primitive, paltry ruins. Guatemala’s towering volcanic mountains, trembling and noisily belching smoke and ash are disturbing, but spectacular.
Perhaps religious changes in Guatemala are a harbinger of things to come. Costa Rica recently avoided an evangelical Presidency. The number of Evangelicals in Guatemala is already rapidly approaching that of Catholics.
The biggest mega church in the country is run by Cash Luna. His church is more like a rock star’s stadium and holds ten thousand congregants. He says he is in direct communication with god, performs what he claims are miracles and promises wealth to those who give to him. Meanwhile, his church has a private jet and expensive vehicles. He says he is blessed and the evidence of his wealth and lifestyle support that. An excellent BBC investigation into such churches in Guatemala is worth watching, scathing and amusing.
One farmer complained that his poor workers were asked to declare their income and give a tenth to the church. On reflection, this was how Catholicism spread. Tithes were collected, indulgences and other spiritual benefits were sold. History is repeating itself amongst the superstitious. An evangelical government in Guatemala may not be too far off.
We who live in Costa Rica often list its many shortcomings, but Guatemalans are much worse off.
Let us hope that Costa Rica can resolve its difficulties, before our economy crashes under its burden of public debt, corruption, inept and expensive bureaucracy, inefficient public services, poor infrastructure and overvalued currency. But at least it is better than Guatemala.
Angel Gahona was reporting on damage at a bank in the Caribbean coast town of Bluefields when a bullet hit him during his Facebook Live newscast.
In Friday’s incident in Bluefields, the footage shows Gahona describing a damaged cash machine before a shot rings out. He is then seen slumping to the ground, as people scream his name and try to help.
Video footage shows him falling to the ground and bleeding. Local newspaper El Nuevo Diario said he was broadcasting live on Facebook.
It is unclear who shot him or why. La Prensa quoted another journalist as saying only police and groups fighting the protesters were armed there.
Este es el colega Ángel Gahona. Su muerte quedó grabada en el Facebook Live que realizaba. Transmitía el enfrentamiento entre policías y ciudadanos de Bluefields. Antes de ser impactado dijo: “Viene la Policía, vamos a buscar dónde refugiarnos”. Se cruza la calle y cae pic.twitter.com/UF9Au75WXD
More than 10 people have died in days of protests against pension changes approved by the government of President Daniel Ortega on Wednesday, a move that increases pension contributions for workers and employers and reduced overall benefits by 5%.
President Daniel Ortega has offered talks but protest leaders have refused, saying police violence must stop first.
Government buildings have been damaged or set on fire, and troops have been deployed in several cities. Students from Polytechnic University in Managua have barricaded their campus. At least 100 people have been injured.
Pope Francis has called for an end to the violence and for differences to “be resolved peacefully and with a sense of responsibility.”
Nicaragua: Grabaron el momento en el que asesinaron de un disparo en la cabeza al periodista, Angel Gaona mientras transmitía en vivo las protestas en Bluefields. pic.twitter.com/UGhzA3xB8s
The protests are the biggest challenge to Ortega’s authority since he took office in 2007. He has said the new measures will not go into effect until 1 July, which gives the government and the private sector time to negotiate.
Protesters blamed riot police and government supporters for the violence. The human rights group Amnesty International said the authorities had been carrying out a “terrifying clampdown on dissent”.
“The president comes out to invent that there is a conspiracy because he does not have the lucidity nor the audacity to admit that the people are claiming autonomy, without external political leadership. For his inability to accept mistakes, for that fundamentalism in the exercise of power, he believes that there must always be an external conspiracy, ignoring the intelligence that the people have to know how to face the moments of history that have touched us.”
This was how Zoilamérica Ortega Murillo, the stepdaughter of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, and daughter of Vice-president Rosario Murillo, when consulted by La Nación about the demonstrations in Nicaragua and the reaction of the Government.
Zoilamérica Ortega Murillo, 50, lives in self-exile in Costa Rica since 2013. Photo from Facebook
Ortega, who lives in self-exile in Costa Rica since 2013, affirms that “civil organizations and the people have tried to make their claims through appropriate means, to avoid confrontation”.
“The repression that Nicaragua lives today only expresses the chaos of those who govern”Zoilamérica Ortega Murillo
The Nicaraguan president’s stepdaughter was clear that this, the violence of last several days, is a sign that there is no other way to express discontent and the need to have a real change in Nicaragua.
She added that the president’s speech is an insult to the historical memory of a people that cannot forget the two wars that they lived in the last decades. “If the people resort to going out on the streets, it’s because there’s a reason,” Ortega said.
Nicaraguans have taken to the street since Wednesday due to reforms that the Daniel Ortega government to the state social security, which increases contributions by workers and employers and reduces benefits.
In the opinion of Zoilamérica Ortega, it is extremely curious that the image her parents have been selling to the world, supposedly successful in a series of economic indicators, from one day to the next have to justify them because of the global crisis and argue that they are experiencing the same problems as social security systems in other countries.
“There is an admission that, for some time now, the Nicaraguan economy has been part of that lie that they have tried to sell,” said the Nicaraguan president’s stepdaughter.
She also considers that the internal corruption in the different institutions of the government of Daniel Ortega has worsened, after the withdrawal of Venezuelan aid.
“The Venezuelan aid had been the petty cash to sustain all populist actions, all social financing, which masked the government of Daniel Ortega as a government of the poor,” Ortega explained. “By losing this funding and no longer having this correlation of forces, they began to make use of internal resources, to the point that for them they are admitting that they have a serious problem and should try to avoid the bankruptcy of social security.”
Zoilamérica Ortega Murillo, 50, believes that the protests that exploded in Nicaragua in recent days are a sign of the erosion of the country, but also of the fact that the president and his government “can no longer control the corruption within their own institutions”.
“Beyond the fact that they themselves have access to public resources for their own purposes, there are also symptoms of bullying and chaos within the government. They threaten, intimidate, steal each other, “said the daughter of Rosario Murillo.
Ortega affirms that the day is not far away for a significant change in the politics of Daniel Ortega’s regime. “There will come the pronouncement of many sectors that will start to emerge from fear (…),” said Ortega.
She, the stepdaughter of Daniel Ortega, believes that Nicaragua will not wait 45 years to overthrow another dictatorship, as happened with the Somocista (pro-Anastasio Somoza).
The Costa Rica Ministry of Foreign Affairs recommends that Costa Ricans avoid traveling to Nicaragua, while in that country the clashes continue between police, government supporters and demonstrators.
The entity issued a statement on Saturday afternoon, before the situation of violence in Nicaragua, with advice for those who had planned to travel to that nation these days. The suggestion is to abstain from traveling for the moment.
However, the Foreign Ministry issued the warning with recommendations for people who can not postpone the trip or are already in Nicaragua:
Inform trusted people about the trip and keep informed at all times.
Let the government know of the dates of your trip and your trusted contacts in case of emergency, both in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The information can be sent to: concr-ni-ma@rree.go.cr, concr-ni-ch@rree.go.cr and emeissner@rree.go.cr.
Have handy your travel documents and the number of Costa Rica consulate in Managua and Chinandega.
Be attentive to the information published by Nicaragua media, as well as the instructions by the Costa Rica consulate in Managua or Chinandega.
If you need assistance, the contact the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Costa Rica Embassy in Managua.
The bus companis Ticabus and Transnica announced Saturday their suspension of travel between Manag and San Jose due to clashes between citizens and police forces of the government of Daniel Ortega, ongoing since Wednesday.
Mario Arce, chief of operations at Transnica, confirmed the decision, citing the company cannot guarantee passenger safety. “It’s a purely security condition to protect the integrity of users, we’re not going to expose ourselves, it’s unnecessary,” Arce explained.
In addition, Arce said that the measure will be in effect until the violence ceases and security is guaranteed on Nicaragua’s main roads.
The company is offering people who already bought tickets a refund or change the date of the trip.
For its part, Ticabus is offering the same, refund or change date to its users. However, the company said that through social networks will inform users when service will resume, that could be as early as today, Sunday.
The Nicaragua situation is also affecting travel between San Jose and El Salvador on Ticabus.
The video that was on a 14-year-old’s cellular phone was evidence enough for police to arrest a woman who took advantage sexually of the boy.
Foto from Fiscalia
The woman, who authorities identified by her last names Blanco Quiros, was arrested Friday in her home during in a raid conducted by police.
According to the Fiscalia (Prosecutor’s Office) in Quepos and Parrita, the woman was charged with the production of child pornography, corrupting and having sexual relations with a minor.
The Fiscalia acted on a denuncia (complaint) filed by the young boy’s mother against the woman who is a neighbor of the family.
Italian multimillionaire entrepreneur Gianluca Vacchi and singer Sebastian Yatra have created a video to become the potential for the official theme, as excitement is building as the World Cup 2018 tournament gets ready for the big kick-off in Russia this June.
“LOVE” was released this Friday (April 19, 2018) under the Universal Music Latin Entertainment label and has quickly attracted the attention of fans worldwide, with more than 14 million views on Youtube, with thousands of comments hailing the song as the perfect anthem for the World Cup 2018.
Yatra and Vacchi (Instagram)
There are generally a number of official songs for the World Cup.
For 2018 Jason Derulo’s ‘Colors’ is the official ‘Coca-Cola anthem’ for the tournament in Russia.
The song was launched on March 9 with Derulo writing on Twitter: “Represent your country – represent your flag. Be proud of where you’re from and who you are.”
Other songs will no doubt be released as the tournament draws closer, while different broadcasters sometimes adopt a particular song to accompany their coverage of the World Cup.
Given the scale of the World Cup and the audience it reaches, some of the biggest pop artists, like Shakira that has been heavily involved in the past three World Cups, are getting involved in the musical side of its promotion. Others with World Cup songs are Carlos Santana (2014), Ricky Martin (1998) and Anastacia (2002).
Our world. My wife and I drove to a lunchtime party at Los Sueños, (The dreams), an enormous luxury housing development on Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast. We passed through an imposing security gate and continued for maybe a mile through a complex, dripping with money. After a pristine golf course, were meticulously maintained palm lined boulevards with manicured tropical plants and flowers on either verge.
Los Sueños, Costa Rica
Eventually, we were checked through a second security gate and on up to our host’s place, a duplex perched atop a cliff with spectacular ocean views. There are swimming pools and a private beach within the development.
Someone mentioned that a larger house nearby was for sale at around US$6 million dollars.
We understand that most of the properties are owned by wealthy foreigners as holiday homes for occasional use or by the Tico (Costa Rican) elite, as weekend retreats. Many gringos (as Americans and sometimes Canadians are referred to) here in Costa Rica have second homes elsewhere and travel on luxury vacations.
The gathering was a pleasant opportunity to mingle with the usual middle class white retirees, mainly from the US and Canada, with a scattering of Europeans. A good feed and lots of drink lubricated our conversations about the state of the world, recent operations and illnesses, (Yawn!), and other inconsequential matters that educated folk chatter about.
The unseen world. On rare occasions, we leave our house above Grecia around dawn. Sometimes, we pass trucks or tractors towing trailers packed tightly with coffee pickers or sugar cane cutters desperately hanging on and ready to begin their day’s toil at first light. As we dodge the potholes and the suicidal or homicidal local drivers, we have noticed a handful of semi derelict hovels here and there, without giving them much thought. Those living in cities and gated communities never see these things.
La Carpio, San Jose, one of the poorest barrios in Costa Rica
My wife had agreed to help collect presents and funds for a Christmas Party for the poor children on our street. We were told that without this event they would get no presents. About half the gringos on our road kindly contributed.
On the evening of the event at Los Sueños, we drove off in the dark to the children’s party, held in a primary school, about a mile down the mountain. We were surprised to see several family groups emerging from previously unnoticed gaps in hedges very near to our home, beginning their long walk down the unlit and uneven mountain road.
Nearing the school, the groups swelled into a river of families. On parking our car, we could see mothers, often no more than children themselves, carrying swaddled babies with older children tagging along.
The school seemed like a paradise to many of them, with its Christmas decorations and gaily painted walls. The solidly built play area, with climbing nets, slides and swings, was swarming with kids, who had obviously rarely experienced such luxury. The security fences around the school ensure that amenities are only for the pupils. I was worried that some children might fall, as it was now extremely dark.
Along the corridor was the meeting hall. We found that the groups were huddled outside. They spoke in quiet tones and seemed too timid to enter, until we pushed a few through the door to take their seats.
There were striking racial differences between these people and the Costarricenses (Costa Ricans) that we know. They seemed smaller, with much darker complexions. A few were more like the indigenous peoples one can see in western Guatemala, with high cheekbones and broad faces.
The children had been scrubbed up to prepare them for their event. The passivity and humble timidity of these people was astonishing and a little sad. Unlike privileged children they did not run forward or tear off the wrapping paper to get at the presents as soon as they received them.
We left them to it, feeling ashamed that we had never thought there were so many poor people nearby. Maybe subconsciously, we had not wanted to see them. They are the invisible ones from a world in a parallel dimension.
People tell us that the children travail in the fields too. It is clearly hard work, often without shoes and at high altitude and under the oppressive heat of a merciless sun,. They have no social safety net. Some eke out an existence here year round. Others must trek back to even poorer homes in Nicaragua.
We discussed our experience afterwards. We concluded that every ridge in Costa Rica is teeming with people from a much poorer world than the locals who serve us. Those Ticos are already poor in contrast to we gringos. We heard that some of the Nicaraguan children had never tasted cake before this party.
Extrapolating from our locale, there are coffee, sugar and other plantations worldwide. All are dependent on cheap and compliant labor. Some estimates put the total of poor people at over 1bn.
We have seen much more desperate poverty in Africa, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and China. We realize that we cannot save the world, but everyone should do what they can. We are shamed and must do more especially at this festive time of year.
What can we do? We can consider the human cost of our profligate lifestyles, of our coffee and the other things we consume. We can reduce spending on luxuries, travel and high end living to donate more to charities that develop projects to reduce poverty.
At a political level, the idea that 90% of the world’s wealth can belong to a gilded few in perpetuity is unjust and untenable. We are part of the problem.
I am seeing bright red again.
A group of Nicaraguans in Costa Rica demonstrated Friday afternoon in front of their country’s Embassy located in Barrio la California, on the east side of San Jose.
One of the leaders of the social movement calls for the repression in Nicaragua to stop, alluding to the climate of violence that exists in the neighboring country.
Last night, Nicaragua’s Vice-president and government spokesperson confirmed 10 deaths resulting from the three days of continued violence in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital and other cities and towns, among them Masaya, Esteli, Matagalpa, Chinandega, Leon and Granada.
Demonstrators arrived with banners, demanding freedom, respect for the right to protest in the streets and ask Ticos (Costa Ricans) for unity in these difficult times.
A similar demonstration is being called for today in the Plaza de la Democracia, in the heart of San Jose, starting at 5:00 p.m.
Nicaraguans (legal and illegal) make up the single largest expat community in Costa Rica.
Public Force located 48 people in irregular migratory status. (Image of the Ministry of Security)
A clash between ‘coligalleros’ and the police apparently left one dead death and several injured in the Crucitas mine, confirmed Friday night Costa Rican authorities.
Police found 48 people in irregular migratory status (illegal in the country). Photo from MSP
Carlos Hidalgo, spokesman for the Ministerio de Seguridad Pública (MSP), said that according to the first versions, about 200 to 300 coligalleros carrying machetes attacked the officers at the Crucitas farm. Hidalgo added that the apparent mortal victim was a coligallero.
Since April of last year, an intense movement in the area has been unleashed, in search of gold in the Cutris district. Not only Costa Ricans, but also Nicaraguans cross the border to prospect for gold.
Crucitas is the scene of the failed mining project promoted by the government of Óscar Arias, carried out by the Canadian company Infinito Gold.
The Communication Center of the Cruz Roja (Red Cros) at 10:35 p.m. reported they had not been able to access the site, so they had no confirmation of any death or injuries.
On November 15 last a coligallero died and another was injured while mining for gold illegally. Dozens of camped out, some with weapons, in response to a police operation.
A coligallero is a small-time gold prospector, miner or panner.
The illegal extraction of gold is punishable under Article 139 of the Mining Code: “(…) Prison from three months to five years to anyone who develops mining activities for reconnaissance, exploration or exploitation in a national park, biological reserve or other wildlife conservation area that enjoys absolute protection “.
Costa Rica’s national team – “La Sele” or “La Tricolor” – lived its sweetest moments in World Cups by using the alternate uniform. In 2014, La Sele won three games, tied wo and only fell in one when using the alternate.
The performance of the national team is 52% in its four World Cup matches when using black and white (Italy 1990) or white (Korea-Japan 2002, Germany 2006 and Brazil 2014).
This Thursday the Fedefútbol (Costa Rica Soccer Federation) unveiled the alternate (white) for Russia 2018, with which they hope to maintain the good run.
Although there is no logical explanation, the national team does not usually do well in red in the World Cup. La Sele has recorded only two wins, two ties and four losses, for a 33% performance, in red.
The team’s first-ever World was on June 11, 1990, against Scotland. And you guessed it, the players wore in white. Beating Scotland and Sweden, the Ticos advanced to the round of 16 of that competition but then lost 4-1 to Czechoslovakia.
For 2018, the white uniform could be a winner. But, the Ticos also have experience on their side, the current head coach, Oscar Ramirez, was one of the starters in 1990 and players like Keylor Navas and Bryan Ruiz.
Costa Rica’s primary uniform for the World Cup Russia was unveiled by New Balance on March 22. The jersey is red with a white collar.
Although possible to best their 2014 outing in Brazil, for 2018 Costa Rica has been drawn into Group E along with Brazil, Switzerland and Serbia.
It is widely known that towards the end of the 19th century Argentina had managed to position itself as one of the richest countries in the world.
Immigrants often pondered, in those years, the choice of emigrating to New York or Buenos Aires. Many families that left Europe or the Middle East were conflicted with respect to choosing the United States or Argentina, with the choice often hinging on the cost of the ship, or the more convenient departure time.
Between 1880 and 1940, the majority of immigrants often decided that Argentina would be the best place to live, with job opportunities, peace, religious freedom, and a future for their families
Argentina has been a country that has attempted to follow two distinct economic models
The newcomers surely did not imagine how quickly the “Argentine dream” would become reality. With hard work, most became successful business owners, merchants, and traders. But probably the hardest thing to predict, was that their efforts would disappear in smoke. Economic growth stagnated, and the country that had become a developed power, in a couple of decades became a case study in economic ruin and disaster.
Around this turn of the century period, the Argentine opulence was noteworthy, with Argentine generally considered among the five wealthiest countries of the world. However, a study by Maddison Historical Statistics revealed that in 1895 and 1896 Argentina was not one of the richest countries in the world, but the number one, with the world’s highest GDP per capita.
Right behind Argentina were the United States, Belgium, Australia, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand.
The economic historian Angus Maddison (1926-2010) devoted himself to collecting economic statistical data, particularly prior to 1960. After his death, the University of Groningen continued his legacy under the auspices of the “Maddison Project.”
How is Argentine success explained?
After the May Revolution in 1810 and independence in 1816, Argentina had difficulty finding a model for prosperity. After the governments of Juan Manuel de Rosas, and his overthrow in the Battle of Caseros (1852), the country embarked on the Constitutional project of Juan Bautista Alberdi (1853/60), of clear liberal orientation.
The new political and legal framework was pro-immigration, defended free enterprise, kept the state separate out of free enterprise, and limited itself to offering the appropriate legal framework within the rule of law. The results in terms of attracting immigrants, growth, economic development, are so statistically clear, that they need no explanation.
The relationship between the policies applied and the results are as evident as the opposite case current Venezuela.
How is the decline explained?
Because it takes a few years to reap good results, sound economic policy can also be ruined in a short time. After three constitutional presidencies, won in free and democratic elections, in 1930 Argentina suffered its first military coup. The institutional damage was even greater when the Supreme Court of Justice at the time endorsed the de facto government that broke with incipient democracy.
After the struggle between radicals and conservatives, a new military uprising in 1945 ended with the arrival of Juan Domingo Perón to the presidency the following year. There, the Constitution was changed, from a liberal model to one that did not respect private property, within the framework of a fascism inspired by the Italian model of Benito Mussolini. After the coup that overthrew Perón in 1955, the Constitution that was put into effect was a hybrid between those of Alberdi and Perón.
Although there was the liberal spirit of Articles 14 and 19, the 14 bis section appeared guaranteeing “social rights”, and inheritance from Peronism.
From that moment on, everything was statism, deficit crises, inflation and insufficient fixes, that turned into solutions as precarious as they were counterproductive in the long term. The solution for the future, although it is paradoxical, is in the history books.
The only difference in relation to the boom experienced by nascent Argentina, and that which may come in the future, is that technology and globalization could make it much easier, faster, and simpler, with more potential for exponential growth.
The government of Daniel Ortega, through its spokesperson, Vice-president and First Lady, Rosario Murillo, on Friday accepted a call for dialogue by the private sector to discuss a new set of social security measures, which have led to widespread protests and violence in the country that killed at least seven persons and injured more than 100 in three days.
Vice-president, official government spokesperson and First Lady, Rosario Murillo.
Murillo on Friday said that the government has decided to accept the call by the business guilds to come to the dialogue table to discuss the contentious social security measures and other issues.
On the official government website, el19digital.com (in spanish), Murillo said, “Our President, Commander Daniel, has asked me to inform the Nicaraguan people that the State, the Government, the Presidency of the Republic have accepted this call to reinstate the dialogue table … none of the parties have concluded or have closed the dialogue, alliances and consensus … we are listening to the call of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise of our country, we are responding to this call by confirming our willingness to to resume that open, frank dialogue (…)”.
The Vice-president left room to maneuver, saying, “remember that these are not finalized proposals, it is only a resolution of the INSS directive, but they are not proposals yet. There is no conclusive conclusion or determination, it is a proposal that can be continued working.”
The private sector on Friday had called for a march for peace and dialogue on Monday and urged authorities to respect their right to protest on the streets. The call came on the third consecutive day of protests and violence in Managua and other cities across the country.
The new social security administered by the INSS (Instituto Nicaragüense de Seguridad Social) increases employer and worker contributions to the fund and reduces overall benefits to retirees by 5%.
The approved pension reforms has employees to pay 7% of their salaries, up from 6.25%, while employers will have to contribute 21%, up from 19%.
Experts say the increases are a government tactic to avoid the INSS from going bankrupt and fears the reforms could increase unemployment, lower consumer consumption, and competition and endanger the country’s business climate.
Critics say mismanagement, some even go as far as calling it an outright robbery on the part of the government, the reason for Nicaragua’s troubled social security system.
After the director general of Costa Rican Foreign Policy, Christian Guillermet expressed concern of the violence in Nicaragua since Thursday, the Nicaragua Foreign Ministry issued a statement, pointing out the particularities of domestic policy and decisions made in Nicaragua “are not the responsibility of the Government of the Republic of Costa Rica.”
In other words, don’t meddle!
Guillermet, in expressing the violence in the neighboring country, made a call for Nicaraguan authorities to resolve the conflict through peaceful means. Guillermet also condemned the censorship – five news television stations were ordered off the air Thursday afternoon – in the media in Nicaragua.
“The Government of Nicaragua draws the attention of the Government of Costa Rica on the principles of non-interference and non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states and peoples and reminds it that we are all signatories of international obligations that require respect for sovereignty and normal decisions,” says the statement sent by the Nicaraguan authorities.
The document adds that the decisions made in Nicaragua only “correspond to Nicaraguans who live and work in the country.”
Since Wednesday, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Nicaragua to protest against reforms to the pension system of the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute (INSS). On Thursday there were clashes between the population, those against the new policy and support of the government decision and the anti-riot forces.
On Thursday, three deaths and many injured resulting from the clashes between the opposing forces and police.
A comment posted on the social media called the situation in Nicaragua, “A dictatorship with its days mumbered. Another massive immigration (into Costa Rica) is coming.”
Roberto commented, “What the Government of Costa Rica did is a diplomatic act because it people are dieing. It is not interference. It is the concern of a country that promulgates peace.”
A Facebook group called Comunidad Nicaragüense Residente en Costa Rica (Resident Nicaraguan Community in Costa Rica) is calling for a march on the Nicaragua embassy in San Jose, located in Barrio California, for today, Friday, April 20.
Nicaragua embassy in San Jose. Archive photo.
The “Marcha pacífica por la Paz en Nicaragua” (Peaceful March for Peace in Nicaragua) will be held starting at 5:00 p.m.
The call says, “We can not stay at home and be silent about the situation our country is going through.”
The group emphasizes that the march will be peaceful and invite anyone who wants to join the movement.
On Saturday, April 21, another group of Nicaraguans living in Costa Rica plan to hold a vigil starting a 5 p.m. in the Plaza de la Democracia. The call is made through social networks with the hashtag #sosnicaragua.
The Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (DGME) – Costa Rica’s immigration service – announced Thursday night that the fine for those foreigners overstaying their visitor’s visa in the country, that was to go into effect today, Friday, April 20, 2018, will be extended for 12 months.
The DMGE announced earlier in the month that it would apply a fine of US$100 for every month of overstay, and retroactive to March 2010.
For example, a person who overstayed their visitor’s welcome in the country for six months would be obligated to pay a fine of US$600. Refusing or unwilling to pay the fine would mean a ban on re-entry at three times the overstay. In the foregoing example, the ban would be 18 months.
The DGME said the request for an extension made before the Presidencia and with the approval of the Ministerio de Seguridad Publica, is due to the fact that the current wording of Article 33 of the Ley General de Migración y Extranjería n° 8764 includes the collection (of the fine) to Residentes Temporales y Categorías Especiales (Temporary Residents and Special Categories) which is not fair and thus requiring an amendment to the text.
Note, the immigration website has not yet been updated to reflect the extension.
The change would clarify that the collection (of the fine) is only for non-residents in the country as tourists and exceeded their time allowed to remain in the country.
Visitors entering the country have the time of their maximum stay as tourists stamped in their passport.
“The Directorate of Immigration has recognized at all times that proceeding with this payment was not convenient, without first making an adjustment to the text, which is why it has been extended so as not to affect other categories that should not be within this sanction,” said the statement by immigration director, Gisela Yockchen.
“Immigration expects that the application of this fine will be in accordance with what the spirit of the Law intended from the beginning to promote the regularity of permanence in the country.
Likewise, we reiterate that people who have already filed an application for a legal stay before immigration will not be subject to this sanction, so we reaffirm the importance of any person who enters as a tourist for residency purposes, making their change of status before expires its authorized term,” added Yockchen.
Tragedy. At least three people died last night during protests against reforms to the Nicaraguan Institute of Social Security (INSS), reported various media and the National Police.
The Policía Nacional confirmed the death of one of their own, official Jilton Rafael Manzanares, 33, who was killed by a shotgun while dispersing protesters outside the Universidad Politécnica de Nicaragua (UPOLI) – Polytechnic University of Nicaragua.
Another of the deceased is a young man from Tipitapa, who allegedly belonged to the Juventud Sandinista (JS). However, the circumstances of this young man’s death are still unclear.
The third victim was a UPOLI student. According to students reported to El Nuevo Diario, the young man died after an artifact exploded in his neck.
Until midnight on Thursday, the situation at the UPOLI remained tense between police forces and the students who were housed in the university with the support of people from the surrounding area.
Yesterday, dozens of Nicaraguans, university students, and pensioners, protested in marches against the recent reforms to the social security system, a new law, which increases employer and employee contributions while reducing the overall amount of pensions by five percent.
The protests took place mainly in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital city, but also in Leon, Rivas, Carazo, Masaya, Esteli, Boaco, Matagalpa, Granda and the Autonomous Region of the South Caribbean Coast (RACCS).
The first of the demonstrations began around 8:00 a.m. Thursday at the Universidad Nacional Agraria (UNA). Hundreds of university students gathered to protest against the INSS reforms and in support of young people who protested a day earlier at the Camino de Oriente shopping center and the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA), where there were clashes with groups that support the reforms.
The atmosphere became tense at the UNA when two buses full of riot police arrived at 9:30 a.m., throwing tear gas bombs and rubber bullets, unleashing a violent reaction when some thirty university students were injured or poisoned.
After being repelled by the riot police, the students took refuge inside their university campus, where they remained until 4:00 p.m. An hour after the protest began in the UNA, the students of the UPOLI met in front of that study center to protest. Other young people, business owners, retirees and residents of the surrounding neighborhoods joined the demonstration.
Photo for illustrative purposes of an elevated train
By 2022, the Metropolitan Area of San Jose (GAM) will have an elevated rapid passenger train (Metro), which would help reduce traffic congestion, President-elect Carlos Alvarado said this week.
Photo of an elevated train for illustrative purposes
It is an elevated train, which would connect Paraíso de Cartago with Alajuela and Belén (Heredia), passing through San José, developed based on a plan that already has pre-feasibility and topographic studies, financial model, and tariff methodology, according to the president of the Incofer, Elizabeth Briceño.
The railway executive said it would be a modern urban train to improve the quality of life, as well as productivity, by reducing the time spent each day by hundreds of thousands of people on public transport, which often faces heavy traffic congestion.
However, it is not clear that the elevated train is the best option to achieve these benefits, or if it would generate problems of access, insecurity and financing.
The Metro de Panamá
There are other options for urban transport, especially modern surface transport, such as the Incofer proposed by the government of Laura Chinchilla (2010-2016), a combination of surface with the elevated system.
Any option would be environmentally friendly since it would be driven by electricity and not by diesel, as is the case of trains currently in use and would take advantage of the existing rail system.
Among the pros for the plan:
It is rapid since it would not have to decelerate on the road, nor deal with crossings and other obstacles;
Zero crashes with vehicles;
Improve quality of life with the development of bikeways and parks below the railway
The cons of an elevated train system:
High cost. The investment of some US$1.8 billion dollars would be triple that of a surface train;
Difficult access. Disabled people or seniors would have problems with access to the elevated stations, depending on elevators, even though the plan includes an elevator per station.
Insecurity. The precarious businesses would appear in the areas below the train, as has been the experience of several cities.
Costly expansion. It would be expensive to connect to, including that of the eventual Orotina airport, due to the high cost of interconnecting the highways.
Structural deterioration. Requires extensive maintenance to prevent falling concrete due to the deterioration caused by water and carbon dioxide, especially if the original construction is defective.
The Darien Gap (el Tapón del Darién in Spanish) is considered by some to be the most dangerous and inhospitable place in Latin America, the only point – a 108km stretch – where the Panamerican highway between Panama and Colombia is interrupted.
In its dense gloom, traffickers hide and immigrants migrate looking to one day arriving in the United States. They come from as far away as Bangladesh or Somalia.
But who inhabits this untamed territory? Alejandro Millán, from BBC Mundo, crossed the Darién from Panama to Colombia to find out.On his way, he was able to know why there are those who want a road to be built to better communicate their populations and why there are those who want the area to be preserved as it is.
The silent Darién, the invincible plug of the Pan-American highway.
Over the years I have debated with friends and foe over U.S. – Cuba policy and possible paths for Cuba’s democratization. In these encounters, I have argued against a school of thought that favored a China model for Cuba. My ideological adversaries supported market-type economic changes in Cuba even without any political changes. I advocated for the primacy of individual freedoms over finances.
For the most part, I debated politely with well-intentioned, honorable, individuals that sincerely believed that advancing economic reforms would bring about political reforms. They saw engagement as a different strategy to obtain freedom for the Cuban people over the long term. Others, and these are not of my acquaintance, likely had only pecuniary interests and their motivation was suspect.
The “economic engagement” school of thought formulated eloquent arguments as to why seeking to improve the economic well-being of the Cuban people was the moral thing to do, even if it required disregarding the oppressiveness of the regime. I would counter, that in the absence of political changes, economic changes would only solidify financially the dictatorial regime.
In totalitarian economies, activity flows mostly to, and from the regime’s institutions. Thus, to promote freedom it is imperative to advance political reforms hand in hand with economic reforms. Economic reforms without freedom enrich mostly the regime and prolong the misery of a citizenry living without freedom. Some individuals might be slightly better off financially, but the pursuit of happiness requires freedom and freedom would be emasculated.
My debate adversaries usually pointed to China to support their position. Some of the most knowledgeable proponents preferred to use the Vietnamese Model as more in line with Cuba’s agricultural economy. But the essential argument was the same: introduce economic reforms, and political reforms and freedom will follow in time.
Their China Model for Cuba was predicated on the market-style economic reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping in 1979 following the death of Mao Zedong. Many observers hoped that, given these market reforms, China would eventually become a democracy. Never mind that China’s Communist Party always insisted that it would not share power. Cuba’s governing elite, who has not even implemented China-like reforms, has also made it clear that Cuba will not reform politically.
And, although in 1982, Deng Xiaoping introduced term limits of no more than two consecutive terms for the state president; those limits did not apply to the General Secretary of the Communist Party or to the Chairman of the Commission in charge of the military. It is in these positions that power really resides. Deng wielded much of his power through control of the military.
Nonetheless, believers in the “economic reforms will lead to political reforms” model still believed that China would democratize. But on 11 March 2018, the 3,000 delegates of China’s National People’s Congress voted almost unanimously to end the term limits on the presidency, reversing Deng’s succession reforms. This consolidated all power in the hands of China’s current leader Xi Jinping. He can now rule indefinitely in a lifelong tenure; a clear signal that there is no inherent path to democratization in the China Model.
Believers in the “economic reforms will lead to political reforms” model had also argued that the technologies necessary to carry out business, such as cell phones and the internet would help erode the Communist Party’s control. Not so, the Chinese government has invested heavily in developing web filters and using internet and video surveillance networks to reinforce the government’s ability to monitor the citizenry. Since assuming leadership in 2012, Xi has been consolidating his power and has overseen increased repression of China’s civil society, imprisoning writers and human rights activists.
We have now seen in China clear demonstration that, without a citizenry that is politically empowered, any economic changes introduced are only government permissions. Permission is not freedom. It is the same in Cuba with the inconsequential economic permissions to become self-employed in some trades.
I hope my friends will now realize that the China Model they have advocated for Cuba is not a path to democratization and that the only moral advocacy is for freedom.
Dr. Azel‘s latest book is “Reflections on Freedom.”
The Venezuelan National Assembly approved preliminary impeachment proceedings against Nicolás Maduro with 105 votes in favor (and 2 against), citing enough evidence linking him to acts of corruption regarding the Odebrecht scandal.
Although this is a step forward in the struggle against the dictatorship, there will not be immediate effects at a national level–the country’s legitimate Supreme Court (TSJ) is exiled in Bogotá, Colombia. Yet it will give further leverage to foreign governments to disavow Maduro as president of Venezuela; and if he is found guilty, he could be officially be labeled a criminal.
During Tuesday’s parliamentary session, the opposition congressmen denounced that the regime shut down the Internet to prevent live transmissions, while State Security forces prevented the media from entering the building.
Although Maduro’s regime, the Chavista, and illegitimate TSJ, as well as the illegal national prosecutor, Tarek William Saab, assured that the trial session “lacked legitimacy”, the 16 countries in the region that make up the Lima Group offered their full support to the National Assembly of Venezuela.
“This decision will not be recognized by the Government, but we must continue fulfilling our duty,” said congressman, Henry Ramos Allup.
Congressman Winston Flores told PanAm Post that the evidence against Nicolás Maduro “is sufficient”, adding that “this is a step forward, it represents progress in our continued struggle and resistance.” Flores said it is very likely that the authorities will do nothing because a dictatorship rules Venezuela and there is no independence of powers.
What’s next?
“There is now another scenario, another international game with geopolitical positions where there is a legitimate Supreme Court (TSJ) recognized by different countries around the world; this is a fundamental step to achieve a transition, it is part of the struggle for democracy,” Congressman Flores said.
“We know the regime will be in contempt of the National Assembly, also the illegitimate TSJ; we know that Maduro will not step down, but this is one step forward,” he said.
“We could not care less about any type of decision [the government] makes, because the only decision considered legitimate in Venezuela today, and that represents Venezuelans, is this National Assembly made up by us, the parliamentarians.”
“If the regime wants to take us to court, that is their problem; our problem is to continue fighting for the freedom of Venezuela,” Flores added.
After Tuesday’s vote, the legitimate Supreme Court in exile will continue with the investigations of corruption. It is a process that could lead to an international arrest warrant against the dictator of the South American country.
The judicial power, which was appointed by the National Assembly with an opposition majority, was never properly installed in Venezuela due to the persecution by the Nicolás Maduro regime. A situation that forced its members to go into exile and to establish a Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) abroad.
The TSJ in exile is not only recognized by the Organization of American States (OAS), but also has the support of the European Parliament.
Blanca Rosa Mármol, Magistrate Emeritus of the Supreme Court of Justice, explained to PanAm Post that according to the evidence presented by chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz (also in exile), the Venezuelan president committed the crimes of corruption and money laundering.
“This procedure should last about 30 days or so; once it is established that Maduro is guilty, and after he doesn’t show up at the hearings, an international arrest warrant will be issued that must be complied both by the Venezuelan authorities and countries around the world,” said Mármol.
What if Venezuela was a democracy?
José Vicente Haro, a constitutional lawyer, explained to PanAm Post that according to the Venezuelan Constitution, the Supreme Court must apply the procedure established by the Penal Code.
“What this procedure establishes, first is that Nicolás Maduro would have the judicial, legal, political and constitutional obligation to step down from his position as president of the Republic,” he said.
Haro recalled the same thing happened with former President Carlos Andrés Pérez, who was prosecuted with an impeachment hearing and after Parliament approved it, he stepped down from his position.
“Maduro must step down, and in accordance with that same legal code would have to be barred from participate in elections for public office,” he said.
After the Supreme Court verifies whether or not the president is guilty, it is possible that other countries, affected by Maduro’s crimes linked to the Odebcrecht corruption plot, could conduct criminal proceedings against him as well.
The evidence against Maduro
At the hearing held last week at the Colombian Congress, the legitimate Attorney General of Venezuela, Luisa Ortega Díaz presented the evidence that would show that Maduro must be prosecuted.
Ortega explained in detail that Maduro received a large sum of money at Venezuela’s foreign ministry headquarters from the hands of the Mónica Moura and Joao Santana, creators of the presidential campaign of Hugo Chávez. In addition to this, Ortega said that Odebrecht also financed the presidential campaign of Nicolás Maduro in 2013.
Additionally, she produced the agreement signed between Brazil and Venezuela, which was signed by Maduro, was never reviewed by parliament– the president of the Assembly at the time was Cilia Flores, Maduro’s current wife.
Ortega also made reference to the construction of a second bridge over Lake Maracaibo that never took place, and for which Odebrecht received US$ 407 million.
She said the Prosecutor’s Office was able to verify that the regime commissioned to Odebrecht 13 projects that are currently at a standstill. Ortega also delivered a CD with the statements of the main witnesses of Odebrecht case gathered in Brazil.
“Maduro’s commitment to Odebrecht was such that on May 4, 2013, he approved a request to disburse money to Odebrecht,” she said.
Maduro’s priority was not alleviating the situation that Venezuela was living at the time, but to pay for Odebrecht unfinished and paralyzed projects,” Ortega Díaz said during the hearing.
She also delivered extracts from bank accounts that were used for the operations. “All these actions are considered crimes in our legal system,” Luisa Ortega repeated.
She concluded by requesting the TSJ to turn to Interpol to issue an international arrest warrant against Nicolás Maduro Moros. “I request that the Armed Forces carry out Nicolás Maduro’s detention and place him under the orders of a court. I request to seize all his assets and accounts (…) I hope that justice is served,” she said.
George Roger Waters, singer, songwriter, bassist, composer and co-founder of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd will be in concert in Costa Rica on November 24, 2018.
The “Roger Waters – Us + Them” tour features songs from Pink Floyd’s greatest albums (The Dark Side of The Moon, The Wall, Animals, Wish You Were Here) plus some new songs from his album Is This the Life We Really Want?.
At the national stadium
Tickets go on sale at www.eticket.cr on Monday, April 30, at 10 a.m. exclusively to American Express cardholders; on May 3 to BAC Credomatic cardholders; and the general public starting May 7.
