More than half a million Venezuelans have taken refuge in Colombia to escape the crippling economic crisis in their country, Colombia Immigration (Migración Colombia) said on Friday.
Authorities said 550,000 Venezuelans entered the country in 2017, an increase of 62 percent in the last year.
Venezuela’s crisis “has not only forced thousands of nationals to return to Colombia, but also caused Venezuelans to our country … as a means to transit to other destinations, to settle or to purchase essential products,” said Colombia’s director of immigration, Christian Kruger.
Colombia and Venezuela share a 2,200 kilometer border.
Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas said earlier this week that the government has assumed the cost of its “policy of openness and solidary” up to now. “We have offered emergency medical care and school for all Venezuelans,” he said.
However, he warned that Colombia “has limitations if these migratory processes escalate.”
The migration authority said some 1.3 million people had registered for a border mobility card, which allows them to travel between the two countries.
Apart from the 550,000 Venezuelans who remain in Colombia, another 231,000 traveled through the country en route to Ecuador last year.
The Colombian government has accused Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro of installing a dictatorship, and has offered refuge to his opponents.
UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteres said on a recent visit to Colombia that the United Nations was willing to send more aid to help cope with the influx of migrants.
The money was seized by the PCD. Photo Ministerio Publico
A woman of Cuban nationality was detained by the officials of the Policía de Control de Drogas (PCD) – Drug Control Police – at the Juan Santamaria (San Jose) international airport, for carrying a large sum of cash hidden in her hand luggage.
The PCD confirmed the detention of the 23-year-old woman, surnamed Jimenez, when she tried to enter Costa Rica as a tourist. The Ministerio de Seguridad Publica (MSP) confirmed the woman arrived from a flight originating in Italy, with a stop in Spain.
Authorities said Jimenez was carrying 36,460 Euros which she had not declared on her customs form. The woman told immigration officials that she was a tourist, with the intention of leaving the country on February 17.
Jimenez was transferred to the Fiscalia (Prosecutor’s Office) in Alajuela for not reporting the money to authorities.
The money was seized by the PCD. Photo Ministerio Publico
There is no limit to the amount of cash you can carry domestically or internationally. It is legal to travel with any amount of cash or other monetary instruments in and out of Costa Rica. However, you must declare your cash to customs if the amount exceeds US$10,000 dollars or its foreign equivalent.
The Banco Central (Central Bank) confirmed on Monday, January 22, that the new ¢1,000 banknote in circulation is not counterfeit, as it has been reported on social networks, in particular, WhatsApp groups.
The Central Bank reassured the new series ‘B’ bank notes, that replace the older series ‘A’ are in fact real.
The new bills were put into circulation in December 2016, but only recently they have started to become more common and people have begun to notice.
The changes in series B with respect to A are:
The relief in the image of the character (Braulio Carrillo) is perceived in the hair and in the clothing.
The markings for blind people located on the upper right side of the front of the note is more sensitive to touch.
The red color intensifies at the ends of the reverse and the orange hue of the background is suppressed.
The date of issue, the signatures of the president and the manager of the Central Bank are updated with respect to those showing the series A tickets.
The series of the note located in the upper right part of the front and the letter that precedes the numbers located in the upper part of the back change from “A” to “B”.
The white border of the transparent window is thinner and a transparency is incorporated around the portrait of the character.
In addition to the above aspects, the ¢ 1,000 the ‘B’ banknote intensifies the fluorescence at the ends, on the upper part, and on the front face shield.
The ‘A’ banknotes were released into circulation in 2011 and the Central Bank says it has never seen any instances of falsification up to now.
For the complete list of Costa Rica’s banknotes in circulation, click here.
Trivia:
Did you know that the ¢1,000 colones is commonly referred to as “un rojo” (a red) for its color?
The bills in circulation are different in size, the larger the denomination, the wider it is: ie, the ¢1,000 is 125 x67; the ¢2,000 is 132 x67; the ¢5,000 is 139 x67; the ¢10,000 is 146 x67; the ¢20,000 is 149 x67; and the ¢50,000 is 153 x67.
A fight outside a liquor store in Santa Terese de Cobano, in the Nicoya Peninsula, resulted in the death of one and serious injury of another, both Nicaraguans and a police search for a Canadian man wanted as the suspected shooter.
According to the report of the authorities, the Nicaraguan, who identity has not yet been released to the press, was with his brother when, for reasons still under investigation, they began to argue with the Canadian.
A brawl ensued, the Canadian pulled out his gun and shot the two men, mortally wounding one and seriously injuring the other.
The Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) and the Fuerza Publica (police) have mounted a countrywide manhunt for the Canadian.
There was an emergency. There was despair. There was a house on fire. The owners called 9-1-1 for help. But instead of the sirens of the big fire trucks, the first responders were riding two specially equipped motorcycles now part of the Cuerpo de Bomberos (Costa Rica’s Fire Department).
The motos can reach the scene of a fire in half the time of the normal 15 minutes or more it takes the big trucks. They can weave through the congestion, the traffic messed up streets of San Jose.
In the barrio Lopez Mateo fire, on the south side of San Jose, the quick response meant only 10% of the house was damaged by the flames, according to Bomberos fire chief, Hector Chaves.
The Bomberos acquired the 4 motorbikes late last year, brought in from Germany, at an investment of ¢100 million colones, that included the cost of retrofitting them for use in Costa Rica and the personnel training.
The BMW model bikes are exclusively designed for firefighting. The 2017 model year are equipped with a 1200 cc engine and carries 50 liters of water for a continuous discharge at 300 psi, a 30 meters of hose, specially designed frame, 2 electrical systems (emergency and motor systems), and high power brakes (double disc), among other features.
But the most important feature is their ability to weave through San Jose traffic congestion that is the major concern everytime the fire trucks leave the station.
In the shadow of Amazon’s offices in downtown Seattle, people enter a tiny grocery store, take whatever they want, and then walk out. And nobody runs after them screaming. This is what it’s like to shop at Amazon Go, the online retail giant’s vision for the future of brick-and-mortar stores.
The grocery store business is growing and is predicted to flourish in the future. You can establish a grocery model like Save A Lot and make a simple, customer-friendly business model.
Amazon Go, Amazon’s cashier-free store in Seattle, is opening to the public.
There are no checkout clerks, or even checkout stands. Instead, a smartphone app, hundreds of regular and infrared cameras on the ceiling (black on black, so they blend in), computer-vision algorithms, and machine learning work together to figure out what you’re picking up and charge you for it on a credit card connected to your Amazon account.
For now, it’s still largely an experiment. Over the past year, employees at Amazon’s headquarters acted as the guinea pigs, ducking in to grab plastic-wrapped sandwiches, chips, and yogurt. Meanwhile, the company—historically focused on selling all kinds of things online but increasingly interested in the world of offline retail with moves like its 2017 purchase of Whole Foods—has been munching on the data those interactions produced and refining its approach to AI-focused shopping.
But Amazon is about to move to the next phase of its plan: opening the store up to the public. Starting Monday, anyone who wants to can head over to the store in downtown Seattle and shop after checking in with an Amazon Go app. Eventually, the company hopes to open up more of these stores, said Dilip Kumar, vice president of technology for Amazon Go, as he showed me around the one on Seventh Avenue on a recent morning.
To enter the store, you need to check in with an Amazon Go app.
“People can come in and regardless of how crowded or less crowded it is, you control the amount of time that you’re actually spending at the store. You’re no longer subject to the vagaries of how long it takes you to shop,” Kumar said.
Amazon is not the only company working on checkout-free shopping—Stockholm-based Wheelys has tested an autonomous store in China, while a Silicon Valley startup called Standard Cognition is working on its own version of cashier-free checkout. But it is by far the most prominent company to try it. And its clout as a retailer on and off the Web, plus its ability to build something as complicated as a checkout-free store from start to finish with its own tools and businesses (beyond Whole Foods, its Amazon Web Services is available to host all the data this kind of service requires), makes it the most likely to succeed in the near future.
Actually shopping at Amazon Go feels a little weird. You open an entry gate by scanning a QR code in the Amazon Go app, and then you can just walk in and put your phone away (for some reason, this was really hard for me; I kept feeling I needed the phone out for it all to work). You grab what you want and place it in a bag, or just hold on to it while wandering the well-stocked aisles.
Kumar won’t say how good the company’s technology is at tallying your purchases beyond “very, very accurate,” but the store does stock a lot of items that look very similar, like Diet Dr Pepper and Caffeine Free Diet Dr Pepper. And the prices seem competitive.
With the exception of a back corner where a guy was stationed to check customers’ IDs before they grabbed a bottle of pinot grigio or a six-pack of beer, nobody really seemed to be paying any attention to us. There’s no need, in theory: when you take an item off the shelf, Amazon’s cameras and AI should work to determine what it is and charge you for it immediately, and if you put it back on the shelf, the charge will be removed.
When we were ready to leave, we just, like, left. The whole experience was seamless and quick, and yet it was unnerving to have so little contact with other humans. The lack of cashiers made me wonder what will happen to people who currently hold those jobs if Amazon Go, or something else like it, spreads—will they take on in-store concierge roles, or be replaced entirely by AI? Even though I’m often lost in the world of my smartphone when I’m in stores, the social interaction can be nice.
Kumar admitted it does take a little while for people to get used to simply walking out, so maybe it’s like shopping on Amazon.com: at first, it’s strange to buy things that way, but over time it becomes practically indispensable, for better or worse.
Although there are no plans in any foreseeable future this type of store in Costa Rica, Amazon has more than 7,500 employees in the country, adding 2,500 jobs in the second half of 2017 alone.
Amazon is one of the largest employers in the Services sector in Costa Rica.
(Insightcrime.org) Record highs, all-time lows, and a few surprises: 2017 proved a remarkable year in terms of homicide rates for many countries across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Once again, InSight Crime presents its annual homicide round-up to give a snapshot of murder rates around the region.
Venezuela: 89 per 100,000
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the spiraling crises it faces, Venezuela tops this year’s ranking as the most homicidal country in the region.
The Venezuelan government has not released national murder statistics for more than a decade. But the Venezuelan Observatory for Violence (Observatorio Venezolano de Violencia) provides unofficial estimates generally considered reliable. The observatory’s latest report states that a total of 26,616 murders occurred in Venezuela throughout the year, including 5,535 at the hands of security forces.
In April 2017, a Mexican non-governmental organization that produces an annual ranking of the world’s most homicidal cities once again placed Venezuela’s capital Caracas at the top of the list, with an estimated homicide rate of 130 per 100,000 inhabitants.
El Salvador: 60 per 100,000
El Salvador National Police Chief Howard Cotto announced that the country suffered a total of 3,947 homicides in 2017, yielding a rate of 60 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. The figure is considerably high by global standards, but it constitutes a remarkable drop from the 2016 rate of 81.2 per 100,000 inhabitants that had placed El Salvador at the top of last year’s InSight Crime homicide round-up.
While the country improved its security situation in 2017 in comparison to the two previous years, profound issues with law enforcement priorities and security force actions remain. Moreover, only 12 percent of Salvadorans believe crime decreased in 2017, according to a recent survey. Around two-thirds believed it increased.
Jamaica: 55.7 per 100,000*
Jamaica’s security situation continued to deteriorate in 2017, fueled partly by destabilizing government actions against gangs, including the loudly-trumpeted but deeply-flawed launch of a new urban security plan. A total of 1,616 murders were recorded throughout 2017, a nearly 20 percent increase in comparison to the previous year.
The island had already seen an 11 percent increase in murders in 2016 compared to 2015, and a wave of violence early 2018 indicates that the trend toward higher homicide rates in Jamaica could continue.
Honduras: 42.8 per 100,000
The end of the year proved rather tumultuous for Honduras, as the country sank deeper into another political crisis.
And yet, Honduras’ annual murder tally dropped by 26 percent, from 5,150 in 2016 to 3,791 in 2017, yielding a homicide rate of 42.8 per 100,000 inhabitants. Authorities said that the 2017 figures marked Honduras’ lowest homicide levels in a decade.
The question now is whether the country will succeed in securing these gains, or whether the political crisis will push the contested administration of President Juan Orlando Hernández to revert back to counterproductive security policies, thereby abandoning or neglecting crucial long-term reforms.
Brazil: 29.7 per 100,000
A staggering 61,283 individuals — seven victims per hour — were murdered in Latin America’s most populous nation in 2016, the most recent year for which national homicide figures are available. According to the Brazilian Public Security Forum, which compiles the data, the country had a murder rate of 29.7 per 100,000 in 2016, a 4 percent increase compared to 2015.
One symptom of Brazil’s security crisis is the crumbling relationship between security forces and large swathes of the population, particularly the most disadvantaged. In 2016, 4,222 citizens were killed during security operations, while a total of 453 military and police officers were also murdered.
While no nationwide homicide figures are yet available for 2017, InSight Crime research strongly suggests that Brazil’s security situation has continued — and likely will continue — to deteriorate in the near-term.
Guatemala: 26.1 per 100,000
Guatemala suffered a total of 4,409 homicides during 2017, according to an annual police report, yielding a murder rate of 26.1 per 100,000 inhabitants. This represents a slight decrease from 2016’s rate of 27.3 — a figure much lower than those of its two Northern Triangle neighbors, Honduras and El Salvador.
However, as InSight Crime chronicled this year following an extensive investigation in Guatemala, room for improvement remains, as the country’s faulty collection and analysis of homicide data does not allow for an accurate assessment of the root causes of violence, which would enable authorities to fine-tune their security policies.
Colombia: 24 per 100,000
Colombia’s murder rate fell in 2017 to its lowest level in 42 years, President Juan Manuel Santos announced, as the Andean nation succeeded in preserving its fragile peace with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC) through the peace accords’ first anniversary.
With 671 homicides recorded throughout the year, Puerto Rico witnessed a slight reduction in its annual murder count, bringing the island’s homicide rate just under 20 per 100,000 inhabitants.
The island nation unfortunately started off the new year on the wrong foot, with a spate of murders and striking police officers pushing Puerto Rico’s police chief out the door. A devastating hurricane in September 2017 stretched security forces thin, with police sources warning the post-storm chaos could be contributing to a spike in violence.
Mexico: 19.5 per 100,000*
By November, 2017 was already the most homicidal year ever registered in Mexico’s recent history, according to records stretching back to two decades. A total of 23,101 murders were recorded during the first 11 months of the year. In the absence of official statistics for the month of December, extrapolating from the January to November murder count would yield a murder rate of 19.5 per 100,000, up significantly from 2016’s rate of 16.2.
Mexico’s murder rate is relatively low in a regional context, but the country is seeing the deepening of a long-running security crisis as the fragmentation of crime groups throws the underworld into disarray.
Authorities have struggled to formulate a solid response. Indeed, as laid bare by the country’s new security law, Mexico remains very much on the path of further militarizing its security efforts, despite the fact that for years this policy has proven itself counterproductive and detrimental to human rights.
Dominican Republic: 14.9 per 100,000*
Despite evidence of growing drug activities on the island nation, homicide levels seem to have remained stable this year, with 1,198 registered murders during the first nine months of 2017 — just shy of 2016’s figure of 1,201. Using a projection based on that number, these partial figures would yield an estimated rate of 14.9 homicides per 100,000 for 2017.
Costa Rica: 12.1 per 100,000
Costa Rican authorities’ preliminary figures indicate that the country suffered 603 homicides during 2017, for a rate of 12.1 murders per 100,000 inhabitants — the highest ever recorded in the Central American country traditionally considered one of the region’s most peaceful.
Amid signs that Costa Rica’s role within the transnational drug trade has expanded, authorities have been quick to blame organized crime for the growing violence. An estimated 25 percent of murders in 2017 were linked to the drug trade, authorities said, and another half were described as “score settling.”
But while drug activities could be responsible for increasing violence, the lack of hindsight and a vague methodology undermine the authorities’ efforts to blame organized crime. And while Costa Rica’s homicide trend over recent years is undeniably on the uptick, the country does maintain one of the region’s lower homicide rates.
Panama: 10.2 per 100,000*
The latest homicide report by Panama’s Attorney General’s Office indicates that a total of 383 murders were recorded between January and November 2017. Extrapolating from the monthly average indicated by these figures, Panama should have closed 2017 with a homicide rate of roughly 10.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, slightly above last year’s rate of 9.3.
The government’s strategy for addressing crime-related violence remains somewhat murky. Although President Juan Carlos Varela previously indicated he could adopt more hard-line anti-gang policies, he has also spoken about the need to address socioeconomic drivers of crime.
Paraguay: 9.8 per 100,000
Paraguay’s Interior Ministry announced in September 2017 a homicide rate of 9.8 for the first half of the year, down by about 6 percent in comparison to the same period during prior year. A total of 278 murders were recorded from January to June. The government has not yet released figures for the second half of 2017. The most recent annual statistics, however, show that 2016 witnessed a slight increase in comparison with 2015, with the national murder count going up from 617 to 669.
While Paraguay’s murder rate is low in the regional context, authorities have worried about the growing presence of Brazil’s most powerful crime group, the First Capital Command (Premeiro Comado da Capital – PCC), which has been blamed for incidents of extreme violence in Paraguay, including a historic and bloody bank heist in April 2017.
Bolivia: 8.5 per 100,000
Bolivia’s Vice Minister for Citizen Security Carlos Aparicio asserted in July 2017 that the country had succeeded in decreasing its homicide rate from 10.8 to 8.5 per 100,000. Authorities have not since communicated further on 2017’s homicide figures.
As in Paraguay, authorities in Bolivia have expressed concern about the expansion of Brazil’s PCC into the country. However, it is not clear how that development may affect homicide trends in Bolivia.
Uruguay: 7.8 per 100,000*
Despite an initial 7.1 percent decrease in homicide figures during the first half of 2017, Uruguay appears to have closed the year with an increase in its annual murder rate.
Authorities have not yet released homicide statistics for the whole year, but Interior Minister Eduardo Bonomi confirmed the accuracy of homicide numbers released in early December by the security observatory of Uruguay’s Colorado Party, which reported that 246 murders had occurred from January to November 2017. The observatory later announced an annual murder count — unconfirmed by authorities — of 274 for 2017, which would yield a homicide rate of roughly 7.8 per 100,000 inhabitants, up 5 percent from 2016.
As InSight Crime has reported, Uruguay faces security concerns linked to drug trafficking through Montevideo, its capital city and main urban center, as well as increasingly sophisticated criminal networks that have taken root around soccer fan clubs.
Peru: 7.7 per 100,000
Peru’s homicide rate appeared to increase slightly in 2016, the year for which the most recent data is available. In July 2017, authorities reported an annual murder rate of 7.7 per 100,000 in 2016, with 2,435 individuals killed. These figures indicate a slight increase from 2015’s homicide rate, which stood at 7.2 per 100,000.
Nicaraguan authorities once again took credit for Central America’s lowest homicide rate. The country witnessed only 431 murders in 2017, yielding an estimated rate of 7 per 100,000.
Authorities have claimed that successful efforts to suppress organized crime have helped keep levels of violence low. However, there is evidence that some powerful crime groups operate in Nicaragua, though they generate less violence than in neighboring countries.
Argentina: 6 per 100,000
Since the election of President Mauricio Macri late 2015, Argentina has begun rebuilding its capacity to produce government data, following years of statistical blackout under the President Cristina Kirchner. As a result, the most recent homicide statistics are from 2016.
The figures indicate a homicide rate of 6 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2016, during which 2,605 murders were recorded. This is down slightly from 2015’s annual murder rate of 6.6 per 100,000. Argentina thus remains one of the least homicidal countries of the region, despite a heavy if not alarmist government discourse on security and drug trafficking issues.
Ecuador: 5.8 per 100,000
With 957 recorded murders, just three less than in 2016, Ecuador saw the region’s second lowest 2017 homicide rate, at 5.8 per 100,000 citizens. Despite having developed into a cocaine highway due to its geographic advantages — including its proximity to Colombia, the world’s top coca production hub — Ecuador appears on its way to reach authorities’ objective of lowering the homicide rate to 5.2 by 2021.
Chile: 3.3 per 100,000*
Chile stands once again as Latin America’s least homicidal state, with only 550 murders registered between January and November 2017, according to official police data obtained by InSight Crime. The monthly average murder count indicated by this figure would suggest that the Southern Cone country closed 2017 with some 600 homicides, and a rate per 100,000 of just under 3.3. This represents a slight increase from 2016 and 2015, with respective murder rates of 2.7 and 2.9, but allows Chile to enjoy security levels well above the vast majority of its regional counterparts.
* Murder rates calculated by InSight Crime, based on the number of reported homicides and the country’s 2017 estimated population total, according to the Population Reference Bureau.
This article by Tristan Clavel was originally published on Inisightcrime.org. Read the original article.
Outside the courtroom in the city of Buenos Aires, the relatives of victims of the dictatorship and human rights activists watched on a big screen the late November sentencing in the trial for the crimes committed during the de facto regime at the Navy School of Mechanics (ESMA). In the trial, which lasted five years, 29 people were sentenced to life imprisonment. Credit: Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS)
(IPS) – Thirty-four years after Argentina’s return to democracy, more than 500 cases involving human rights abuses committed during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship are making their way through the courts. This high number not only shows that the process of truth and justice is ongoing, but also reflects the delays and the slow process of justice.
Outside the courtroom in the city of Buenos Aires, the relatives of victims of the dictatorship and human rights activists watched on a big screen the late November sentencing in the trial for the crimes committed during the de facto regime at the Navy School of Mechanics (ESMA). In the trial, which lasted five years, 29 people were sentenced to life imprisonment. Credit: Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS)
Since the human rights trials got underway again in 2003, after amnesty laws were overturned, 200 sentences have been handed down, but 140 of them have been appealed.
This was revealed by a December 2017 report by the Office of the Prosecutor for Crimes against Humanity, which stated that 856 people have been convicted and 110 acquitted.
At the same time, there are another 393 ongoing cases, but 247 are still in the initial stage of investigation of the judicial process, which precedes the oral and public trial.
“The trials for the crimes committed in Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship have been an example for all of humanity, because there has no been no other similar case in the world. And it is very positive that the State is transmitting today the message that the trials are continuing,” Santiago Cantón, former executive secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), told IPS.
“However, the delays are serious, because we are talking about defendants who in most cases are over 80 years old,” said Canton, currently Secretary of Human Rights of the province of Buenos Aires, the country’s largest and most populous.
“It is important for everyone for the trials to be completed: so that the accused do not die surrounded by a mantle of doubt, and so that the victims and society as a whole see justice done,” he added.
Since President Mauricio Macri took office in December 2015, “the dismemberment or cutting of research areas and the emptying of prosecutors’ offices dedicated to these cases has been noted with concern.” — Daniel Feierstein
The dictatorship was responsible for a criminal plan that included the installation of hundreds of clandestine detention, torture and extermination centres throughout the country. According to human rights organisations, 30,000 people were “disappeared” and killed.
After the return to democracy, then president Raúl Alfonsín (1983-1989) promoted the investigation and punishment of crimes. The culminating point was the famous trial of the military junta members, which convicted nine senior armed forces officers.
Thus, in 1985, former General Jorge Videla and former Admiral Emilio Massera, leading figures of the first stage of the dictatorship, the time of the most brutal repression, were sentenced to life in prison.
However, under pressure from the military, Congress passed the so-called Full Stop and Due Obedience laws in 1986 and 1987, which effectively put a stop to prosecution of rights abuses committed during the dictatorship. The circle was closed by then president Carlos Menem (1989-1999), who in 1990 pardoned Videla, Massera and the rest of the imprisoned junta members.
Not until 2001 did a judge declare the two laws unconstitutional, on the argument that crimes against humanity are not subject to amnesties.
That decision marked a watershed, reaffirmed in September 2003, when Congress, at the behest of then President Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), revoked the amnesty laws.
The prosecution of “Dirty War” crimes was then resumed and the last hurdle was removed in 2005, when the Supreme Court ruled that no statute of limitations or pardon applied to crimes against humanity.
“It is very important that since 2003, 200 trials have been carried out, thanks to the effort and commitment of victims and relatives,” said Luz Palmás Zaldúa, a lawyer with the Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), the organisation that pushed for the first declaration that the amnesty laws were unconstitutional, in 2001.
Palmás Zaldúa mentioned some trials in particular, such as the one involving Operation Condor, which ended in 2016 with 15 convictions, “in which it was proven that there was a plan of political repression implemented by the dictatorships in the Southern Cone of South America.”
He also highlights the trials involving abuses at the Navy School of Mechanics (ESMA), the dictatorship’s largest detention and torture centre, which ended last November with life sentences for 29 people.
“The so-called death flights, where the founders of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, for example, were thrown (alive) into the River Plate, were proven in those trials,” Palmás Zaldúa told IPS.
The lawyer, however, warned that the process of justice and memory “faces a number of difficulties, which are the responsibility of the three branches of the State.”
CELS was one of the 13 Argentine human rights organisations that denounced, in an October 2017 hearing before the IACHR in Montevideo, that the Argentine government had undermined or dismantled official bodies dedicated to reviewing dictatorship-era documents to provide evidence in the courts.
They also complained that Congress did not put into operation the bicameral commission that was to investigate economic complicities with the dictatorship, created by law in November 2015.
Since President Mauricio Macri took office in December 2015, “the dismemberment or cutting of research areas and the emptying of prosecutors’ offices dedicated to these cases has been noted with concern,” sociologist and researcher Daniel Feierstein told IPS.
In addition, “it would appear that a new judicial climate has been created which has led many courts to easily grant house arrest to those guilty of genocide, significantly increase the number of acquittals, and reject preventive detention at a time when its use is no the rise for less serious crimes,” added Feierstein.
“So the outlook is contradictory, with a process that seems to be ongoing but under changing conditions, which generate great uncertainty,” he said.
The report by the Public Prosecutor’s Office states that of the 2,979 people charged since the cases were resumed in 2003, 1,038 were detained, 1,305 were released, 37 went on the run, and 599 died – 100 after receiving a sentence and 499 while still awaiting sentencing.
A significant fact is that more than half of the prisoners (549) enjoy the benefit of house arrest, which in some cases has aroused strong social condemnation.
“Even if they go home, they are condemned by history, by society and in some cases even by their own families,” stressed Norma Ríos, leader of the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights (APDH), in a dialogue with IPS.
“A few years ago, we would never have imagined all this. And perhaps the most important thing is that it has been broadly proven that we were not lying when we denounced the crimes committed by the dictatorship,” she added.
An international court has ruled that 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries must enact marriage equality.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the 20 countries under its jurisdiction must enact marriage equality if they haven’t already done so.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, based in San Jose, Costa Rica, ruled Tuesday that all its signatory countries must grant same-sex couples the same rights as opposite-sex ones, as reported in the Q.
The order covers Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Suriname, and Uruguay.
Some of them already have marriage equality, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, and some parts of Mexico, but most do not. Some of them offer civil unions, but the court said a separate arrangement for same-sex couples is not acceptable.
Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis, who had promised to expand LGBT rights in his nation, had asked the court two years ago to rule on marriage equality, and today’s decision is its response. The Costa Rican government praised the ruling, with Vice President Ana Helena Chacon telling a press conference, “The court … reminds all states on the continent, including ours, of their obligation and historical debt toward this population,” according to Reuters. There were celebratory rallies in Costa Rica and throughout the region.
The court recommended that nations that do not yet have marriage equality enact it by decree while working out legislative changes. It acknowledged that there may be faith-based opposition to same-sex marriage in these heavily Catholic countries, but said that “in democratic societies, there should exist mutually peaceful coexistence between the secular and the religious.”
The court is part of the Organization of American States (OAS). The countries affected by its ruling are all signatories to the American Convention on Human Rights, a multilateral treaty adopted in 1969.
The OAS is the world’s oldest regional organization, dating back to the First International Conference of American States, held in Washington, D.C., from October 1889 to April 1890. The OAS came into being in 1948 with the signing in Bogotá, Colombia, of the Charter of the OAS, which entered into force in December 1951 and subsequently amended in 1967, 1985, 1993 and 1997.
Today, the OAS brings together all 35 independent states of the Americas and constitutes the main political, juridical, and social governmental forum in the Hemisphere. In addition, it has granted permanent observer status to 69 states, as well as to the European Union (EU).
If you are among the thousands of drivers whose driver’s license expires in the coming months, leaving it to the last minute and the long lines or even forget, you could face a fine of ¢22.383 colones (plus costs).
Check the expiration date of your Costa Rica driver’s license and avoid long lines to renew
According to the Cosevi (Consejo de Seguridad Vial), a division of the Ministry of Transport (MOPT), a total of 58,734 drivers licenses will expire between February and April.
Our warning is to renew on time, in fact, you can renew up to three months before the expiry day and avoid inconveniences that besides the fine, maybe even have the vehicle you are driving and/or its license plates seized by an overzealous traffic official (transito).
Where to renew
Drivers licenses can be renewed at any of the Cosevi 13 locations across the country: Alajuela (Montecillos), San Ramón, San Carlos (Ciudad Quesada), Cartago, Guapiles, Limon, Heredia, Liberia, Nicoya, Puntarenas, Rio Claro, Perez Zeledon and San José (La Uruca).
Cosevi hours are between 7:00 am and 3:00 pm, Monday to Friday (except legal holidays).
Costs
The cost at the Cosevi is ¢5,000 colones for a six-year renewal if when you have 4 points or less accumulated on the license. Renewal fees must be paid in advance at an authorized bank, you cannot pay at the Cosevi counter.
For drivers with five to eight points, the cost is ¢10,000 for four years and must attend a “sensibilización y reeducación vial” course; for between nine and eleven points, renewal is for three years and the same cost and course as aforementioned. More details (in Spanish) at: https://www.csv.go.cr/renovacion-licencia.
A note is for foreigners who obtained their driver’s license with a passport or residency cedula (Dimex) and have since obtained nationalization, you will first have to visit the Paso Ancho office to update your information, in the case of San Jose. Failing to do this will mean wasted time at the Cosevi and having to make a second visit and line again. And believe me, the lines are long on any given day. At least at San Jose Uruca. If you are renewing outside the San Jose Metropolitan Area, the update can be done a the regional office.
Another note is that the point system restarts with each renewal. That is, any points accumulated during the active period of your license will be erased and you start with a clean slate for the renewal period. Now makes sense the shorter renewal periods for drivers with points on their license.
Oustanding Infractions
Also, very important, any infractions against your driver’s license must be paid before the license can be renewed. You can check here for any outstanding infractions (and pay online), in case you forgot about it. A waste of time lining up, spending hours to get to the renewal counter and then sent away to go pay the outstanding fines.
All outstanding fines must be paid at an authorized bank, you cannot pay at the Cosevicounter. In San Jose La Uruca there is a BCR branch inside the Cosevi and Banco Nacional
adjacent. Cash is king. Bring lots of it (or plastic for the ATM) if you have been a bad driver (lots of outstanding fines).
The medical certificate (dictamen medico) Next is the (farcical) medical exam. It is a requisite and without it you won’t get your license renewed. The exam can be made at any authorized medical center. There are many located near the licensing centers, just follow the signs. Parking lots are a good place to find a doctor. Not kidding. And must have not more than six months validity from the day the doctor issues it.
Today, the medical exam (Dictamen SEDIMEC) is digital, no more. The process is very similar to the one used previously on paper, only now all the data is recorded in an electronic system through the Internet. One goes to the doctor, they do the normal checkup that is used for the licensing exams, and if everything goes well the doctor records the results in the SEDIMEC system. And instantly the digital medical opinion for driver’s license is generated.
The medical opinion is registered in the servers of the Colegio de Médicos y Cirujanos de Costa Rica (College of Physicians and Surgeons), to which the COSEVI has access. At the time of renewing or removing the driver’s license, they consult the opinion through the internet to verify that it is valid.
The cost authorized by the Colegio is ¢20,000 colones, but the majority of medical centers charge ¢25,000. If you want home or office service (a domicilio) the charge can be between ¢30,000 and ¢35,000. See here for more details (in Spanish).
Renewing at the BCR to avoid the Cosevi lines
If you do not want to go to one of the Cosevi offices, you can renew at the Banco de Costa Rica (BCR), but take into account there are additional costs.
At the BCR the cost is ¢10,000 colones plus a bank commission of US$7 dollars (paid in colones at the prevailing exchange rate). The BCR does not explain rules for drivers with five or more points on the license. We can only assume that the BCR will not renew such licenses.
While thousands of demonstrators across the United States marched in support of female empowerment and denounced President Donald Trump’s views on immigration, abortion, LGBT rights and women’s rights on Saturday, January 20, in Costa Rica dozens of people gathered in front of the Catedral – the Cathedral of the Costa Rican – in downtown San Jose to demand a secular state.
Costa Rica is one of the few Latin American countries that has an official religion.
The protesters marched through downtown San Jose, chanting slogans and displaying signs against Article 75 of the Constitution, which defines the Catholic religion as the official of the State.
“Estado laico ya” and “religión + constitución = discriminación” (“Lay state already” and “religion + constitution = discrimination”), read on the signs by the demonstrators, mostly young people.
“If the Pope were a woman, abortion would be legal,” chanted a women’s group that participated in the activity defending the secular state.
“That the state has an official religion is as if it had an official soccer team, it’s an absurdity,” Victor Hurtado, president of the Sociedad Racionalista Costarricense (Costa Rican Rationalist Society), told AFP.
He described the official religion as a “blackmail,” because under that premise, public resources collected from the taxes of all Costa Ricans will end in the hands of the Catholic Church, even if the one who pays them is not Catholic.
The Costa Rican Constitution also establishes full freedom of worship. However, adversaries of the confessional state consider that the Catholic Church has an inordinate influence on public institutions.
The Servicio de Vigilancia Aérea (SVA)- Air Surveillance Service – of the Ministry of Public Security made – over two years – more flights of official transport, which is qualified as an exception, than police patrols, according to a study conducted by the Comptroller General of the Republic (Contraloría General de la República or CGR).
The operates out of the Juan Santamaria (San Jose) international airport
The CGR’s report indicated that in 2015 the SVA made a total of 307 “official transport” flights and 56 patrol flights; in 2016 of the total 305 flights, 143 were police patrols; and in 2017 (to October 31), the SVA patrol flights exceeded official transport, 209 to 187, respectively.
According to the CGR, the greater use of SVA aircraft for official transport denotes deficiencies in the operational planning of the Servicio de Vigilancia Aérea, where “…the objectives, actions, goals and specific indicators are not defined to the services borrowed.”
Extract of the Comptroller’s report
Another of the deficiencies pointed by the CFR is in the SVA’s computer system, where the flight plans that are carried out are recorded. According to the Comptroller, it presents weaknesses from the point of view of data security, the system does not have a module where you can see the different levels of access to information by the users.
“No actions have been taken to limit privileges, nor is information registered in a logbook regarding the modifications made to the data. In addition, the system indicated has weaknesses in the operational field, since there are no operating manuals, maintenance procedures, backup or recovery in case of interruptions so that all these functions fall on the official who developed the system,” the Comptroller said.
In addition, the Air Surveillance has deficiencies in relation to the absence of procedures and criteria to assess and qualify the requests “for the use of police aircraft and helicopters by public servants in the exercise of their functions; with the purpose of determining if they fulfill the character of exception that the Regulation indicates”.
In effect, what the Comptroller is alluding to is that any official can request the use of an SVA aircraft with minimal or no controls.
From Facebook
The mission statement on the SVA web page reads, “Our mission is to provide air support in security actions carried out by the police, in humanitarian missions, transfers of officials, grant security and surveillance in the airports of the country to protect national and foreign citizens.”
The Air Surveillance Service operates out of the Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) adjacent to Santamaría terminals, also known as “base 2”.
Chihuahua governor Javier Corral at the Government Palace in Chihuahua, Mexico, in front of a portrait of Pancho Villa. | Photo: Reuters
“We want a true revolution in this country,” mustachioed governor Javier Corral said in his office, hung with a large portrait of Villa, the legendary general of the Mexican revolution.
Chihuahua governor Javier Corral at the Government Palace in Chihuahua, Mexico, in front of a portrait of Pancho Villa. | Photo: Reuters
Invoking Pancho Villa’s revolutionary legacy and armed with a hard-hitting corruption investigation into the country’s ruling party, the governor of border state Chihuahua is shaking up Mexico’s presidential election without even being in the race.
Governor Javier Corral’s national profile exploded in late December when his prosecutors arrested a senior figure in President Enrique Peña Nieto’s party for his role in an alleged scheme to siphon US$13million of state funds for electoral campaigns.
The election financing irregularities his government is probing in Chihuahua, where five people have been jailed for political corruption under his predecessor, should now be investigated in other states, Corral told Reuters in an interview on Friday.
“We want a true revolution in this country,” the mustachioed governor said in his wood-paneled office, hung with a large portrait of Villa, the legendary general of the Mexican revolution a century ago who lived and died in the state.
Villa put Chihuahua at the forefront of change in Mexico, something Corral said he wanted to repeat, this time with an unarmed revolution aimed at breaking what he called an “impunity pact” agreed by the political class that cuts across party lines and turns a blind eye to corrupt practices.
On Saturday, Corral launched a two-week cross country protest caravan that will tour 1,810km from Ciudad Juarez to Mexico City to keep attention on his cause.
A member of the opposition National Action Party, Corral says none of this is linked to the July 1 election, but his actions are widely seen as benefiting Ricardo Anaya, the party’s candidate in coalition with a center party.
Corral said he wants Anaya to win, but would be happy with leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador or most other presidential hopefuls, apart from the candidate of Peña Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Jose Antonio Meade: “He represents everything we are fighting against.”
Corruption Scandals
Since Peña Nieto took office in 2012, corruption scandals, many in states ruled by the PRI, have repeatedly rocked the government. However, investigations have mostly tracked personal enrichment rather than how graft is used to finance politics.
“Really? It didn’t favor the PRI in Veracruz, in Quintana Roo, in Nuevo Leon?” said an incredulous Corral, listing states where former governors have been investigated for graft.
When the federal government withheld some $36million in federal financing to Chihuahua after the arrest of PRI operative Alejandro Gutierrez last month, Corral broke with Mexican political etiquette by vocally accusing Pena Nieto’s administration of using the budget as a weapon to control unruly states.
“It’s the carrot for those who behave themselves and the stick for those who behave badly,” he said.
The federal government says funds were cut to Chihuahua for budgetary and technical reasons, not as revenge, and Peña Nieto has criticized Corral for politicizing the matter.
Lonely Crusade
So far, Corral’s crusade has been lonely. While all the presidential candidates vow to crush corruption, several state governors, including some from his own party, have questioned Corral’s claim that the federal government is bullying him.
However, as well as providing a sideshow to an otherwise unremarkable start to campaigning for the election, Corral’s investigation into campaign financing could have consequences for the race itself if it claims more high profile scalps or spreads to other states.
There are already signs Corral’s pressure on the government is having repercussions in his drive to bring his fugitive predecessor Cesar Duarte back to Mexico to face justice and pay back the $300 million dollars Corral says he stole.
Duarte denied accusations of wrongdoing before disappearing from public view. His whereabouts have been unclear since around the time his term finished in October 2016.
This week, Meade sharpened his own rhetoric against corruption. Days later, and five months after Corral first sought his arrest, the office of Mexico’s attorney general announced that it was seeking the extradition of Duarte from a unnamed country believed to be the United States.
Corral welcomed that move, but said too much advance warning was given, maybe allowing Duarte to escape. He said his predecessor must be brought home to face justice.
“We don’t only want him to face the maximum sentence, more than anything we want him to pay back the damage he caused to the state’s wealth,” he said.
The Central Bank of Argentina has reaped nothing but failures throughout its history.
Since its founding in 1935, inflation has averaged 55 percent per year. Since its issuance by the BCRA, 13 zeros have been added to national currency.
The Central Bank of Argentina has reaped nothing but failures throughout its history.
The Argentine state monopoly on money was devised by the conservatives, and, interestingly, those who opposed it were the socialists of the time, denouncing the Argentine state for converting the Central Bank into a source of financing and harming workers.
The last period of hyperinflation, which ended with President Raul Alfonsin, led to the premature assumption by President Carlos Menem that he could iron out the “convertibility law.” At that time — around 1991 — the Austral was replaced with the Peso at a rate of ten thousand to one. The new currency was exchangeable one to one with the US dollar. The impossibility of minting new currency ended with inflation, but as usual the underlying problem of the fiscal deficit had not been solved. The 2001 crisis ended with the 2002 devaluation. In 2003, President Néstor Kirchner took over. Today, the exchange rate is at 19 to one and the fiscal deficit remains the country’s underlying problem.
While the government is looking for alternatives to reduce public spending (many times without success, other times with small victories) economists Nicolás Cachanosky and Agustín Etchebarne have made a monetary proposal that again seeks to end the problem of inflation and the Central Bank’s access to the Argentine dollar.
They agreed that the country needs to create an exchange currency connected to the currency of Canada and Australia. The value of this new currency could be produced with an average obtained from half of the value of 1.5 currency. The proposal comes at an opportune time as it has been two years since President Mauricio Macri has struggled with the inflation problem.
Recently, federal officials acknowledged that they could not meet the inflation targets that had been set at the beginning of the year.
Agustín Etchebarne told the PanAm Post that a conversion was planned with these currencies given the similarities between their economies and Argentina’s.
“When there is a fall in the commodities of Canada and Australia, we see how devaluations occur that do not generate inflation,” the economist said.
According to Etchebarne, both Canada and Australia have a Common Wealth tradition from which “Argentina should never have departed”.
“COSTA Rica is the most beautiful place in the world,” my much-travelled friend Jamie Cox told me last summer. We were chilling out in a basement in Virginia and his tales of the gorgeous coastlines, exotic wildlife and friendly locals were enough to capture my imagination.
Indeed, on the surface it does seem like a prosperous and beautiful nation. Arguably the most politically stable country in Central America, Costa Rica has avoided the military dictatorships and guerrilla wars that have characterised the history of many of its neighbours.
With a high Human Development Index and commitment towards maintaining its natural resources, Costa Rica is poised to legalise same-sex marriage after the Inter-American Court of Human Rights called on Costa Rica and Latin America to recognise equal marriage. Interestingly the country has no standing military, which dates back to a Civil War that ended 70 years ago!
The main buzz in recent times includes Man of Faith (Hombre de Fé), a movie about national goalkeeper Keylor Navas, who plays for Real Madrid, and a plane crash that killed 12 people, including a New York family of five who were holidaying on the Pacific Coast.
In the run-up to next month’s presidential elections, however, a new face has become the main draw in Costa Rica – that of Juan Diego Castro, a right-wing populist lawyer with a presence both on television and social media. Castro may bear the name of Latin America’s most famous leftist, but his political style draws very clearly from that of maverick US President Donald Trump.
My friend Jose Escobar, who attended both the International School of Bangkok and Virginia Tech with me, is a Bolivian who resides in Costa Rica.
He is one of those drawn to Castro’s antics: “He’s a Trump-style candidate who claims to be able to bring down the corrupt establishment with the corrupt cronies and corrupt media. We will see, but so far I am enjoying the show.”
For most of its recent history, the big parties in Costa Rica were the centre-left Party of National Liberation (PLN) and the centre-right Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC). However, incumbent president Luis Guillermo Solis upset the apple cart and won big in 2014 on a reform and anti-corruption platform.
“President Solis was the true president of change that 1.3 million voted in protest of the traditional party PLN (Partido Liberacion Nacional) who has been in power mostly in the last 50 years. But Solis was a major fraud to the citizens. He did very little to change the situation. And worse, he is involved in the biggest corruption case in Costa Rican history – the so-called Cementazo Scandal. He has been a big disappointment,” said Escobar.
The effect of this has given Castro’s message fresh power. The fact that he is running for a little-known party seems to aid his cause.
“The rich supports right-wing PUSC and the middle class are divided into the protest vote of Castro (including Escobar) and the establishment vote of PLN’s Desanti, who is viewed as a master of former President Oscar Arias,” he added.
Arias may be a former Nobel Peace Prize winner, but many are sceptical over the power and influence he wields.
“His last protégé Laura Chinchilla sucked. She was the first woman president, but did nothing to stem corruption and ended up with record low approval ratings. The least corrupt party if you believe it is Frente Amplio, who are friends with the Latin American leftists like Cuba and Venezuela. They have no big scandals, but have not been to power,” Escobar noted.
Ultimately though, it looks like Costa Ricans are leaning right and are tempted by the rhetoric of Castro, who is practically promising to make Costa Rica great again. One wonders if a Costa Rican Trump is really what the country needs.
QCostarica.com was not involved in the creation of the content. This article by Martin Vengadesan (with minor editing by the Q) was originally published on The Star Online. Read the original article.
Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, one of the world’s largest hotel groups, has announced the signing of a new Radisson Blu in Costa Rica.
The Radisson Blu Resort & Spa Papagayo, Costa Rica, will offer 100 rooms and expected to break ground by lat 2019, and opening in December 2010.
Pictures is the Radisson Blu Azuri, Mauritius
The upscale full-service hotel will be part of the Papagayo Peninsula, located on the north Pacific coast of Costa Rica and is in the northwest province of Guanacaste, an area is known for its breathtaking beaches. Neighbors include the Four Seasons Resort and Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Resort.
“We are thrilled to begin the new year announcing our first Radisson Blu in Costa Rica as we continue expanding the brand in Central America,” said Ken Greene, president, Americas, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group. “This signing shows our commitment to growing Radisson Blu’s presence in key markets throughout the Americas, providing travelers with first-class amenities and engaging hospitality through our ‘Yes I Can’ service philosophy.”
Operated by Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, Radisson Blu is one of the world’s leading hotel brands with 300 hotels in operation in 69 countries, mostly outside the United States, including those in Europe, Africa, and Asia.
The summer or ‘dry’ season is upon us and it’s time for the beach. Fotographer Adrián Soto brings us what to expect on Costa Rican beaches in the coming months.
Photo Location: Double Tree Resort by Hilton Puntarenas
Source: Revista Perfíl
Using a drone a group of volcanologists calling themselves Volcanes sin Fronteras (Volcanos Without Borders) were able to give us impressive photos and video of the Turrialba volcano.
The photos were taken in December 2017 and first two weeks of January 2018, during several inspections of the Colossus.
The volcanologists said they were there to work on the newly ejected ash samples, as well as to perform measurements of the activity of the active crater.
On their Facebook page, they posted: “The activity is dominated by intense degassing in the active crater, with sporadic explosions every 30 minutes to an hour. During these (eruptions) fumes and particles of ash are released which reach heights above 300 meters above the crater. In the field, a series of volcanic deposits, Phreatomagmatic-Estrombolianos, generated from October 2014 to date, is clearly observed. In our visits, we saw several explosions of surface origin, with a camera installed in an unmanned aerial vehicle (drone)”.
Using the drone, the volcanologists said they were able to observe at a depth close to 250 meters from the southeast edge of the active crater. There they were able to determine that the inner walls of the southwest crater exhibit slopes that surpass an inclination of 55 degrees and that gives the mouth of the volcano a depth of 126 meters, that is, it is 1.5 times the height of the Banco Nacional building in San Jose, which measures 82 meters high.
The crater measures 69,000 square meters, that is, it covers an area a little larger than the Estadio Nacional (National Stadium) in La Sabana, and that in the background there is an internal crater that measures 189 meters wide from where volcanic materials are emitted such as ash, pyroclastics (fragments of magma) and gases.
“In terms of volcanology, it can be said that the (Turrialba) volcano is an open vent system or open system, where the activity is dominated by the system. In addition, the heat and pressure source is close to the surface, this could generate larger eruptions in a short term. We consider the second hypothesis to be the strongest,” said Volcanes Sin Fronteras.
Through a series of photographs posted on Facebook on Thursday, it is possible to observe the reflection of the filament in the gases released in the upper part of the crater. This type of phenomenon is known in Japan as Gojinka (Japanese Fire God).
“That means that the source of heat and pressure is close to the surface and this could generate larger eruptions in a short time,” said one of the volcanologists of the organization, Gino González Ilama.
The Turrialba volcano, which remained at dormant for years, began in 1996 to show signs of greater activity, but it was not until 2007 that it began to become intense.
After 146 years of calm, it made its first major eruption on January 5, 2010, and then, by an internal force, two new conduits were opened on the southwest wall. Subsequently, the Turrialba continued with cycles of annual eruptions in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
For the experts, October 29, 2014, marked the start of a much more constant activity of the volcano. That day there was an eruption that lasted 13 hours and ended with a very strong emanation of 25 minutes. From that moment, the annual eruptions went through cycles with intervals of 2 or 3 months of relative calm, a situation that has remained until today.
Not to let us forget about it, last Monday, January 15, at dawn, the Turrialba erupted strongly, confirmed by the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico Nacional (Ovsicori) and the Red Sismológica Nacional (RSN). The emanation reached a distance of 12 kilometers from the crater, which makes it presume that the column could have reached a height of a kilometer and a half to two kilometers. Due to the bad weather prevailing in the country on Monday, that eruption could not be appreciated.
The Servicio Nacional de Salud Animal (Senasa) – National Animal Health Service – says it has detected the first bovine paralytic rabies outbreak of the year.
The finding was made in Canoas de Corredores, in the Southern Zone. Specifically in the Guayabal farm, where five cattle died due to the disease.
The affected farm has an exposed population of 40 animals. Senasa established sanitary and quarantine measures on the affected farm. In addition, the Senasa has begun the capturing of vampire-bats to lower the existing population of this flying mammal, which transmits rabies.
“The vampire bat being the main vector for the transmission of this disease,” said Federico Chaverri, director of the Directorate of Operations of Senasa.
Authorities are carrying out an epidemiological investigation on the farm where the outbreak occurred and on the neighboring farms to search for new affected animals.
The exposed animals (cattle and dogs) are being protected through vaccination.
Senasa is also coordinating with the Corredores Hospital and the area Ministry of Health office, to vaccinate people who were in contact with the infected animals.
Rabies is a viral disease that affects the central nervous system of warm-blooded animals, including humans. It causes lack of coordination, difficulty walking, salivation, paralysis of the legs that prevents getting up, twisting of the neck and, finally, death.
Once a person begins showing signs and symptoms of rabies, the disease is nearly always fatal. For this reason, anyone who may have a risk of contracting rabies should receive rabies vaccines for protection.
Seek immediate medical care if you’re bitten by any animal, or exposed to an animal suspected of having rabies. The first symptoms of rabies may be very similar to the flu and may last for days. Later signs and symptoms may include:
Fever
Headache
Nausea
Vomiting
Agitation
Anxiety
Confusion
Hyperactivity
Difficulty swallowing
Excessive salivation
Fear of water (hydrophobia) because of the difficulty in swallowing
Hallucinations
Insomnia
Partial paralysis
It occurs with certain periodicity as part of the dynamics of the sylvatic cycle of the disease. Senasa applies established protocols to respond to outbreaks.
Specialists recommend avoiding contact with sick animals with nervous symptoms, burying animal carcasses, vaccinating animals and immediately reporting any suspicious cases to the nearest Senasa office.
In 2017 Senasa detected 2 outbreaks of bovine paralytic rabies in San Vito de Coto Brus.
President Luis Guillermo Solis came to power on May 8, 2014, and immediately got on an airplane. That made Solis harshly criticized by many who considered that he spent too much of his mandate traveling, prompting the nickname the “Presidente Viajero” (Traveling President), in allusion to Pope John Paul II (1978–2005) who undertook more pastoral trips than all his predecessors combined.
Luis Guillermo Solis was nicknamed the “Traveling Preisdent” for his many (37) trips out of the country to many parts of the world
According to data from Casa Presidential (Government House), from May 2014 to December 2017, the president took 37 trips out of the country, for a combined total of 184 days (6.1 months).
2016 was the year with the most travel by the President, making 11 different trips to different parts of the world, while last year he made only 7 trips, the lowest during his almost 4 years in office.
Graphic by Crhoy.com
Now you too can travel like the Traveling President through an ingenious campaign by Travel Destinations called “Volá como el Presidente” (Travel like the President), promoting international tourism to Costa Ricans (Ticos).
The Travel Destinations offers more than 20 destinations at special prices, including Brazil, Canada,Chile, China, Colombia, England, Guatemala, India, Italy, Mexico, South Korea, Switzerland and the United States, where is was a frequent visitor.
“Destinations knows that our President needs to travel and he also knows that many Costa Ricans want to do so, that’s why we created this promotion that offers excellent discounts so that we Ticos can travel to the destinations that the President traveled,” explains Porfirio Campos, Destinations Manager.
Travel Destinations created an interactive map (CLICK HERE) with all the available destinations. In addition, users can share “Tweets” with Luis Guillermo Solis to recommend new destinations of interest that he has not (yet) visited during his mandate.
Luis Guillermo Solis hands over the presidency to the new president at noon on May 8, 2018.
By the constitution, Luis Guillermo Solis is not permitted to consecutive re-election. Costa Ricans will go to the polls on Sunday, February 4, 2018, to elect a new president and the 57 members of the Legislative Assembly.
It took a while for my husband and I to pluck up the courage to sell our house and most of our belongings then move to Costa Rica, and a continent we’d never visited before with a language we didn’t speak.
So we chose to move to Costa Rica in Central America because we wanted to move somewhere which fitted these main criteria:
A country where you could get permanent residency and buy property – so if we liked it we could settle down permanently;
Non-English speaking but with a widely spoken language – because we wanted our kids to be bilingual;
Cheap – because we had three kids to support and we’d be traveling for a while before we started working again;
Somewhere we’d never been before (which excludes many places in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and South East Asia);
Somewhere with amazing stunning beaches, nature and wildlife;
Somewhere stable where our kids would be safe – we already felt guilty enough about uprooting our children from their peaceful existence, we didn’t want to put their lives in jeopardy too.
Choosing Central America was easy compared to choosing one country within Central America.
3 Reasons Not to Live in Costa Rica
Before leaving New Zealand we spent months researching which Central American country would be best for us before finally settling on Panama and rejecting its more popular neighbor Costa Rica which seemed to be:
1. Too touristy.
2. Too over-priced.
3. Too over-run by expats.
But we kept our options open and decided to travel around Central America and visit as many potential places to live as possible before deciding where to lay our many hats.
We traveled through Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and Costa Rica before finally deciding Costa Rica was the one and only place that really got us excited for permanent residency.
In the end, we knew living in Costa Rica would be the place we’d love most.
3 Reasons You Should Move to Costa Rica Now
So why was moving to Costa Rica preferable to other countries in Central America?
1. Although it’s a popular travel destination Costa Rica is still wild, untamed and rugged.
I guess we’re fussy about beaches having been spoilt in New Zealand but since the one main aim in our lives is to live by a gorgeous beach finding a beach which made the grade in Central America took time.
We finally found those beaches in the Southern zone of Costa Rica.
2. Costa Rica was the only place where the wildlife is really rampant. I hope it stays that way.
When we were in New Zealand we dreamed of seeing toucans (Tucán in Spanish) and in Costa Rica, we had them in our garden every day. Toucans weren’t the only creature we shared our lives with.
We had everything from monkeys and pizote (coati) in our trees to hummingbirds or scorpions in the house and even bats in our toilet. It was quite an experience for the whole family.
3. We discovered that where once we’d have been glad to be the only expats in town that wasn’t fair on our kids.
While we were happy to send them to a local school and keen to immerse them in the local culture and language, we also thought they needed other English speaking kids to hang out with.
So, in the end, having a community of expats nearby in Costa Rica helped us make our Central American experience a success for the whole family because if our kids are happy, we are too.
We ended up spending 18 months in Central America and living in Costa Rica for most of that time.
In the end, it didn’t turn out to be a permanent move for us. The schooling for our children wasn’t great and, although I’m a homeschooler at heart, in practice it’s just not me. I wanted to live somewhere where my kids could go to school so I could have time for writing.
So eventually we packed our bags, waved adios to the tree frogs and toucans then moved to Queensland, Australia which was always plan B.
As backup plans go the Sunshine Coast in Queensland is perfect for us.
It’s a much safer, sensible choice and while part of me still yearns for the adventure and excitement of Costa Rica, the other half rejoices that my kids go to a good school 40 weeks of the year, six hours a day, five days a week leaving me guilt-free time to write.
I’d love to go back to Costa Rica one day and although it didn’t work out I’m very glad we made that brave move.
In fact, I’d do it all over again and who knows, maybe when the kids have left school we will.
Annabel Candy was born in England but escaped as soon as she could to live in France, the USA, Laos, Zimbabwe, New Zealand and Costa Rica. She now calls Australia home.
QCostarica.com was not involved in the creation of the content. This article was originally published on ytravelblog.com. Read the original article.
Diet Coke is getting a makeover to try to invigorate the sugar-free soda’s slumping sales.
Coca-Cola Co. said last week that it’s making its 12-ounce Diet Coke can taller and slimmer, updating the logo and offering the 35-year-old drink in four new flavors: mango, cherry, ginger lime and blood orange. The taste of the plain Diet Coke will stay the same, the Atlanta company said.
Diet Coke sales have fallen as more people switch to other low-calorie drinks, such as flavored fizzy water.
Coca-Cola said the new slim 12-ounce cans are the same ones used for its Dasani sparkling water. Diet Coke will still come in standard 12-ounce cans, as well as other sizes, such as bottles and mini-cans.
“We’re maintaining the essence of Diet Coke while modernizing the brand to invite a new generation of drinkers to try it,” the company said in a post on its website.
Coca-Cola said the new flavors and look — with a different color vertical stripe for each flavor and red for plain — are aimed at appealing to millennials. The company spent two years on the makeover and tested more than 30 flavors before settling on the four.
The changes will show up in U.S. stores by the end of the month and in Canada in February. There’s no plan to launch the makeover in other countries, but the company said other parts of the world are exploring ideas.
No word yet when and if the new look and flavors are arriving in Costa Rica. Emails to the local Coca Cola bottler, FEMSA, the largest franchise bottler of Coca-Cola products in the world, have yet to be answered.
RICO’s TICO BULL – Costa Rica’s first same-sex marriage that was set for today, Saturday, following the Corte Interamerican de Derechos Humanos (Inter-American Court of Human Rights) said last week endorsed equal marriage in Costa Rica and throughout Latin America, has been put on hold.
No, not by the couple having second thoughts about tying the knot, rather by the country’s bureaucracy.
Let me explain.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, based in San Jose, ruled that all of its signatory countries must allow same-sex marriage. The Court recommended that those rights be upheld by way of temporary decrees (executive orders) while the governments amend laws.
To that end, President Luis Guillermo Solis directed government agencies to apply the ruling until the Legislative Assembly adopts new laws.
The Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones (TSE), the government agency that maintains the civil registry, among other agencies, was notified of the order of the executive branch.
In consultation with the TSE this past Tuesday, Mario Arias and Roberth Castillo had the Ok to tie the knot. The date was set. Saturday, January 20. Later, after a visit to the Notary Public, in the evening there would be a party for family and friends to celebrate the union.
But.
Civil marriages in Costa Rica requires the paperwork of a Notary Public, a person licensed by the government to perform acts in legal affairs.
While notaries play a limited role in the United States and Canada legal system, their role is key in Costa Rica and many countries of Latin America, from buying real estate, transfer of vehicle ownership, certifications, wills and trusts, among others. And getting married.
The DNN says it would not authorize notaries to register same-sex marriages until the legislature or the courts annul laws outlawing gay marriage. “The rules that regulate marriage in Costa Rica … remain in force,” said the DNN in a statement.
Predominantly Roman Catholic Costa Rica, as several Latin American countries, still do not allow same-sex marriage. Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay and some parts of Mexico allow same-sex couples to marry.
And while the Costa Rica government is permitting the unions by decree, until the laws are changed, it appears the decree does not apply to Notaries, completely contrary to the Inter-American Court and the Presidential directive.
Of course, the laws will change. “There is nothing stopping the road to equality, but the truth is we don’t know how long it will take to get there,” said Larissa Arroyo, the attorney representing Mario and Roberth, on Friday.
All this bring us to what many of us know well about Costa Rica, “everything simple is made difficult”. That is the Costa Rican way of things!
Despite a resolution of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that guarantees same-sex marriages in Costa Rica, the first gay couple to have tied the knot tomorrow will have to wait.
This morning (Friday), the Consejo Superior de Notariado de Costa Rica (Superior Notarial Council of Costa Rica) confirmed Thursday’s order that notaries cannot marry people of the same-sex.
In the report by La Nacion, the order says, “That, until there is a legislative reform, or an annulment sentence is issued in a constitutional way, the rules that regulate marriage in Costa Rica, specifically the article 14, subsection 6 of the Family Code, remain in force, and for this reason public notaries, in the exercise of their duties, must adhere to them.“
Article 14, paragraph 6 reads, “A marriage is legally impossible between persons of the same sex.”
As reported by the Q on Thursday, Mario Arias and Roberth Castillo, confirmed that they were going to be married on Saturday, January 20 and later in the evening have the reception for friends and family, to celebrate their union.
However, that is not going to happen. At least not tomorrow.
“Due to the recent pronouncement of the Notarial Council, we are evaluating at this time our decision regarding tomorrow and the following days,” Arias told La Teja.
In Costa Rica, for marriages to be registered with the Civil Registry, they must be officiated by a notary public. Lawyers can be notaries, but notaries do not have to be lawyers. Even religious weddings have to be registered by way of a notary to become legal in the country.
In Costa Rica, the Notary Public is the person that will be responsible for recording the marriage declaration in the Costa Rican Civil Registry which in turn is what makes the marriage legal in Costa Rica.
Screencapture of baby being taken away by paramedics
A newborn was abandoned on Friday morning inside the Catedral de Cartago, found by a sacristan, the person in charge of the church, inside a bag in one of the pews on the right side of the church.
Apparently, the little girl was wrapped in cloths and next to some toys. In addition, there was a note that said, “no lo puedo cuidar renuncio a mis derechos noe me culpen Dios me perdonará” (I can not take care of it I give up my rights do not blame me God will forgive me).
Note left behind with the abandoned newborn. Photo from Lateja.cr
The man called police. When the paramedics arrived they saw that the newborn still had the umbilical cord attached. The baby was taken to the Max Peralta hospital, where they reported she is in stable condition.
Screencapture of baby being taken away by paramedics
The authorities are looking for the baby’s mother.
The Airbus A320neo Family aircraft will be allocated among the ultra low-cost airlines Frontier Airlines, Volaris, JetSMART, and Wizz Air
Frontier Airlines could soon be landing in more destinations in Mexico and Central America. The ultra-low-fare Frontier and Volaris, the ultra-low-cost airline serving Mexico, the United States, and Central America announced Tuesday the signing of a codeshare agreement. Frontier passengers could be riding Volaris jets to destinations such as Mexico City; San Jose, Costa Rica; Managua, Nicaragua; Guatemala City, Guatemala; and San Salvador, El Salvador.
Indigo Partners: Frontier, Volaris, Wizz and JetSMART
This agreement – one of the first ever between ultra-low-cost carriers – will also open additional ultra-low fare travel options between Mexico and the United States.
“At Volaris we are thrilled to join Frontier as one of the first ultra-low-cost carriers to enter a codeshare agreement. We estimate that our partnership will add around 20 new destinations to our network and 80 new routes between both Mexico and the United States,” said Enrique Beltranena, Chief Executive Officer of Volaris in a statement on January 16, 2018. “Our goal is to unite families and friends on both sides of the border, and this new agreement with our partners at Frontier will allow us to expand the travel options for our audience while keeping fares low.”
Volaris currently serves destinations in the U.S., Mexico and Central America, of which some coincide with Frontier destinations. The codeshare agreement greatly enhances the potential for connecting itineraries.
“This agreement will allow us to expand upon our mission to deliver low fares and enable more people to fly,” said Barry Biffle, President and Chief Executive Officer of Frontier. “Many customers traveling between the U.S. and Mexico are forced to pay high fares to fly, and this agreement will provide lower fares to a vast majority of the U.S. and Mexico population. As the leading ultra-low-cost carrier in Mexico, Volaris is an ideal partner with which to align and we look forward to working together to deliver low fares to millions of people.”
Frontier is owned by Indigo Partners, an American private equity firm specializing in transportation investments. Volaris is a publicly traded company, but its majority shareholder is Indigo. The two carriers will each receive new jets through Indigo’s record US$49.5 billion deal with Airbus inked in November.
Other Indigo airlines include the European low-cost carrier Wizz Air and JetSMART, the ultra-low-cost Chilean airline, based in Santiago de Chile.
Buffalo is now on the labels of Labatt Blue beer. Photo taken April 9, 2008, by John Hickey
Think of Labatt’s Blue and you immediately think of Canada and hockey. But did you know, at least in the United States, the Labbat brand has its roots in Costa Rica?
North American Breweries, owned by Costa Rica’s Florida Ice & Farm Co., also owns exclusive rights to import and market Labatt Blue and the Labatt family of beers, and the Imperial brand of beer in the U.S.
Labatt USA’s parent company will swap out CEOs next month as it prepares to change course. Kris Sirchio will step down as CEO of Rochester-based North American Breweries after about four years in the role. Adrián Lachowski, who previously oversaw the company’s beer business in Central America, will take his place beginning in February.
The change comes as North American Breweries’ Costa Rica-based parent company, Florida Ice & Farm Co. (FIFCO) prepares to change its business model. Going forward, the company plans to focus more on the company’s commercial business, as well as streamline the company structure by aligning North American Breweries’ practice areas to those of FIFCO, said Ramón Mendiola, FIFCO’s CEO, in a statement.
Lachowski has two decades of experience in the beer industry, most of it with Anheuser-Busch InBev. He joined FIFCO in 2013 as general manager of the Central American beer and flavored malt beverage business. Lachowski, an Argentina national, will work out of the company’s Buffalo and Rochester offices.
North American Breweries (NAB) was formed in 2009. It owns and operates four U.S. breweries and four retail locations in New York, Vermont, Oregon, and Washington.
North American Breweries owns exclusive rights to import and market Labatt Blue and the Labatt beers in the United States. It also owns Genesee Brewery, which makes Genny and Genny Cream Ale.
The Genesee Brewery, based in Rochester, New York, makes and sells the historic line of Genesee beers, Dundee Ales & Lagers, the Original Honey Brown Lager and Seagram’s Escapes. The Washington and Oregon breweries handcraft Pyramid beer, including its famous Hefeweizen, Apricot Ale and Thunderhead I.P.A. Magic Hat is headquartered in Vermont and makes and sells a variety of craft beers including the popular #9. It also regularly features seasonal beers in its rotating series of Variety Packs.
North American Breweries also owns exclusive rights to import and market Labatt Blue and the Labatt family of beers, and Costa Rica’s Imperial brand of beer in the U.S.
FIFCO entered the United States with its purchase of North American Breweries in 2012. Headquartered in Heredia, it has a catalog of over 2000 products, sold in over 15 countries and has more than 6,000 employees.
FIFCO is structured as a holding company with three subsidiaries: Florida Bebidas (food and beverages), Florida Capitales (investments in bottling facilities), and Florida Inmobiliaria (investments in resort hotels).
The company was founded in Siquirres (Limon) in 1908 by two brothers of Jamaican origin, Rupert Cecilio and Stanley Lindo Morales. The newly formed company was dedicated to agriculture and the making of ice. The finca (property) in which the company was located was called “La Florida”, from which the company took its name of “Florida Ice and Farm Company”.
The brothers used an English name due to the fact that English was their native tongue, as it was for many Caribbean migrants who lived in the Atlantic region of Costa Rica. With that same company, they purchased the brewery and beverages business owned by José Traube in 1912. This is how a company that was mainly an agricultural concern entered the beverages market.
In 1958, the company purchased Cervecería Ortega. Founded in 1910 by the Ortega Family of Spanish origin, the Ortega brewery had been one of the main competitors with brands such as Imperial and Bavaria. The consolidation of these breweries allowed FIFCO to make investments in a new brewery and bottling plant [5] which it called “Cervecería Costa Rica” in 1966.[6] The plant is located in Río Segundo de Alajuela.
In 1979 the company went public and commenced trading on the Bolsa Nacional de Valores (the Costa Rican National Stock Exchange).
In the years since FIFCO has diversified, adding brands such as Kern’s and Ducan, purchased the distribution rights for Pepsi Cola in the country, signed a contract with Tsingtao that allowed it to start exporting its beer and refreshments into China, as well as importing Chinese beverages into Costa Rica.
Under contract, FIFCO brews Heineken beer at its facility at La Ribera de Belen (Heredia).
The figurines include representations of warriors and animals, along with hand-crafted spheres and grinding stones made by indigenous people who had lived in Costa Rica for thousands of years
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/image/370226#ixzz54dnjIwZy
Costa Rica said it is “more complete” after recovering nearly 200 pre-Columbian artifacts from Venezuela, where they had been amassed by a wealthy Estonian art collector.
The figurines include representations of warriors and animals, along with hand-crafted spheres and grinding stones made by indigenous people who had lived in Costa Rica for thousands of years. MAYELA LOPEZ, AFP/File
The handover of the 196 stone and ceramic figurines to the National Museum in Costa Rica on Wednesday marked the biggest-ever return of archeological items to the Central American country.
The figurines included representations of warriors and animals, as well as hand-crafted spheres and grinding stones made by indigenous people who had lived in different parts of Costa Rica for thousands of years before Christopher Columbus arrived in 1502.
The head of the museum’s heritage protection department, Marlin Calvo, told a news conference that the artifacts had been taken out of the country via “illicit trafficking.”
They ended up in the possession of Harry Mannil, an Estonian businessman who settled for most of his life in Venezuela and who died in Costa Rica in 2010.
Mannil’s Caracas house operated as a private museum, displaying the many works of pre-Columbian and South American indigenous art he had accumulated.
The pieces returned to Costa Rica were seized by Venezuelan authorities between 2009 and 2014. Mannil had tried to transfer some of them to the United States but was stopped by Venezuela’s customs service.
Venezuela shipped them out on December 24 and they arrived in Costa Rica on January 2 ahead of the formal delivery to the National Museum.
“Today, Costa Rica is more complete,” President Luis Guillermo Solis told the news conference.
“Today, the country, with the return of these nearly 200 items from our heritage, is complemented, is filled up with a part of ourselves that wasn’t with us,” he said.
Solis added the artifacts had “suffered so many humiliations in the hands of those who had illegally grabbed this important part of our history,” and called on the National Museum to display them in a special section.
Fitch Ratings revised the rating of the Costa Rican economy from stable to negative, according to a press release issued by the rating agency.
The agency affirms a ‘BB’, which keeps Costa Rica in a category of high speculation.
Fitch says the negative outlook reflects Costa Rica’s diminished flexibiliyt to finance its rising fiscal deficit and public debt burden, at the same time it is not possible to specify a concrete solution that allows improving public finances.
The ratings agency says “prolonged delays in addressing Costa Rica’s fiscal imbalance will amplify costs of future adjustments and raise risks to growth”.
The negative outlook also reflects Costa Rica’s “persistent institutional gridlock preventing progress on reforms to correct fiscal imbalance”.
Fiths says it expects Costa Rica will be able to manage its liquidity situation, however, tightening market conditions and persistent institutional obstacles point to growing funding challenges.
A year ago, Fitch downgraded Costa Rica from BB+ to BB, and from negative to stable outlook.
The rating agency considers that “the likely winner of the presidential election on February 4, 2018 is very uncertain” and assumes that the winner will have another minority government and “will face challenges of a highly fragmented legislature, which could complicate the creation of coalitions and increase the legislative paralysis and the inertia of the reforms.”
For their part, BB’s rating is supported by structural indicators that are strong compared to their peers, such as high levels of per capita income, social development and government standards, the statement said.
The universal electronic payment system for bus fares will have to wait until 2019, as transport authorities continue with their plan to make travel in public transport easier for users (passengers), bus drivers and operators.
Image for illustrative purposes
The plan being worked on is to allow users to pay the fare electronically with their bank debit or credit card through contactless technology. This would also eliminate the need for bus drivers to keep cash on hand and spend time making change.
In Costa Rica some 4,000 buses operate over 600 routes through concessions granted to operators by the Consejo de Transporte Publico (CTP). If an when the electronic payment system is adopted, it would be universal, in that it would be used on all buses, that is, the user would not have to buy a payment card for each route, thus, it does not matter if you travel in San Jose or Limon.
The latest electronic payment initiative that was presented on January 15 still needs to be worked out, such as who will be the service providers, the cost of fees and other details.
The plan is not new, implementing an electronic payment system has been hovering between the desks of public officials for almost two decades. The difference now is that there is an agreement between the public institutions and the chamber of bus operators and their decision to chose the Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR) – the Central Bank – as the payment regulator.
Some operators, however, have decided not to wait for the start of a national plan and have already implemented they own electronic payments systems, as is the case of the AutopTransportes Desamparados (ATD) using the GoPass system. That system, however, only operates on ATD routes.
The BCCR argues that, to a great extent, the electronic payment system must be open, that is, its architecture must be based on open international standards or, at least, not on a single provider technology. It also has to be universal, that they user can pay passage with the same device on different routes across the country.
The Bank is also concerned about security and transparency, as any system implemented has to be backed by a reliable operational and technological infrastructure and the (payment) providers offer the regulatory entity timely, relevant, complete and reliable information about the operation of the service.
State authorities, bus drivers and technology providers are in agreement with the BCCR’s outline.
One of the key points will be the financing of the system, since the cost of infrastructure and maintenance could fall on the fares paid by users and initially would make the service more expensive.
In Costa Rica, 100% of the costs of public transport is borne by operators through fares paid for the use of the service.
Carlos Melegatti, director of the payments division of the BCCR, said “there are technology providers that sell dreams”. The bank official emphasizing the BCCR’s experience with SINPE, the interbanking payment system it has been operating for almost 20 years, as a safe and secure payment platform.
According to Melegatti, in the country there 8.5 million cards (debit and credit) and of those at least 4 million are contactless.
“To encourage electronic payment we must give the citizens the instrument to pay electronically,” added the BCCR official.
Portugal is the latest of European countries with direct flights to and from Costa Rica. Starting in April, the Ávoris travel operator, part of the Barceló Business Group, will begin weekly flights between San Jose and Lisbon.
The new flight was confirmed Thursday by the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT). This sums up to nine airlines flying from the ‘Viejo Continente’, as Europe is referred to in Costa Rica.
The flight will be by the Evelop Airlines, branded as evelop!, also part of the Barcelo Group, will be on an Airbus 330-300 with a capacity of 388 passengers. At first, the flight will be operated as a charter, but it is expected to later become a regular flight.
“The decision of the Barceló group, to fly to Costa Rica by way of the Evelop airline, is the result of a strategy that includes the strengthening and permanence of the airlines, the attraction of visitors to the country through new tourism products, and the development of tourism infrastructure,” said Tourism Minister Mauricio Ventura.
For his part, Ricardo Fernández, Marketing Director of Ávoris, said that Costa Rica has developed as a very attractive destination for many tourists from Portugal and Europe in general.
So far in 2018, this is the second airline that announces its entry into Costa Rica. On January 2, the South American Latam opened its first direct flight to Peru.
Also, Volaris Costa Rica announced that it will open direct routes to the United States (Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC), starting next March.
