Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Delcy Rodríguez
TODAY VENEZUELA – Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez has rejected statements by Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri, considering them an offense that the Argentine head of State had said that the situation ”is worse” in Venezuela, compared to one year ago.
‘Impoverishment in Argentina in record time under his presidency has been shameful. It is a failure repudiated by his people,’ the Venezuelan foreign minister wrote on Friday night on her Twitter account.
The Argentine statesman’s recent statements to the Spanish media were considered by Caracas an interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs.
In several messages posted on Twitter, the Venezuelan foreign minister stressed that ‘the world has witnessed with astonishment how Macri has ruled for his family and his corrupt companies.‘
‘In Argentina, Macri hides due to his fear of being repudiated by the Argentine people in any corner. Cowardice rules him,’ Delcy Rodriguez said.
On February 15, 2016, during a meeting held at the headquarters of the United Nations, Rodriguez defended the right of the non-interference of the peoples’ affairs, as well as full respect for their sovereignty, through international legal treaties.
TODAY CUBA (Varadero, Cuba) Two hotels in this resort, the largest and most important in Cuba, stand out today in the All-Inclusive Resorts in the Caribbean region, a prestigious website specializing in tourism reported.
The mentioned facilities are the Royalton Hicacos Resort and Spa Hotel, and the Iberostar Varadero Hotel, the online travel website TripAdvisor stated, cited by Giron weekly.
The Royalton Hicacos Hotel has more than 400 rooms, it is designed primarily for adults, is a favorite for weddings and honeymoons, and is operated by the Canadian Blue Diamond chain along with the Cuban company Cubanacan.
The Iberostar Varadero Hotel has about 390 rooms and its activity in the so-called ‘smokeless industry’ is the result of the combined work of Cubanacan with the Spanish Iberostar.
TripAdvisor also gave credits in Cuba to the Paradisus Rio de Oro Hotel, in Holguin (east); the Melia Cayo Coco Hotel, of the Jardines del Rey tourist center (Ciego de Avila); and the Royalton Santa Maria Hotel (Villa Clara), the two latter in central Cuba.
This recognition, issued by the opinion of visitors to these properties on the important website, endorses the significance of the product, beauty, hospitality and quality of the tourists services.
Popular destinations in Cuba include: Havana, Trinidad, Vinales, Cienfuegos, Varadero and Santiago de Cuba.
Gustavo Mata, ministry of public security, appearing before a legislative commission this Thursday past. Photo Graciela Solís, La nacion
Q COSTA RICA – Costa Rica’s Ministerio de Seguridad Publica (minister of Security), Gustavo Mata, has denounced an increase in drug trafficking in the country, and asked legislators to accelerate the approval of the bill on “Annulment of Ownership” in order to strengthen the fight against organized crime.
The minister made the remarks during his appearance on Thursday before the legislative members of the Comisión de Seguridad y Narcotráfico de la Asamblea Legislativa (Legislative Commission on Security and Drug Trafficking).
The Ley de Extinción de Dominio, explained the minister, will allow the state to seize assets from those who cannot demonstrate, in the short-term, the legitimacy of their acquisition.
“We can not fight the monster (organized crime) with a kitchen fork, we need that law,” he emphasized.
“There is no beach in Costa Rica where the narco (drug traffickers) has not penetrated with a boat of cocaine from Colombia,” Mata said.
The minister showed lawmakers a map provided by intelligence agencies in Colombia, which shows the traces of narco ships from that country.
Source MSP
According to Mata, for 2017, Colombia is projected to have a production of more than 2,000 tons of cocaine, which will be passing through Costa Rica on its way to other parts of Central America to get to the major market, the United States.
In addition, Costa Rica suffers from the arrival of loads of marijuana, coming from Jamaica. “These Jamaican criminal organizations work jointly with similar gangs in Costa Rica, in the province of Limon, leading to many of the murders last year,” Mata added.
He added that measures have been taken this year to deal with drug trafficking. These include the acquisition of coastal radars and new equipment to be donated by the United States. Among these donations are two boats that will start operating later this year. Each of these ships has the capacity to accommodate a crew of 25 and to stay at sea for more than a month at a time.
As well, the minister told the commission, 1,500 new police officers have been hired, of whom 1,000 are already to be on the streets at the end of the year.
La Tasa Básica Pasiva (TBP) se ubicará en 4,55% y la Tasa Efectiva en Dólares (TED) en 2,19% ambas a partir del jueves 16 de febrero.
The Central Bank this week hiked the Passive Base Rate to 4.55% and the Effective Rate in Dollars to 2.19% that will hold until next Thursday.
Q COSTA RICA – After last week’s decline, Thursday morning (February 16) the Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR) – Central Bank of Costa Rica hiked the Passive Base Rate (Tasa Básica Pasiva or TBP in Spanish) from 4.50% to 4.55% in Colones and the Eeffective Rate in U.S. Dollars (Tasa Efectiva en Dólares or TED in Spanish) from 2.03% to 2.19%.
Both the current TBP and TED that will remain until Thursday February 23.
The Central Bank sets the TBP and TED each week at the close of business on Thursdays and in effect until the following week.
The Passive Base Rate is an average of deposit rates in colones given by financial institutions for maturities of 150-210 days.
To mitigate the increase in the price of the U.S. dollar in Colones, the Central Bank sold in 2016 about US$815 million of its own reserves (14%).
The monetary reserves of the Central Bank are the U.S. Dollars that the entity has to face external difficulties. Part of these reserves comes from Government deposits in foreign currency at the Central Bank;another, the deposits made by the commercial banks for the reserve (part of their deposits), and another is the Central Bank’s own.
Dollar Exchange Rate. In the past month, the dollar exchange rate has gone from a buy of ¢548.01 and sell of ¢560.59 on January 20 to ¢555.98 and ¢568.92, respectively, today (February 18). See BCCR chart.
The group brings together companies and professionals in the health sector
The group brings together companies and professionals in the health sector
Q COSTA RICA – Pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, medical tourism companies, laboratories, pharmacies and research centers are part of the new Costa Rican health chamber, the Cámara Costarricense de la Salud.
The chamber arose from the previously the Consejo para la Promoción Internacional de la Medicina de Costa Rica (Promed) – Council for the International Promotion of Medicine of Costa Rica.
The Cámara consists of hospitals, clinics, professionals, universities, life and health insurance, health cooperatives, pharmacies, representatives of the medical industry, clinical laboratories, pharmacies, research centers, medical tourism companies, wellness and retirement.
At the moment this group already has 95 members.
The group said that they “… intend to work with the state to assist in generating solutions to the challenges of the health system.”
Its president, Efraín Monge, told Nacion.com that “…We believe in the need to strengthen public-private partnerships based on the quality of services and medical products.'”
According to the latest Encuesta Nacional de Ingresos y Gastos de los Hogares (ENIGH 2013) – National Survey of Household Income and Expenditure, the monthly expenditure of Costa Rican households in medical products, external health services and hospital services tripled in real terms between 2004 and 2013. The It rose from ¢11,430 colones per month on average in 2004 to ¢35,388 in 2013.
Hilary Duff and Matthew Koma in Costa Rica for Valentine’s day. The couple stayed at the Four Seasons, in the Papagayo Peninsula, in Guanacaste
Hilary Duff and Matthew Koma in Costa Rica for Valentine’s day. The couple stayed at the Four Seasons, in the Papagayo Peninsula, in Guanacaste
COSTA RICA EXTRA – Hilary Duff, 29, in a s tunning in white bikini bottoms and a matching tank top tied up tight to show off her rock-hard abs, spent a sunny Valentine’s Day in Costa Rica with new beau Matthew Koma and didn’t give a sh*t about being photographed, “canoodling” as one gossip rag put it, with her latest boy toy in Costa Rica.
In plain sight, the Hard to Love singer, wasn’t going to let watchful eyes deprive her of the pleasures of a public groping and us of that bikini body and butt.
Surely she has to know that it’s impossible to bend over in a two piece bikini without the entire world and the Internet watching.
Duff’s romance with Koma is blossoming while her ex-husband, Mike Comrie, with whom she shares a young son, has been confirmed by PEOPLE magazine of being investigated by Los Angeles police for alleged sexual battery or a woman Saturday at his West LA condo. According to TMZ, the 36-year-old Canadian insisted that the encounter was consensual and he’s known the woman for years. Duff and the former hockey player officially divorced in 2016 after separating in 2014.
Duff and Koma were in Costa Rica this past week for a getaway Vaentine’s Day trip. The couple stayed at the Four Seasons Costa Rica located at Papagayo Peninsula, in Guanacaste.
From the photos it’s clear the 29-year-old star loves a good trip to the beach. In each picture Duff wears an ear-to-ear grin on her face, and who can blame her? Is there anything better than a relaxing trip to a tropical country?
Q COSTA RICA – Migrants could be tempted to return home if exempted from paying taxes on their savings and given opportunities to build on their foreign experience, an intergovernmental think-tank said in a major report on Friday (February 17, 2017).
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) urges poor countries to invest in policies that can lure back citizens and convince them to stay.
The OECD says that the number of international migrants has doubled in tha past quarter century, reaching 240 million.
“Return migration is a largely underexploited resource. With the right policies in place, return migrants can invest financial capital in business start-ups and self-employment and have the potential to transfer the skills and knowledge acquired abroad,” the report said.
The OECD researchers found that attracting back migrants who had gained experience or education abroad was a top economic priority for governments in the 10 countries they examined.
The study looked at Costa Rica, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Morocco, Georgia, Armenia, Cambodia and the Philippines.
It said measures which could persuade migrants to return included abolishing taxes on savings they bring home, providing opportunities to use skills acquired abroad, offering refresher courses to help them re-enter the job market, and boosting social and health services.
In Costa Rica, which had the highest relative spending on social and health services – some 16%of GDP, 95 percent of migrants who had returned home said they intended to stay, according to the study.
By comparison, 64% of returnees wanted to stay in the Philippines, where authorities spend about 2% of the country’s GDP on public welfare services.
The study’s results were based on interviews with more than 20,500 households, the Paris-based OECD said in a statement.
Torino Capital argues, however, that “whether Venezuela was in hyperinflation last year is of course a different question of whether it will eventually end up in one”
TODAY VENEZUELA – Economists of think tank Torino Capital affirm that Venezuela did not show any hyperinflation process in 2016, putting the inflation index at 404%.
“Venezuela is not in hyperinflation. The best existing estimates for 2016 point to an economy experiencing a high inflation episode with inflation of around 400%, well below conventional hyperinflation thresholds,” they claimed.
“Our estimate of inflation, based on Bayesian econometric techniques, puts annual inflation at 404% as of December of 2016,” they explained.
Torino Capital argues, however, that “whether Venezuela was in hyperinflation last year is of course a different question of whether it will eventually end up in one”
In this way, the experts ruled out an inflation forecast above 600%. For them, they “not only are they inconsistent with the majority of data-driven empirical exercises intended to replicate a complete basket of goods and services approximating a price index. They would also imply a contraction in some key macroeconomic aggregates such as spending and money growth that would be unlike what has been observed before for comparable episodes in other countries.”
Torino Capital argues, however, that “whether Venezuela was in hyperinflation last year is of course a different question of whether it will eventually end up in one.”
“Whatever estimate we choose, it is clear that inflation accelerated significantly last year from the 2015 181% rate. Our forecast that inflation will begin to decelerate now hinges crucially on the size of the government deficit that will need to be monetized hereon,” the experts said.
Donald Trump took to Twitter to call on the Venezuelan government to release political prisoner Leopoldo López. Alongside his message he posted a picture of himself with Lilian Tintori, Mike Pence and Marco Rubio
TODAY VENEZEULA – President Donald Trump has called on the Venezuelan government to release political prisoner Leopoldo López, following a meeting last night with the man’s wife and Senator Marco Rubio.
López, who is the leader of Venezuela’s opposition party, Voluntad Popular, was jailed for nearly 14 years on charges of inciting violence at anti-government protests in 2014.
US-educated Mr López was jailed for 13 years last year for allegedly inciting violence at anti-government protests in 2014
Following a meeting at the White House with the prisoner’s wife, Lilian Tintori, the President took to social media to call for action.
The meeting came at the end of a busy day for the President, which included a meeting with Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu followed by a press conference.
Tintori has campaigned for her husband’s release since his sentence. She called the Venezuelan government a ‘dictatorship’
Tintori, who is a television and radio star in Venezuela, said she told Trump of the ‘humanitarian crisis’ in the country, which is led by a radical Left-wing government.
She also took to Twitter to thank Trump and Pence ‘for standing with the Venezuelan people & our aspirations to restore democracy to our country’.
Lilian Tintori y Donald Trump
She added in Spanish that President Nicolás Maduro’s government was a ‘dictatorship’ that left its people ‘without food or medicine’.
Rubio was at the White House with his wife Jeanette for dinner with Trump and his wife Melania, although the President’s former campaign rival refused to reveal what was to be discussed at the meeting.
López was educated at Harvard University and has led the opposition to Venezuela’s socialist government since 2009.
Before then he was mayor of a district in the capital city of Caracas but in 2008 he was barred from running for re-election for allegedly misusing public funds – an allegation for which he was not tried or convicted.
His arrest provoked outrage and his sentence was criticized by the United Nations as well as the US Government.
Lilian Tintori takes to the streets of Caracas
In 2015 he went on a month-long hunger strike in his cell, demanding the release of political prisoners and international observation of elections.
Since her husband’s imprisonment, Tintori has campaigned for his release.
Trump has not spoken publicly about López’s case before.
The President’s call came as it emerged the Venezuelan government ordered the suspension of CNN’s Spanish-language service from its airwaves, accusing it of distorting the truth in coverage.
Rubio was attending a dinner with Trump at the White House. He refused to reveal what the meeting was about
Rubio was attending a dinner with Trump at the White House. He refused to reveal what the meeting was about
The network had irked the socialist government with various reports, including one alleging that Venezuelan passports and visas were being sold illegally at the embassy in Iraq.
But speaking on Wednesday, President Maduro said he did ‘not want problems with the Trump administration’.
He added: ‘We want respectful relations.’
The ruling United Socialist Party was founded by Hugo Chávez in 2007.
Venezuela vice-president Tareck El Aissami (left) with President Nicolás Maduro
Chávez, a former revolutionary, was elected to power in 1999, following a failed coup seven years earlier.
He was President for 14 years until his death in 2013 and was regarded as one of the most controversial leaders in Latin America.
Q COSTA RICA – The analysis of the 5.5-magnitude earthquake occurred last November 30, in Capellades, enabled scientists Lepolt Linkimer and Gerardo J. Soto to discover a new geological fault in Costa Rica.
Linkimer explained that the fault lies between Turrialba and Irazu volcanoes, five kilometers away from each other, is about six kilometers long and located 45 kilometers southeast from the capital.
He also stated that the break of the earth’s crust is exactly placed between Liebres farm and the headwaters of Toro Amarillo river.
The scientist of the National Seismological Network, belonging to the University of Costa Rica, said that the fault still had no name and added that they were generally named after the place where they were located.
(Remezcla.com) On Wednesday, February 1, Beyoncé notched another collective internet meltdown when she unexpectedly posted an Instagram photo announcing her pregnancy. The next day, she treated us to a larger collection of gorgeous maternity photos rife with Yoruba imagery – a perfectly fitting reference as Beyoncé is expecting twins.
The ethereal underwater shots and a sweet image of big sis Blue Ivy Carter gingerly kissing Beyoncé’s baby bump – among others – looked so effortlessly beautiful that they may have belied amount of work that went into staging them.
You’re already a fan of Daniela Vesco, you just don’t know it yet. Her work is as ubiquitous as Beyoncé herself these days.
Huffington Post
Behind the scenes, a group of photographers worked to carry out Awol Erizku and Beyoncé’s vision.
Among them was Costa Rican photographer Daniela Vesco, a key component of Parkwood Entertainment – Beyoncé’s 7-year-old management company – and the woman who captured the superstar throughout her six-month Formation Tour.
Beyoncé’s ‘I have three hearts,’ Photo by Daniela Vesco
Nowadays, Vesco – a photographer and digital design manager for Parkwood – populates her Instagram account with images of Bey on stage, as well as some candids thrown in for good measure. It was exactly 52 weeks ago that Vesco uploaded her first Beyoncé-related post: an image of Sophie Beem, a 17-year-old singer-songwriter signed to Parkwood. Vesco followed that up with a February 7, 2016 image of Beyoncé at the Super Bowl. “Best few days of my life shooting @Beyonce for the Super Bowl! #superbowl50,” she wrote. A year later, it’s safe to say that 33-year-old Daniela, who’s loved photography since childhood, has likely felt this way on more than one occasion.
Beyoncé’s Formation World Tour, Photo by Daniela Vesco
15 years ago – as Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child dominated the charts – Vesco first dipped her toes into the world of photography. The then 18-year-old interned at ING Models in New York City, but she didn’t immediately jump into a photo career. She returned to her native Costa Rica and decided to pursue another one of her passions: medicine.
“So I went to med school in Costa, and I never finished,” she told me in a phone interview. “But while I was in medical school I knew, I always knew I wanted to be an artist. I knew I wanted to go into the arts and I loved sciences, and then when I finished the first part of my medical degree in Costa Rica, I knew I wanted to do photography. I sat down with my whole family and I was like, ‘guys, I’m leaving Costa Rica, and I’m gonna go to Paris.’”
Daniela enrolled in the Spéos Photographic Institute, and has exclusively worked in this medium since then. She worked at Fish Tank Studio, Madonna NYC 83, and Richard Corman Studio.
Her last pre-Bey job was pretty sweet. For someone proud of her Costa Rican roots and who loves documenting people, her role as photo and video editor role at Vivala offered the best of both worlds. She took photos, created artwork, took video, and did interviews. She enjoyed it, but eight months later, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity arose.
Still from ‘Gimme All Your Love’ video, Photo by Daniela Vesco
“I obviously had to take it,” Daniela said. “It’s just one of those things that it’s do or die, it’s now or never, and when you see that little window cracking a breeze, you just have to go through it. You just have to do it. I threw myself in, I guess. I knew there was a big risk that I was just gonna fall into an empty pool and hit my head, but luckily there was water in there, and I’m still swimming.”
Beyond acknowledging her excitement, Vesco is fairly reticent on specifics about her working relationship with Beyoncé – which is unsurprising considering how notoriously private the superstar is. While Bey’s recent music mines vulnerable parts of her private life – her insecurities, her sexuality, the heartbreak of infidelity– she retains an impressively tight control over her image. So tight, that she’s managed to drop two massive surprise albums – complete with fully-realized visuals – that no one saw coming, despite the fact that hundreds of people must have worked on them. One can only imagine the ironclad NDA a photographer has to sign in order to capture images of some of Beyoncé’s most intimate moments. At this point, the Knowles-Carter ship has fewer leaks than the White House.
But while Vesco won’t reveal much, her photos speak for themselves – and so do the eager reactions to her work. On October 8, she posted her last image from The Formation Tour on Instagram. Followers flooded the comments with compliments and thanked her for beautifully capturing it all. Vesco – overwhelmed – took in the kind words. But the work isn’t surprising considering she couldn’t abandon photography, even as she flirted with becoming a doctor. For Daniela, life just makes sense with her camera by her side.
“I constantly have this FOMO with photography and I shoot everything even if I don’t look back at it,” she said. “Take it, just take your iPhone out and take it if you don’t have your camera on you, and just keep practicing and think of a way [to grow.] This video I saw of Steven Meisel in, I think, the late 80s or early 90s. He was photographing a bunch of supermodels. The models are all pretending to play music and sing and stuff. He’s directing them and he says ‘stranger, weirder, nastier,’ and those words stay with me. I love it because sometimes you get stuck as a photographer. You’re shooting the same thing over and over. But my mantra that works for me is ‘stranger, weirder, nastier,’ and I try to keep to one of those words to try to push it a little bit more.”
Q24N (Forbes.com) – It’s January 5th, 2009 the first trading day of the new year. I’m Co-Head of Investments at Ramius Capital, leading our team meeting getting everybody excited and prepared for 2009 (following the global financial meltdown of 2008). My boss’s assistant hands me a slip of paper, “Tom would like to meet with you.”
She said it was urgent.
One hour later my job had been eliminated. Instantly, I joined tens of thousands of other unemployed investment professionals in the worst market crisis since the Great Depression. I was shocked.
Richard Fertig
I was at Ramius for 8 years. I helped grow the business from $100 million dollars under management to $4 billion dollars at peak, and from 4 people to 50 plus. And just like that, just like we let other people go, I was dismissed. I got it – it was critical for their survival. It was not personal. It was business. However, I just didn’t see it coming. I thought I was on the inside of the inner circle. In one instant, it became apparent that I was on the outside.
I had never been laid off or fired. I had always been recruited. I was never unemployed. I was always employed and hard-working. That was who I was. I recognized in many ways, my career helped define me. Now I had no career or job. This was a very difficult period but I remained upbeat. I spent 40, 50, 60 hours every single week pounding the pavement calling, emailing, meeting in person being interviewed looking for my next job. After all, I had three young children and a family to support plus mortgage obligations. So while the financial world was still in chaos, that did not negate or minimize my financial needs or my desire to contribute to society and grow personally. I was not done. There was lots I still wanted to learn and accomplish in life. This was the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey, only I didn’t know it then.
I was born and raised in Costa Rica. Spanish was my first language and I moved to the United States when I was 10. My father, an American entrepreneur himself, designed a life that allowed him to live in Costa Rica and operate a successful mail-order business remotely. Because he had no formal education, he prioritized education for my sister and I and we attended private schools in both Costa Rica and eventually in New York City as well. I graduated near the top of my class and ultimately went to Cornell University.
In 1994, I married a remarkable woman I started dating second semester of senior year (1991) at Cornell. She was incredibly intelligent and beautiful and driven. She wanted to be an Orthopedic surgeon (which to date remains a male-dominated medical field). She and I were equally ambitious and motivated and gave each other support and freedom to pursue our careers.
In fact, when I was accepted at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1998, she supported my choice although she was a medical resident living in NYC. My second year at Wharton, I was recruited by a top investment firm, The Blackstone Group. There I managed the founders’ wealth in a variety of alternative hedge fund investments.
Eventually, I was recruited by Ramius Capital Group in 2001 and joined as the fourth employee in the hedge fund of funds group with about $100 million under management.
I ultimately became a Co-Head of Investment of that group which meant that I was largely responsible for all investment decisions: where to invest capital, which asset classes, which hedge fund managers, and dollars committed. Increasingly, as we grew the institutional investors base, my role incorporated marketing and client relations as well.
Then in 2008 the world’s financial market started to collapse. While our funds performed admirably in perhaps the most challenging marketing conditions since the Great Depression, nonetheless, we suffered losses. On a relative basis, we performed well – we beat our benchmarks, suffered smaller losses than many of our peers and competitors. Yet, the reality is, nobody wants to lose money. As we recognized the extent of the financial crisis, we prudently began to cut our expenses and headcount. Starting in 2008, we began a series of probably four or six rounds of layoffs. This was really troubling. Figuring out which of our staff, which of our team that we had so carefully crafted and put together would be eliminated. That was a most challenging and emotional period, but nonetheless we had to do it. Every time we trimmed we thought we’re being prudent and conservative in trimming more people than we needed such that we never have to trim again. And I remember saying to our team, “Rest easy since you made this cut and are listening to this speech, you are safe. We don’t need any future cuts.” Although the sentiment was sincere, none of us expected the severity of the global collapse, the speed and the depth and how much destruction occurred. And so we were faced with real hard business and life decisions about how can we survive as a business and continue to serve our client’s best interests. Which led to a second rounds of layoffs and then the third round and the fourth round and on and on.
Those were very difficult decisions but it was necessary. Remaining rational during irrational periods is critical as a business person, an entrepreneur, an individual, as a father.
And this brings us back to where we started. January 5th, 2009 – a day that changed my life forever. I can still remember all the vivid details – the boardroom table, who was seated where, how I received the note, how I walked down the hallway knowing my fate was sealed. And, objectively, I can also see it from a distance – how it was not personal. How it was necessary. How I would do the same thing. And, while many became bitter, I became driven to get back to it and not depressed or upset. It was time to move on – forge the next chapter of my journey.
I aggressively pursued employment opportunities but none surfaced. At the time, this period of my life was the most challenging I ever faced. I was unable to get a job. In fact, what was infuriating was I wasn’t even being rejected from job opportunities. I could not get either a “yes” or even a “no”. All these people that would have loved to hire me and previously hired headhunters to hire me and bring me over to their firm to help them to grow their business would meet with me. However, they were so shell shocked and worried about their own jobs and their own firms and their own fears that there was a hiring freeze and they too were laying off. They were happy to meet with me and see me and dream how they might fit me in. However, at the end of the day, they had to sit their hands and do nothing and so they didn’t even reject my candidacy because they wanted to keep the door open for if, and when, the storm passed.
And so, it was really frustrating. I had these open opportunities and interviews and I couldn’t close any of them and I couldn’t move forward. I felt that I was banging my head against the proverbial wall. I kept doing it until I realized that it was futile that there were no jobs in my chosen field and literally nobody was hiring and I recall thinking “Do I not add any value? Have I no utility that I can offer?” I would have gladly sat at any desk for free just to be intellectually stimulated. But I couldn’t even get that.
I faced the reality and I said, “I’m ready willing and capable.” I recognized that the market wasn’t receptive at this time and that time needed to pass and so with that, I started thinking of other opportunities and other things that were important to me as an individual. I started to run, I got really fit, which I have embraced and taken to new levels consistently every single year. I am in better shape today than I have ever been. Being active and healthy keeps me mentally alert and gives me strength. Ultimately, I decided I would give myself a break and take some time to think and recharge as summer approached. I decided to take the summer off and spend it in the Hamptons. I always wanted to do that and there were no job opportunitiers, I was not working, and so I turned to my wife and said, “I’m going to go to the Hamptons this summer and I’m going to figure it out what I’m going do. I’m going to take this time to recharge and rebuild and to figure it out.”
In this process, I recognized that I always had a yearning to be an entrepreneur. My father, although he had no formal schooling, was an entrepreneur. He was a self-made man and he was very successful and he was my role model. He influenced me and my outlook and his self reliance and entrepreneurial spirit was something that I always admired but had never really explored. Having the benefit of two Ivy League educations, I walked a more traditional linear path and was intrigued by finance and was fortunate enough to be recruited by top firms. I never really paused to think about the alternative. I wanted to work for myself, I wanted to create something out of nowhere. I wanted to risk it all and see how good I am. I was confident, I was capable, I was willing, and I was able.
I wanted be an entrepreneur. Armed with that knowledge, I went to my wife and said, “Honey I’ve got some really good news”
She said, “Oh yeah what is it?” (Praying I got a job).
I replied, “I decided I’m going be an entrepreneur!”
She looked at me concerned and said, “Really? You think now is the right time? The world is still blowing up, you can’t get a job, and you think now is the right time to start a new business?”
I said, “Yes often times during periods of dislocation it’s great to be optimistic and invest capital because everyone else is removing capital. In fact, we’ve made tons of money investing in a contrarian style. Yeah, I think it’s a great time to start a business.”
“Okay, tell me more. What is your business is going to do?”
I said, “Well I’m not exactly sure what the business is I’m going to create but I am going to figure it out.”
She was not amused and said, “I’m sorry this is supposedly a good news? The good news is that in the worst financial crisis in the world you’re going start a business and you don’t know what the business is going to do and I’m supposed to be happy about this?”
“Yeah, I’m thrilled and I don’t understand why you don’t share my excitement but thanks so much for the support. Now, I have a lot of work to do, I have to figure it out what I’m going to do.”
With that decision, that I was going to take charge of my life and become an entrepreneur and be responsible for my thoughts, time, business, culture, employees, clients and so on I started the next leg of my life. I started from scratch. Literally thinking about a million business opportunities and trying to determine what business to start. In the next blog, I’ll tell you more about the process and then ultimately the first business I launched.
Today (more on future blogs so stay tuned!), I successfully run three distinct businesses in different industries including: high end executive and event transportation services globally, a SaaS software company and a fledgling online real estate educational content company. Things are incredibly bright but never in a million years did I envision the path from there to here. I encourage you to read future blogs for all the interesting business models, pivots, obstacles and the business journey itself.
ut, one important update to cover in this initial blog to frame my current situation, mind frame, and opportunity set is personal. Very personal. And, I transparently share it with you because the point of this blog is to inform, encourage, motivate and learn.
I was happily married for 22 years and am now, very recently, happily separated. And, suffice it to say, the decision to separate was not my choice. I believe you cannot control other people’s actions, but you can, and should, control your own. I am eternally optimistic (aren’t all great entrepreneurs?) and am fortunate to see every crisis or bump in the road as a required hiccup on the way to ultimate happiness and success. In my personal life journey, I am confident that my entrepreneurial background is extremely helpful – I’m always expecting the unexpected and seizing opportunity. Contrast that with the population at large. Many freeze during periods of discomfort. The unknown can be paralyzing. To embrace risk and challenge and to seek personal growth and development irrespective of the outcome, is truly a blessing.
I’m really proud of how quickly I navigated the void, the loss, and the grief. So many people get stuck for a significant period of time. However, from my perspective, I’m 46 years old, healthy, fit, eager and excited and I look at this new life status change as a great gift. I have the opportunity to write the next chapter of my life and I want to get on with it immediately. I do not want to waste 1 minute, I don’t even want to waste 1 second. I want to figure out what my next steps are and what I really want to do and come up with a game plan to execute. In fact, this is a very similar approach and methodology, and parallel in a lot of my thinking, when I run my businesses.
In the next blog, I will detail the methodology I applied to figuring out which business opportunity to pursue as I began the process of self-discovery, introspection, entrepreneurialism and took charge of my own destiny.
Richard Fertig is currently the CEO of several operating companies ranging from high end event transportation (Brilliant Transportation) to a SaaS software company (LifeZaver).
Q BLOGS – If you want good news about Costa Rica (CR), it is readily available not only from the travel industry but also from the government itself. On the other hand, the reality of living in this country and the news of national, Spanish-language outlets say something different.
I have yet to meet a person who has not complained that Costa Rica is very, very expensive. Yet the Government published reports show that we are doing just fine and inflation is even below 1% for all goods.
However, not true.
For example, gasoline is the most costly in the entire Central America, ergo, another 1% increase can be pretty costly to the wallet. The same with this absurd war on avocados from Mexico. The Hass species now cost about US$1.50 each (¢850 colones) not per pound, but each, and those are home grown.
Based on many factors our Costa Rica credit rating has been reduced to “Junk Bond” category for lack to resolve to trim the budget, raise taxes and reduce astronomical sovereign debt. We are now BB rated. dropping from a BB+ rating by both Fitch and Moody. Translated that means the billions of dollars borrowed are now at super high-interest rates based on the risk of the default factor. Almost 60% of aa borrowings now go to nothing more than servicing foreign debt.
Why?
The Legislative Assembly (Congress) has rarely met to pass legislation and demand both tax increases and budget cuts. “Yes,” it hard to explain why we need to pay more in taxes while the executive budget has increased by 12.1%.
Personally, I do not mind suffering further if the damn bureaucrats suffer along with me. And, that does include the executive branch.
Only today, there is news that the BICSA a quasi-private (Costa Rica international) bank stiffed its own cooperative and employees US$4 million in a bad loan that was not underwritten by land as promised, but only paper promises to pay.
What has failed to reach English language news outlets, not fake news, is that Banco Nacional (BN), the Bacno de Costa Rica (BCR), BISCA, Davidienda and Bac San Jose (BAC) are concerns for debt extension and liquidity.
Costa Rica has just about hit its limit and unless the legislators tackle this, understand the seriouness of the situation, Pura Vida might become “Poor-a Vida”.
Getty
Sitting on this Nicoya Peninsula beach in 90-degree weather sounds a lot better than putting on snow boots right now, doesn't it?
Getty images. Sitting on this Nicoya Peninsula beach in 90-degree weather sounds a lot better than putting on snow boots right now, doesn’t it?
Q COSTA RICA TRAVEL- FLIGHT DEALS (Cntraveler.com) Sun, sand, beach. Sun, sand, beach. After winter storms on the East Coast, we have a new mantra for the rest of winter. And a few full-service airlines, like United and American, are answering the call with discounted fares to Liberia and San José, Costa Rica.
Seven cities in the U.S., from Charlotte to Portland, are included on the deal to Liberia, and 11 cities, including Miami (with fares from $196) and New York, have low fares to Costa Rica’s capital.
The only question is: which city to choose?
For surfers and beach bums, Liberia should be your choice. Located in the northwest corner of Costa Rica, the city is a prime starting point for a trip down the Península de Nicoya. Stop in Nosara at Harmony Hotel, about two hours from Liberia, for a remote enclave of surfers and yoga enthusiasts looking to recharge with a dash of luxury—think an on-site healing center, a juice bar, and a yoga studio. Then, head down to Santa Teresa, the more well-known beach town on the southwest edge of the peninsula, where you’ll likely spot a celeb or two. (Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady have a second home there.)
If you’re looking for more of a culture-heavy trip, book a flight to San José, located smack-dab in the middle of the country. From there you have two choices: stay in San José and check out the gold, jade, and art history museums or head out to the wilderness and try whitewater rafting in Turrialba, canoe through Parque Nacional Tortuguero, or hike among the monkeys in Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio. All choices are a two- to three-hour drive from San José.
Just hoping to escape to a luxury hotel? Take your pick from the nine Costa Rican hotels and resorts that made the cut on in this year’s Readers’ Choice Awards.
To book: Use Google Flights and its calendar feature to find the least expensive fares that work for your schedule. You’ll need to look between February and June for the scattered availability through early summer. About half of the flights are nonstop, according to Thrifty Traveler, who discovered the deal. The cheapest fare is from Miami to San José, but the most expensive fare is $398 from Seattle, where this route usually costs between $500 and $600.
TODAY CUBA – As tattoo art has exploded in Cuba over the last few years, artists have grown accustomed to operating in a legal grey area known as “alegality” – a state of tacit permission that encompasses most anything not directly under the purview of the state.
Photo: Will Coldwell
While this guarantees a constant level of insecurity for the country’s free-market pioneers – in which at any moment government officials can shut you down and seize your merchandise – it has allowed some of the country’s more innovative thinkers to lay the groundwork for the country’s future.
And that’s exactly what Leo Canosa and the crew at La Marca cultural center have done for the island’s booming body art scene. Conceived two years ago as an effort to position tattooing as a legitimate form of creative expression, La Marca’s designation as a cultural center was also a clever way to open the island’s first (somewhat) licensed tattoo studio. But Canosa’s relationship with body art actually extends back over two decades, and the art school graduate was responsible for the first official recognition of a body art event back in 1998 with the project “Lienzos vivientes.”
Foto: Ismario Rodríguez, OnCubamagazine.com
But these days, as growing familiarity with international celebrities revolutionizes the tastes of younger Cubans, Canosa saw the need to uplift the art form and offer a more aesthetic alternative to the proliferation of “tribal tattoos and panthers” that is sweeping his country.
Through a series of concerts, workshops, and gallery exhibitions, Canosa and his collective of tattoo auteurs have sought to instill a cultural appreciation for the history and practice of body art. But while they’re clearly forging new ground, by no means is La Marca looking for a monopoly on artistic validation.
Foto: Ismario Rodríguez, OnCubamagazine.com
“It would be great if we had competition,” Canosa told OnCuba in a recent interview. “That’s what this gallery is about: further developing the idea of tattoos in Cuba, so that others take us as an example.” But unfortunately, after a recent government crackdown on Havana’s informal tattoo parlors left La Marca untouched, simmering tensions with some of their counterparts exploded into accusations and jealousy. “They view us as a threat,” Canosa summarized bluntly.
Foto: Ismario Rodríguez, OnCubamagazine.com
But that won’t stop La Marca from spreading its message and creating an exciting synergy with artists working across disciplines.
“Tattoo artists here in Cuba have been surprised because [La Marca] has opened worlds that we were unfamiliar with, like poster art, which was something we knew nothing about,” Canosa reflected. “That has enriched us, it’s given us the will to push forward, and do new things.”
Foto: Ismario Rodríguez, OnCubamagazine.com
But while La Marca has carved out a semi-legal niche that allows it’s tight-nit crew of artists to thrive, there are still more battles to be waged, starting on a very practical level with Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health. Indeed, Cuba’s alegal limbo has made it impossible for artists to consult with health officials to establish medical and sanitary best practices – a small detail that could mean the difference between a sweet tattoo and a nasty infection.
Foto: Ismario Rodríguez, OnCubamagazine.com
Even so, with their network informal imports and robust exchange with counterparts in countries like Mexico, the crew at La Marca has managed to avoid infectious diseases while garnering an international reputation for their work. Now it’s just up to the Cuban government to catch up.
IRS Revocation or Denial of Passport in Case of Certain Unpaid Taxes
IRS Revocation or Denial of Passport in Case of Certain Unpaid Taxes
Q COSTA RICA – Americans residing in or visiting Costa Rica, may be in for a surprise from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as U.S. tax man is on the prowl for people who have been living abroad but not paying their U.S. taxes each year.
In short, Americans owing more thanUS$50,000 dollars in Federal taxes or have a “serious delinquent tax debt”, could see a revocation or denial of passport.
According to the IRS website, “if you have seriously delinquent tax debt, IRC § 7345 authorizes the IRS to certify that to the State Department. The department generally will not issue or renew a passport to you after receiving certification from the IRS.
From the IRS website: “If you have seriously delinquent tax debt, IRC § 7345 authorizes the IRS to certify that to the State Department. The department generally will not issue or renew a passport to you after receiving certification from the IRS.
“Upon receiving certification, the State Department may revoke your passport. If the department decides to revoke it, prior to revocation, the department may limit your passport to return travel to the U.S.”
Although this in not new, the law was introduced in 2015, the IRS has not yet started certifying tax debt to the State Department, but it could happen in the coming months, ‘early in 2017’ is what the IRS website states.
From the IRS website
Those who have a ‘seriously delinquent tax debt’ to the IRS or ‘think’ they owe the IRS, it is strongly encouraged action be taken asap because having a passport revoked or denied a renewal while abroad could have very serious consequences.
Taxpayer Notification. However, the IRS is required to notify you in writing at the time it certifies seriously delinquent tax debt to the State Department. The IRS will send written notice by regular mail to your last known address.
Reversal Of Certification. The IRS will notify the State Department of the reversal of the certification when: the tax debt is fully satisfied or becomes legally unenforceable; the tax debt is no longer seriously delinquent; the certification is erroneous, to which it will provide notice as soon as practicable.
The notice is within 30 days of the date the debt is fully satisfied, becomes legally unenforceable or ceases to be seriously delinquent tax debt.
Passport Status. If your passport is revoked, the Department of State will notify you in writing.
Travel. If you already have a U.S. passport, you can use your passport until you’re notified by the State Department that it’s taking action to revoke or limit your passport. If the Secretary of State decides to revoke a passport, the Secretary of State, before making the revocation, may limit a previously issued passport only for return travel to the United States; or, issue a limited passport that only permits return travel to the United States.
But, if your passport is cancelled or revoked, after you’re certified, you must resolve the tax debt by paying the debt in full, making alternative payment arrangements or showing that the certification is erroneous. As stated before, the notice can be up to 30 days.
The latest request by Recope could see a drop in gasoline prices before the end of the month
The latest request by Recope could see a drop in gasoline prices before the end of the month
Q COSTA RICA – The volatility of international prices of fuels in the oil market persists, being the main factor affecting prices in Central America.
Despite the instability of oil prices and their fluctuations are permanent factors, predictions about future prices is unpredictable, however, in the recent weeks trends in international prices have been caused by a several events:
Iran has discovered new oil reserves amounting to several million barrels.
Oil prices also deepened their losses amid dollar strength due to signs that US energy firms increased the number of platforms for the thirteenth week.
Effects of OPEC agreements continue to drag on, causing the oil market to be prone to show unexpected changes.
The performance of fracking (unconventional oil extraction) in the United States.
Having said that, following are fuel prices at the pumps in Central America. For comparison, the prices are quoted in US dollars per US gallon, up to February 13, 2017.
Q COSTA RICA (by Wilberth Villalobos Castrillo, vozdeguancaste.com) There’s good news and bad news for central Bagaces residents regarding the arsenic levels in their drinking water.
The good news is that thanks to processing plants that remove arsenic from potable water, average arsenic levels decreased from 13 micrograms per liter (ug/L) in 2014 to 9 ug/L in the second quarter of 2016.
The bad news is that these average amounts are still close to the maximum recommended (10 ug/L) by the World Health Organization (WHO) – meaning that arsenic is still present in Bagaces drinking water.
Plus, measurements aren’t exact, with a margin of error of +/- 2 ug, according to Andrea Suárez, coordinator of the National University’s Hydrological Resources Center for Central America and the Caribbean (HIDROCEC-UNA).
“As well calibrated as the instruments are, a margin of error always will exist of up to 2 micrograms per liter higher or lower,” Suárez said.
So if levels remain at nine, surpassing WHO’s recommended maximum limits remains a possibility.
The data comes from reports by the Costa Rican Water and Sewer Institute’s (AyA) National Water Laboratory for 2015 and 2016. These reports were obtained by The Voice of Guanacaste after a reader from Bagaces expressed concern over arsenic levels in local drinking water.
For Bagaces resident Minor Picado Camareno, having access to information about the quality of the community’s potable water is vital, but he has been waiting since last year for AyA and the Bagaces mayor to respond to requests for that information.
Water samples were taken over eight months in 2015 and eight months in 2016 from different sectors in the canton’s center, including Arbolito, Centro 1, Soda La Fuente, Los Chiles and the local AyA office in Bagaces.
The AyA sees the results as positive, despite the continued presence of the chemical in the water, lab director Darner Mora said.
“The important thing is that central Bagaces hasn’t surpassed the limit for arsenic of 10 micrograms per liter,” Mora said.
Suárez agreed: “We’re recovering from a period of drought. I actually expected arsenic levels to be higher.”
In summer months, water levels decrease, arsenic tends to become more concentrated, and levels often increase.
Zero Would Be Better
Experts agree that in the long term, exposure to arsenic in drinking water – even levels that are below 10 ug/L – could increase the risk of adverse health effects. This is especially true when other factors contribute, such as an individual’s genetic predisposition or long working hours exposed to the sun.
“Imagine that in 50 years you drink water with arsenic and you have a genetic predisposition to pancreatic or kidney problems. This varies from person to person according to nutrition levels, hydration, genetic variability and exposure to pesticides in the field. … This could affect health,” said HIDROCEC’s Suárez.
Before 2001, communities in the canton of Bagaces were drinking water with arsenic levels of up to 71 ug/L, according to a 2014 study by the Costa Rican Institute of Technology.
While a cause has not yet been proven, from 2003-2012, average mortality rates from chronic kidney disease were 81.4 per 100,000 for men in Bagaces. The average for men in Guanacaste was 46.9 per 100,000, according to the study “Meso-American Kidney Disease: Geographic Distribution and Seasonal Trends of Mortality from Chronic Kidney Disease Between 1970 and 2012 in Costa Rica” (“Nefropatía Mesoamericana: distribución geográfica y tendencias temporales de mortalidad por enfermedad renal crónica entre 1970 y el 2012 en Costa Rica”).
For Oregon State University public health specialist Andrés Cárdenas, any amount of arsenic is harmful to health, although it’s difficult to verify the causality between consumption of the chemical and disease.
“Scientifically, it’s difficult to prove if low levels of arsenic do, or don’t, cause cancer. What we do know is that arsenic is harmful to health and it affects many of the body’s systems,” said the Costa Rican expert, who researched the effects of arsenic on epigenetics during pregnancy in various countries.
“The ideal case would be to work toward a solution to the problem to reach zero levels of arsenic in potable water,” he said.
According to Darner Mora, of AyA, the immediate solution is to continue treating Bagaces’ water with arsenic-removal plants until construction is completed on the Epifanía Aqueduct in the Bagaces community of Cuipilapa, scheduled for 2019.
But why is it taking so long if it’s been planned since 2013? AyA engineer Eduardo Tencio said that at least two years of technical studies are required in order to select a water source.
The Epifanía Aqueduct will cost about $7 million and benefit more than 10,000 of the canton’s residents.
Article originally appeared on Vozdeguanacaste.com and is republished here with permission.
TODAY COLOMBIA (Insightcrime.org) Colombia’s prisons are a reflection of the multiple conflicts that have plagued the country for the last half-century. Paramilitaries, guerrillas and drug trafficking groups have vied for control of the jails where they can continue to manage their operations on the outside. Instead of corralling these forces, prison authorities have joined them, while multiple government efforts to reform the system have failed.
The first explosions rang out shortly after the day’s visitors had left Bogota’s La Modelo prison on July 2, 2001. They were the opening shots of a battle that would rage inside for around 20 hours as Marxist guerrillas fought off an assault by right-wing paramilitaries, while the authorities watched, powerless to intervene.
The attack began when paramilitaries blew open the doors to the wings housing guerrillas with explosives and around 150 inmates poured in, assault rifles and machine guns blazing, and grenade launchers firing. Word of the assault had already reached the patio’s 400 guerrilla inmates, who had retrieved their weapons from stash holes in walls, floors, and bathrooms, and had positioned themselves behind barricades.
By the time 500 police and guards retook the prison the following morning, ten lay dead, another 15 were wounded and the guerrilla wing of the prison was in flames. La Modelo was left as one more smoking ruin consumed by Colombia’s civil conflict.
Fifteen years on, and a new investigation into the dark secrets of La Modelo (pictured below) has revealed this was no isolated event — Colombia’s war had entered the prison system.
Prosecutors are investigating the 2001 battle and two more massacres along with the disappearance of over a hundred people inside the prison as well as cases of arms trafficking, drug trafficking, and extortion. It was all part of an orchestrated campaign, says Carlos Villamil, director of the Transitional Justice unit of the Attorney General’s Office, which is handling the case.
Q24N (Insighcrime.org) Donald Trump has targeted organized crime and drug cartels in a new executive order, but beyond the tough talk and bluster there is little to suggest the new US president has any serious strategy to tackle Latin America’s “bad hombres.”
U.S. President Donald Trump’s Plan to Tackle Organized Crime Provides Bluster, No Substance
The order for the task force included requirements for the unit to develop strategies for tackling drug trafficking and illegal immigration, but the most relevant of the executive missives for organized crime in the Americas was the order entitled “Presidential Executive Order on Enforcing Federal Law with Respect to Transnational Criminal Organizations and Preventing International Trafficking.”
According to the document, “Transnational criminal organizations and subsidiary organizations, including transnational drug cartels, have spread throughout the Nation, threatening the safety of the United States and its citizens.” To tackle this issue, it states, “A comprehensive and decisive approach is required to dismantle these organized crime syndicates and restore safety for the American people.”
In the policy section of the order, Trump calls for the strengthening of federal law enforcement, the prioritization of efforts to tackle transnational organized crime, the improvement of coordination between law enforcement institutions both internally and internationally, and for the government to make additional efforts to hamper organized crime, such as through the prosecution of “ancillary criminal offenses” like immigration and visa fraud. The president charged the Threat Mitigation Working Group — an inter-agency body established by the Barack Obama administration — with implementing this policy.
At the signing ceremony, Trump said the order was designed to “break the back of the criminal cartels that have spread across our nation and are destroying the blood of our youth and other people.”
“Today’s ceremony should be seen as a clear message to the gang members and drug dealers terrorizing innocent people. Your day is over,” Trump said. “A new era of justice begins, and it begins right now.”
InSight Crime Analysis
Despite the bold declarations, there is little substance that can be gleaned from Trump’s new executive order covering transnational organized crime. It essentially amounts to little more than announcing vague plans to review and improve law enforcement practices and the legal framework they work within. For the moment it is apparent the president’s tough talk of smashing cartels does not appear to be backed by a strategy that offers anything new to what has long been the US approach to organized crime and the war on drugs.
However, while law enforcement strategy remains for the moment largely untouched, Trump has already had a major impact on what is arguably the central pillar of efforts to tackled transnational organized crime — international cooperation.
One of the US government’s closest and most strategically important allies in combating organized crime, Mexico, is already feeling the strain of the Trump administration’s bombastic approach to international relations. The relationship between Trump and the Mexican government, which was already fraught due to his pledge to build a border wall to keep Mexican immigrants out, has been further damaged by comments implying he is considering deploying US military forces in Mexico to tackle the country’s drug cartels.
According to the AP, which says it obtained a partial transcript of a phone call between Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Trump told his counterpart, “You have a bunch of bad hombres down there. You aren’t doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared. Our military isn’t, so I just might send them down to take care of it.”
The White House later denied the report, but Trump left open the possibility of the US stepping up its direct involvement in combating Mexico’s drug cartels.
“We’ve got to stop the drugs from coming into our country. And if [Peña Nieto] can’t handle it — maybe they can and maybe they can’t or maybe he needs help.”
As well as potentially alienating key allies, Trump’s belligerent and aggressive approach to international relations could also exacerbate or expand the blind spots US counter-narcotics forces already have in operations along the Latin American drug trafficking chain.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has already been ejected from a major cocaine producer, Bolivia, and a major transit country, Venezuela. Another key transit country, Ecuador, has also had a strained relationship with US anti-narcotics forces in recent years. The Ecuadorean government closed down a naval base used for interdiction in the region and the US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) has withdrawn from the country.
Trump’s approach to politics and diplomacy is reason alone for concerns that relations with Latin America are set to suffer, potentially undermining security cooperation. If the president adds to this by loosely deploying the administrative tools at his disposal — such as sanctions, suspension of security aid and the annual naming and shaming of countries the US government deems not to be meeting its obligations to tackle the drug trade — then the president could do untold damage to the United States’ own security operations in the region.
As yet, there is no sign the Trump administration has a vision for a radical new approach to countering drug trafficking and organized crime that would allow the president to fulfill his promises to shatter the influence of drug cartels and “restore” security to the United States. However, the new president has already amply demonstrated his capacity to undermine the bilateral relations that are the bedrock of current efforts against transnational organized crime.
Article originally appeared on Insightcrime.org and repubished here with permission.
Q24N (InSight Crime) Officials in El Salvador agreed to extend “extraordinary measures” to fight organized crime despite doubts about their effectiveness and alleged threats to citizens’ rights, raising questions about the motives for the government’s decision.
The Commission for Public Security and the Fight against Drug-Trafficking (Comisión de Seguridad Pública y Combate a la Narcoactividad) agreed to extend the tough anti-gang measures until 2018, after receiving the support of four political parties, including the ruling Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional – FMLN). The coalition will provide the amount of votes necessary for Congress to approve the policy’s extension during a plenary meeting scheduled for February 9.
The extraordinary measures were first instituted in April 2016 and implemented in some of the country’s penitentiaries in an effort to cut contact between imprisoned gang members and the outside world. The policies, whose second phase of implementation began in August 2016, include provisions for the transfer of dangerous inmates to more restrictive jail conditions, the suspension of inmates’ transfers to legal proceedings, stricter restrictions on visits, obligatory participation in reeducation and work skills programs, and the blocking of electronic communication traffic inside and around prisons.
Governments tend to extend their policies when they yield the expected results, or when the public strongly supports them. But as far as El Salvador’s extraordinary measures are concerned, neither of the two conditions seems to hold true.
Salvadoran officials have attributed the steep decline in homicide rates to the extraordinary measures instituted to fight gang members. Yet the causal relationship between the two remains unclear, as the gangs themselves have taken credit for the drop in violence after allegedly ordering their rank-and-file members to stop killings at the end of March 2016.
And despite the decline in violence, citizens in El Salvador seem to have little faith in the effectiveness of the heavy-handed anti-gang policies. Recent polls have shown that a great majority of them believe the measures are not producing good results. Moreover, the policy is perceived as a threat to the rights and liberties of law-abiding citizens.
Seen in this light, it is difficult to understand why Salvadoran authorities would agree to extend these controversial policies. But there is at least one possible explanation.
Earlier this year, two of the country’s largest gangs, the MS13 and the Barrio 18, called for negotiations with El Salvador’s government. However, authorities so far have refused to assent to public talks with the gangs, and InSight Crime believes they are unlikely to do so.
Nevertheless, government officials have previously held secret negotiations with the gangs, and it is possible that they may do so again. Thus, the extraordinary measures could potentially be used by the government as a bargaining chip that they could use to extract concessions from the gangs.
Q COSTA RICA (Insightcrime) Costa Rica’s Attorney General said local criminal groups are being recruited and trained by Mexican drug cartels, further indication of the evolving relationship between drug trafficking networks in these two countries.
Costa Rican Attorney General Jorge Chavarría
In an interview with El Universal, Costa Rican Attorney General Jorge Chavarría said that the cartels are recruiting local criminals and bringing them to Mexico, where they are taught cartel strategies in order to apply them back home.
While Chavarría did not specify which cartels are doing the recruiting, anti-drug authorities have confirmed that the Sinaloa Cartel and the Zetas are the most active drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) in Central America, according to El Universal. The Familia Michoacana and the Gulf Cartel also reportedly maintain a presence in the region.
Chavarría credited Costa Rica’s rising homicide rate to the Mexicanization of Costa Rica’s criminal groups.
“We have an increase in violence because local drug trafficking organizations are applying the Mexican strategy of controlling territory,” he said.
The attorney general also noted the role of Mexican cartels in driving up the consumer demand for cocaine in drug transit nations such as Costa Rica.
“We have seen an ample expansion [in demand]… The demand is not just in the United States and Europe; there is an internal demand in all the countries in the region, which is obviously growing due to the increasing amount [of drugs] on offer, because collaboration for trafficking drugs to the United States is paid in drugs and not in dollars.”
While Costa Rica has long been a crucial transit zone for Mexican cartels looking to move cocaine to the United States, the recruiting and training of local gangs is a sign that a new power dynamic is emerging in the country’s underworld.
Mexico’s cartels have fragmented due to increased security pressure, which is enabling Costa Rican groups to step into a bigger role in the transnational drug trade. In November 2016, a local drug trafficking network linked to the Sinaloa Cartel was dismantled by Costa Rica’s anti-narcotics police. The operation led to the arrest of 14 individuals, as well as the seizure of three tons of drugs and $1.7 million.
SEE ALSO: Coverage of Costa Rica
Another factor strengthening Costa Rica’s criminal groups is the increase in local drug consumption mentioned by Chavarría. Higher rates of cocaine use increase the profits for local drug trafficking groups, which in turn generates greater competition and the need for higher-power weaponry. Chavarría has previously noted that Mexican groups are arming Costa Rican gangs with AK-47s and grenades.
Costa Rica’s underworld was historically under the influence of Colombian DTOs, but Mexican groups became the dominant foreign power following the fall of the Medellín and Cali cartels.
Tamarindo goes for ecological Blue Flag. Tamarindo News Staff Photo
Q COSTA RICA (Tamarindo News) The Chamber of Commerce and Tourism of Tamarindo (CCTT) will soon present the application for the Ecological Blue Flag Award, on the basis of the actions accomplished in 2016 pertaining to saving water, solid waste collection and Aedes aegypti mosquito breeding sites removal.
Tamarindo goes for ecological Blue Flag. Tamarindo News Staff Photo
According to Hernán Imhoff, President of the CCTT, these initiatives came to fruition last year with concrete actions such as the organization of the first Tamarindo Water Expo, where companies related to the water sector demonstrated during four conferences low-consumption technologies and the efficient use of water.
Imhoff also stated that they had been working with the Rural Aqueduct Management Associations (ASADAS) in meeting quality standards, training and workshops.
“Year 2016 was very intense for us because we made strong efforts to create awareness in terms of saving water. Well-drilling is nonsense if we keep on wasting water,” Imhoff said. According to the Costa Rican Water and Sewage Institute (AyA), who organize the Blue Flag Program (EBFP), participants must form Local Committees and formalize their registration from January to March each year with the National Blue Flag Commission.
Additionally, there must be work programs developed by April each year, as well as follow-up actions to meet statutory and complementary parameters with annual reports sent to the National Commission (EBFP) in December of the corresponding period. Concrete results In March and July 2016, the Chamber, the Municipality of Santa Cruz, the Ministry of Health and the National University (UN) in Nicoya organized solid waste collection days, when approximately 50 people covered Playa Tamarindo and Langosta.
“In these actions, 4.5 tons of solid waste were removed and transported to a collection center. We expect to repeat the experience in 2017,” Imhoff said.
With this action, Aedes aegypti mosquito breeding sites were removed. The mosquito is carrier of dengue, zika and chikungunya diseases.
The Blue Flag Ecological Program is a certification granted every year to organizations or local committees to reward efforts and volunteer work in the pursuit of conservation and development consistent with the protection of natural resources, the implementation of actions to address climate change, the search for better sanitary conditions and improvement of public health.
In the case of communities, the EBFP takes into account the following criteria: Fresh water (20%), solid waste disposal (10%), treated run-off water (15%), road, tourist sites or public interest signs (10%), environmental education (10%), human health attention (10%), industrial waste disposal (10%), water resource protection (10%), and environmental and police security (10%).
TODAY CUBA – A picture of a woman using Cuba’s national newspaper Trabajadores as toilet paper was censored in a Havana art contest this weekend, its artist claimed.
The censorship complaint was filed by artist Erick Coll, who took the photo called “The Value of Use,” writing on his Facebook page that his piece was censored in the Alama Erotic Art Room.
The 35-year-old artist has a Communications degree from the University of Havana. He is also a member of the Cuban Photographic Image Fund (FCIF). (Erick Coll)
The picture, with its title and reference to the state-run Cuban newspaper, caused an uproar on social media for its boldness in questioning the regime.
“Though the image can be interpreted as an allegory of adocination and the lack of contact the official press has with reality, the truth (as confirmed by several commentators on social media) is that scarcity or the relatively high prices of toilet paper have forced many Cubans to give newspapers a use beyond reading for decades, which is why it became customary to keep them in the bathroom already cut into small pieces,” said Martí Noticias.
The 35-year-old artist has a degree in Communications from the University of Havana. He is also a member of the Cuban Photographic Image Fund (FCIF).
Additionally, Coll is in charge of the photography class at ISDI and regularly assists ar conferences about the subject at the Cuban Arts University, Universidad de las Artes de Cuba (ISA), at the Cuban Picture Library (Fototeca de Cuba) and at the School of Social Communication at the University of Havana.
Maduro said problems in Venezuela are none of CNN’s business. (CNN)
TODAY VENEZUELA – President Nicolás Maduro has expelled CNN en Español after accusing the international news outlet of “manipulating” information about Venezuela.
Maduro said Sunday he wants CNN “outside” Venezuela after he claimed the news channel manipulated information about a student’s complaint regarding the lack of food at school.
“Some media like CNN tried to manipulate information,” he said. “They can not manipulate information like that, it’s our affair, of Venezuelans. CNN does not need to put its nose in Venezuela … I want CNN well away from here.”
Last week, a student demanded on national television that the president improve the conditions of his school, asking for security, infrastructure and food so his classmates wouldn’t faint from hunger anymore.
CNN en Español visited the high school and talked with the staff about the student, and whether Maduro had made any improvements since that incident only to discover he had not.
Maduro said the young woman “uncovered a situation that had to be spoken about.”
“I want the youth to tell the truth, to be critical and revolutionary, for us to go to solve the problems,” he said. “To attend to those problems, we must build a sense of belonging in each school. Lyceum belongs to me and I must take care of it.”
In an interview with NTN24 Arias criticized the statements made by Uruguay President Tabaré Vázquez regarding Venezuela’s democracy.
In an interview with NTN24 Arias criticized the statements made by Uruguay President Tabaré Vázquez regarding Venezuela’s democracy.
Q COSTA RICA – Costa Rica’s Former President and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Oscar Arias had strong words for Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro and his administration.
“To kill a person is homicide, to kill en entire town from hunger is called chavismo,” he said.
In an interview with NTN24, Arias criticized statements made by Uruguayan President Tabare Vázquez, who pointed out that there is democracy in Venezuela because “the three branches of power work.”
Oscar Arias in an interview with NTN24
Arias said what Chavez’s administration was only able to achieve widespread starvation in Venezuela.
“It is a mistake to confuse the democratic origin of a regime with the democratic functioning of the state. A vote can never be a blank check in the hands of governments and that is unfortunately what has happened in Venezuela.”
The former president said that the process advanced by President Hugo Chavez and now the administration of Nicolas Maduro turned Venezuelan democracy into an autocracy, “a considerably totalitarian state where human rights and individual freedoms are violated.”
Vazquez maintained in his original comments that there was democracy, though perhaps “not one we are used to.”
In Venezuela, there are not only a hundred political prisoners opposing the regime, but also persecution against the independent media.
The Maduro administration has also established economic policies that deny entrepreneurs access to foreign exchange in order to produce and meet the needs of Venezuelans.
The same limitation of access to foreign exchange has prevented the importation of raw material for the production of medicine, which has caused hundreds of Venezuelans to die due to the shortage.
Access to basic foods is almost non-existent, so a large percentage of the population has reportedly chosen to “feed” off of garbage.
Recently, the Supreme Court of Justice has not issued a single ruling the the favor of the opposition. They have all gone in favor of Maduro’s government.
Electoral power has also delayed regional elections to give the government time to prepare, which 80 percent of people reject, according to surveys.
Q COSTA RICA – A practice that is more common than you think, although prohibited, is retailers surcharging customers for using plastic. That is to say, at the time for paying a purchase with a debit or credit card, be it a product or service, an extra % is tacked on to the final sale.
That percentage can be as high as 10% or even more.
Cinthia Zapata, head of the government Office of Consumer Support (Dirección de la Oficina de Apoyo al Consumidor) explains that any business tacking on a surcharge is exposed to fines of between ¢3 million and ¢12 million colones.
The practice is prohibited in Article 26 of the “Reglamento de Tarjetas de Crédito o Débito” (Credit or Debit Card Regulations) that establishes that businesses “may not add-on charges for the use of credit or debit cards, to the detriment of the consumer”.
Adding injury to insult, few retailers will tell the consumer of the surcharge. And when asked why, the general answer could be something like, “every does it” or “everyone knows we do that here”.
The merchant fees for credit cards are very high in Costa Rica from 7-9%, especially for small retailers like a soda (lunch counter or eatery), for example.
Another practice by some retailers, also prohibited, is to either deny accepting a credit or debit card, even when there are signs indicating the business does with a typical excuse that “the machine (card reader) is down”, or offer the customer a discount if paying with cash.
Zapata suggests consumers who are “victims of this crime” report it to the consumer protection agency by calling the consumer hotline at 1311 or 800-consumo or visit the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Comercio (MEIC) website for more information on your rights as a consumer.
In 2015, the MEIC received 92 complaints. In 2016, the number of complaints was 179. These numbers seem small, but that is not to say the practice is not happening at a great scale. The reality is that most consumers either aren’t aware that the practice is illegal, do not pay attention or notice (the additional charge) too late.
Q COSTA RICA – Costa Rica’s unemployment rate remained at 9.5% at the end of the last quarter of 2016 and an annual increase was recorded of nearly 2% in informal employment.
Highlights of the Fourth Quarter Continuous Employment Survey 2016 from a statement issued by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (INEC) – National Institute of Statistics and Census:
The employment rate reached 54.3% in the fourth quarter of 2016, a figure which has remained the same in respect to the same quarter the previous year.
Unemployment in the national population did not show significant statistical changes, standing at 9.5% in fourth quarter of 2016.
The percentage of informal employment increased by 1.7 pp year on year due to increased independents.
For the fourth quarter of 2016, the domestic employed population was 2.06 million people, with an occupancy rate that reached 54.3%,
The employment rate for the fourth quarter of 2016 was 69.0 for men and 39.5 for women.
Q COSTA RICA – At the ripe age of 28 years old, my wife (then girlfriend) and I quit our jobs. We hopped on a plane and moved to Costa Rica. The plan was to take a year off by living the Pura Vida — as locals call it. We had no return ticket.
It has ended up being one of the best decisions we’ve made together. We now spend half of our year living on a family-run coffee farm and the other half living in my native Wisconsin.
Image source: Getty Images.
But we aren’t special, nor do we need to be viewed as outliers. In the end, our ability to have this adventure all came down to four very simple steps.
But first, a quick primer on our motivation
I went in with both eyes wide open. The charter school where I started my teaching career in inner-city D.C. had almost 10-hour days for students, school on Saturday, and mandatory summer school. The demands were high.
But after two years of struggling to find my footing, I loved what I was doing. The students were my family, and I felt at home. Three more years, however, and I knew it was time for a break. My wife and I would get home from school and collapse on the couch while eating pizza, only to wake up at 5 a.m. and start the routine over again.
It wasn’t sustainable. We were OK with that. It was time for a change. Here’s why we were able to make it happen. (Many of these ideas come from Nassim Taleb’s books Antifragile and yet-to-be-published Skin in the Game).
1. Identify the worst-case scenario and get comfortable with it
This was perhaps the most liberating of all the things we did. The thought of quitting our jobs and living off our savings for a year scared the daylights out of me. Then we mapped out the worst scenario. It wasn’t so bad.
If we burned through all of the cash we had set aside for the year, we would return to the United States, live with either my parents or other family, and get teaching jobs as soon as possible.
Was that ideal? Absolutely not. But would it have been the end of the world? Hardly.
2. Avoid debt at all costs
Increasingly, this is becoming harder and harder for recent college graduates to do. I won’t pretend that it was virtue alone that left my wife and me with only a very manageable level of student-loan debt. Our parents were able to help us cover most of the costs. Not everyone will be so lucky.
Even so, we avoided debt like the plague after college. Many of our friends bought houses after getting full-time jobs, not because they wanted to put down roots, but because “it was a good investment.” Simply put, we didn’t buy into Opens a New Window. that reasoning.
We didn’t buy a house, we didn’t put any money down on new cars, or the latest gadgets. We didn’t take fancy vacations on our time off. Simply put, we saved whatever money we could.
3. Practice via negativa to find your level of “enough”
There’s no concept I write more about here on the Fool than the importance of finding your own level of “enough.” To me, this is the only way to get off the hedonic treadmill and focus on what really matters in life. Former Motley Fool columnist Morgan Housel also wrote about this a lot Opens a New Window. , opining that there are really only four things that matter to happiness, once your basic material needs are met:
What my wife and I found was that this was better accomplished via negativa. We decided to start subtracting things from our lives to find out what mattered, instead of endlessly adding more. By subtracting different things from our life (for example, our teaching jobs, or — later — our car), we could see if they really were as important as we thought they were, or if they were just an illusion.
4. Put your skin in the game
People who feel they must have a long-term plan in place before making such a jump will probably never make it. We had no idea what our future would look like beyond our year in Costa Rica.
Then we started meeting gringos who had been down there for decades. Most of them had no idea what they’d be doing once they moved down, either. Many had simply found ways to make the situation work. That’s what happens when you take the leap and actually put your skin in the game: You’re forced to find a way.
For us, I started writing on The Motley Fool’s boards because I found the solitude in rural Costa Rica to be incredibly boring. When a spot opened up for a writing position with the company, I explained to my wife that after six months’ training, I could work from anywhere on Earth. We jumped on the opportunity.
But if we waited for everything to be just right, we’d still be teaching. That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, but we’re glad we took the plunge.
In the end, the point isn’t that everyone should attempt such huge life transitions. Instead, it’s to focus on the benefits of accepting a worst-case scenario, reducing your debt, finding your “enough” using via negativa, and putting your own skin in the game. Life — for us — has been a whole lot more interesting because of it.
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Q COSTA RICA – AIR COSTA RICA made its first charter flight from the San Jose airport, carrying 89 passengers to Scarlett Martínez International Airport, in Rio Hato, Panama on Friday February 9.
The Boeing 737-300 with the Costa Rica flag in the tail took off at 11:56 am from Juan Santamaria Airport (SJO), to the Panama beach resort town.
The airline, a subsidiary of Air Panama, will start regular flights into the Rio Hato airport in June, and help boost Panama Tourism said a Tweet from President Juan Carlos Varela.
Despite volatility of the commercial air market in the region, the airline made the decision, at least for the next six months of this year, to focus on charter flights.
Carlos José Víquez, Air Costa Rica’s financial director explained the airline will take advantage fo the holiday periods, for example, Semana Santa (Easter) in April with Easter and the national soccer team qualifying for the World Cup, to transport the same team and groups of fans.
“I think that because of the atypical situation in the region, with the startup of several low-cost airlines were in the last few months, it provoked a volatile market, that’s why we put the regular routes on hold,” said Viquez.
Getting its colors
The airline in the coming months will be taking delivery of its second aircraft to meet the demand for already signed contracts for charter flights to: Cancun (Mexico), Roatan (Honduras), San Andrés (Colombia), Acapulco (Mexico), San Pedro Sula (Honduras) and Mexico City to Peru and Cabos, among others.
The Turriabla volcano last June (2016) seen from the Alto de las Palomas (Santa Ana). Foto by Edith Tropper, Ovsicori/Facebook
The Turriabla volcano last June (2016) seen from the Alto de las Palomas (Santa Ana). Foto by Edith Tropper, Ovsicori/Facebook
Q COSTA RICA – The Turrialba volcano on Saturday spewed newly erupted material that is being delivered to the surface for the first time – called juvenile rocks, in a small eruption at about 7:12pm.
According to the volcanologist, Marino Protti, of the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (Ovsicori), the cameras the institution has near the crater of the colossus confirmed the rocks to be up to one meter in diameter and taking more than three minutes to cool down.
Old material cools as it lands, but the juvenile takes longer, which is what led the experts to conclude the material of last night was of the second kind.
Although it is known since November this type of material has been coming out, last night the clearness of the top of the volcano allowed photos of the phenomenon.
The video shows the volcano expelling the rocks between 7:12pm and 7:18pm, falling on the bed of ash taking time to cool.
Protti added that there is no imminent danger, but plumes of ash, which have recently subsided, can reappear at any time.
The volcanologist is reminding people not to climb the crater because, in addition to being prohibited, it is dangerous due to risk of hot gases and rocks spewing from the slopes.
Around the Nation · Central American Families Fear Deportation. Photo from NPR
Around the the U.S., Central American Families Fear Deportation. Photo from NPR
(Q24N) Washington Post – For the past few weeks, the young man’s heart has been racing. His hands are sweaty. During the day, he has flashbacks of the world he fled in El Salvador: gang members chasing him, threatening murder.
Nightmares of the same scenes disturb his sleep. He’s not a patient in my psychiatric practice. Just another young guy studying for his high school equivalency diploma at the Latin American Youth Center in Washington.
Like the 4,000 other kids taking classes there, he’s been worrying as he watches what the center’s chief executive, Lori Kaplan, calls “the big reality show . . . on cable news — and the tweets.”
In St. Paul, Minn., Sharif Mohamed’s children are also “paying attention” to the TV news, he says.
Mohamed is an imam, a spiritual leader of the Somali community there and a U.S. citizen; he came as a refugee 20 years ago. Every day, Muslim women and children tell him about being verbally abused on the street and in schools. The nearly 100,000 other east Africans in Minnesota are painfully aware of the president’s recent temporary ban on refugees and visa-holders from their homeland and other predominantly Muslim countries, and of the administration’s public statements: Michael Flynn, President Trump’s national security adviser, has called Islam “a cancer.”
Sharif says his fellow Somali immigrants “love [our] country and can accept the incredible burdens” of rising out of poverty. He is proud of his community’s “working people, soldiers, police officers, politicians, business leaders, doctors and teachers.” But now his children worry that they will never again be able to visit overseas relatives. They worry, even more, that they may not be able to stay in this country, the only home they’ve ever known.
These and other fears are now the daily bread of large numbers of the 42 million immigrants in this country — including the children who, years ago, immigrated and became citizens. Physicians, therapists and community leaders such as Mohamed have for years been using my Center for Mind-Body Medicine’s model of self-care and group support to help this population deal with their stress. They tell me now that fears and powerlessness and uncertainty are causing many to be increasingly anxious and angry, depressed and withdrawn. Over time, such chronic stress, unaddressed, will make them far more vulnerable to heart disease, asthma, diabetes and post-traumatic stress disorder.
We’re learning that disrespect, discrimination and detention can have long-term physical and psychological consequences — on those who observe as well as those who experience them. Over the past few years, surveys and qualitative research have begun to reveal the extent of the physical and emotional effects. And a study published last month in the International Journal of Epidemiology by University of Michigan researchers provides hard biological evidence that these changes can be transmitted to the next generation.
The study found that Latino babies born in the 37 weeks following a federal immigration raid in Postville, Iowa, in 2008 had a 24 percent greater risk of low birth weight than the babies who were born to Latina women in the same period a year earlier. (Previous years, too, showed normal rather than depressed birth rates.) Low birth weight is associated with long-term risks to physical health and mental health, cognition and academic performance. What is most troubling, as well as surprising, about the study is the extent of the effect. Low birth weight and its risks were, perhaps predictably, high among undocumented immigrants, but they were just as high among Latinas across the state who were legally in the United States. In spite of their apparent safety, their bodies were reacting as if they, too, could soon be deported. Years before the latest presidential threats and actions upped the immigration ante, fear was overriding immigrants’ faith in the dependability of their legal status.
Undocumented immigrants, who have long lived in fear of deportation, are probably the most profoundly affected. Among them are the 800,000 “dreamers ,” the young people who came to the United States as undocumented children and are now all but indistinguishable from U.S. citizens in high schools and colleges, as they serve in the military and work and marry and raise their own children. In 2012, when President Barack Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, he granted them a measure of relief, allowing them to apply every two years for continuing permission to stay in the United States. These dreamers know that the platform Trump ran on contains a different kind of promise: to “immediately terminate” their status.
The green-card holders and immigrants who became citizens are worried, too. Over the years, they’ve watched roundups and deportations of people who share their history, speak their language and work in their communities. In recent months, Trump’s threats and promises have reawakened fears and physical symptoms that patients of mine, long-ago refugees from tyrannical regimes, thought they’d left behind. Like the Salvadoran youth studying for his GED, memories of the danger and dictatorships they fled are intruding on their thoughts and agitating their bodies. During the past week, many of my and my colleagues’ patients have been panicked by stories of people with green cards prevented from returning to the United States.
The damage to the next generation may be compounded by other, less obvious assaults on their biology and psychology. Research by Rachel Yehuda and her colleagues at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York has demonstrated that the consequences of Holocaust survivors’ extreme trauma can be passed down to their children and grandchildren, making them exquisitely sensitive to the ordinary stresses of relatively safe lives. Yehuda and other researchers believe that these are “epigenetic” effects, modifications in the ways genes express themselves, which transmit vulnerabilities to stress from one generation to the next. Though the mechanisms are not completely understood, animal studies as well as those on human adults who were abused as children demonstrate similar changes.
“There is no short-term fix for this kind of damage,” Lori Kaplan commented sadly, thinking about the young people and their families who are anxiously calling her and her colleagues, reporting physical and emotional distress, looking for answers. “We’ve been dealing with the trauma of the immigrant experience for so long,” the flight from violence, the loneliness, the poverty, the struggle to survive in a strange land and the longing for home. “Obama was deporting people, sure, and there was anxiety, but he also gave us hope. And now the roof’s been blown off.”
As Trump orders more border guards and detention centers , and as the wall looms large, the fears of young people and their parents at the Latin American Youth Center grow. Perhaps they’ll be denied housing; fired from their jobs; maybe their health care will disappear. Latino immigrant parents in the Washington area are desperate for their kids to get an education, explains Angelica Garcia-Ditta, a counselor at the center, and they’re still sending their children to school. But, she says, they worry that “immigration authorities will seize them.”
Still, amid a national clamor that diminishes and isolates them, immigrants are organizing. Spiritual leaders, lay counselors, kids, families and friends are joining circles of support, they tell me. They are sharing sadness and fears, using self-care techniques to lower stress, and finding connections to others who have similar concerns. The children of Latino immigrants, Kaplan tells me, now understand that Black Lives Matter is about them, too.
“Our anxiety is very high,” says Sharif Mohamed. “We come together as families in our mosques. We are praying together” and using self-care techniques, hoping to relieve stress and forestall long-term psychological and biological damage. “It gives us the capacity to address our anxiety, our hopelessness and our anger in a profoundly healing way. I and every other Muslim parent is guiding our children to hold close to our faith, to God’s love, to kindness, to a deep belief that we are all here on earth to love and respect.”
Last week, a student demanded on national television that the president improve the conditions of his school, asking for security, infrastructure and food so his classmates wouldn’t faint from hunger anymore.
