A worker cleans the panels in a solar power park run by the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) on March 26, 2015 in Guanacaste, Costa Rica Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Q24N – Advances in technology and growing experience in the manufacture of solar energy systems are contributing to the gradual reduction of their cost, giving them an advantage over other sources of power generation, such as fossil fuel.
A worker cleans the panels in a solar power park run by the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) on March 26, 2015 in Guanacaste, Costa Rica Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Solar power is now cheaper than coal in some parts of the world. In less than a decade, it’s likely to be the lowest-cost option almost everywhere.
It is estimated that in 2025 an average 1 MW ground mounted solar energy system will have an average cost of US$0.73 cents per watt, compared with US $1.14 now, 36% less than the current cost.
An analysis published by Bloomberg.com states that economies of scale are also contributing to reducing the cost of implementing solar energy systems. “.. The solar supply chain is undergoing a ‘Wal-Mart effect’ of higher volumes and lower margins, according to Sami Khoreibi, founder and CEO of Enviromena Power Systems, a developer from Abu Dhabi. ”
In 2016, countries from Chile to the United Arab Emirates broke records with deals to generate electricity from sunshine for less than US$0.03 cents a kilowatt-hour, half the average global cost of coal power. Now, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Mexico are planning auctions and tenders for this year, aiming to drop prices even further. Taking advantage: Companies such as Italy’s Enel SpA and Dublin’s Mainstream Renewable Power, who gained experienced in Europe and now seek new markets abroad as subsidies dry up at home.
Since 2009, solar prices are down 62 percent, with every part of the supply chain trimming costs.
“These are game-changing numbers, and it’s becoming normal in more and more markets,” said Adnan Amin, International Renewable Energy Agency ’s director general, an Abu Dhabi-based intergovernmental group. “Every time you double capacity, you reduce the price by 20 percent.”
Bloomberg.com says the speed at which the price of solar will drop below coal varies in each country. Places that import coal or tax polluters with a carbon price, such as Europe and Brazil, will see a crossover in the 2020s, if not before. Countries with large domestic coal reserves such as India and China will probably take longer.
In Costa Rica, almost all of the country’s electricity was produced by renewable energy in 2016. The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) – state power utility – said that around 98.1 per cent of the country’s electricity came from green sources.
These included large hydropower facilities, fed by a myriad of rivers and heavy seasonal rains, geothermal plants, wind turbines, biomass plants and solar panels.
ICE president Carlos Manuel Obregón expects renewable power generation to stay “stable” in Costa Rica in 2017.
But, for Costa Rican clean development adviser Dr. Monica Araya, despite the country’s fantastic achievement, “It hides a paradox, which is that nearly 70 per cent of all our [Costa Rica’s] energy consumption is oil.” The 98.1 per cent figure only refers to electricity usage, not gas used for heating or fuel used in vehicles, for example.
TODAY VENEZUELA – There look to be no major economic changes in Venezuela to worsen the country’s situation, several analysts have said, but there won’t be much improvement either, as food and currency controls persist.
The new ministers of the country’s economic cabinet said there will be more radicalization of the control mechanisms imposed on distribution of basic goods and currency.
“With these appointments, chavismo is privileging the political,” Director of Ecoanalítica Asdrúbal Oliveros said. “I do not think that the new cabinet will make measures that really contribute to solving the crisis.”
“I think we are going to continue atomization, that there will be ministers managing and individually protecting their areas,” he continued, adding that the new Minister of Economy and Finance Ramón Lobo lacks the leadership to succeed in the cabinet.
Luis Oliveros, an economist and university professor, does not believe that changes are coming in the country.
“What President Nicolás Maduro did was to place the people who are closest to him in these positions,” he said.
“Lobo is a Marxist who will bring more radicalization,” he said. “He will keep controls, nothing will change, everything will be worse.”
Lobo, an economist at the Universidad de Los Andes de Venezuela, is the new Minister of Economy and Finance, who has been a member of the National Assembly’s Finance and Economic Development Committee for several few years.
Both analyst Ronald Balza and Asdrúbal Oliveros agreed that the only thing that can be salvaged from the announcements made by President Nicolás Maduro on Wednesday is that once again the Ministry of Petroleum will be directed by a person other than the president of PDVSA.
TODAY COLOMBIA – Colombia’s National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), reported that inflation clocked in at 5.75% during 2016, a slight decrease compared to 2015, when the figure was 6.77%. Like many emerging market economies, Colombia has struggled to balance economic growth and inflation.
The lowest annual inflation occurred in the clothing sector with 3.98%. The healthcare sector, on the other hand, saw the nation’s greatest increase, at 8.14%. This was due to a rise in the prices of medicines, private insurance, supplementary payments, contraceptives, and other health items that largely increased across the board.
Another sector that was strongly impacted was food, which increased by 7.22%, the second highest increase in Colombia. The rise in food prices was also impacted by the truck drivers’ strike that occurred in the middle of the year; truck drivers, unhappy with President Santos’ tax reform, have raised the possibility of spearheading another strike in 2017.
With regard to Colombian cities Medellín, located in the northwest of the country, registered the highest inflation during 2016, with a rise of 6.54%. Neiva, the capital of Colombia’s southwestern Huila state, registered the lowest inflation, at a mere 3.85% during the last year. In the capital, Bogota, the increase in inflation was 5.96%.
The final inflation statistics are within the range expected by the Bank of the Republic. However, many are concerned about the increase in prices in different sectors of the economy and that next year, in addition to having to pay these increases, Colombians will also be subjected to higher Value Added Tax (VAT) payments, which under President Juan Manuel Santos’ legislation, will increase from 16% to 19%.
Colombia’s political and economic sectors routinely brace for year-end positioning over wages and prices; both of which have risen dramatically in the past decade as Colombia posts impressive economic growth year over year.
Q24N – There is an abysmal difference in people’s attitude before the law. For example, people in Germany and in the United States usually feel almost a reverential respect toward it, but people in Latin America have very low regard for it.
Why does that happen?
The opposing positions described above derive from the fact that the law is only an instrument, which can be used correctly or incorrectly.
In the first case, the law will be the materialization of certain rules of right conduct, general and abstract, rooted in the customs of that community. In the second, it will be somewhat artificial, such as an orthopedic apparatus, approved with the purpose of arbitrarily benefiting certain social groups, especially the ruling people.
The influence of laws on the prosperity or misery of a particular country has been known for centuries. At first to make a systematic study of this factor — based on empirical evidence — was Montesquieu. The French philosopher traveled for three years throughout several European countries (Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Holland and England), analyzing their customs, habits, prevailing ideas and laws.
Many of the conclusions to which he arrived were reflected in his famous work “The Spirit of the Laws.” In this book, Montesquieu states that the rules that determine human behavior are not permanent or absolute; they emerge and evolve according to the historical or cultural context, government and character of a particular society.
Montesquieu concluded that the best form of government is a republican one, in which the three branches of the state are independent, and control each other. To put it in other words, “let power control power.” That is the most effective way to prevent despotism. Moreover, the goodness of the republic rests on the virtue of citizenship, which causes equality and freedom to be its predominant traits.
If a Latin American is told that the law is the guarantee of his freedom, he will burst out laughing.
According to Frédéric Bastiat, “the law is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense” that emanates from natural law.
Each of us is empowered by nature to “defend his person, his liberty and his property. These are the three basic requirements of life, and the preservation of any one of them is completely dependent upon the preservation of the other two.”
In Latin America, however, the law annihilated “the justice that it was supposed to maintain; to limiting and destroying rights which its real purpose was to respect … placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty and property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, in order to protect plunder. And it has converted lawful defense into a crime.”
But as we pointed out earlier, the legal norm is only an instrument that the authorities operate. Consequently, they are directly responsible for the corruption of the law.
An example of the aforementioned is the bill the Uruguayan parliament is currently studying. The Executive Branch pushed for its approval before the end of 2016. It states that financial institutions must inform the treasury of the balances and rents credited in residents and foreigners’ bank accounts. It also increases taxes on companies in tax havens.
It establishes the obligation of financial institutions (banks, trusts, investment funds, among others) to report annually to the Directorate-General of Taxation (DGI), “the balance or value of the accounts at the end of the calendar year and its annual average during the referred year” of its clients, both residents and non-residents.
In future regulation, the government will define the minimum amount from which the tax report will be mandatory, but it is already expected to be very low.
President of the Central Bank Mario Bergara, cynically proclaimed that this norm constitutes “a near-death blow” to banking secrecy. That is, the hierarch boasts of weakening the rights to privacy, freedom and to enjoy one’s property without being accountable to anybody.
It reverts the weight of the evidence, and violates a republican legal principle: “Every person is innocent until proven guilty.”
The worst of all is that even the right to life is at stake, because as Bastiat pointed out, freedom and property, and their intrinsic relationship, are indispensable to preserve it.
Laws of this nature are harmful because when the norm becomes an instrument of plunder, it erases from people’s conscience the distinction between what is just and unjust. With regard to this matter, Bastiat emphasizes that the existence of a society presupposes respect for laws. The only thing that guarantees that behavior is that the laws are respectable.
However, “when law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law. These two evils are of equal consequence, and it would be difficult for a person to choose between them.”
Therefore, many of Latin America’s ills originate from the fact that, throughout history, our leaders have frequently passed laws that no one can respect.
People in search of recreation in the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM) of San Jose
People in search of recreation in the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM) of San Jose are condemned to resort to shopping centres.
Q COSTA RICA – Guillermo Carazo, president of the Cámara Costarricense de la Construcción (Costa Rican Chamber of Construction), says when planning cities, a vital theme is to leave space for green areas and parks where people can enjoy and share. But, that has been greatly ignored or poorly executed in the urban development of the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM) of San Jose.
Carazo said the people of the GAM are condemned to resort to shopping centres in search of recreation.
“The saddest thing that can happen to a society is to have to go for a stroll in a mall,” he said during the morning radio program Nuestra Voz, on Thursday.
According to Carazo, the excess of procedures and multiple consultations that must be formulated when designing the territorial planning plans of each canton limit and obstruct the materialization of these and the innovation that arises within them.
Carazo considers that the execution of the projects must be more expeditious and technical to eliminate the bureaucracy, and thus be able to concretize plans of modern cities.
New vision. Another of Carazo’s proposals is that residential areas should be close to workplaces, which, he believes, would be a solution to the traffic congestion that every day torments drivers.
That sentiment goes along the rhetoric of both former president Laura Chinchilla (2010 – 2014) while in office, saying new development (in the city) should go vertical, moving away from the traditional horizontal; and San Jose mayor, Johnny Araya, who in the past has campaigned for bringing people back into the city centre.
“It’s about planning and executing, but with efficiency,” he said, referring to the fact that the GAM city model separated the houses from work and service centres, generating an urban fragmentation that has an impact on the quality of life.
Costa Rica uses a mix of hydro, wind and geothermal energy to power the homes of its 4.9 million people. Photograph: Ezequiel Becerra/AFP/Getty Images
(Q24N from The Guardian) Unless you’ve avoided social media for the last week, you probably know that last year, Costa Rica was able to produce 98% of its electricity without oil – a feat that most larger and wealthier countries have never accomplished.
Over the past few days, reports of Costa Rica’s 271 days of fossil-fuel free electricity have made their way to almost every corner of the internet.
The news has bolstered the Central American country’s already outstanding environmental reputation – but the excitement has masked another less-than-green truth about Costa Rica’s energy use: the country’s demand for oil is actually growing.
The country uses a mix of hydro, wind and geothermal to power the homes of its 4.9 million people, but because of its gasoline-dependent transportation sector, renewables make up less than a quarter of the nation’s total energy use.
According to Costa Rica’s State of the Region report, the country has approximately 287 cars per 1,000 people, surpassing both the world and Latin American average.
Hybrids and electric cars that can feed off the renewable electricity grid make up less than 2% of those vehicles, and according to the national oil refinery, gas purchases increased by 11% in 2016.
This explosive growth in private vehicles is causing more than just pollution. Traffic in the capital, San José, has become almost unmanageable, with the city earning the worst ranking for congestion in Latin America, according to a study by the navigation app Waze.
While the footage of Costa Rica’s pristine jungles may suggest otherwise, this traffic-plagued city is home to more than half of all Costa Ricans – many of whom have lost their appetite for San José’s antiquated bus system.
With more Costa Ricans now able to afford cars, demand for oil is expected to continue growing, unless major changes are made to attract people to public transit and electric vehicles.
Alongside a growing thirst for fuel, demand for electricity is also rising in Costa Rica, but new renewable generation infrastructure will likely cover the increase.
“For 2017, we expect renewable electricity generation to remain stable,” ICE’s executive president, Carlos Manuel Obregón, said recently. “We have four new wind plants and expect favorable rain conditions in the basins that feed our plants.”
Aside from the new wind farms, the Reventazón hydroelectric dam near the country’s Caribbean coast became fully functional in September. With the capacity to power an estimated 525,000 homes, the new dam is strategically positioned to take advantage of the increased rainfall in the country’s Caribbean region, and will be critical for maintaining hydroelectric production in the face of repeated droughts in other parts of the country.
The Reventazón is now the largest hydroelectric project in Central America, but the region has long relied on dams for power. Though Costa Rica has made major investments in wind and geothermal plants in the last 25 years – with its percentage of non-hydro renewables well surpassing the world average – the country still routinely produces more than 70% of its electricity each year using dams.
Though hydropower is cleaner than burning bunker fuel for electricity, the heavy reliance on dams carries its own cost. The Reventazón project was criticized by environmental groups for its position along a critical wildlife corridor and the planned Diquís dam in the country’s south-west has been held up for years due to conflicts with indigenous groups.
While the country has continued to view dams as a viable way to create renewable electricity, solar power has been pushed aside, due to political concerns that home- generated power would cut into the state electricity company’s profits.
Despite the country’s limitations, Costa Rica’s renewable electricity production will probably continue to grow, as the government explores options to begin exporting its surplus electricity to its neighbors.
Q COSTA RICA – Rentals of houses, apartments and condominiums for a period of less than one month is subject to sales and income tax, indicates the Ministry of Finance (Ministerio de Hacienda) in a clarification of the new law to improve the fight against tax fraud, published in La Gaceta on December 20, 2016.
The tax man says that owners of properties must register as taxpayers of the two taxes, in order not to be subject to fines.
Alan Saborío, Managing Partner of Deloitte, explained that neither the rent of rooms nor of commercial premises (ie retail stores) are subject to sales tax. However, article 1 of the General Sales Tax Law, that calls for rents less than a month to be taxed, was subject to interpretation by the tax department.
For the Cámara Costarricense de Hoteles (CCH) – Costa Rican Chamber of Hotels, who considered private rentals an unfair competition, see the clarification as “an achievement” given the struggle for equality the Chamber has fought. Hotel operators much charge the 13% sales tax on their rooms.
The CCH announced that it will begin, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance, an awareness campaign for property owners. No date was given for the start of the campaign.
According to Saborio, services offered by third-party, such as Airbnb and others who provide short-term rentals for property owners, are much easier to control.
Saborio said the big issue here is how to control the short-term rentals, collect taxes and apply sanctions.
The penalty for not complying with the new tax regulation is a fine of between 50% and 150% of the unreported income. In the event that the fine exceed 440 minimum wages, very unlikely to occur, the law establishes jail time.
Photos of at the San Jose airport by Shirley Vasquez and Edith Romero, La Nacion
What else is there to do, but sit around and wait and wait and … photos of at the San Jose airport by Shirley Vasquez and Edith Romero, La Nacion
Q COSTA RICA – Strong winds and a sustained eruption by the Turrialba volcano that began on Monday, has resulted in a Green Alert issued by the Comisión Nacional de Emergencias (CNE) – national emergency commission – for the Central Valley.
The scattered ash in many parts of the west of the volcano, reaching as far as Alajuela, resulted in a number of airlines from the U.S. cancelling flights. Although San Jose airport operations remain normal, on Wednesday dozens of flights were cancelled. On Thursday only four flights were suspended, reports the airport manager, Aeris.
Photos of at the San Jose airport by Shirley Vasquez and Edith Romero, La Nacion
The Green Alert activates local emergency committees, specifically in Alajuela, Heredia, Cartago and San Jose, to be vigilant and respond quickly in any emergency situation.
The alert also asks the population to be on the alert to reports of ash fall and take proactive measures to ensure minimal effect, such as staying indoors or using face masks in areas where ash fall is present.
According to the CNE, based on technical scientific reports, the Turrialba volcano began this week a new period of constant eruptions, marked by a permanent emission of ashes, gases and aerosols.
The ash columns have mostly been lower than 500 metres above the crater base and the seismic or volcanic tremor has been maintained with an average amplitude, spiking in some cases.
Normally, the ash cloud at such low altitudes doesn’t get far from the volcano. But with the strong winds typical of the season, the ash fall has spread. Areas like Coronado has seen an increase of people visiting medical centres for respiratory problems. Similar, but to a lesser degree, are residents of Goicoechea, Moravia, Tibás and Heredia.
The Instituto Meteorológico Nacional (IMN) – national weather service – explains a mass of dry air affecting all of Central America has practically annulled the possibility of rain, while the winds from the northeast have reached speeds of up to 50 km/h and may increase.
What does this mean for travellers to and from Costa Rica?
Like thousands found out in the last couple of days, it means grounded flights. For the major part, only U.S. airlines, with stricter measures, have cancelled flights. Regional airlines appear to be operating normally. But that could change at any time, depending all on the volcano.
As for why some airlines cancel the flights and others do not, Enio Cubillo, director of Civil Aviation, said that they are individual policies, but in some cases, in flights of more than three hours and knowing that the weather conditions can suddenly change due to conditions of nature, airlines prefer not to risk it. Ash in the air can affect aircraft engines and sensors.
If you are travelling to or from Costa Rica in the coming days, check with your airline and/or the San Jose airport website for the status of your flight.
The scene only a couple of weeks ago, when the closure occurred during a weekday.
The scene only a couple of weeks ago, when the closure occurred during a weekday.
Q COSTA RICA – Traffic from Alajuela to San Jose on the autopista General Cañas will be affected with the complete closure of the over the Virilla river bridge or “Platina” from Saturday (January 7) morning to 5:00am Monday (January 9) morning.
Affected are only the Alajuela – San Jose lanes, but expect slow downs on the San Jose – Alajuela side.
The General Cañas is the major route into San Jose from the airport and other points west, a road built in the 1960s, starting as a four lane road converted to six lanes with the elimination of the shoulder and narrower lanes. The General Cañas traffic is almost 100,000 vehicles daily.
According to the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT), the closure is required to continue installing trusses for the expansion of the bridge. Once the work on the Alajuela-San Jose direction is complete, the same will occur on the San Jose-Alajuela side of the structure.
Traffic from Alajuela to San Jose will be detoured at the EPA for heavy vehicles and at the Colegio Castella for all other vehicles. Traffic will then move through Heredia, past the Riteve station to Jardines del Recuerdo onto La Uruca, at the Pablo II bridge, where it will resume on the General Cañas.
Weeks earlier, Minister Villalta assured that if the work was not completed by February 28, he would resign. President Luis Guillermo Solis said he would accept the resignation.
The Platina bridge has been a thorn on the side for drivers since 2009, when a 4 inch gap in one of the expansion joints was noted. After several repair attempts and millions of dollars spend, the Platina was no better off, in fact worse, the MOPT using steel plates (platinas in Spanish) to cover up the gaping holes in middle of the structure.
Finally, it was decided that the bridge needed a full overhaul (not just a temporary fix) and with that came the decision to expand the bridge to six lanes from the current four.
The expansion falls in line in that for the most part the General Cañas is a six lane road, while two bridges – the Platina and the Rio Segundo (by the Cerveceria – brewery) remain four lanes, daily causing traffic congestion.
This latest repair and expansion comes with a price tag of ¢7.345 billion colones (US$14 million dollars).
Venezuela’s Catholic Church has taken a strong stance against Maduro’s administration. (Efecto Cocuyo)
TODAY VENEZUELA – The Vatican reportedly supports the Venezuelan Catholic Church in its request to parishioners to “rebel in a peaceful and democratic way against the Chavez dictatorship” led by President Nicolas Maduro.
Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, also Archbishop of Caracas, urged priests to share Sunday Mass messages that encourage Venezuelans to “not be intimidated” as well as “to eradicate the dictatorship the peaceful and democratic way.”
The priests have been instructed to refute “economic war” propaganda the Chavista regime uses to explain the serious scarcity crisis that the country is experiencing.
The Venezuelan Catholic Church said that during the 2015 legislative elections, Venezuelans “voted not to agree with the current government.” For this reason, the archbishop encouraged people “not to be intimidated” as well as “to put all their efforts together, stop the dictatorship and eradicate it the democratic way, in healthy peace, the peaceful way.”
The priests also discussed the “millions of suffering Venezuelans” who demanded that Maduro’s dictatorship “need to solve the very serious food and drug crisis,” the cause of which is the “application of a misguided economic system and socialist totalitarianism that ascribes the State total control over the economy.”
“Never before have so many Venezuelans had to find food in the garbage!” the Venezuelan Catholic Church’s message read on Sunday, in which it also questioned the dialogue between the government and the opposition “which was a source of hope for large sectors of the country” and that “regardless of the future of this dialogue, should have provided solutions to the current crisis. We must keep in mind that the people demand peace, personal security and social coexistence, and conditions that allow us to work and live in peace.”
The issue of political prisoners was also mentioned, as they recalled the 126 political prisoners, including the founder of the People’s Voluntary Party, Leopoldo López, and Antonio Ledezma, founder of the opposition group Bravo Pueblo Alliance.
TODAY NICARAGUA – Nicaragua plans to invest between US$600 and US$700 million dollars in the energy sector this year, to improve the service to the population and promote sustainable development, official sources reported on Wednesday.
The president of the Nicaraguan Chamber of Energy, César Zamora, said that his organization was investigating at least 10 investment projects, most of which were focused on renewable energy sources such as hydro-electrics, bio energy and solar energy.
‘We have finished projects with available financing and with a specific period to fulfill the authorities’ goals,’ he pointed out.
Zamora also stated that the energy sector enjoys economic stability and is working on exporting, after reaching 90 percent of the country in 2016 with electricity cover.
With respect to growth, every year Nicaragua needs an additional 40 megawatts of energy to guarantee supply to domestic users and companies, he added.
In A Decade Costa Rica Could Have More Visitors Per Year Than Inhabitants
Q COSTA RICA – In less than two decades Costa Rica will have tripled the number of tourist arrivals, closing 2016 with almost three million.
In 2004, the country set a record, receiving 1.5 million visitors, double the number of the previous decade.
According to the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT) – the tourism board – up to last September the number of arrivals reached 2.25 million, a 12.46% increase over the first nine months of 2015.
Although the numbers for October, November and December are not in yet, if the trend of the previous nine months was continued, more than 2.9 million visitors will have arrived by air, land and sea.
According to a ‘pessimistic’ calculation by La Nacion, the number of tourist arrivals in the last quarter of 2016 would have to be at least 13.7%, a number that is somewhat difficult, though not unattainable.
To calculate the estimated arrivals of foreigners to the country, the ICT uses immigration records discarding the arrival of people with residency in the country, and those who travel to Costa Rica on a temporary work permit.
“Everything indicates that it was a really good year, with a higher than average growth,” Tourism Minister Mauricio Ventura said.
For the first nine months of 2016, the World Tourism Organization estimated an overall global increase of 4% in the number of international tourists compared to the previous year. In Costa Rica, the figure was 12.46%.
On the other hand, positive indicators pose challenges to the country.
A study published last April by the Instituto Centroamericano de Administración de Empresas (INCAE) – Central American Institute of Business Administration – underscored the seasonality and attraction of a better profile of visitors as part of the challenges for the country.
For example, while in 1999, the national average expenditure for each tourist was close to US$1,064, by 2013 that figure had increased by only one dollar.
In addition, Costa Rica maintains a tendency strongly linked to seasonality. In September 2016, the country received half of the tourists it registered in January, a challenge for the tourism industry.
On this, the hotel industry points out some ideas. Gustavo Araya, president of the Cámara de Hoteles, believes that the “rainy season” characterized by rainfall should be promoted as the “green season” with its high potential for ecological tourism.
Another challenge is for Costa Rica to promote conventions. According to Minister Ventura, convention goers have a higher purchasing power (spend more) and could spur visits during the “off-season”.
Is there a limit on tourism?
Although Costa Rica’s tourism has been on the rise, with an average per year of 6.3% since 2000, is there a ceiling for the number of tourist arrivals?
“At the moment it’s not an issue to consider right away,” Ventura told La Nacion. “In the future we will have to consider how far the country can reach in the number of visits it can receive without damaging the product (ecological tourism), but we still have a lot of growth potential,” he said.
Even more: in a decade Costa Rica could have more visitors per year than inhabitants. The Central American Population Centre estimates that by 2027, the country’s population will be 5.4 million compared to a possible 5.53 million tourist arrivals, if this pace of growth continues.
A video which shows UN and FARC members enjoying New Year’s Eve together, has caused a stir on social media
TODAY COLOMBIA – The news agency EFE recently published videos in which members of the United Nations verification mission are observed dancing with FARC guerrillas during New Year’s Eve festivities in El Conejo, a municipality located in Colombia‘s northeastern La Guajira state, near the Venezuelan border.
The video has gone viral on social networks, calling into question the neutrality of participants in the UN mission. This latest incident comes on the heels of a public dispute between the mission, and the governor of the northwestern Antioquia department, who expressed grave concerns over prostitution and trafficking of children in the FARC‘s pre-grouping camps. The UN denied the governor’s allegations.
The guerrillas remain in such “pre-grouping” camps, waiting for orders from their superiors to move to the so-called “concentration zones” where they will face a day of legal reckoning and begin to aid in the reparations process for the victims, as established in the FARC-Santos Peace Agreement, which is overseen by the UN.
Thus far the FARC has not started its movement to the concentration zones, citing a lack of guarantees. Their first grievance was the lack of an Amnesty Law that was recently approved. Their second grievance is the lack of suitable housing in the concentration zones, which was promised by the Colombian government. However, they have said that they will not delay the timeline.
There remains a great deal of uncertainty about dissidents within the guerrilla group, since there are many members who do not want to demobilize but plan to continue in illegal businesses, such as drug trafficking and illegal mining, which have long provided the FARC with lucrative income streams.
TODAY PANAMA – The Panamanian bank system will face a glim 2017, according to the most recent report by the risk assessment company Fitch Ratings (FR), entitled Perspectiva-2017 (Prospects-2017) and published in this capital.
According to the Spanish language media, the assessment of the Panamanian economic sector was announced by the rating company FR after a study for the banks in Central America and the Dominican Republic.
The FR’s report said the prospects of the local banks would be influenced by the events that took place in this Central American nation during 2016, especially the Panama Papers.According to the research company, maintaining a good reputation and performance by the participants and the regulators of the financial sector is a major focus for the central Government, although risks that could damage those parameters will remain this year, the newspaper Critica reported.
The study also revealed that internal control and fulfillment of the plans would be areas that would remain subject to improvement for the participants and regulatory changes to strengthen supervision of the system have not been ruled out.
FR said there could be mergers or buys of large and small banks this year, boosted by increasing competition and regulatory changes.
The rating company also said it expected a slower growth pace and that it could be better compared to the little growth in 2016, although it would probably not reach that of previous years, the growths of which were little more than 10 percent.
GAMECHANGERS: A roundup of the most important criminal developments in the Americas during 2016 and what to expect in 2017
(Q24N) InSightCrime.org, a non-profit journalism and investigative organization specialized in organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean, with offices in Washington, D.C. and Medellín, Colombia has produced a roundup report of the most important criminal developments in the Americas during 2016 and what to expect in 2017.
InSight Crime’s GameChangers 2016 put a spotlight on crime and corruption among the region’s political elites, while reporting on government struggles to corral criminality, fueled by street gangs, drug cartels and Marxist rebels alike.
Top government officials in Latin America spent much of 2016 fending off accusations of corruption and organized crime with varying degrees of success.
At the centre of the storm was Brazil, where government deals led to bribes and kickbacks that over time reached into the billions of dollars. The top casualty of the scandal was Dilma Rousseff who, ironically, was ousted from the presidency for misuse of funds, not corruption.
Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro is facing down a different type of crisis, one that includes an economic emergency, widespread corruption and rising crime rates at home, and an increasing number of current and ex-officials charged with drug trafficking abroad.
Guatemala’s Attorney General’s Office and its United Nations-backed appendage, the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (Comisión Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala – CICIG), continued to arrest and charge more suspects from the mafia state established under former President Otto Pérez Molina, his Vice President Roxana Baldetti and their Patriotic Party (Partido Patriota – PP).
El Salvador’s Attorney General’s Office arrested one ex-president, began a corruption probe of another ex-president, and charged a former attorney general with corruption, in part because of their relationship with a businessman whom both the Salvadoran and US governments are investigating for drug trafficking.
Investigations in Honduras continue to swirl dangerously close to President Juan Orlando Hernández. The Attorney General’s Office there is still looking into ties between a corruption scandal in the Honduras Social Security Institute and campaign contributions to the president’s party, and accused drug traffickers tied the president’s brother to drug trafficking with one US official calling the brother “a person of interest” in an ongoing investigation.
The problems in the Northern Triangle emanate from the bottom up as well. More than a dozen mayors in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala are facing charges of corruption and organized crime. Mayors have not only allegedly worked directly with organized crime but formed their own organized crime groups, a trend we will explore in various investigations we are preparing for 2017.
Other countries such as Panama and Nicaragua are also facing challenges from corruption and organized crime. The Panamanian government requested the US extradite former President Ricardo Martinelli for alleged use of illegal wiretaps of as many as 150 political opponents and critics. And Nicaraguans are wondering what Daniel Ortega’s near absolute grip on all levers of power means after he was elected to a fourth term as president, something we will also explore in 2017, in our last installment of our Elites and Organized Crime series.
Calor Calor and Bagdad “reportedly have cells in Costa Rica, although it is unclear just how high up their involvement in the drug trade goes.”
Across Panama’s western border, Costa Rica, which has long been considered the “Switzerland of Latin America,” has seen a drastic rise in violent crime associated with the illegal narcotics trade. Between 2000 and 2015, the country’s murder rate nearly doubled from 6.3 to 11.5 per 100,000 citizens. Up to 70 percent of the violence has been associated with territorial battles between local drug gangs.
This dynamic is new to the country, with Costa Rican Security Minister Gustavo Mata explaining that “criminality in the country now revolves increasingly around the drug trade, whereas previously it largely consisted of bank robbery, vehicular theft, and kidnapping.”
InsightCrime.org
InsightCrime.org launched its website in December 2010 with news on organized crime and profiles of drug trafficking organizations and criminal personalities in Colombia and Mexico. The website has since expanded to include information on Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Ginnes on Wednesday publicly announced her decision to leave the Telenoticias anchor desk
COSTA RICA EXTRA – The talented and beautiful Ginnés Rodríguez says goodbye to Telenoticias after more than 12 years of work for the company. Although he tendered her resignation on December 26, the decision was made public on Wednesday.
The morning and afternoon news anchor and journalist announced her decision at the end of the noon news broadcast on teletica.com, saying, “It was a very tough and difficult decision but I talked it over with my family. At this moment, it is a very important decision for my family life and as a mother.”
“I’m leaving January 20 – my last day – with my heart in my hand because Teletica has been a family to me. They have been 12 wonderful years with a great work and I leave very satisfied but also very excited about what is coming,” she added.
Ginnés will start a new challenge at the Empresa de Servicios Públicos de Heredia (ESPH), “a very nice place because I’m going to serve my province. There are very important projects for the company and I will help them in the communication part with all the innovations.”
Her message was full of emotion
In an emotional message to young people who are studying journalism and love television: “Whoever wants to be a journalist and work on television has the open road, there are lots of opportunities.”
The experienced communicator believes that most important, “is to have very clear ideals, goals and dreams but above all to strive always to reach them.”
Ginnés began in Teletica on January 2, 2005 as an apprentice, months later (in September) she was hired as a journalist to be part of the morning, afternoon and evening editions of Telenoticias.
Q COSTA RICA – Ramps, footbridges, labyrinths and areas for socialization and recreation are part of the plans for the very first two dog parks in the capital city of San Jose.
The parks, Bella Vista in Pavas and Nacionalidad Costarricense in Sabana Sur, are being modified to provide an area for canines and their owners, while the rest of the park will continue to be open to the general public.
Bernal Vargas, who is in charge of the neighborhood improvement program of the municipality of San José, said the project is being carried out in two phases: the first is the development of a delimited the area of socialization for the pets, where they can run, while at the same time avoiding running into the street; and the second includes special structures for the recreation of dogs, such as pipes, ramps and walkways, as well as dispensers to collect excrement and benches for the owners.
Vargas added that the investment is ¢2.8 million colones for the Sabana park and ¢1.5 million in Pavas.
Luis Ortiz, a resident of Pavas and one of a number of pet owners contributing to the project explained, “We are a neighbourhood where between 75% and 80% of the homes have a dog. We saw each other in the mornings, when we took them out for a walk, and we became involved.”
Ortiz said the project took shape when the local church organized a blessing of pets in the Bella Vista park, and there, a group of some 30 neighbours managed to collect 300 signatures to take their concern to the city.
Elizabeth Sanchez, a neighbour of Sabana Sur said she is confident that the park will become a way to educate the population about the responsibility of having a pet.
Although these two parks are new to the capital city, dog parks are not new in Costa Rica. Curridabat (east of San Pedro) started developing dog parks about eight years ago and, in fact, is the canton with more parks for dogs in the country. It has areas for dogs in seven of its parks located in Freses, Abedules, Lomas de Ayarco Norte, Lomas de Ayarco Sur, Lomas del Sol, Hacienda Vieja and José María Zeledón.
“The park for dogs is great for socialization, because it allows the inhabitants to interact with the love they feel for their pets. I always remember that when the first one was opened in Freses, a neighbour told me that in 20 days he had come to know more neighbors than in the 20 years he had to live there,” says Curridabat Mayor Edgar Mora.
The mayor says that although there is no exact number, the idea is to continue to inaugurate more sites according to the demand of the inhabitants.
A similar initiative is also in Desamparados, where it inaugurated its firs dog park in August 2016, with four more planned for 2017.
Drive on the left, pass on the right is the way we drive in Costa Rica
TICO BULL by Rico – This past week I took to driving (professionally) again, giving my drivers some time off. In just three days I logged in more than 1,000 kilometres.
Although I wasn’t surprised, just that I had forgotten of the terrible driving habits in Costa Rica. I cannot say bad “Tico” driving, for not all drivers on the roads are Costa Rican.
Topping my list of the craziness that is part of the driving culture in Costa Rica is the “drive on the left, pass on the right” on highways such as the Ruta 27, the Bernardo Soto (San Jose airport to San Ramon) and new Cañas – Liberia section of the Ruta 1, all roads that have sections of two or more lanes in the same direction.
A typical toll on the Ruta 27. Notice the right lane is for the quickpass.
Day and night. Morning and afternoon. Small and big cars. Trucks big and small. With the exception of a very few, all have similar driving habits, driving on the left lane. I formed my driving habits that when I approad the oncoming two lanes, immediately I move to the right.
And it all makes sense. The next time you are on the Ruta 27, notice that the quickpass is always to the right. On some of the larger toll stations such as Escazu and Atenas, there is a quickpass lane on the left, but seldom used. Moving traffic is on the right.
So, if driving in Costa Rica and you want to move faster than then other vehicles, always go to the right. Unless…but that is a subject for another time.
Q COSTA RICA – Sister Aracelly Salazar took to bull ring in Zapote to show off her talent for bullfighting, taking the Toros Teletica challenge and well, with the faith of God, came out of the ring in one piece.
Sister Aracelly Salazar, doing pastoral and religious education work at the Oblate Sisters of Providence, in Siquirres, is Costa Rica’s self-proclaimed number one soccer fan, is not in the habit (pun intended) of fighting bulls.
She explained during her interview after her bullfight, combined with her faith and experience with working with animals as part of her mission work, she did not have any fear entering the bull ring.
In the Costa Rica bullfights the bull is never hurt. The objective here is to touch the bull with the spear like rod resembling the one used in real bullfights such as in Spain or Colombia.
When Sister Aracelly is not kicking the ball around, she hosts a TV show on a religious channel to relive the national (soccer) team’s best moments, with thousands tuning in every Saturday to hear her analysis.
Click here to watch the video (at press time the Q was not able to obtain the link for the video) how Sister Aracely skilfully handles herself in the ring. The video is more than 8 minutes long, includes interviews in and out of the bullring. But the best is the 30 second recap starting at minute 7:20
Check with your airline or the Aeris website (link below) for your the status of your flight
Q COSTA RICA NEWS – The Turrialba volcano is once again playing havoc with travel to and from Costa Rica, a number of airlines cancelling flights and from the Juan Santamaria international airport in San Jose (SJO), due to high levels of ashfall.
After several weeks of low activity, the Turrialba on Tuesday began its latest eruptions of ash and gas and thanks to the strong winds, blowing the ashfall west towards the airport.
According to Enio Cubillo, director of Civil Aviation, confirmed that the presence of ash in and around the airport is a concern for many airlines, who in their priority decided to land or take off from the San Jose airport.
Cubillo pointed out that the fall of an ash is an event of force majeure, so that the airlines are released from responsibility, although they could reach agreements with the affected passenger.
Check with your airline or the Aeris website (link below) for your the status of your flight
As at 10:40am today (Wednsday, January 4) the Aeris website informs at a number of cancelled flights, that include:
Departures
Nature Air 5C 120, 9:35am.
United Airlines, UA 1269, 12:07pm to Houston
Jetblue, B 6038, 13:26pm to Fort Lauderdale
United Airlines, UA 1490, 13:45pm to Houston
Spirit Airlines, NK 756, 13:50 pm to Fort Lauderdale
United Airlines, UA 1623, 13:55pm to Washington
American Airlines, AA 2232, 14:10pm to Miami
United Airlines, UA 1560, 14:45pm to Newark
United Airlines, UA1099, 15:10pm to Houston
Arrivals
Nature Air, 5C551, 09:30am
Nature Air, 5C551, 10:55am.
United Airlines, UA 1266, 11:05am from Houston
United Airlines, UA 1080, 11:40 am from Newark
American Airlines, AA 2221, 12:09am from Miami
Jetblue, B6 039, 12:30am from Fort Lauderdale
United Airlines, UA 1036am from desde Houston
Spirit Airlines, NK 755am from Fort Lauderdale
United Airlines, UA 1699am from Washington
American Airlines, UA AA 1153, 13:15am from Miami
United Airlines, UA 1553, 13:25am from Newark
United Airlines, UA 1098, 14:05 am from Houston
American Airlines, AA 1592, 14:22am from Miami
American Airlines, AA 986, 19:0am from Dallas
If you have flight today (or in the coming days) to and from Costa Rica, best is to check with your airline before heading out to the airport or the Aeris website.
Autonomous state institutions increase their publicity budgets for 2017
Autonomous state institutions increase their publicity budgets for 2017
Q COSTA RICA NEWS – Eleven autonomous government agencies (state agencies) including RECOPE (see hike in gasoline prices) and Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AyA), aja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), Patronato Nacional de la Infancia (PANI), Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS), Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones (Sutel), and Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) averaged a 32% increase in their advertising (publicity) budgets in 2017.
In their budgets for 2017 at least eleven state agencies have significantly increased the amount of resources allocated to publicity (propaganda in Spanish) in 2017.
The Sutel’s propaganda spending will go from the ¢243 millones in 2016 to ¢518 millones for 2017. The Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) will spend this year ¢2.123 billion colones, the Patronato Nacional de la Infancia (PANI) – child welfare agency, ¢1.339 billion colones.
The Instituto Mixto de Ayuda Social (IMAS) – the people who bring us the duty-free shops at the airport, among other things – with an increase of 141% compared to 2016 (it went up from ¢85 million to ¢207 million.
In the case of Recope, Nacion.com reports that “… The increase is 30%.” AyA has budgeted to spend ¢525 million to in 2016, to ¢681 million in 2017, an increase of ¢156 million colones.
Shionny Porras, press chief at Recope, explained that among other objectives, “educating the population about Recope’s role as guarantor of energy security.”
Porras also argued that the budget will be used to publicize the progress of investment projects to strengthen the National Fuel System (Sistema Nacional de Combustibles) and report on the quality of fuels.
Now you know why fuel costs in Costa Rica are so high.
La Nacion report says it was not able to obtain figures from ICE.
During his presidential campaign of 2014, President Lui Guillermo Solis promised to cut all superfluous expenses, including consultancies and publicity.
However, state agencies such as Recope, ICE, AyA and the others are “autonomous institutions”, that is to stay their budgeting is not under the direct control of the central government.
Former presidential candidate, leader of and legislator for the Movimiento Libertatio party, Otto Guevara, considered the increases for 2017 to be “another unfulfilled promise” by Solis.
“He (Solis) said the state was not going to spend on advertising more than the minimum, to report on closing a street, but not to advertise,” said Guevara.
Regulator of public prices and services approved hike in gasoline prices that will most likely will take effect his week
Q COSTA RICA NEWS – With the start of the new year comes, you guessed it, a hike in gasoline prices. On Tuesday, the Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep) confirmed a hike in the cost of fuel, expected to take effect at the pumps by then end of this week, of ¢48 colones for a litre of diesel, ¢37 for regular and ¢30 for super.
The approved hike was requested in December by the state refinery, the Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo (Recope).
Aresep energy manager, Mario Mora, said the approval has already been sent for publication to La Gaceta, the official government newspaper, that is required to publish it within five business days. The prices at the pump will take effect the day following publication. (Q prediction is a Friday publish, just in time for the weekend).
The new prices at the pumps will be ¢562 colones (up from the current ¢525) for a litre regular; super goes to ¢592 (from the current ¢562); and a litre of diesel will cost ¢475 (up from the current ¢427).
What the hike means that an average driver in an average car with an average 45 litre fuel tank will be paying in a few days ¢2,160 more than today for a fill up.
All other types of fuels, such as natural gas (used in kitchens and restaurants across the country) and aviation fuel, are also going up.
But wait, there’s more bad news. Recope says we can expect another fuel hike request later this month, possibly between ¢7 and ¢10 colones. The good news is that, based on the Aresep model of price adjustments, that hike won’t take effect until February.
According to Recope, the price hike is justified to a recent increase in the international price of oil.
Image from “Catch Me If You Can”, the 2002 American biographical crime film based on the life of Frank Abagnale
(Q TRAVEL) When looking to book a flight, 95 percent of us focus on one thing, the price. But, thanks to a new survey from Trippy, via Maxim, maybe it’s time to just start using the airline with the sexiest flight attendants, because we now have the answer.
In a new survey, Trippy asked over 2,000 flyers to rank the attractiveness of flight attendants on the scale of 1 to 10.
Here are the results.
As the chart shows, Emirates attendants’ finished tops, averaging a solid 7.17 out of 10. United came in second with a 6.73. Alaska Airlines find themselves in the middle of the pack with a 6.46 rating. Frontier is at the bottom with a 5.48.
Canada’s Air Canada and Westjet placed in the top half, Westjent ranking a 6.61 and AC a 6.46.
We assume that the list “sexiest” applies to women flight attendants, the survey does not differentiate between sexiest female and male attendants.
So, will you use this as a basis to book your next travel plans? Probably not. Use the comments section below or post to our official Facebook page for your thoughts.
National holidays in Costa Rica for days at the beach
Q COSTA RICA – The recent holiday left many workers in the dumps given that both Christmas and New Years Day fell on a Sunday. But, what’s in store for 2017? Much of the same?
To overcome what can only be described as a bitter gulp, the good news is that all 10 remaining ‘national’ holidays, including January 1, 2018, fall on weekdays.
In Costa Rica, all ‘national holidays’ are celebrated the day they fall on. Like this past Christmas and New Years Day, workers don’t get the following Monday or any other day off. Sucks. The only national holiday that moves to the following Monday is the Dia de la Culturas on October 12, according to the Labour Code.
This year, October 12 is on a Thursday, thus the day off is Monday, October 16.
Of the other national holidays, four are on a Monday, three on a Tuesday and two on a Friday. The other two remaining holidays, August 2 falls on a Wednesday and Good Thursday, of course on a Thursday.
What this means that in 2018, there will be at least six long weekends. This does not take into account workers who, regardless of the holiday or what day it falls on, in any event make a long weekend of it.
With the exception of August 2 and October 12, all national holidays are paid holidays. This means that workers required to work on the holiday are paid double. If there is overtime involved, the overtime is paid at triple. In Costa Rica working on a holiday is not mandatory, only if the employee wishes to do so.
For the August 2 and October 12 holidays, non-mandatory payment holidays, employers paying monthly, bi-monthly or weekly must include the day in the normal pay period, whether the employee works or not. If the employe does work on the holiday, there is double pay.
Not getting paid are jobs paid for the day or contract, even though the actual payment is made weekly, that is the salary is based on day work and not fixed such as a “quincena” (every two weeks) or monthly. If a day worker works on the holiday, they get the normal day’s pay and not double as the quincena worker for example.
In the latter, it may include such jobs as domestic work (maid), gardener or handyman, hired for a specific job for specific days and not deemed full-time employees.
For any doubts about holiday pay visit the Ministry of Labour (Ministerio de Trabajo y Seguridad Social) website or call 800-TRABAJO (800 872 2256).
Q COSTA RICA NEWS – Was it an inside job? So far authorities are being tight lipped about the incident occurring Monday morning, around 10:15m, only to say that two men on a motorcycle got away with a ¢37 million colones haul, nabbed from two Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS) workers, in San Juan de Tibás, San José, on their way to making a bank deposit.
According to the police report, the workers were intercepted by the assailants some 25 metres from the INS office located only a half block from the local police station.
The INS office was closed over the weekend. It is presumed the cash was left in the premises over the holidays, to be deposited Monday morning.
Carlos Hidalgo, spokesperson for the Ministry of Security, said the assailants pulled a gun on the INS employees, took the money and fled.
Investigators of the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) heading the investigation are not saying much, only advising companies to make daily deposits, to not letcash accumulate to avoid similar incidents.
December 31 was the last day to pay the 2017 Marchamo, that is without incurring late fees, penalties and the possibilityof being pulled over by a Transito (traffic official). And true to their word, on Januay 1, the Policia de Transito was giving their full attention to vehicles without the Marchamo.
With a screwdriver and ticketing book, Transitos Marvin Méndez and Jimmy Salazar confiscate the license plates of a vehicle without the respective 2017 Marchamo in the area of barrio La Cruz and Parque de la Paz (San Jose). (Alonso Tenorio/La Nacion)
In total, in the first day of the new year, Transitos issued a ¢51,300 colones ticket to 133 drivers, in addition to seizing the vehicle’s license plates, which at best means waiting 3 to 4 days (after payment of the fine) to get them back.
In addition to the fine, the seizure of the plates and time to recover them, the vehicle owner faces interest and late fees that applies to all Marchamos not paid by December 31. The fees and penalties on an unpaid Marchamo accumulates pretty fast, for simplicity sake, at a compounded rate of over 6% per month.
According to the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS) – the national insurer – that administers the collection of the Marchamo, as of Monday morning, 17% of the 1,184,539 registered vehicles had not had the Marchamo paid.
Roger Arias, spokesperson for the INS, the Marchamo can be paid up to January 15 at the usual collection points, ie INS, banks, post office and Servimas (Walmart and Masxmenos stores). After that date, it can only be paid at an INS office.
The director of the Policia de Transito, Mario Calderon, denied that his officials were targeting vehicles with the Marchamo, saying the operations to verify payment of the Marchamo is carried out throughout the year.
Venezuela holds the total ownership and control over Citgo in the United States
(TODAY VENEZUELA) Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (Pdvsa) informed the country that it still holds the total ownership and control over its branch in the United States, Citgo Petroleum Corporation, and categorically rejects the national and international media campaign against the Venezuelan oil industry.
Pdvsa denies the press false statements and the comments made by spokespeople interested in creating political instability in our country, all of which are based on speculation, rumors and biased information discrediting the Corporation.
It is important to underscore that any world-class company, like Pdvsa, employs its assets to back its transactions and leverage its investments, making statements on the cession of assets to third parties completely false. The state oil company, via a press release, informed that it not only levered up in October using 50.1% of Citgo’s capital for bond swap operations, but that it also used the remaining 49.9% to raise financing.
It is noteworthy that all of this was achieved not only in spite of constant attacks against the company, but also in the middle of a negative period for the global oil industry.
In this sense, there is no doubt that Citgo continues to be owned by Pdvsa, a company that has also shown full solidness, reliability and solvency in its financial operations’ record. The best proof of this is the trust of bondholders, as well as the many international large companies that provided financing for the development of projects in Venezuela during this year ─was marked by low oil prices and a large number of oil industry companies cutting their investments.
Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (Pdvsa) urges the national and international public opinion not to echo the utterly false media campaigns that only seek to tarnish the image and reputation of the Venezuelan oil company.
Pdvsa remains committed to the Nation’s development, to the fulfillment of the objectives of both the company and the Bolivarian Government and to the achievement of the greatest happiness of the Venezuelan people.
Independent journalism has been threatened by the Maduro government’s refusal to allocate raw materials (La Patilla).
(TODAY VENEZUELA) At least 13 print media publications in Venezuela were affected by the lack of raw materials in the last half of the year. For this reason, many have been forced to cut the circulation of their newspapers.
The Venezuelan Institute of Press and Society (Ipys) warned that the lack of paper products in the South American country will only intensify the spread of misinformation, as the government increasingly puts pressure on independent media outlets.
The institute made this assessment in wake of the news that the independent regional daily El Impulso reported that it will only circulate until January 31 due to lack of paper.
“Venezuelan press outlets have had temporary forced closures in the past; some for a week or a month. The Impulse would be the first case of indefinite cessation of circulation after December 31, “said Mariengracia Chirinos, director of Freedom of Information for Ipys Venezuela.
Chirinos explained that the situation has been occurring from 2013 on, and that it is a result of the centralization of the importation of material for newspaper that is a function of the Venezuelan state.In Venezuela it is the executive branch which decides which news mediums are given the hard currency and the raw materials in order to be able to print and circulate. However, only independent media outlets, likely to be more anti-government in their outlook, have been affected by the lack of raw materials.
In the past three years, about 48 print media publications have reported difficulties in accessing raw materials and have been forced to reduce their publishing; around 14 newspapers have been forced to temporarily suspend circulation, according to figures from the organization.
Nicolas Maduro, like his predecessor Hugo Chavez, has often faced international criticism for cracking down on independent journalists.
Q TRAVEL – At the Q we get many inquiries about working in Costa Rica. The questions generaly are about “finding work” while in Costa Rica, either with the intention to permanently live in the country or during an extended visit.
It is a topic that is difficult to answer. However, the following article, “My Ultimate Answer to the “How Can I Find a Job Overseas?” Question, by Elaina Giolando in Life before 30 blog, though not aimed directly at Costa Rica, may provide insightful information on finding work abroad.
I’ve been working overseas for nearly 2 years now. I write this post from once again another country I
never thought I would wind up in (Qatar) and I have ZERO regrets about quitting my consulting job in 2013 and marching directly in the direction of my fears, which happened to involve hopping on a plane to Lagos, Nigeria and embarking on a job and lifestyle that both embodied everything I ever wanted to do and also completely terrified me. If you ask me what I’ve learned and gained in return, it is nothing short of growth, adventure, friendships, business contacts, new skills, and unforgettable memories.
And I want everyone to feel like this.
So it’s no surprise with the theme of my blog and the speed of social media that at least once a week I get a message on Facebook or an email that goes something like this:
Elaina Giolando
“Hi, I’m so-and-so and I graduated last year with a degree in this-and-that and want a job where I can travel. Can you help me?”
I love these messages because every single one of them reinforces my belief that more young people should — and are — actively embarking on similarly uncharted and adventurous paths and just need a little help (or push) to get there. I’m thrilled when I can be that helping hand and want to share my typical response to those private messages and emails with everyone.
Here’s my answer to those of you who have ever sent — or is thinking about sending — some version of that message to me or to anyone else in your life working abroad.
(If you read this and still need more help or want advice tailored to your individual situation, then hop on over to my Office Hours and sign up for a session!)
Do you just want a job or is this a career move? Do you care about the difference?
It’s fairly easy to get a job abroad: Apply for a working holiday visa in Australia. Wait tables in Paris. Work in a hostel in South America. Do a “volunteer vacation” in South Africa. Teach English in Mongolia. All it takes is some dedicated Google-searching and enough money to afford the plane ticket. And the guts to pack up and go, of course.
Working abroad in a way that purposefully moves your career forward is different. Getting a position you can proudly put on your resume for the rest of your life is more difficult. Not impossible, just more difficult, and there are two main ways to go about it, neither of which is quick and easy because there are no shortcuts to building a dynamic international career.
The rest of my response is catered to the second type: long-term, career-focused travel jobs. If you’re a backpacker looking to see new parts of the world and make enough money to get by, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that and there are plenty of places on the Internet that can help you out, such as Jobs Abroad and Go Overseas.
Photo: Citrix Online
Two ways to make a career move abroad.
1. Work your way up. That’s the short, nicer version of what I usually tell people, which is, “suck it up and take a name-brand job for a few years in order to get transferred abroad internally or to learn a tangible skill that is in high demand.” To be frank, not many sexy jobs abroad go to someone from another country who is fresh out of undergrad with no work experience and few unique skills. You’re expensive to import and there are usually strict local policies to prevent companies in many countries from hiring a foreigner when strong local talent is readily available.
Basically, take a corporate job for a few years, make sure you have your ideals and next steps clearly defined to avoid being enticed by money and dragged up a ladder you weren’t originally bargaining on climbing, and come out on the other side with a very strong value proposition for a specific company, sector, or area of business that is compelling in any part of the world.
Warning: What I also tell people is, if you aren’t being hired to work internationally (as in, it’s not in your title or contract), then don’t get your hopes up. The only way to be guaranteed to work overseas is to be hired to do exactly that. If you’re taking a consulting gig thinking that because they have an office in China and you studied a few years of Mandarin that you will have that opportunity at your fingertips (that was my faulty assumption in my previous job), then you are setting yourself up for disappointment and a delay in kicking off your international career.
If you’ve built up some relevant experience and aren’t seeing a viable internal move or aren’t being approached for international positions…
2. Pack up and go. Remember I said this wasn’t going to be easy?
After spending the last two years surrounded by expats, I see just how easy it is to become one. I often tell people approaching me for job advice, with all seriousness: “Just go to a city like Bogota or Addis Ababa or Hong Kong with enough savings to hang around for a few months, find the expat bars, make friends, network (because that will be your full time job for awhile), utilize your country’s local business associations and chambers of commerce, aggressively get yourself in front of companies, and an attractive position will probably unfold.” This is especially true if you go for a “second or third-tier” city (think Doha instead of Dubai, Stockholm instead of Paris, Nanjing instead of Shanghai) where there are simply fewer foreigners around looking for jobs.
Warning: This is a better approach for, but not limited to, those who have tangible skills and a genuinely impressive resume with 2-3 years of work experience.
These are the two high-level ways to go, as far as I see it, and then there is a whole lot of strategy (aka the tactics: where to search, how to network, etc.) for either approach, which I discuss in great detail here.
What do you want to do exactly?
If you can’t articulate what you want to do, at home or abroad, then I’m afraid you have some more soul-searching to do before I, or anyone else, can help you. You have to help us help you.
For example, if you can tell me, “I am a graphic designer and would like a job as a Creative Director in an advertising agency in South Africa,” then I can almost certainly point you in the right direction. But if you tell me, “I studied International Relations and want a job where I work abroad and learn about other cultures firsthand,” then I’m at a loss for words.
This is where my tough love comes in.
It might sound crazy, but sometimes I say, “pick a direction, any direction,” especially when it comes to getting hired abroad. I know you have a lot of options and probably a lot of things you’re passionate about; we have all been told since birth that we can do anything, but the fact is, we’re drowning in our own potential. Just pick something and try it on for size. Be impulsive. Follow a gut feeling. Make a choice. It doesn’t have to be forever, but you also can’t go on basking in your own “potential to do anything” forever either. The inability to articulate who you are, what you do well, and what you are looking for is reflective of an internal immaturity that is not attractive to employers in any country and will only promote “failure to launch” type situations.
“But, Elaina, that’s why I want to travel — to figure that out.”
And travel is a fantastic way to do just that. But if you’re traveling to figure yourself out better, then this means you probably aren’t ready (or qualified) to make a career move abroad. Instead, I’d suggest saving up a wad of cash and go backpacking for awhile, scheduling some informational interviews in professional areas of interest to you, and/or taking time to ask yourself some tough questions.
International experience begets international experience.
The good news, my fellow travel and international career enthusiasts, is that your first serious overseas job experience is the hardest one to land. After that, you will have an increasing amount of credentials that construct your personal and professional brand in an international context for the long-term.
We will all work international jobs.
I like to reassure everyone approaching me with international ambitions that, rest-assured, we have entered into a period of human history that is irreversibly globalized. If not immediately, then certainly at some point in your career, you will have to work abroad. Your area of expertise, no matter how specific or seemingly local, will somehow have global implications; your clients or your colleagues or your competition (or all 3) are going to be international, and working internationally will become a fact of life.
The only question is how eager you are to make international work experience a part of your resume now or later — and I trust if you are reading this then you want it to be sooner rather than later.
(TODAY COLOMBIA) Colombia is due to hike its value-added tax (VAT) rate to 19 percent from 16 percent.
The measure was included in a tax reform bill that was recently approved by Congress. The hike would come into effect from 2017.
The VAT cut would be accompanied by tax cuts for companies and more stringent penalties for tax evaders.
The VAT is Colombia’s main indirect tax. Currently this tax is 16 percent of the price of merchandise, goods and services with some exceptions: public transportation, water supply and sanitation and the transportation of natural gas and hydrocarbons.
The the National Taxes and Customs Direction (DIAN) recognizes two separate categories (regimenes) of VAT: common and simplified. The first refers to businesses with estimated patrimony over 68 million Colombian pesos (about US$34,000 dollars), and the second refers to those with patrimony less than that. Although both are obligated to pay the same percentage, the simplified taxpayers are not obligated to conduct separate bookkeeping for the VAT or to generate invoices.
Other taxes in Colombia include the stamp tax, a tax on the expedition of an official document (or on the validity of private documents), such as a contract or contractual modification; Financial transactions tax, A 0.4% tax rate is imposed on all financial transactions, including withdraw money from ATM, etc: Patrimony tax, a tax that requires the annual payment of 0.3% of the total patrimony of people with patrimony estimated over 3 billion pesos (about 1 million USD); Income tax; Payroll taxes; and Local taxes.
Corporations Income tax (Spanish: Impuesto a la renta y complementarios) must be paid by all local and foreign corporations operating in Colombia, who are subject to a corporate tax of 25%.;
Personal Income tax: Colombian citizens and foreign nationals who have lived continuously in Colombia for a total of 183 days, are thereafter subject to individual Income tax based on a system of graduated marginal tax rates.
Payroll taxes: Both the employer and the employee are subject to monthly payroll taxes from the employee’s gross salary, as follows:
Employer:
Health plan – 8.5%
Occupational risk – 0.348% – 8.7%
ICFB (Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar; Family Welfare) – 3%
CAJA (banco caja social) – 4%
SENA (The National Service of Learning) – 2%
Pension fund – 12%
Vacation – 4.17%
Employee:
Health plan – 4%
Pension fund – 4%
Local tax: tax is applied to lottery winnings; tax on gasoline, beer, liquor and cigarettes; and property tax, among others
Gen Luis Mendieta (in uniform) was held by the Farc for almost 12 years
(TODAY COLOMBIA) Police in Colombia say the number of people kidnapped has fallen 92% since 2000. The head of the counter-kidnapping police force, Fernando Murillo, said 188 people had been abducted in 2016.
Colombia was for years the world’s kidnapping hotspot with human rights groups estimating that almost 33,000 people have been seized since 1970.
A peace deal with Colombia’s main rebel group and improved security have led to the “historic shift”, police said.
Gen Murillo said that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) had not kidnapped a single person in 2016.
The Farc signed a peace deal with the government in November ending 52 years of armed conflict.
Former Colombian Congressman Odin Sanchez is still being held hostage in Colombia
‘Miraculous fishing expeditions’
The rebel group had been notorious for kidnapping soldiers and police officers and holding them hostage for long stretches of time, sometimes tied to trees in their jungle camps.
The Farc also carried out large-scale kidnappings of civilians for ransom, dubbed “miraculous fishing expeditions”, stopping buses and seizing anyone they thought could be a lucrative target.
Gen Murillo said 88% of the kidnappings in 2016 had been committed by “common criminals” who did not belong to either the Farc or Colombia’s second-largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN).
Of the remainder, 11% were carried out by organised crime gangs, the general said, and the final 1% of victims were taken by the ELN.
The ELN has clashed with the government over its unwillingness to release the last of its hostages.
The Marxist rebel group was due to start exploratory peace talks with the government in October, but the meeting was cancelled after the ELN refused to free former Congressman Odin Sanchez ahead of the talks.
The rebel group says it will release him during the first round of talks but the government insists he should be freed before the two sides sit down at the negotiating table.
Mexico has replaced Colombia as the country with the highest number of abductions in the Americas as criminal gangs increasingly turn to kidnapping for ransom.
The Mexican government says there are about 1,000 kidnappings a year, but a survey by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography suggests the number for 2015 is closer to 64,500.
Q COSTA RICA NEWS – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged Costa Rican lawmakers to agree on much-needed valued added tax (VAT) that would replace the current sales tax on purchases and income tax reforms.
The report said that the country has increased its income tax revenues and approved laws to tackle tax evasion. Corporate tax reforms are also before Congress.
However, the country’s lawmakers have yet to green light the implementation a value-added tax in place of the current general sales tax, with the adoption of the levy beset by delays.
