Despite Costa Rica’s economic troubles, poverty has not been a problem
Despite Costa Rica’s economic troubles, poverty has not been a problem
(Q COSTA RICA) Costa Rica closes out 2016 with the lowest poverty in seven years, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC).
More than 10,000 households rose about the poverty line, and 10,000 left what is considered extreme poverty, according to the Encuesta Nacional de Hogares (ENAHO)- national household survey.
Vice President of Costa Rica and Coordinator of the Presidential Social Council Ana Helena Chacón said the results are not a coincidence, and that there has been a lot of work and commitment to respecting human rights.
“We will continue to work harder, under the conviction that it is possible to move the needle toward equality and social inclusion,” Chacón said.
Costa Rican officials said the National Strategy for the Reduction of Poverty from the Bridge to Development, launched in March of 2015, included measures to expand and recondition the Centers for National Programs of Nutrition and Comprehensive Care (CEN-CINAI), as well as employment programs that prioritize the disadvantaged.
Adjustments were made to prevent the Development Program from benefiting families that did not really need it. On the other hand, scholarships and state transfers increased by an average of 14 percent per household.
The military is drastically effecting the food distribution process (taringa)
TODAY VENEZUELA – The Venezuelan military is reportedly taking advantage of the power given to them by Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro: Instead of fighting hunger, they profit from it, according to a recent report.
An investigation conducted by the Associated Press found corruption in Venezuela’s management of food distribution.
The military that should be in charge of managing the scarce food in the country, but instead administer it at illegal markets, where goods are bought and sold for up to 100 times the price set by the government.
“Food now goes for more than drugs,” said Cliver Alcalá, a retired general who helped oversee border security.
Since 2004 — the year President Hugo Chávez created the Ministry of Popular Power for Food — the military has been involved in food distribution and production control; however, as the scarcity and economic crisis in the country increased because of neglected farms and factories, so too did protests, looting and hunger.
The government is now in charge of importing most food. Bribes to generals are a normal occurrence for high-priced items, according to Werner Gutiérrez, Professor of Agronomy at the University of Zulia.
“If Venezuela paid market prices, we could import double and easily meet the needs of our population,” said Gutiérrez.
The investigation of the news agency pointed to the case of a South American businessman, who last July had a boat full of corn waiting in the port, and for which he had already paid millions in bribes to Venezuelan officials.
The boat “had been docked 20 days ago,” the businessman told the news agency.
The South American businessman who chose to remain anonymous explained that he understood that he should pay more bribes despite the fact that money was not mentioned; however, the then-Minister of Economy took the ship because the expenses were rising because of the delay.
Likewise, the entrepreneur said he paid $8 million to people who worked for Minister Marco Torres and explained that he could do it because officials inflate prices on the invoice that they give to the state.
A $52 million corn contract reportedly included a multi-million dollar surplus, based on market prices at the time.
The National Assembly tried to censor Minister Torres for corruption, based on the annual reports of the Ministry of Food that show significant payments. It was reportedly rejected under the reasoning that National Assembly members were trying to hurt the ministry.
Military control over food makes revolt by hungry soldiers less likely, but it has also reduced food supplies.
The US government, which has already made known its position on corruption in Venezuela, has initiated investigations against businessmen and senior officials, including army personnel, for laundering money that passes through the US financial system.
Three top US food vendors have also stopped selling directly to the Venezuelan government to avoid conflict.
Corrupt activity reportedly begins as soon as food arrives in the country, leaving ships waiting at sea until they are paid for. After the merchandise is unloaded, customs agents take their share while officials take care of the distribution process.
“It’s a continuous chain of corruption from the time food arrives by boat until it is transported by truck,” Luis Peña, COO of the Caracas-based Premier Foods importer, said.
According to AP, if the importers try to skip the process without paying bribes, the food stays and rots.
After customs, trucks must pass through military controls to stop food traffickers.
The drivers interviewed by AP claimed that half of the officers at the checkpoints charge them.
At the end of the food chain, some soldiers sell goods directly to businesses.
“The army is getting fat while my grandchildren grow skinny,” said a 74-year-old man who was walking stiffly in the middle of the traffic on a recent afternoon. “Little comes our way.”
Nicolas Maduro’s government has still not delivered the new money supply to the Venezuelan people (Noticia al Dia).
TODAY VENEZUELA – Although shipments of Venezuela’s new 500 bolivar bills have allegedly arrived in Venezuela, Venezuelans have not yet seen the promised deliveries.
On Tuesday, the government of Nicolás Maduro announced that a third shipment had arrived with 35.5 million such bank notes; but in the streets there is still no trace of the new bill that was supposed to come into circulation starting on December 15.
“710 boxes have just arrived with 500 bolivar notes coming from Stockholm, which will complete our projection of 60 million units,” José Khan, vice president of the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), told state television.
According to the official the BCV also received seven million new bank notes. One of these prototypes will replace the 100 bolivar bill that will also stop circulating come January 2, and which currently has a value equivalent to USD $0.15.
The BCV claimed that in December, 99.5 million bills of 500 bolivars would be put into circulation; a figure which economists deemed insufficient, due to the fact that in November, before Maduro’s questionable plan to replace the 100 bolivar notes, there were roughly 6.1 billion 100 bolivar notes in circulation.
“The bills that have arrived represent barely more than 5% of the quantity that was withdrawn from circulation,” said economist Hasdrubal Oliveros.
The coins of Venezuela’s new money supply began to appear this Wednesday, December 28, in some parts of the capital, Caracas.
The 50 bolivar note, which features on one side the profile of Simón Bolívar and on the other the Venezuelan shield, circulates in limited quantities in informal shops, according to journalists from the news service AFP.
Maduro abruptly announced that the 100 bolivar notes would be withdrawn from circulation, citing the need to combat organized crime groups intent upon destroying the Venezuelan economy.
However, few economists believe the measure will improve the dismal economic fundamentals in the South American nation, which has faced several years of rampant inflation, shortages, corruption, and insecurity.
Q COSTA RICA – It can cost as much or more to fly from San Jose to Managua (a 40 minute flight) or El Salvador than that to and from Miami. Although there is a trend towards low-cost airlines, such Volaris and Viva, air travel within Central America and South America continues to be expensive.
Volaris Costa Rica, the ultra-low cost airline, took to the skies today
Insufficient development of low-cost airlines is the main reason why international travel within Latin America is so much more expensive than doing so in Europe and Asia.
A report published by The Economist states that “it is easy” to identify the reasons why this happens: fewer secondary airports, longer distances, and more restrictive regulations for lack of a common market as in Europe.
However, experts point out that the outlook in the region is evolving, ensuring that new and better options for travel between some countries are being considered.
“We want to make the market grow. We are working so that a customer from the interior of Argentina can travel to the interior of Brazil,” said Eduardo Bernardes, commercial vice president of Brazil’s Gol, which advocates flexibility in flight regulations.
Since 2000, only Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia have developed low cost carriers, but they mainly offer only domestic flights, and at less competitive prices than one would encounter in Europe.
In Argentina, Flybondi, whose majority shareholder is Julian Cook, founder of Switzerland’s Flybaboo, plans to launch a dozen domestic routes soon. The Viva group, established in Mexico with VivaAerobus, and in Colombia with VivaColombia, just opened last November Viva Air in Peru.
“There is definitely a lot of potential in Latin America,” confirmed Carlos Ozores, a consultant with the US company ICF. “In Mexico or in Brazil, the public was often accustomed to using buses, but once they begin to fly they do not want to go back to the days of long distance bus travel” he added.
VivaColombia, in particular, has emerged as a bright spot for those seeking reasonably priced international fares within Latin America. With a hub at Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport, the airline now offers cheap and regular flights to Lima, Quito, Miami, and Panama City, as well as nearly twenty destinations throughout Colombia, including popular tourist hotspots like Santa Marta, Cartagena, Medellin, and Leticia.
Wingo has also emerged as a bright spot for economic competition in the travel market, offering an even more extensive international roster. Based in Bogota, and owned by Copa Airlines, they currently offer travel to Aruba, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela.
Increased competition is welcome news for longsuffering travelers and tourists in Latin America who have endured high prices for too long.
2017 promises to be a welcome relief. Hopefully other Latin American nations will follow suit and launch their own low-cost carrier alternatives to compete with the traditional industry players.
Q COSTA RICA – Per Bylund, a libertarian thinker, recently tweeted: “What causes poverty? Nothing. It is the original state, the starting point. The real question is: What causes prosperity?” Bylund refers to the original state of humanity as a whole, and not to particular individuals.
During the Stone Age, for example, people at that time only had what nature could offer them: water, fruits, animals to hunt, stones to make fire, caves for shelter.
Let us compare that scenario with today. Whoever is reading this column has a telephone or computer with which to read it, a house to sleep in, means of transportation to move about, medicines to cure sickness, clothes to dress themselves with. If we look a little further, we can see airplanes, drones, rockets, and smart buildings.
None of this came from a tree. Everything was created by individuals who realized that if they wanted to survive and have a good life, they had to think and act. And if, on the contrary, they stayed with their mind in a blank state, paralyzed, waiting to absorb life from the soil and the sun, they would die.
The creation of all wealth is based on thinking and acting; on the search to survive and live fully. Prosperity is not achieved by any defect or weakness, but thanks to the human virtues, and one of the noblest feelings: the love of life.
Does someone who thinks and acts have his life assured? No, not at all. He can both reason and act in the wrong way. He may lack key information to make a good decision. He may incorrectly evaluate this information.
He can offer on the market something that people do not want. He can take a false step. He can fail hundreds of times. Surviving is a challenge, and living fully is a phenomenal achievement.
But while thinking and acting do not necessarily ensure life or wealth, what is certain is that not thinking or acting do ensure poverty.
What better resource to stay poor or to return to poverty than not to think, and do nothing? I can assure you the best way to make sure not to eat, is to stare at the sky waiting for bread to fall from it.
Now, why would anyone decide not to think or act? Because doing so has a cost, it involves an effort, and some people prefer to wait for something magical to happen or someone else to take care of this hard task.
It is easier to wait for it to rain, than to look for water in the subsoil and figure out how to bring it to the surface. It is easier to ask a neighbor for a glass of milk, than milking a cow. It is easier to pray so that there is no lack of food, than to think about how to increase production.
There is also consciously chosen poverty. Why would anyone choose to be poor? Some believe that being poor is a virtue, or prefer to engage in an activity that offers personal satisfaction, but that is not enough to pay the bills. Others even donate their wealth for a cause that they consider more valuable.
Both poverty for vagrancy, and poverty for choice, are personal decisions that affect only the individual who chooses these paths. There is a third option, however, that is much more dangerous: poverty through coercion.
There is poverty through coercion when someone forces another person to remain poor or to be poor again, by taking away his freedom to produce wealth, or by appropriating from the latter after it is produced.
How can anyone take away my freedom or rob me the fruit of my effort? Only through the use of force. That is, at gunpoint. And who initiates force in a society? Criminals (illegally), and the government (legally).
An offender can abduct and steal, but only to some people throughout his life. Moreover, an offender faces the possible consequences of being sent to jail or dying if things do not go as planned. But only the government can violate the freedom and property of all people at the same time in a systematic, legal, and risk-free way.
Just take a look at the countries of the Americas where there is a greater proportion of poor people without the possibility of improving their situation. These nations have authoritarian governments that do not respect the right to freedom or property. Of course, Cuba and Venezuela lead this ranking.
On the contrary, the countries where these rights are respected have greater wealth and upward social mobility; and people have incentives to think, act, take risks, and persevere.
How to think and act, if we cannot do it freely? How to think and act, if any act of independence is considered as rebellion and therefore, punished?
What incentive can someone have to generate wealth if, as soon as he or she succeeds, the government takes it directly or through confiscatory taxes? Is it not preferable to be on the side of those who receive things for free, instead of continuing on the side of those who produce for the benefit of others?
The widespread poverty of a whole society and for a long period of time is only the fault of a government that imposes it. We can continue to blame Spanish colonialism or Yankee imperialism, but we will not be able to overcome poverty until we take the first step towards change: to recognize that the true enemy of progress is within ourselves.
FARC said the accusations were made to sabotage the peace effort.
TODAY COLOMBIA – Officials at the municipality of Yondó in Colombia’s Antioquia Department said FARC have been sexually abusing minors in the pre-grouping areas where they have been sent before moving to permanent settlements for surrender.
According to complainants, a group of at least 10 minors entered an area where guerrillas are staying in Yondó, and attempted to have sexual relations with some of them.
The complaint was made on the basis of information provided by local authorities at the municipality of Yondó and the Mayor’s Office. Secretary of Government Victoria Eugenia Ramírez said prostitutes in those areas would have also been present to support relations with the guerrillas.
A similar situation occurred in Dabeiba, another municipality in Antioquia, where a group of guerrillas still carrying arms were caught consuming alcohol. Governor of Antioquia Luis Pérez said he was worried because there is no one to verify what happens in the pre-grouping zones.
FARC, meanwhile, criticized the comments made by the governor, assuring that they will not allow the president to visit pre-grouping zones, as they think they carry “hatred and resentment.”
FARC described the comments as “attempts to sabotage the peace and to favor the war” — a situation they said they consider a mistake.
Many of the killings of foreigners occurred in the streets of El Poblado, Laureles and Belen
TODAY COLOMBIA – In the Medellin morgue lies corpse a foreigner who was kidnapped at the end of October in a Poblado commercial centre. According to the outgoing commander of the Metropolitan Police, General José Gerardo Acevedo, the case is related to the collection of money by drug trafficking networks.
He added that, apparently, this person was a bridge between drug traffickers from the United States and Medellín.
The body was found buried, without documents, last December 16 in a wooded area of the Santa Elena district, bordering with Santo Domingo in northeastern Medellin.
In the past year, in Aburrá Valley and the municipality of Santo Domingo, 15 foreigners have been killed: nine homicides and 6 drug overdoses.
This month (December) alone the total of foreigners killed in Medellin is up to four.
Though most Americans (gringos) believe they are being targeted, the data shows that it is not the case. Among the murdered foreigners are nationals from Mexico, Venezuela, Denmark, Australia and Japan.
Jaime Mejía, Medellin councilman, has denounced the arrival in the city of criminals who have ties to the sexual exploitation of minors, trafficking in people and drug trafficking networks, camouflaged among tourists
ejia said that the Australian national found dead Porcecito, had been living in El Poblado for a year and was not did he have a criminal record in his country, he apparently ran sex tourism companies in Cartagena and Medellín.
The councilman said is being investigated whether this individual, the Australian, had links to the American known as “Jake”, ho headed a network of pimps, using girls and adolescents, captured by the Medellin in early July 2016, in El Poblado
Councilman Mejía said that it is time for the local (Medellin) authorities, the national police and immigration in Colombia to filter visiting foreigners and for “stricter controls, at least at the international airport, otherwise these crimes will continue to increase.”
Mejia recalled of the case of the Australian backpacker, operating under the alias “Douglas” who overnight, through web pages, set up his sex tourism business of renting luxurious apartments and houses for prostitution and drugs.
(Q24N, via Insightcrime.org) A plague of fungal skin diseases, untreated deadly infections, constant threats of tuberculosis epidemics, people fed with their own hands, extreme overcrowding and children locked up with their mothers. This is what the human rights observers reported during the first few months of the extraordinary measures implemented across prisons for El Salvador’s gang members.
The Attorney General’s Office is the only institution that has access to these prisons under these extraordinary measures. The government has decided to deny access to the public, including the International Committee of the Red Cross.
“The fact that they are served food in their hands is…inhumane. The overcrowding…all in the same cell for 24 hours! It’s like…the torture facilities of the past. You would think that all of that was over. You would think that Hitler was a thing of the past. Once the doors are opened, what will we see?”
The statement was from Raquel Caballero, of El Salvador’s Attorney General’s Office for Human Rights (Procuradora para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos – PDDH), who was left speechless as she tried to describe what she saw in the prisons where the government’s extraordinary measures have been implemented.
In April 2016, the government implemented extraordinary measures for seven Salvadoran prisons where only gang members are detained. The aim was to isolate certain prisoners with the understanding that they were the momentum driving gang criminality. In order to do this, the government eliminated family visitation; confined prisoners to their cells 24 hours a day; halted the delivery of hygiene products like soap, toilet paper and toothpaste; suspended judicial proceedings and restricted maximum-security prisoners from being released to hospitals.
The measures, which were approved by the heads of all political parties, have been enacted for a year with the possibility of extended. The government is authorized to extend the current state of emergency for prisons month by month.
The report from the PDDH — an report that was compiled during the last months of the previous administration — describes some of the most serious conditions that the office witnessed from April to July this year.
In the Chalatenango prison, which houses the gang members of the MS13, the PDDH tells the story of a prisoner who did not receive medical attention despite having a bullet lodged in his hip, and another prisoner who was also unable to receive medical treatment despite suffering from hypertension, diabetes and obstruction of a coronary vein. Authorities denied medical attention to yet another prisoner who was paraplegic as a result of a bullet to his spine and who had a colostomy, that is to say he defecates through a segment of his intestine that releases though an opening in his abdomen. According to the report, this last prisoner suffers from “multiple skin lesions due to a lack of healing.”
In the San Francisco Gotera prison in Morazán, where gang members of the Barrio 18 Revolucionarios are detained, the PDDH found an outbreak of tuberculosis which the authorities had failed to address. In Ciudad Barrios in San Miguel, a prison exclusively for the MS13, a prisoner with tumors in his head was unable to receive medical attention; nor was medical attention given to another who had plastic intestines that had expired a year ago; nor for the prisoner with a testicular hernia, nor for the prisoner with cancer, nor the hemophiliac; not even for the prisoner with muscular dystrophy, acute poliomyelitis and osteoporosis.
The report highlights the historic nature of the prisons’ poor conditions, which has only been exacerbated by 24-hour lock-up and lack of access to cleaning products and clean water.
In a November 4 interview, an ex-convict recently released from the San Francisco Gotera prison spoke about his experience with the extraordinary measures: “In sector one, where there are about 350 people, there was only one bathroom, which was clogged, so people made a small pile in the cell, and shit started accumulating there, piling up until water dropped down to take it away. Someone sleeps next to that little pile…In that sector, you have to line up to use the little pile even when you don’t need to use the bathroom because if you wait until you have to pee, you’ll wet yourself in the line. Outside of the cell there are various bathrooms, but we can’t use them because we’re locked up.”
The ex-convict assured that there are cells that are in better condition, like the smallest of that prison, known as “the little cell.” There, he explained, are beds for 28 people, even though there are 130 detained there. With any luck there is a hole to urinate and defecate into: it’s only a hole in the ground, which at one point connected to a toilet bowl that was there but had been removed by order of the Police Maintenance Unit.
He also told how, at the time, some everyday items became luxury goods: “He has a glass or a plate? Oh man, what a blessing!” The PDDH report confirms his story: “In general no prisoner had receptacles with which to receive food. The only thing they had were plastic bottles which had been cut down the center or pieces of plastic bags from which food would spill. The majority received food in their bare hands.”
Other prisoners with whom El Faro has spoken recount how some of their cellmates have had hysteric episodes as a result of the permanent lock-up and severe overcrowding.
On June 16, Cojutepeque prison was closed as it had become known as the worst of the all of the Salvadoran prisons. The inmates — all from the Sureño faction of the Barrio 18 — were transferred to Quezaltepeque and Izalco prisons. Nevertheless, that transfer, according to the PDDH report, “severely exacerbated the overcrowding in the aforementioned prisons.” The human rights office confirmed that the police confiscated the possessions of the 1,282 inmates who were transferred, forbidding them to enter with their clothes and shoes, and forcing them to wear only their underwear. The report confirms that the inmates were made to sleep on the floor, as they were forbidden to have mattress pads or blankets. They reported that among the transferees were inmates with HIV, tuberculosis and renal failure who were not receiving treatment. It also attests to the fact that “many” of the inmates had severe fungal skin infections and as a result had “infected ulcers.”
“In general no prisoner had receptacles with which to receive food. The only thing they had were plastic bottles which had been cut down the center or pieces of plastic bags from which food would spill. The majority received food in their bare hands.”
During the first four months that the extraordinary measures were being exercised in full force, four inmates died due to a lack of medical attention; two of them from diseases that are not cited in the report, one from pneumonia, and the other from malnutrition. In the same time frame, despite the extraordinary measures, 11 inmates were assassinated inside the prisons as a result of internal purges within the gangs.
“They are in subhuman conditions. A total violation of their human rights and the law,” said prosecutor Caballero.
The General Director of Prisons Rodil Hernández recognized that the conditions generated by the extraordinary measures have exacerbated the already terrible state of Salvadoran prisons. “The conditions that we have now practically overwhelm any action we can make in the prisons,” he said.
He also admitted that the tuberculosis issue has the potential to become a “bomb,” but that “it is not unusual, considering the current overcrowding we have. It could be worse.” He assured that they have been considering investing more than a million dollars to construct six clinics, including one in the Quezaltepeque prison and one in Chalatenango prison.
Hernández said that the government plans on making million-dollar investments to expand holding capacities and reduce prison overcrowding in the short term.
Salvadoran prisons are the most crowded in the entire American continent, and their overpopulation usually lingers around 300 percent. The extraordinary measures have not been responsible for filling the prisons to the brim with gang members, but it has made the overcrowding almost unliveable. According to official data, as of November 8, the overpopulation rate in the Salvadoran penitentiary system was at 270 percent.
The Deputy Attorney for Vulnerable Populations Gerardo Alegría said that additionally children under the age of five, who remain with their mothers in the “maternity” section of the Quezaltepeque prison, also experience the harsh realities of the measures. They have remained under lock and key for 24 hours a day in the cells they share with their mothers.
Director Hernández confirmed this story: “The entire population of the prision is under the effect of the measures, but if I am not mistaken we only have three children, and the children also have permission to leave. If they have family on the outside, they can leave with them on the weekend.”
Since the implementation of the extraordinary measures, no non-governmental organization has been able to enter the prisons to verify the conditions in which the inmates live, nor the treatment they receive. Not even prestigious human rights organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), with which the Government of El Salvador has a convention that allows ICRC staff access to prisons.
In November 2012, the then-Minister of Justice and Public Security David Munguía Payés signed an agreement with the ICRC that would allow the organization as a verifying human rights entity to access the prisons, guaranteeing access to all facilities. However, since the implementation of the extraordinary measures in April, the government has denied the ICRC access to all of the prisons impacted by the measures.
According to the general director of prisons, the decision to deny access to the ICRC does not violate the signed agreement because the agreement, he asserts, “did not specify which prisons they could enter, and which they could not.”
The ICRC representative in El Salvador, Dereck Spranger, preferred not to comment on the situation and he only revealed that the dialogue with the government of El Salvador is “direct and confidential.”
The extraordinary measures are the tip of the spear in the government policies of combating crime under President Salvador Sánchez Cerén. The current administration’s policies have been characterized by repressive policing, relaxing regulations that prevent human rights violations and the gratuitous use of force by the police and military.
*This article was translated, edited for clarity and length and published with the permission of El Faro. It does not necessarily represent the views of InSight Crime. See the Spanish original here.
Article originally appeared on Insightcrime.com and is republished here with permission.
In more than 70 cities around the world, Uber has no concerns about moving forward in Buenos Aires. (From Latinmaps)
In more than 70 cities around the world, Uber has no concerns about moving forward in Buenos Aires. (From Latinmaps)
(Q24N) General Manager of Uber Argentina Mariano Otero said that the company plans to penetrate the food delivery service market in 2017.
“It is part of our plan for 2017,” he said. “Uber has many products and in Argentina. So far we are only working with the base service that is Uber X. We have already opened the food delivery service in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, and we will bring it to Argentina.”
Regarding the possible difficulties involving entering the food delivery industry in Argentina, especially after the problems that the company has had with taxi services, the Uber executive said that they plan to move forward nonetheless, just as they did in other countries.
“Though we do not have a specific date,” Otero added, “we are already in more than 70 cities around the world, offering the service, and hope that it will soon be available in Buenos Aires.”
Uber spokesman in Argentina also talked about Uber Pool service, although for the moment he did not make promises for Argentina. He explains that it is a shared mobility service in which passengers who do not know share a car.
“Globally, all major cities are pushing for car pooling, but in fact the only one that worked is Uber. Today in New York, 40% of trips are through Uber Pool, with a benefit to All because it makes three cars become one, “explained Otero.
Otero said that the company was rushed to enter to market for its primary service, public transportation, which ultimately caused controversy with taxi drivers.
Uber began in Argentina in April 2016, the taxi union calling it a threat to its business and also illegal without the necessary permits. Recently, many drivers were threatened with jail time.
Otero said the company remains in open dialogue with the authorities.
“The dialogue is never cut off,” he said. “There are different ways of doing it. The important thing is to work together to promote the development of shared transport and to see how Uber can contribute in this sense in Buenos Aires, as it does in other cities around the world, “he said.
Uber has seen a lot of positive responses to go along with the negative ones, with more than one million people in Argentina downloading the application, and another 80,000 registering to work as drivers.
“Today in Brazil we are in 26 cities and in Colombia in 17,” he said, “which shows the potential we have to grow in Argentina. We do not have a precise goal, but we want to be in most of the Argentinian cities.”
Chile is a country that shakes every day, so it does not seem to be an ideal place to live. However, its immigration rates tell another story.
(Youtube).
Chile is a country that shakes every day, so it does not seem to be an ideal place to live. However, its immigration rates tell another story. (Photo from Youtube).
(Q24N) A few days ago, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake shook the south of Chile. Its epicentre was 67 kilometres northwest of Melinka, in Aysén, and generated a tsunami alert in certain coastal sectors of Los Lagos.
The earthquake was felt in five regions of the country, but it was the southern area of Chiloé was the most affected.
In the end, there were no victims. Only a couple of very old houses destroyed, and a highway near the area was damaged as well.
An earthquake of this magnitude would cause total destruction in other areas of the world that are not prepared. A 7.0 earthquake was enough to wipe out 90 percent of Haiti’s infrastructure back in 2010.
Chile is a special country. It is long and narrow, with more than 4,000 kilometres of coastline. It has a mountain range that separates it from the continent, pushing it toward the sea.
The nation is located at the junction of three tectonic plates (South American, Nazca and part of Antarctica). It has more than 3,000 volcanoes throughout the country, and several of these are active — there have already been incidents of serious eruptions.
Additionally, Chile is also located at the end of the so-called “Ring of Fire,” a seismic cord that begins in Australia. Given that the South American country has so much coastline, each earthquake implies a serious risk of tsunami.
Chile is a country that trembles every day, so it does not seem to be an ideal place to live. However, its immigration rates seem to tell another story.
Despite the natural risks, why is it a good decision to immigrate to Chile? The answer is simple.
Social and economic advantages are powerful factors in making immigration decisions. In addition, it is already evident that unless there is an earthquake of apocalyptic nature, which could cause a cataclysmic tsunami (as happened in 2010), Chile is likely to suffer only minor setbacks that can be resolved in the short-term.
Economic freedom has allowed people to choose high-quality, anti-seismic properties that move with the land during the quakes, so that they do not fall. They suffer only minor damages during disasters that could destroy infrastructure.
Free competition has allowed investment to flow into the country, and create jobs that help people to buy goods. Moreover, it has caused the prices of those goods to be accessible without sacrificing their quality.
People that aim to start businesses in Chile tend to have few obstacles, and many incentives to create wealth. In this process, they improved the infrastructure around them, allowing the beautification of the country. Order and cleanliness became the norm, leaving less and less poverty — reducing it much more than any other country in Latin America (11 percent).
Institutions focused on providing the foundations to development, and this brought order to the country. Today, however, they create obstacles to entrepreneurship, and that has had negative effects on the economy.
It is no longer the mercantilism of the sixteenth century at play here, in which some sought to accumulate wealth at the expense of others. This is about investing and helping all those involved in growth, creating goods and services, improving ideas that made people’s quality of life better.
In 1939, an earthquake of similar characteristics destroyed the whole city of Chillan, causing thousands and thousands of deaths. The story repeated itself in 1960, with the total destruction of Valdivia.
Today, we can say that the earthquake of 2010 (8.8 on the Richter scale), though it caused very serious damage, did not have a massive effect on human losses. Rather, what devastated the country was the tsunami, since there is no architecture able to resist it yet. Reconstruction was quite fast and organized, to the point that today there are no traces of a tsunami ever having damaged them.
We can also say that our economic boom has allowed the country’s institutions to prepare themselves, and to create an infrastructure that can withstand significant earthquakes with almost no material or human loss.
The system is not perfect because there is still too much state control, which makes it susceptible to collusion and undue associations. Nonetheless, it also produces virtuous partnerships that save lives and create progress.
Can a statist system create anti-seismic infrastructure? Of course, but always at the cost of freedom.
Definitively, the statist, anti-capitalist, anti-system and anti-inequality progressive movement has not understood yet that freedom is, ultimately, life.
Q TRAVEL – Let’s look at it this way, you a passenger, what would you prefer flying New York to Paris for 7 hours and paying approximately $1,500 or flying the same route for 2 hours and paying $15,000? In general people would rather prefer flying for 5 hours more rather than shelling out an extra $13,500.
But that’s just the tip of the ice-berg, yes we actually haven’t really progressed much in terms of speed but there are a lot more factors to be taken into consideration.
Block Padding
Block Padding can be best described as manikin a relatively short flight seem longer by adding time to the actual flying time, for example if a flight from London to New York takes 6 hours, takes off at 1200GMT and lands at 1800GMT, airlines today would market the flight as taking 7 hours would set departure time to 1130GMT and arrival time at 1830GMT this way even if the flight is delayed, passengers get the feeling that they are arriving ahead of schedule and are generally happy with the airline.
Waypoints and Airways Back in the day(1960s) airlines were allowed to fly direct routes, that is if they wanted to fly between New York and San Francisco they could just choose the shortest flight path and fly. A flight between New York(JFK) and Paris(CDG) looked something like this:
today it looks something more like this, due to added restriction and airlines have to follow something called way points and air ways, also as airlines and number of aircrafts have increased so has the wait/hold times, that is aircrafts have to hold(or simply circle) over large airports for a long time and wait for a chance for them to get to land, a map today looks something like this:
the route is marked in Pink.
All of these combined create an illusion of air travel actually being slower.
Another major reason is that new technologies and faster aircrafts aren’t being developed, because:
Cost of development
Aircraft manufacturers like manufacturers of any other product rather manufacture what their customers(the airlines) need rather than what they think would be right, the present trend in aviation has been to cram more passengers into a plane and maximize fuel economy and weight, airlines hardly care about advancing much in speeds. Also developing a newer technologies to go faster and break the speed the speed of sound costs a hell lot of money, Research and Development aren’t cheap by any means. Heck, the Concorde cost £1.134 billion to develop that’s around $13 billion today. Aircraft manufacturers just aren’t ready to invest so much and risk their profit margins.
Fuel Economy If history has thought us anything, one of the major trade-offs for speed is fuel economy the Concorde was a fuel guzzler and airlines hated that they weren’t making much profits and rather preserved saving fuel rather than time.
Noise A lot of cities and countries have noise abatement rules, and if one hopes to go faster than the speed of sounds, he’s bound to break the Sound Barrier and that causes a supersonic boom, and they’re really loud, this was the reason why the Concorde was limited to flying supersonic only over the oceans.
Passenger preference Just by looking at how low budget airlines like Ryan Air and Easy Jet are pumping cash one can understand that in general passengers prefer to save cash over any thing else, the only people who would want airplanes to fly faster and wouldn’t mind the trade-off for cash would be business men, and that represented a very minor percentage of fliers among airlines, so in general airlines just weren’t interested.
Q BUSINESS – The largest dairy in Latin America, in a strategic agreement (alliance) with Florida Ice and Farm (Fifco), aims to break Costa Rica’s diary monopoly held by Dos Pinos.
Mexico’s Grupo Lala and Costa Rica’s Fifco, who entered the milk market with the Mú brand in 2012, with the purchase of Coopeleche, made the announcement on Wednesday.
Scot Rank, CEO de Lala (left) and Ramón Mendiola, CEO de Florida Ice and Farm. /La República
The alliance is expected to give Dos Pinos strong competition in a market it has held for its own for the past seven decades.
Jose Antonio Madriz, president of the Camara Nacional de Lecheros (National Dairy Chamber), sees the consumer benefiting from a possible drop in prices in milk and dairy products.
“We believe that fair and healthy competition benefits the consumer. Dos Pinos is always accustomed to compete at the highest level, both in the region and abroad, with a human component that characterizes us,” said Francisco Arias, corporate relations manager at Dos Pinos.
Lala is expected to continue operating with the current 175 employee Coopeleche plant, located in San Ramon, and hire more staff in marketing and sales to increase promotion of its Eskimo brand.
“Our interest in entering the Costa Rican market arises due to the level of production and competitiveness of the dairy sector. We know – by Costa Rican production standards – that this country is key to boosting the sector’s competitiveness in Central America,” said Miguel García, director of Institutional Relations at Grupo Lala.
The Mexican company will be present in all the supermarkets of the country with its milk and dairy products, including the Walmart chain, where Fifco had problems placing its Mú brand.
Costa Rica is the latest in Grupo Lala’s expansion in the isthmus. In Nicaragua, the Mexican company in February this year acquired La Perfecta, a producer of milk, dairy and juices, with revenues in 2014 of more than US$46 million dollars.
Last year, also in Nicaragua, Lala inaugurated a processing plant, located in San Benito (north of Managua). In addition, it purchased the Eskimo, the Nicaraguan manufacturer of milk, ice cream and yogurt that is sold as well in Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
Based in Torreón, Mexico, Grupo Lala in 2015 had revenues of US$3.3 billion.
Founded in 1950, it currently has 22 production plants in operation and 166 distribution centres in Mexico and Central America, and it has more than 33,000 team members, as well as several subsidiaries in the United States, that includes brands such as Borden (Texas, Louisiana), Dairy Fresh (Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi), Flav-O-Rich (Kentucky), Sinton’s (Colorado), and Velda Farms (Florida).
Grupo Lala was listed 12th in Dairy Foods magazine list of the top 100 North American dairies. It was the only dairy from Mexico to be listed in the top 100.
Q COSTA RICA NEWS – What was that over the Turrialba volcano? Many Tuesday night were asking for an explanation to a flash of light in the sky, crossing from one side of the frame to the other of the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica (Ovsicori) camera pointed at the colossus.
Eric Sanchez, from the San José Planetarium of the University of Costa Rica, explained it as a meteor fireball disintegrating on impact with the atmosphere.
The event was recorded at 10:25pm, according to Ovsicori volcanologist, Javier Pacheco.
This type of phenomena can be sporadically seen, as with shooting stars. Fireballs form anytime space debris collides with the atmosphere. They often burn up after a few seconds.
According to Pacheco, this is the first time they have seen this type of event since installing the camera in 2011, located on the west of the volcano.
The sighting was also reported in Chiapas, Mexico and well in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
For Victor Fung, a member of the Costa Rican Astronomy Association, the meteorite might be small in size. “It has all the appearance of being a meteor of a size of a grain of dust. The shooting stars are pebbles the size of a grain of sand. As they move at high-speed and enter the atmosphere, they burn and we see the result,” commented the expert.
The experts estimate the meteor could have passed at a height of about 100 kilometres, which is the distance to the Earth’s atmosphere.
Q COSTA RICA NEWS – Circulating the internet news for the last couple of days is the hacking of the Costa Rica Embassy in China website by the popular hacker Kapustkiy, who continues to target websites of embassies across the world.
This is a screen captue fo the website reportedly hacked by Kapustkiy. It appears to be the website used by the previous administration, the latest news is from 2014.
According to several reports, Kapustkiy accessed the Costaricaembassycn.com website database containing 280 login credentials, but just published online 50 of them as a proof of the attack.
“The first thing I did was to start the exploitation of a SQL vulnerability I have discovered.” said Kapustkiy. “Then I tried brute force and I got a huge list of users. I have published around 50 users, the rest is private,” informed Kapustkiy confirming the cyber attack.
Recently Kapustkiy targeted several organizations, including the Consular Department of the Embassy of the Russian Federation, the Argentinian Ministry of Industry, the National Assembly of Ecuador, the Venezuela Army, the High Commission of Ghana & Fiji in India, the India Regional Council as well as organizations and embassies across the world.
The young hacker is very active, a few days ago he announced the data breach of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce that affected more than 4,000 user records.
He also broke into the ‘Dipartimento dellaFunzione Pubblica’ Office of the Italian Government, the Paraguay Embassy of Taiwan, and the Indian Embassies in Switzerland, Mali, Romania, Italy, Malawi, and Libya.
Was it a real attack? From what we at the Q can confirm is that, yes, there was a real attack on the Costaricaembassycn.com website, but, the website appears to be an old website, one used by the previous administration. The latest news is “Sixteenth Buyers Trade Mission (BTM), from 23 – 25 September, 2014 , San José, Costa Rica”.
A check with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto) website, the government body that operates consular offices and embassies around the world, there is no listing of a China Embassy website. The Ministry website only provides a phone number and contact information for the Embajada de Costa Rica en República Popular China.
The Ministry (at the time of this post) has yet to reply.
A Google search of a more current Costa Rica Embassy in China website returns only the Costaricaembassycn.com. Websites offering information on embassies are mostly outdated or refer to Costaricaembassycn.com.
The Costaricaembassycn.com domain was registered in 2011 through Gandi.net (Gandi SAS), a French company providing domain name registration, web hosting, and related services; is registered to Simone Pieranni that lists a Paris, France address and contact info (from Godaddy Whois), expiring May 24, 2017.
Q COSTA RICA (by María Fernanda Cruz, Vozdeguanacaste.com) There’s no doubt that Guanacaste’s beaches are highly attractive for real estate developers. But the province’s urban centers, which have no beaches or mountains, also are starting to attract investors.
If you’re looking for a place to invest, pay attention to this trend: The central districts of Nicoya, Liberia and Santa Cruz in the past three years have shown greater intention to build commercial projects than coastal districts in the same cantons, according to information from the Association of Engineers and Architects (CFIA) analyzed by The Voice of Guanacaste.
The data include new constructions, expansions and many types of businesses, such as supermarkets, clinics, banks and restaurants. They exclude hotels, which are in a separate CFIA data category.
The most surprising case is Nicoya, with 630 percent growth from 2010-2012 and 2013-2015. The rest of Guanacaste grew on average by 52 percent during the same periods, while the country average was 20 percent.
Notice the difference: While in 2014 in Nicoya 5,462 square meters were processed – not even the size of Chorotega Stadium – enough squared meters were requested in 2015 to fill four stadiums of the same size, or about 32,109 square meters. See Infograph.
That tendency could be caused by several factors.
“Growth is happening today because people have the ability and opportunity to access capital to invest and invigorate the local economy,” Nicoya Chamber of Commerce President Johnny Gutiérrez said.
The intention to build is measured in square meters that have been processed, or the total area that developers present to the CFIA before starting construction.
In general, Guanacaste has recuperated its previous charm from before the U.S. real estate crisis in 2008-2009. (See separate story: “XXX”)
What’s Going On?
A frequent hypothesis by market analysts is that urban centers expand in part as a consequence of coastal real estate development.
Coastal hotels, condominiums and tourism centers generate productive chains with suppliers, and companies begin to locate in the closest urban centers, little by little. That’s where the most qualified labor is located.
The population expands to meet labor demand and at the same time, pressures the market for more banking, supermarket, transportation and food services, said Elena Dorado, a professor in sustainable tourism business development at the National University.
“There are relationships that continuously are strengthened and expanded, needs that develop in different markets, and (they) begin to create economic growth,” Dorado said.
That’s how it is happening in the center of Liberia. This district, which has the highest level of industrialization in the Chorotega region, has maintained a constant level of commercial construction planning for the past five years, experiencing 72 percent growth in the last year.
The central district of Santa Cruz also showed a similar trend: Large commercial and housing construction in the past 10 years in its most exploited coastal district, Tamarindo, seems to have rubbed off on the city.
At least in the past three years, the intention to build commercial properties in the central district far surpassed its more powerful neighbor Tamarindo, with more than 50,000 square meters of businesses processed by the CFIA.
And Nicoya?
Nicoya doesn’t have neighbors that have been highly exploited by large developments such as Papagayo in the case of Liberia or Tamarindo in the case of Santa Cruz.
The canton’s chamber of commerce president, Johnny Gutiérrez, believes new development is caused by a mixture of improvements in municipal processing (many processes are now online) and more resources provided by state banks for investment in ventures.
He added that the canton’s economic development is changing. Previously, business owners focused their investments in only one area, but now are betting on diversifying services.
“Our economic development has changed. We now have more variety to offer the consumer. Pedro Nansul has three different stores, and Yuri Villalobos builds rental and service sales buildings,” the councilman said, referring to local entrepreneurs.
What’s certain is that this upturn should not be overlooked, because it is an opportunity to visualize a future of commercial growth in urban centers. Is Guanacaste more than just its coasts? Commercial data indicate the answer is yes.
This article originally appeared on Vozdeguanacaste.com and is republished here with permission.
Maduro, faced with dismal prospects in democratic elections, is preparing to hold on to power by all means necessary (AlbaCiudad).
TODAY VENEZUELA – Aporrea, a popular Chavista-oriented website, has published an article in which it details the dark future for the government of Nicolás Maduro.
During the government of Hugo Chavez, Aporrea became the premiere digital medium of “chavismo”; it has now evolved into a platform critical of both the government of Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan opposition.
Javier Antonio Vivas Santana wrote that he anticipates an abysmal electoral result for the government in the upcoming mayoral and gubernatorial elections; an election that may be as devastating for them as last year’s which led to a stunning rebuke of Maduro’s government, and an overwhelming majority for the opposition in the Venezuelan National Assembly.
Aporrea admits that the South American country faces “the worst crisis in contemporary history” in Venezuela.
They doubt that elections will, in fact, be held, taking into account that the National Electoral Council has already illegally postponed them. They were due to take place in December of this year. If such elections were to take place, Aporrea estimates that the socialist regime would lose “not less than 21 governorships and more than 290 mayoral elections.”
“We know perfectly well that Maduro is incapable of diagnosing the social reality and the political behavior of the voters when they head to the polls. He aims to cling to power by hoping against hope that those who were the ‘beneficiaries’ of one of the government’s missions or those who have seen ‘public works’ inaugurated by the government, will offer their votes to the socialist regime without thought […] the only certainty is that as long as salaries and living conditions do not improve, the greater the repudiation of their government policies, even if the government continues to promise them the world.”
The article assures that “madurismo” will invariably lose the majority of its current posts through popular elections; currently the greatest point in the socialist regime’s favor is the rampant internal division within the opposition.
Aporrea also turns its rhetorical fire on the dissidence represented by the Democratic Unity Table party (MUD): “they also refuse to consider leadership changes, which would be reasonable, especially when they have had a year with abundant failures, and few successes.”
The article culminates with a worrisome prognosis in which it assures that Maduro is seeking “to drive the nation to a state of social decay.”
He will only continue to seek chaos and social decay, looking for the possibility to take power by force, if necessary; anything to allow him to continue “commanding” without holding elections, because if he allows the elections to proceed, the handwriting is on the wall.
Police confiscated more than 200,000 marijuana plants in Osa and Quepos between December 19 and 23
Police confiscated more than 200,000 marijuana plants in Osa and Quepos between December 19 and 23
Q COSTA RICA NEWS – In six days between December 19 and 23 agents of the Policía de Control de Drogas (PCD) – drug enforcement police – destroyed 206,398 marijuana plants, camouflaged in various mangroves and mountains in Osa and Quepos, on the South Pacific coast of Costa Rica.
The destruction was made public on Tuesday by the Minister of Security, Gustavo Mata, who explained that cultivating in mangroves is relatively new and demonstrates how drug traffickers, every day, try new ways to evade surveillance.
The Air Surveillance Police helped in the location and eradication of the marijuana plants
In the police action also seized were 10 kilograms of compressed marijuana, ready to be marketed. The Costa Rica marijuana has a lower cost than the import from Jamaica or Colombia, but authorities have found that the local weed is being mixed with the imported and sold as a single product.
Police data reveals that a pound (453 grams) of the Jamaican (high quality) marijuana has a street value of ¢800,000 colones (US$1,400 dollars); the Colombian (regular quality) ¢400,000; and the Costa Rica, considered poor quality, ¢80,000.
Marijuana cigarettes rolled with the Costa Rican product sells for ¢1,000 colones (US$1.80). A few months ago it sold for ¢1,600.
Mata explained that they failed to locate those responsible for the marijuana crops.
Joining the PCD in the police action were agents of the Servicio de Vigilancia Aérea (SVA) – Air Surveillance Service and Policia de Fronteras (Border Police) in the areas of Dominicalito (Bahia Ballena), Coquito and Jalaca (Palmar) and Finca Puntarenas (Piedras Blancas), all in the Osa canton; and Hatillo Viejo and Hatillo Nuevo (Saavegre), in the Quepos canton.
Minister Mata said that the plants were planted in small spaces, but that in total they occupied an area that was estimated at 19,538 square meters.
With the destruction of the 206,698 marijuana plants, the total this year is 2,108,282. In 2015, a total of 1,728,024 plants were eradicated.
Q COSTA RICA – A great article published at the beginning of the year (January 4, 2016) on The Atlantic, which can be summed up with,”it’s actually better to be poor in Costa Rica than poor in the U.S.”.
One of the many things economic development buys is longer life. In countries with per-capita GDPs of $1,000 to 2,000 per year, like Haiti, people can expect to die when they’re about 60, but when that figure rises to $40,000 per year, like in Japan, people live until they’re about 80 on average.
This is, however, not the case among poor Americans, who are dying younger in greater numbers, or in so-called “overachiever” countries like Costa Rica, where people live about as long as Norwegians even though they’re about as poor as Iraqis.
Now, a surprising new study shows that in terms of mortality, it’s actually better to be poor in Costa Rica than poor in the U.S.
According to research published by Luis Rosero-Bixbya from the Universidad de Costa Rica and William H. Dow from the University of California, Berkeley, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the richest Americans do indeed live longer than the richest Costa Ricans—something you’d expect when comparing a global economic powerhouse to a tiny Latin American country. But Costa Ricans in the lowest fourth of the country’s income spectrum have a significantly lower age-adjusted mortality rate than their counterparts in the United States.
“From a life-expectancy standpoint, it is thus better to live in Costa Rica for low-[income] individuals, whereas it is better to live in the United States for high-[income] people younger than 65,” Rosero-Bixbya and Dow write.
The difference does not come down to income inequality, as measured by the Gini index. Inequality is higher in Costa Rica than in the U.S. However, life expectancy outcomes are more unequal across the economic spectrum in the U.S. than in Costa Rica. Poor Americans under 65 die at a rate 3.4 times higher than their rich counterparts, while that difference is just 1.5 in Costa Rica.
The authors are not sure why, but they have a few guesses:
Universal health care: In 2011, 86 percent of Costa Ricans were covered by the country’s public health-insurance system. The rest get subsidized or free care, depending on their ability to pay. The study authors found that 35 percent of the poorest Americans are uninsured, compared with just 15 percent of the poorest Costa Ricans. Meanwhile, the country’s per-capita health expenditures are a tenth of America’s.
Obesity: One way the authors tried to determine the reason for the disparity was by looking at how much various health factors differed within the income spectrum of each country. Costa Ricans are less likely to be obese overall, and there’s less of a difference in the obesity rate between the rich and poor in Costa Rica than in the United States.
Smoking: The mortality difference among the poor in the two countries is driven mainly by just two causes of death, lung cancer, and heart disease. “U.S. men have four times higher risk of dying by lung cancer and 54 percent higher risk of dying by heart diseases than Costa Rican men,” the authors note. The smoking rates of the poorest Americans are much higher than that of the richest Americans, while the rate doesn’t vary nearly as much in Costa Rica.
This study provides further evidence that in the U.S., money buys health, to an extent not seen in other countries. There’s nothing that puts that in stark relief like looking at the long, healthy lives of poor foreigners.
Q COSTA RICA (by María Fernanda Cruz, Vozdeguanacaste.com)Costa Rican-style bullfighting continues to polarize the country, with nearly half of residents in favor and the other half opposed. Horse parades, called topes in Spanish, are viewed more favorably by the public: Seven out of 10 people think the parades should be allowed to continue.
These views are part of the results of the latest perception poll by the Institute of Populational Social Studies (Idespo) at the National University, which surveyed 800 people by phone. The poll has a 3.5 percent margin of error.
“The majority of the public doesn’t believe horse parades represent a risk for the animals participating in them,” Idespo’s report states.
The issue gains relevancy at the beginning and end of each year, when part of society protests against animal maltreatment that bulls and horses might experience at these types of activities, while others defend them for the financial benefits they represent.
This year, an Animal Welfare Bill – one of the main promises by the government of Luis Guillermo Solís – is still under discussion at the Legislative Assembly.
The good news is that most of those surveyed oppose animal cruelty. Eight out of 10 people surveyed believe animal protection should be one of the priority issues for the government, and nine out of 10 believe criminal sanctions should be established for people who abuse animals.
The majority of those surveyed oppose cockfighting (89 percent) and dogfighting (88 percent).
In its current form, the Animal Welfare Bill does not prohibit the use of animals in popular festivals, such as bullfighting, bull riding and horse parades, or the killing of animals for human consumption.
Confusion Reigns
Significant public doubt still remains as to the scope of the bill. For example, 33 percent of those surveyed believe that if the bill is approved, they won’t be able to exterminate fleas or cockroaches in their homes, which is false.
Three in 10 people believe they won’t be able to kill animals for human consumption, and a similar number believes that horse parades and bullfighting will be banned. Six out of 10 think that animal experiments will be banned. All of these claims are false.
This article originally appeared on Vozdeguanacaste.com and is republished here with permission.
Fallen tree branches and trees on power lines due to strong winds
Q COSTA RICA NEWS – Falling trees and tree branches are the result of the strong winds gripping most of the Central Valley and Central and South Pacific coasts since Monday, causing damages to vehicles, roofs and overheard wiring. Best is to keep your eyes up just in case.
Fallen tree branches and trees on power lines due to strong winds
Gusts of up to 80 km/h (50 mph) have been reported in many areas of Central Valley, Guácimo de Limón and Tilaran in Guanacaste. In Guapiles (Limon) a tree fell on a minibus, fortunately no injuries were reported. In San Luis de Tilaran, 100 km/h winds left some 20 families without electrical power, telephone and internet due to fallen trees on power lines and telephone lines.
The national weather service, the IMN, reports a high-pressure system in the Gulf of Mexico is increasing the trade winds over Costa Rica.
But, there is good news. The strong winds are typical of the change of season. Albeit about a month late, the windy conditions will reduce the chance of rain and usher in the dry or summer season.
However, given the recent climatic changes, the IMN warn residents of areas prone to flooding and landslides to remain on the alert as scattered showers and rains may continue for this week and possibly next, mainly in the afternoons and evenings.
Out on the sea, the wind gusts could mean choppy seas. In the air the winds could cause strong turbulence.
This is the Tilapia I bought at PriceSmart. I don't have the price ticket to know the lot number and have no recall of when I purchased it.
This is the Tilapia in my freezer I bought at PriceSmart. I don’t have the price ticket to know the lot number and have no recall of when I purchased it, to know if it is part of the recalled product.
Q COSTA RICA NEWS – The PriceSmart chain in Costa Rica warned its members Tuesday afternoon, through its Facebook page, about the recall of a 21-ton batch of Tilapia due to the detection of high levels of the antibiotic, Sulfaiazine.
Marco Torres, spokesperson for PriceSmart, explained that the consumption of this batch of Tilapia does not pose a health risk, but the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) asked them to recall the product.
PriceSmart is asking its members (customers) to return the purchased product to the nearest store. The recall applies to product purchased between November 7 and 24, lot numbers 16080816172Y, with an expiry date of August 7, 2018.
The retailer says it will issue a full refund.
According to the retailer, they were notified by the MAG that the inspected lot, N242986 and 245513 Frozen Raw Tilapia, contained high levels of Sulfadiazine.
“This antibiotic is widely used in the aquaculture industry in small quantities.” The Tilapia under recall was sold in the six PriceSmart clubs across the country, and customers were notified of product return by mail, telephone calls, in social networks, ” said Torres.
PriceSmart reported that, so far, there is no report of diseases or complaints related to the consumption of the recalled Tilapia.
TODAY NICARAGUA – Nicaragua will end 2016 with inflation lower than 3.5 percent, which would keep that economic indicator low for the second consecutive year, said today official sources.
President of the Central Bank of Nicaragua Ovidio Reyes said that initially the inflation rate was expected to be between 4.5 and 5.5 percent, but ‘we are going to end below 3.5 percent with no major problem,’ he said.
According to Reyes, Nicaragua will be able to keep that indicator low thanks to the situation of the international prices and the production in agriculture, which allowed keeping food costs stable.
Two women working at the Oriental Market (Mercado Oriental) in Managua. (AFP/Getty Images)
Nicaraguan inflation remained at 3.05 percent last year, compared to 6.48 percent in 2014.
For 2017, with estimated average price of oil around $ 58 USD per barrel, inflation could range from five to six percent, said Reyes.
TODAY VENEZUELA – For many who live in Caracas, Christmas is the best time of the year. It is the time for preparing hallacas (Venezuelan traditional holiday dish), showing off new clothes, receiving gifts from Christ Child, celebrating Christmas Masses, performing parrandas and concerts, among other Venezuelan holiday traditions that this year have been reinvented or reduced because of the country’s economic situation.
However, there is an effort to keep the joy and fun of the family most vulnerable groups, especially kids and the elderly persons.
The Sarabia Azuaje family has prepared traditional hallacas for more than 35 years, not only to share in the Christmas and New Year dinners but as a mean of additional income. From her small apartment located Northwest Caracas, Norma de Sarabia tells us that since she started this tradition, she has never failed to fulfill it, not even the year in which one of her daughters died —one of the saddest times of her life.
“This year has been difficult because of the costly and scarce ingredients, but we are still preparing hallacas. If we used to make 500 hallacas, now we will make 150. We will also celebrate the family Christmas dinner, but this year everyone will bring something to share. Regarding the exchange of gifts, we will be giving each other shopping basket products.”
It goes the same for the Montilla Meneses family. Lisbeth de Montilla, mother of two, aged six and one year old, states that they did not prepare hallacas due to scarce ingredients, but they still plan to prepare something cheaper for dinner.
She asserts that in her entourage one of the traditions which changed the most is the gifts from Christ Child. “Years ago we gave up to three gifts to the children, but now with this situation we will be giving just one, and because the company where my husband works gives the employees toys in December.”
The religious parishes make enormous efforts to hold the traditional Christmas Mass, a celebration held for 9 consecutive days before the Christmas Eve, that this year, unlike others, it looks less crowded.
This Friday, when the Catholic Church started the celebration, in the Cathedral of Caracas the empty seats were on the agenda. There, the Christmas Mass is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. in Basilica Santa Teresa, one of the busiest temples of the city, the celebration takes place at 4:30 p.m. and in San Francisco Church the gathering is at 5:00.
Today, the third day of the nine days, the choirs are tuned at the churches and everything is set, but discouragement seizes many believers, as it happens to Florencia Gómez. “It is hard to believe, but it is very sad that attending the mass, whether in the morning or in the evening, has become risky. People just think of what to eat, there are other priorities. The most important thing is not to forget the birth of Jesus in our hearts, which is the true meaning of Christmas,” she adds.
Not even parrandas or liturgical songs serve to attract parishioners, as much joy they bring to what is considered the most important date of the year. “There are places for all, bring someone with you,” said the priest who celebrated on Friday the first Christmas Mass in the Cathedral.
Seek refuge in family
To Yorelys Acosta, social psychologist of the Center for Development Studies (Cendes) of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), currently negative emotions like sadness, anger and fear prevail in most of Caracas residents, but there is another group that claims to be happy because they are healthy. “We know this year has been very difficult but that cannot ruin Christmas,” she asserts.
Acosta recommends to turning to family and friends with positive thoughts and good vibes. “We must keep our traditions like holding the Christmas dinner with the contribution of each member of the family, it is one of the options during crisis,” she added.
As per Albe Pérez, director of Cultura de Chacao (East Caracas), this year has been critical in terms of budget, which has prevented them from preparing extensive programming. “Despite that, there some actors, like the children, who deserve to celebrate Christmas.”
She said that this year they focused on organizing activities like parrandas and skating for children in the same communities, as well as concerts at the public squares that have been very positive because of the high attendance of locals who look for a little joy this Christmas. Unlike previous years, this year there will not be musical bands performing live in Plaza Francia de Altamira on New Year’s Eve. “We will have a DJ, fireworks and security,” she said.
TODAY CUBA – Opponent to the Cuban government Antonio Rodiles said the victory of Republican Donald Trump is good news for his country.
“Donald Trump is good news for Cuba,” he said in an interview with the newspaper El País.
Rodiles said Trump’s presidency will end two years of indolence toward the events taking place in Cuba.
“I thought it excellent that he called Castro a brutal dictator when he died and that he is integrating into his team Cuban-Americans committed to the cause,” he said.
Rodiles also commented on the death of dictator Fidel Castro, saying that he was a malevolent symbol and someone with great ability to do harm.
“It is the end of an era,” he said. “Those who want to follow the regime no longer have their guide.”
He also said there could be changes in the short term, not only because of Fidel’s death, but also because of “factors such as the critical situation in Venezuela and the problems in Brazil — countries that supported Castroism.”
“There is a situation of misery that has sustained since the fall of the USSR. Generations of young people raised under that situation and without any ideology is making people more rebellious,” he added.
Rodiles said the current government is trying to assess how to move forward from Castro’s death. He suggested that they begin to “open and withdraw,” recognizing that the situation they have caused on the island is a disaster.
These curious formations in the central crater (not the active crater) of the Turrialba volcano are caused by the accumulation and erosion of the ash. The thickness of the ash here varies between 60 and 80 centimetres according to summarizes the report of the volcanologist Eliécer Duarte, of the National University. Photo OVSICORI
These curious formations in the central crater (not the active crater) of the Turrialba volcano are caused by the accumulation and erosion of the ash. The thickness of the ash here varies between 60 and 80 centimetres according to summarizes the report of the volcanologist Eliécer Duarte, of the National University. Photo OVSICORI
Q COSTA RICA – The bottom of the central crater of Turrialba volcano rose 10 metres in the last two years, due to erosion and constant eruptions of the colossus, confirm experts of the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica (Ovsicori).
Of those 10 metres, six are already under rainwater that accumulates in this crater, located to the east of the active crater.
According to the field work of volcanologist Eliécer Duarte, this ash and stone filled crater was formed mainly by the eruption of October 29, 2014 and the two months of eruptive activity between September and November of 2016.
The data, published by the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica, analyzes the evolution of the central crater bottom between November 2, 2014 and December 15, 2016.
For example, during the visit in November 2014 a rock was photographed 100 metres from the central crater, which was 2.4 metres high. Two years and a month later, only 1.4 metres of the stone is visible, the remaining is under the accumulated ash.
“If the emission levels of ash and other materials from the active crater is maintained – with easterly winds – it is likely that the central crater cavity will be completely covered.”
There is no deadline for this situation to occur, according to the experts.
During the last inspection, Duarte explained he was also able to document the textures of the different layers of ash that have been collected on the walls of the crater. As a product of erosion, these have acquired impressive shapes, with “esthetic” value for specialists and depths ranging between 60 and 80 centimetres.
Recent behavior
In the last weeks, the Turrialba has maintained a passive but constant activity, with emanations of gases and ashes.
On 25 December there was an increase in the magnitude of volcanic earthquake between 2:00am and 4:00am and a plume with abundant gases and ash.
The emanations reached areas such as Granadilla de Curridabat, Guadalupe, Ipís, Calle Blancos, Goicoechea, Sabanilla, Moravia, Dulce Nombre de Coronado, all areas east and north of San Jose and Piedades de Santa Ana on the west side.
It had been expected that if the plane ran low on fuel, it would stop in Bogota
TODAY COLOMBIA, Bogota – Running out of fuel, together with a late report by the crew on the emergency were the causes of the air accident that took place in Antioquia that caused the death of 71 people, the Colombian Civil Aeronautics asserted today.
Investigators did not identify any fault that could have caused or contributed to the accident, or evidence of sabotage or suicidal attack, according to a report by that entity that was published today.
Another factor that contributed to the disaster was the approval of the flight for that route, planned and processed by the airline LaMia, said Air Security secretary, Colonel Fredy Bonilla.
According to the plan presented by the pilot at the airport in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, the autonomy of the pane was four hours and 22 minutes, exactly the same time of the trajectory to fly.
In line with international standards, the plane should have had fuel for one more hour and a half, which means for a longer distance that would have allowed it even to diver the course, if necessary, to an alternative airport. However, the route was authorized, as the Civil Aeronautics explained in a report published by the website El Tiempo and the station Blu Radio.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, the captain declared the emergency seven minutes before the plane crashed against the hill El Gordo, which is called now Chapecoense, in memory of the members of the soccer club with the same name that died on November 28.
Buenos Aires, Argentina (Q24N) Heavy rains in the last hours has lead to more than 300 people being evacuated in Pergamino, in the north of Buenos Aires, due to the overflow of a river.
There have also been electricity cuts and flooded streets as a result of the storm which is still in process.
Among the most affected neighborhoods are Jorge Newbery, José Hernández and Belgrano, according to a member of the fire department, Hernan Ferreyra, who was interviewed on the TV channel, Chronicle.
He added that the victims need donations, such as mattresses and hygiene products.
Countries such as Venezuela have sunk into a bottomless pit from which only classical liberalism can pull them out. (Orígenes)
Q FRONT PAGE -Karl Marx’s ideas have been put into action dozens of times in different parts of the world. These have always had the same consequences: death and misery. A country’s failure level is proportional to the intensity with which they apply the recommendations of the father of modern communism.
Countries that have pushed to the extreme the idea of a planning state that controls as many aspects as possible in an economy, such as Venezuela, have sunk into a bottomless pit from which only classical liberalism can pull them out. Others, such as Switzerland, have understood that the more prominence given to individuals, the greater the welfare. And between Switzerland and Venezuela, there are a lot of countries whose failure depends on the level of State intervention.
Now, although it seems clear that a country’s failure is directly proportional to the degree to which they apply Marx’s advice, it is surprising to see how, in spite of the nefarious results of communism, the fears that drove millions of people into the ranks of Marxism continue captivating supporters.
The leader par excellence of modern communism frightened hundreds of young people, making them believe that capitalism would have inevitable consequences: misery, concentration of wealth, and slavery. Today, in spite of the clear evidence of Marx’s tremendous mistake, progressives still believe that capitalism will lead us to a debacle with no way out.
Well, although the nefarious result of Marx’s ideas is obvious, I will now present the evident to you, dear reader, with graphs and data: the father of modern communism was mistaken in all of his predictions. Capitalism has only brought well-being, and the number of poor people has declined worldwide.
1. Contrary to end up immersed in misery, the whole world is enjoying greater economic well-being
Marx asserted that capitalism would lead people to poverty, and that more and more workers would die of hunger because of the evil capitalists. The data shows the opposite: there is no better remedy than capitalism to get out of misery.
The World Bank’s graph below shows how the population living in extreme poverty throughout the world has decreased from more than 80 percent in 1820, to around 20 percent today.
Marx was incredibly mistaken. Year after year, thanks to capitalism, there are fewer and fewer poor people in the world. And despite results as obvious as those in this chart, people still have the vague idea that we are getting worse.
That is not true. We are increasingly getting better. And this happens all over the world, as we can see in the following image: the number of poor people has decreased in every region.
2. The workers and the poorest, contrary to what Marx said, have better economic conditions and greater well-being
Marxists use as one of their strongest weapons the idea that the entrepreneurs exploit and enslave workers. Therefore, they claim, the latter will be increasingly poor. That is how they convince thousands of unwary workers with no basic notions of economics to join in their ranks.
However, figures are clear. Currently, regular workers live with levels of economic well-being that not even the kings of the past could get. Electricity, hot water, television, and the normal things that anyone enjoys these days, were not available for the nobility.
Marx was wrong: the poorest people from countries with market economies live much better than the kings of the sixteenth century.
The following graph shows how the freer countries, which avoid Marx’s advice, offer a better standard of living to its poorer inhabitants than those in countries where communism has gained greater acceptance, and the State plays a more important role.
That is to say, above all, capitalism benefits the poorest.
In 1950, for example, as shown in the graph below, workers spent on average more than 2,200 hours a year at work. By 2010, the annual average of hours had been reduced to 1800.
It seems clear now that Marx’s predictions about the misery that capitalism would bring to the world, and how inconvenient it is for the poor, make no sense. The history of humanity is a history of poverty until the industrial revolution, when the world got to know capitalism and market economy.
The human being has always lived on the edge of subsistence, until he began to do just the opposite of what Marx proposes. The capitalist economy has simply had an unqualified success.
Great Marxist thinkers, especially affiliated with the Frankfurt school, such as Antonio Gramsci, the father of modern progressivism, know all this. Hence they have changed their strategy.
Marx was evidently wrong, and capitalism has achieved the complete opposite of what the communists claim. That is why the only option they have left is to appeal to emotions, since logic and reason make it clear that there is no point in continuing to fight for a criminal ideology.
This article by Vanessa Vallejo originally appeared on Panampost.com
(Q24N) From Insightcrime.org – The same day they buried the seventh police officer killed by gang members in November, the government announced a new response plan, “Nemesis,” which means revenge. This plan stems from measures that have already been implemented and promises very little. However, before the government’s new commitment, police have said they are taking their own measures; some of them have decided to flee, others have chosen to create cells across the country to kill gang members and their families. The authorities have denied this on camera and declare that it is “speculation.”
There are five uniformed policemen in the center of a small church. Four are standing and one is dead. The first four are next to the dead policeman and his son, who also is in a coffin and burial garments.
The preacher begins.
“This war, said the disciple Paul, is not between all of you; this war is against principalities, against authorities, against governors of the rules of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. So, we must always be prepared, because no one knows the day or hour when evil can come upon us.”
Chanting and preaching interrupt the sermon. The pews of the church in San Juan Los Planes, on the foothills of San Salvador’s volcano, are full and the wind comes through the doors shaking the insides. Four candles struggle to stay alight by the sides of the bodies of Deputy Inspector Lorenzo Rojas and his son Marvin. Gang members from the Mara Salvatrucha assassinated them on November 16. And today, two days later, dozens of police are gathered at their funeral.
More than thirty more policemen are dispersed outside the church. Two of them are talking on the corner while the preaching ends. They speak in whispers with arms folded and stop when they see me get close. After answering questions with monosyllabic responses, after a few minutes they realize it’s more of a conversation than an interview and begin to relax.
The two policemen speak with vengeance. They say that they were colleagues of Deputy Inspector Rojas and had known him for a long time. His death has caused them pain and they swear before the church that those who killed him will pay.
“Each time a policeman is killed it puts extra pressure on us. It’s like a pot that keeps filling up and filling up…There will come a time when the police will reach their limit and burst,” said the first policemen, who we will call Montano. Montano is tall and strong, wearing a navarone cap and a bulletproof vest.
The other police officer has an honest face and is much taller and thinner than Montano. He listens to what his colleague says and after a pause he divulges his anger too.
“Blood will keep running. But don’t think that it will only be blood from us. Those assholes will have to go down. They have to end,” says the police officer who we will call Zepeda.
“They are killing us” is how the policeman started the conversation. It’s the truth. Deputy Inspector Rojas is the last of the seven policemen who were killed across the country in the first two weeks of November and is the 44th killed so far this year. Authorities have accused Mara Salvatrucha of the most recent attacks, one of El Salvador’s most notorious and powerful gangs, against which the state has been waging an unofficial war.
“Blood will keep running. But don’t think that it will only be blood from us. Those assholes will have to go down. They have to end.”
The police are afraid and angry. Montano and Zepeda say that these fears work in tandem. Everyone has fear, fear of death. “Would you like to die?” he asks to us, finishing the conversation with conviction.
And fear, believes Montano, can be channeled in two ways. Some want to flee and abandon this war, to leave the country with their families and forget everything that has happened. Others, on the other hand, believe that the only way to rid their fears for their lives is by killing their enemies.
“Here, I’m telling you between us,” says Montano, squinting his eyes in a discerning manner, questioning whether he should be telling me this secret, “the order is already underway. The communication has happened and colleagues are being organized across the country. We are forming nationwide groups to kill gang members and their relatives.”
I ask for more details about this.
The police officer glances at his colleague and both of them are silent for a few seconds. Montano decides that he will tell me.
“There are already teams of police in various parts of the country that are forming groups to kill the gangs and their families. They look like they are death squads, but actually they are police. They are not members of the public, they are part of the corporation. But, this is off the record.”
Zepeda has been listening to his colleague, nodding and repeating to sentences in agreement. Finally, Zepeda speaks up: “This is the only way to stop this. Only by killing them all.”
There is a renowned hatred of the police. Both of them talk about and they justify their perceived needs to kill with this hatred and the hardships they have experienced.
“I can’t go to the park with my partner and my children,” says Zepeda.
“I haven’t gone to the beach for three years, because I’m afraid they will get me there,” added Montano.
“I never leave my gun, and all the time I’m going around like I’m on patrol, I never rest from it all,” Zepeda chimes in.
“To get to my house, every day I change my route. One day I go one way, the other day another. One day I go a few blocks the long way around…Sometimes I see a kid sitting at a corner with a phone in his hand and I think, ‘Has he been sent there? Will they keep me under surveillance and later kill me?'” Montano concluded.
“Here, every day we wake up thinking it’s going to be the last. Sometimes I’m walking and I think, ‘Will I be next?'” said Zepeda before a big silence in our conversation.
I remember what another policeman said to me in July last year: “Being a policeman is like being a gang member. All the time they live thinking whether they are going to be killed, whether their opponents or the police will fall. We also have this paranoia”.
The National Civil Police (Policía Nacional Civil – PNC) is a body of 28,000 policemen. Ninety percent of them have the basic rank. This rank is made up of officers, corporals and sergeants who earn between $242 and $680 per month (pdf). After graduating from the police academy, an officer makes the minimum and is entitled to a 6 percent increase in their salary every four years, equivalent to $25 to $40 every pay rise. Therefore, with these low salaries, 90 percent of the 28,000 police have to live in areas controlled by gangs.
Their salary, which their families have to survive on, according to police, is what makes them easy targets for gangs. Between 2014 and 2015, 101 policemen were killed. Of these, nine out of ten were killed leaving their houses in the areas controlled by gangs, while not in work.
However, it wasn’t always like this. According to the statistics from the PNC, a year before the situation escalated in 2013, 14 policemen were killed, similar to the 15 killed the year before. In 2014 the figure rose to 39 and to 62 in 2015. What will that statistic be at the end of 2016, when already 44 have been killed and there’s more than a month left before the end of the year? Authorities say this is an achievement. An achievement because “only” 44 policemen have been killed, an achievement because the statistic hasn’t risen since last year, although the number killed this year is three times what it was three years ago.
***
Agent Esquivel earns $475 every month, he says. “With that I provide for five people…every month.” Esquivel is dressed more like a government worker than a police investigator. But his salary is nowhere near as much as that of a government clerk. An administrative employee who works for the Legislative Assembly earns $115 more than he does. Esquivel is concerned that gang members in the area will threaten him and that his family will be left without him, the only breadwinner.
Esquivel, not his actual name, went to the local human rights office see how the process was going. This year, a group of gang members gave him 15 days to leave his house. They knew he was a policeman and thought he had called the patrols. Esquivel filed a complaint at work.
Then he went to the NGO, as have three other agents in the last two months, to ask for assistance in obtaining asylum in another country.
From the room where he tells his story, he looks out at San Salvador’s volcano. Esquivel arrived after 2 p.m. on November 18. We know, because they had written in a WhatsApp group that Deputy Inspector Rojas was still being buried. “This is a little more than a war. We are living like it says in the Bible, almost in the end times,” says Esquivel.
Esquivel says that in this war, there will be more attacks. He made the decision to leave and knows that a group of colleagues have already been organized to go out and kill gang members.
“It’s organized because it’s already been announced, right? Other policemen are going to start killing gangs and even families. A statement has been issued directly.”
“This is the only way to stop this. Only by killing them all.”
Esquivel takes his phone out of his left pocket. On the other side he has a weapon. He looks on WhatsApp and finds an image. The statement is signed by a death squad known as the El Salvador Extermination Group (El Grupo de Exterminio de El Salvador) and is a threat to gang members from MS13 and the two factions of Barrio 18 — and their families.
That statement was circulated on November 17 on social media. Obviously, no policemen have signed it and it’s not official. Esquivel knows that but explains.
“It’s what the police are going to do, and they’ve portrayed it as an extermination group not to give it away. It comes across like it’s other people outside of the institution, but there are policemen too.”
***
The scene appears choreographed. Members of the Security Cabinet walk down the hall, one by one, with their chests out and arms hanging loosely. They stop to stand under the lights that they had installed for a few minutes for the press to focus and adjust their cameras. A soldier, a policeman, a director, a vice minister and a vice president form the first line. The rest remain in the background against the wall.
The first to take the microphone is Vice President Óscar Ortiz. Tonight he is wearing black pants and a soft lilac shirt. He clears his throat and rolls up his sleeves. His small silhouette is in the center of the five men who are in charge of security for the whole country. He begins his speak triumphantly,
“This afternoon we met with the security cabinet and we have approved Plan Nemesis, plan that responds to combat the extraordinary situation that we have now reviewed and approved.”
The word Nemesis means revenge. This is what the cabinet wanted to call this plan, which they think will shorten the war. On this same day is the funeral of the last of the seven policemen who have been killed in less than two weeks.
The new plan, however, entails very little. Each of the measures outlined in Nemesis has already been implemented for weeks or months. Yet, Vice President Ortiz insists that this time it is different.
“Revenge” has a lot to do with how the police in the lower ranks are feeling, but it’s contradictory to how Ortiz and his entourage are feeling.
After the conference ends, the vice president’s communication team is open for questions, before warning journalists that there can only be one question from each media type: one for radio, television, another for digital media and one for print newspapers.
The first to be questioned is Police Chief Howard Cotto, who is in the first row next to Ortiz. The question is about the talks that Factum’s journalists have had with police officers from the lower ranks and the two “extraordinary” measures that agents have announced: flee the country or create parallel groups to kill gang members and their relatives.
The other question was for Vice President Ortiz and revolves around the assertions that he and the president’s communications secretary, Eguenio Chicas, had made halfway through last year, when they said that by the end of 2016 the war against gangs would be much more controlled.
What Ortiz and Chicas had said, according to statistics, were lies. If things continue as they have been going, this year will end with fewer homicides than there were in 2015. But making a comparison with that year — the most violent so far this century — and not with previous years is hardly what could be called “normal.” In 2013, 2,492 were killed and in 2014 the figure was 3,912. In 2015, there were more than 6,640 murders in El Salvador, the highest figure in Central America.
Ortiz refused to answer questions and started talking about what he wanted in the future with a triumphant speech.
Cotto was more direct and when he found out that Factum journalists have heard directly from police that they are forming death squads to kill gang members and their families, Cotto categorically denied this and said the information was “speculative.”
In regards to police resignations and the asylum claims that several have made in other countries, he said it was “false,” even though other media outlets such as La Prensa Gráfica have given evidence of this.
After the first three questions, members of the security cabinet looked agitated. Annoyed. Uncomfortable. The press officer took the microphone and managed to give it to another journalist.
The second journalist continued on the same line of questioning. In response, Ortiz gave a speech that had nothing to do with the questions.
Finally, the third and last journalist asked the same question: “What’s different about this plan if everything you just said was already said before?”
Ortiz remained silent before hesitantly saying, “There is a difference. It is that we are hitting the crime, we are hitting it hard and we will continue hitting it hard.”
Subsequently, the vice president gave his victory speech and terminated the conference.
The lights go out and the officials leave. Evidently, it was an utter failure.
*This article was translated, edited for clarity and length and published with the permission of Factum. It does not necessarily represent the views of InSight Crime. See the Spanish original here.
This article originally appeared on Insightcrime.org and is republished here with permission.
Q COSTA RICA – “Costa Rica Elevated” is a must see video for anyone living, visiting, visited or thinking of visiting Costa Rica. It is a stunning journey flying over & under Costa Rica, featuring “Isla del Coco” and other hidden gems of this beautiful country!
This is a production by Costa Rican filmmaker Neftali Loría who worked with 12 photographers to achieve the best images of the tico landscape, that gives goose bumps to any Costa Rican or foreigner totally identifying with this small piece of land of only 51,100 square kilometres, called “Pura Vida”.
At 3:50 minutes, it is an exuberant and magical video that transports viewers by sea, land and air to an unrivaled Costa Rica.
Who is Neftali?
Neftali is a Costa Rica filmmaker who embarked on a journey around the world, creating incredible videos.
“I am an award-winning designer, travel filmmaker & adventure blogger from Costa Rica. About a year ago I sold all my stuff to travel the world and capture a glimpse of my experiences.” This is how Neftali described himself on his Lost and Free website.
How did I manage to cover his idea (economically)?
In an interview on wispeo.com on November 2015, Neftali explained, “I work as a designer full-time. I work from Monday-Friday, but remotely, so it allows me to work wherever I want as long as I have a good WiFi connection. So I said “WHY NOT?” Gotta travel right?
“My first destination was Italy. I spent two weeks sailing across Amalfi Coast, Pompei and Sorrento. I made a couple films, and people (friends mostly) started to react positively, so I got motivated on this whole idea of travel + video + anywhere. I decided to stick to it and continued doing this for: Barcelona, Egypt, Turkey & India,” explains Neftali.
Other Neftali titles include: “Parklands”, “Iceland”, Italian Winds” and “India Land of Kings”. All of Neftali’s movies can be viewed on his Lost and Free Visual Blog.
The “Costa Rica Elevated” video is available on the Lost and Free website, Facebook, Youtube, Vimeo and many other channels.
The Toros a la Tica is a mainstay of the Zapote Fair. The event is televised live every night.
Q COSTA RICA – It Christmas in Costa Rica and that means the capital city, San Jose, is host to the bulls, horses and parades.
On Sunday, at noon, December 25, the annual “Zapote Fair” began, the main attraction the “Toros A La Tica”, when dozens of impromptu bullfighters, mostly you men, enter the “redondel” in Tico-style bullfighting, a sport where no one gets hurt. At lest not the bulls.
In the event, the “daredevils” as some are described gather in the bull ring, full on machismo, to evade a charging bull. The “bullfight” end when either the bull or bullfighters get tired or time runs out.
The event goes rain or shine. And although not much has changed from the spectators point of view, this year the bullfighters are covered with more insurance than ever. In contrast to the past, bullfighters entering the ring must show proof of insurance coverage.
In Costa Rica’s bullfights, the bull is not killed, only dodged. Tough the bull does get in a jab or two here and there, sending some bullfighters to hospital.
On Monday, December 26, downtown San Jose was full of horses in the annual “National Tope”.
This year more than 3,000 riders and their horses took part in the event, down from the 5,000 or of the past years. The Tope ran along Avenida Segunda and Paseo Colon, from the east side of the downtown core to the La Sabana on the west.
Participating were riders from many areas of the Central Valley, some even from Guanacaste and areas.
The event is a great street party, spectators lining up early to get a good spot, many will coolers filled with ice and beer.
Officially, seven people were arrested this year, for crimes ranging from petty theft, drug and weapons possessions and to public disorder.
Although there weren’t any arrests for drinking in public, given that it is no longer legal to consumer alcohol on public roads, police report confiscating 128 cans or bottles of beer.
Police also report interviewing 193 people who where run through the police database for outstanding warrants. None were detained.
By order of the SENASA, the animal welfare department, 16 horses were removed from the event, the animals suffering trauma.
And for the last of the big San Jose events is the return today, Tuesday, December 27, of the “Carnaval” – the street parade. After an 11 year absence, the municipality of San Jos decided to bring it back.
For the past decade, the municipality of Desamparados held the Carnaval in replacement.
On tap are marching bands, cheerleaders, clowns, music, old cars and much more entertainment for the entire family. The event begins at 1:00pm and will take the same route as the Tope, from the east, along Avenida Segunda to Paseo Colon, ending in La Sabana.
If you are thinking of visiting downtown San Jose today, unless you are there for the Carnaval, best is to keep the car at home. Paseo Colon and Avenida Segunda will be completely closed starting in the morning. Drivers can expect adjacent routes to be congested, some even closed. Buses leaving and entering San Jose will have altered stops, mainly the Alajuela and Heredia buses that have terminals on Avenida Segunda.
“The bills that have arrived represent barely more than 5% of the quantity that was withdrawn from circulation,” said economist Hasdrubal Oliveros.
