The Turrialba volcano blowing its stack. Archive photo
The Turrialba volcano blowing its stack. Archive photo
QCOSTARICA – The Turriabla volcano once again had an impact travel in Costa Rica, the Sunday night eruption affecting at least five flights attempting to take off from the San Jose airport in the early hours of Monday.
The volcano erupted at 9:10pm Sunday.
The ashfall resulted in the cancellation of five flights between 2:15am and 5:15am this morning (Monday): one flight by Condor, one by Copa, two by Avianca and one by DHL.
From 5:15am airport operations at the Juan Santamaria Interantional (SJO) returned to normal, the airport manager, Aeris, said in a statement.
If you are travelling today (or in the near future), from or to Costa Rica, best is to check with your airline for the status of your flight. Information on airport operations and flights is also available at the Aeris website.
Last week, a series of eruptions on Monday closed the San Jose airport for almost 24 hours, from shortly after noon on Monday to before noon on Tuesday, cancelling dozens of flights and directly affecting more than 12,000 passengers.
Important to note that a volcano eruption itself does not affect airport operations in San Jose, rather the winds blowing ash in a westerly direction (towards the airport and Pacific coast).
This morning, many in the Central Valley reported falling ash and sulfur odor, more intense in the area of Coronado, Moravia, San Isidro (Heredia), San Rafael de Heredia and Getsemani de Heredia, according to the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica (Ovsicori) – national volcanological and seismological observatory.
The draft bill does not change the 48 hour work week, just extends to 10 hours work from Monday to Friday and rest on Saturday and Sunday
The draft bill does not change the 48 hour work week, just extends to 10 hours work from Monday to Friday and rest on Saturday and Sunday
QCOSTARICA – If legislator Rafael Ortiz of the Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC) has is way, the work day in Costa Rica will be extended to 10 hours, Monday to Friday, and exempt both public and private workers, from working on Saturdays.
The draft bill proposed by Ortiz does not change the 48 hour work week for day work and 36 hours for night work, as set out in the Labour Code (Código de Trabajo).
“What is possible is that employers and workers can agree on accumulated days of up to 10 hours a day, so that for example, they would work from Monday to Friday and rest on Saturday and Sunday,” said the legislator.
Currently, the typical work day is 8 hours, that means work on Saturday to accumulate the 48 hours work week, in case of day work. Employees required to work on Sundays have a day off during the week, accorded between the employer and employee.
The draft bill takes into consideration that longer days can be harmful with an extended work day and excludes work in heavy or dangerous conditions, pregnant women and employees between 15 and 18 years of age.
QCOSTARICA – A Uber driver was rescued by the Fuerza Publica (police) from being beaten by a group formal taxi driver after pursuing him, before noon on Saturday, in Esparza.
Uber confirmed on Sunday that the 38 year old driver, a resident of Cartago, identified by his last name Saavedra in one of their partners. Uber calls its drivers ‘socio-collaboradores’ or partners.
According to Transito (traffic official) Rafael Jimenez Varela, it was about 11:00am Saturday when they received the alert of the chase and the crash of several vehicles.
The police report says the chase began in Puntarenas, from where Saavedra left for Esparza. He was alone in the vehicle, it is not known if the driver had dropped off up a fare at the port city, but on the way from Puntarenas, in the area of Esparza, where he is based, being followed by some 40 taxi drivers, he crashed into a pick-up truck.
This is when the mob of taxi drivers began their attack against the Uber driver’s car, damaging the windshield, hood, fenders, driver door and other parts of the vehicle.
Photo Andrés Garita, La Nacion
Police had him in custody to protect him from the mob of taxi drivers. The traffic police towed the vehicle to prevent any further damage from the mob.
“Uber strongly condemns any act of violence that threatens our socios-colaboradores (partners). We will assist in whatever is necessary for our partner to overcome this difficult time. We trust that authorities will take immediate action against those involved in this unprecedented case,” said Julie Robinson, Uber Communications Manager Central America and the Caribbean.
Similarly, she said that Uber will contact the authorities to provide any information relevant to the investigation, in order that these violent acts do not go unpunished.
TODAY COLOMBIA – A crime wave has hit Colombia’s port city of Cartagena just days before government officials and FARC rebels are scheduled to arrive there to sign a peace agreement, foreshadowing the type of security challenges the country will face once the deal is finalized.
A series of public acts of violence has disturbed the normally calm tourist sectors of Cartagena, leading Mayor Manolo Duque to prohibit passengers from riding on the back of motorcycles in these areas, reported reported La Silla Vacía.
An attempt to assassinate the drug trafficker known as “Pichi” on September 14 ended in a shootout between criminals and police in the upscale neighborhood of Bocagrande. Pichi is a member of the Urabeños, Colombia’s most powerful criminal organization, who is currently under house arrest in a luxurious residence replete with an ocean view, according to La Silla Vacía.
More recently, the former baseball player Napoleón Franco Jr. was shot and killed on September 18 in the neighborhood of Pie de la Popa when he refused to hand over his cellphone to a gang of thieves. A few hours later, another group of muggers robbed a Rolex watch from a well-known businessman in Bocagrande, and later that night five armed men attempted to break into the home of the manager of a health insurance company.
The previous day, a botched robbery resulted in a shootout outside a shopping mall in Pie de la Popa.
The surge of street crime in Cartagena’s tourist areas contrasts with the feelings of hope and peace associated with the city as it prepares to host the September 26 signing of a peace agreement between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC). The peace deal, which was announced in late August, officially puts an end to over 50 years of armed conflict with the country’s largest rebel group. The Colombian people will vote to either approve or reject the agreement in a referendum slated for October 2.
However, as InSight Crime has previously noted, Colombia’s security challenges will not simply disappear once the FARC demobilize.
The Urabeños pose an enduring security threat in areas marked as valuable criminal real estate such as Cartagena, where the port system is used to smuggle large-scale drug shipments to Central America. According to La Silla Vacía, the Urabeños and other neo-paramilitary groups known as “bandas criminales,” or BACRIM, have installed three or four leaders in poor areas of the city who hire youths to carry out or facilitate the groups’ criminal activities, including murder, drug trafficking and extortion.
This criminal dynamic is not unique to Cartagena; urban micro-trafficking and its attendant violence is on the rise in many parts of Colombia.
a trial of impunity: thousands of migrants in transit face abuses amid mexico's crackdown. In this Aug. 26, 2014 photo, Central American migrants rest atop the last boxcar of a moving freight train as it heads north from Arriaga toward Chahuites, Mexico. A Mexican crackdown seems to be keeping women and children off the deadly train, known as "The Beast," that has traditionally helped thousands of migrants head north. The once-open route to the United States has become so difficult that trains now carry a small fraction of the migrants they used to, and almost exclusively adult men. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A trial of impunity: thousands of migrants in transit face abuses amid mexico’s crackdown. In this Aug. 26, 2014 photo, Central American migrants rest atop the last boxcar of a moving freight train as it heads north from Arriaga toward Chahuites, Mexico. The once-open route to the United States has become so difficult that trains now carry a small fraction of the migrants they used to, and almost exclusively adult men. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
(Q24N) Mexico’s crackdown against Central American migrants has increased human rights violations and crimes against the migrants, according to a new report, suggesting it is the vulnerable rather than the human smugglers that are suffering as a result of the new security measures.
The report A Trail of Impunity, compiled by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) and the Mexican non-governmental organizations Fundar: Centro de Análisis e Investigación and Casa del Migrante, traces the impact of Mexico’s Southern Border Program, which was launched in 2014 to stem the flow of Central American migrants seeking to pass through Mexico to enter the United States.
According to the findings, the program’s security measures have done little to deter migrants fleeing violence and organized crime in the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, but has forced migrants and people smugglers to take new, more dangerous routes and modes of transportation.
While migrants continue to flee the Northern Triangle, a growing number do not make it through Mexico. Increased patrols along migration routes, mobile and stationary checkpoints and raids on remote spots have led to a massive increase in detentions, with 425,058 migrants detained between 2014 and July 2016, the report states.
However, there has been little attempt to screen migrants who have a genuine asylum claim, with only 6,933 asylum applications resolved over the period and just 2,982 people granted asylum, according to the report.
Mexico’s border crackdown was supposed to be accompanied by efforts to tackle crimes against migrants, including those committed by organized crime networks that target them for crimes such as kidnapping and extortion. However, according to the report, there has been little progress in this area.
Mexico has launched a Unit for the Investigation of Crimes for Migrants within the Attorney General’s Office, alongside a Mechanism for Mexican Foreign Support in the Search and Investigation, which aims to help provide access to the Mexican justice system for family members of disappeared or kidnapped migrants. But the investigation unit lacks staff and resources to investigate the 129 cases it has so far received, according to the report.
Much of the rhetoric around efforts to reduce the influx of migrants passing through Mexico from Central America has focused on the people smuggling rings that profit from those desperate to seek a new life north of the border. However, the findings of the Trail of Impunity report suggest the principal aim of the operation has not been to dismantle organized crime networks but to detain migrants.
In addition, the report shows that little has been done to tackle the targeting of migrants by criminal groups. In recent years, organized crime networks have found migrants a lucrative source of income by extorting them, holding them hostage until their families send money, using them as drug mules and even forcibly recruiting them. This onslaught against migrants has led to some of the worst atrocities seen in Mexico in recent years.
Investigating and prosecuting these crimes, often perpetrated by some of Mexico’s most formidable criminal groups, is no easy task and will require far more than an underfunded task force.
(Q24N) Extensive reports have repeatedly underlined Latin America’s vulnerability to cybercrime, an Achilles’ heel which organized crime is already capitalizing on and that could develop into a serious security threat in the absence of robust countermeasures.
According to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), cybercrime cost Latin America $90 billion last year, out of a worldwide $575 billion. The cyber security company Norton previously evaluated the cost of cybercrime in 2012 at $8 billion for Brazil, $3 billion for Mexico and $464 million for Colombia.
Among the tools at criminals’ disposal are malware computer programs whose uses have expanded throughout the region. Citing a study by an online security company, the American Society’s Council of the Americas (AS/COA) reported that 50 percent of Latin American companies suffered malware attacks in 2013.
Not only has malware use been on the rise, the region’s first corporate espionage virus was detected in Peru in 2012, a program whose main purpose was to steal data such as industrial plans and designs. A 2013 report by Trend Micro Inc. that was sponsored by the Organization of American States revealed a growing trend of malwares being designed in Latin American countries.
Illegal botnets, which enable users to take remote-control of a computer without the owner’s consent, are one of the favorite tools among criminal hackers in the region. They accounted for nearly 50 percent of the cybercrime attacks in Latin America in 2013, according to the AS/COA, with 120,000 computers infected by just two of these botnets. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has also reported a high proportion of command and control servers, which are used to manage illegal botnets, compared to the overall number of internet users in the Caribbean and Central America.
In addition, several techniques are widely used by Latin American criminals to trick their victims into communicating confidential information. Phishing is an example, whereby the victims respond to a seemingly legitimate email and give up their personal or bank information. An estimated $26 million a year are stolen from bank clients through phishing, according to AS/COA.
Spear phishing follows the same process but specifically targets organizations to gain access to their confidential data, and represents annual economic losses of $24 million.
A third popular scam is “pharming,” in which cybercriminals redirect internet users from legitimate websites to malicious pages. The financial losses from pharming amount to $93 million a year in Mexico alone.
Due to growing public awareness of these scam techniques and increased caution on the part of potential victims, criminals have adapted their methods to target social media users and smartphone owners. A 2013 study by the technology company Symantec saw an increase in fake offers on social media groups, fake “like” buttons dubbed “likejacking,” false smartphone applications and malevolent plug-ins.
Through “manual sharing scams,” social media users may actually be both a victim and unknowingly help the criminals by sharing the malignant video or fake message with their social media friends. The Symantec report notes that “users continue to fall prey to scams on social media sites, often lured by a fake sense of security conveyed by the presence of so many friends online.”
Criminals have also increasingly resorted to malware attacks against banks to compensate for victims’ growing caution with regards to their personal information and the banks’ efforts to implement phishing countermeasures. Criminals now attempt to steal the victims’ information by compromising their computer with a virus. They also directly attack banking systems before sending someone to collect the money from a counter, according to the Mexican cybersecurity company Mattica.
The 2013 Symantec study also explains that cash distributors have been targeted by “ATM Skimming,” a method which allows criminals to obtain the data of a withdrawal card used at the machine. More worryingly perhaps, the company discovered a malware in Mexico which had the potential to corrupt ATMs, forcing them to dispense cash upon activation by the criminal.
The finance and banking industry is among cybercriminals’ favored targets and has increasingly come under attack through techniques that differ from the usual aforementioned scams. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the US Treasury Department observed increased occurrences in which criminals impersonate legitimate financial actors in order to conduct wire transfers after having compromised the victims’ email account. The magnitude of the fraud is significant; Treasury notes “that since 2013, there have been approximately 22,000 reported cases involving $3.1 billion.”
Beyond the vast profits these scams and malwares generate, internet and communications technology (ICT) has increasingly become an integrated tool for drugs, arms and human trafficking groups’ activities. Apart from using ICT for logistical purposes, it has become vital for criminal organizations looking to gain control of the profits earned from their illicit activities, which is becoming increasingly difficult as the financial sector increases its scrutiny of illicit cash flows.
The Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists recently revealed that transnational organized crime (TOC) groups are increasingly exploiting corporate credit cards for business-to-business payments of “phantom shipments” between the United States and Mexico. Using the credit card of a front company in the US, criminals buy overvalued or non-existent products from Mexico. The drug money earned in the US is then laundered by entering the legal market in Mexico.
The issue of cybercrime in Latin America is magnified by the states’ vulnerability in that domain, which led the IDB to issue “a call for action to start taking the necessary steps to protect this 21st century key infrastructure” in a March 2016 report. Citing this study, Info Week reported that 80 percent of Latin American countries are without a national cybersecurity strategy to protect key infrastructure, 50 percent lack a coordinate response mechanism and only one-third possess a command and control center to tackle cybersecurity threats.
Another vulnerability is the slow legal response on the part of many countries to cybercrime, which the IDB report assesses. While certain countries such as Colombia and the Dominican Republic have managed to develop relatively strong legal frameworks, the study points out widespread weaknesses in the indictment procedures for such crimes.
InSight Crime Analysis
Although estimates vary, the sheer amount of money lost to cybercrime in Latin America every year is so high that there is considerable urgency for countries to step up their efforts, both legal and technical.
As AS/COA notes, most of the countries in the region have undertaken significant steps to strengthen their legislation and cybersecurity agencies, but the speed with which technology is developed or exploited in new, malicious ways requires constant vigilance and adaptation on behalf of both the authorities and private entities.
Beyond the struggle against financial cyber theft, developing stronger cybersecurity measures could also deal a serious blow to TOC involved in various kinds of illicit trafficking. There is a general trend of increased scrutiny of the financial sector aimed at detecting illicit or suspicious transactions in Latin America and the United States. The Panama Papers is an emblematic example of how this scrutiny can tell us more about aspects of TOC’s money laundering operations, and how cybersecurity could eventually allow for better policies and strategies to target a key component of criminal structures, namely their finances.
But perhaps the most urgent action that needs to be taken is the protection of vital infrastructure, as called for by the 2016 IDB report. Just as certain criminal groups have gained military capacity over the years, both in terms of training and equipment, it is not far-fetched to imagine TOC groups gaining the ICT that they need to rival government security institutions. Last year, Mexican cartels were able to interfere with the GPS of US border patrol drones, successfully sending the unmanned machines away from their designated monitoring area. Given the speed with which these technologies evolve, that will unlikely be the last — or the most damaging — example of how TOC uses cybercrime to facilitate its assorted criminal activities.
El Salvador: Warning of Imperial Offensive in Latin America
(Prensa Latina) The ambassador of Nicaragua, Gilda Bolt, the Venezuelan diplomat Antonio Núñez and Cuban analyst Roberto Regalado, today delivered a presentation on ”the imperial offensive” at the Sixth Congress of the Salvadoran Movement of Solidarity with Cuba.
At the meeting, held yesterday in the city of San Miguel, they warned about the US plan in complicity with national oligarchies to overthrow the progressive processes in Latin America.
They emphasized that this is a continental plan, through new ways to overthrow governments like the so-called soft coups, in order to recover the lost space to the forces of the left wing.
The diplomat Bolt explained that the recent decision of the US government to sanction economically the Nicaraguan population means that this country cannot access to loans from multilateral organizations, unless we act in ‘a process of democracy’.
‘Which is obviously the democracy the United States want us to have, it is democracy that is not ours in our process and we will go to elections on November 6th and we will win’, she stressed.
Meanwhile, Núñez said Venezuela remains the subject of a fierce campaign of aggression from within the country and from outside with evident US interference.
Regalado presented a journey for the historical development of Cuba and the region, the struggles and strength of the Cuban Revolution against the colonization purposes by power groups and US.
He said that in Latin America there is positions war between the US imperialism and its allies from the right wing and the popular movements and the leftist political forces.
In addition, the deputy Nidia Díaz, secretary of International Relations of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN, in Spanish), warned about the interests of the reactionary right wing looking to overthrow the President Salvador Sanchez Ceren before the end of his mandate in 2019.
However, she noted that the FMLN works in an articulated manner to defend the achievements of this party both socially and politically, after two consecutive periods in the Executive.
In the Congress participated representatives Solidarity Movement with Cuba of the 14 departments in the country, deputies and mayors from the FMLN, professionals graduated in Cuba, Cuban residents in this nation and members of the Friendship Association Honduras-Cuba, among other.
Also, the general secretary of the FMLN, Medardo González, the Cuban Ambassador Iliana Fonseca, the mayor of the municipality Miguel Pereira, and the representative of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP, in Spanish) Roberto César Hamilton.
Unanimously, the members of the Movement adopted the Declaration of San Miguel in which they propose, among other things, to conduct a Central American Meeting on Cuba in July 2017, convening all the solidarity in the region.
A day later than expected, Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos appeared before the United Nations’ General Assembly on Wednesday to present world leaders the peace deal that would end the state’s half-a-century armed conflict with leftist FARC guerrillas.
When attending last year’s General Assembly “I said I hoped to return here, in the year 2016, as president of Colombia in peace, a reconciled Colombia,” said Santos.
The Colombian president then proudly announced that “the war in Colombia is over.”
Santos told the General Assembly that on September 26 he will formally sign peace with FARC leader and that on October 2 Colombians will take to the polls to either ratify or reject the deal.
After the vote, the FARC’s approximately 17,000 fighters and militia members will demobilize and disarm under UN supervision before they enter reintegration programs or are referred to a transitional justice tribunal.
“Their weapons will be melted down and become monuments of peace….They will be reminders that we have left the bullets behind, and begun building a new and better country.”
“America, the immense American continent from Patagonia to Alaska, is now a zone of peace.” President Juan Manuel Santos
Santos also made a point of thanking the members of the international community who had assisted the five-year talks that resulted in the peace agreement.
Cuba was instrumental as the country which hosted the talks, and Santos also thanked Norway, Chile, Venezuela, the United States, and Germany for their support throughout the process.
Aid for the peace process and logistical support have been pledged by numerous countries, and much of it will be administered through the UN.
“There is one less war in the world, and it is the war in Colombia!” Santos finished as the crowd of world leaders erupted in applause.
While Colombia is still dealing with smaller armed groups like the Marxist ELN group and the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces, the deal with the FARC does end the country’s longest-running armed conflict in the hemisphere.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Wednesday warned leftist rebels that their illicit fortune would be seized and used to pay reparations to war victims should voters approve a peace agreement in an Oct. 2 plebiscite.
Speaking at Reuters Newsmaker forum in New York, Santos noted Colombia’s history of seizing assets from drug cartels, recalling how the Medellin and Cali cartels were once considered invincible at their peak strength in 1980s and ’90s.
“They were not invincible. We destroyed them,” Santos said. “We know how to go after their (the guerrillas’) money and we’re not by any means allowing them to launder their money. If we find any property, and we have many of their properties already identified, we will simply take those properties away and use that money to repair the victims.”
Santos says the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) accumulated cash, property and bank accounts as a result of their alliance with Colombia’s drug traffickers, assets the FARC may seek to shield.
How much money does the FARC have?
Colombian voters will decide whether to approve a peace agreement between the government and guerrillas of the FARC. A “yes” vote would end Latin America’s longest war, which has killed 265,000 people and displaced millions since 1964.
Santos’ government, which reached the deal after four years of negotiations with the FARC in Cuba, opted to put the agreement up for a vote. Although opponents led by former President Alvaro Uribe are campaigning against the peace deal, public opinion polls show it is favored to win.
Opposition cracks as Colombia increasingly supports peace with FARC
If approved, the agreement would require the FARC to pay war reparations to victims. The FARC also agreed to sever any ties with the drug trade and help the government destroy coca crops and drugs labs.
Though the famed Medellin and Cali cartels were broken up, and the US government has provided billions of dollars in military aid to fight their drug-trafficking successors, Colombia remains the world’s leading exporter of cocaine.
Santos, who staked his 2014 re-election campaign on the peace process and has seen his popularity plummet in his second term, nonetheless predicts victory and peace for the first time in decades.
(From Latimes.com) After more than five decades of bloody civil war, Colombia’s infamous armed guerrillas were preparing for peace.
Big-name bands from Bogota descended on a remote stretch of rebel-held savanna, where the rebels had erected a Coachella-sized stage. Hundreds of arriving journalists were greeted not with rifles drawn, but by a public relations team of smiling female guerrillas. Instead of combat fatigues, they wore linen blouses. Instead of guns, they carried MacBooks.
Women make up a large share of the FARC force. In the past, female fighters who had babies weren’t allowed to keep them, so most were raised by relatives.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as the FARC, is re-branding.
On Monday its leaders are scheduled to sign a historic peace agreement, under which an estimated 7,000 peasant fighters would give up their weapons and restart life as civilians. The FARC gathering earlier this month — seven days on rebel-held territory in the lush Yari Plains — was a chance for the group to plot its political future and unveil a kinder public face.
The conference, held with logistical support from the Colombian government, was at times a raucous celebration of the prospect of peace, with epic nightly concerts for guerrillas who have spent years in the jungle far from civilization and who have lost limbs, lovers and friends over decades of war.
It was also a time of intense emotion as some of them reunited with long-separated relatives, and others contemplated their transition back into the workforce and families and homes.
And it was calculated media event, with news conferences twice a day, expansive dormitories for journalists and an intermittent Internet signal provided by a company called Amazon Connections.
Each day, while rebel leaders met privately, a group of specially chosen young guerrillas gave interviews and posed for photographs while bathing in shady rivers and resting in small wooden huts.
“We want you to know the truth,” said a 30-year-old fighter named Andres, who joined the group four years ago, and who like many guerrillas would give only his wartime moniker and no last name. “Other people have painted us badly. There’s a good part of Colombia that doesn’t understand who we are and why we’ve been fighting.”
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia member Viviana, 28, and her comrade Jon, 34, bathe in spring waters by their camp. “We’re all kids of the same town and we’ve been killing each other,” Viviana says regarding the long war in the region between the FARC and paramilitary forces.
There’s no question that the FARC’s image is in need of a makeover.
The peace agreement announced in Havana last month calls for a six-month disarmament process as the rebel group seeks to reinvent itself as a far-left political party. But winning elections requires popular support, and many war-wary Colombians associate the FARC with kidnappings, disappearances and other aspects of a violent epoch they would like to move past.
And there is a more pressing concern: The peace deal is contingent on approval in a countrywide plebiscite Oct. 2. While the latest polls show a majority of Colombians support the deal, popular ex-President Alvaro Uribe is mounting an aggressive campaign to kill it.
Uribe and others argue that the guerrillas do not deserve forgiveness, and question whether the militants are sincere about their plans to give up the extortion schemes and involvement in the cocaine trade that is rumored to have made some of their leaders rich.
The guerrillas say they are committed to the terms of the peace agreement as long as the Colombian government follows through with its promise of amnesty for all except those accused of war crimes.
According to the peace deal, demobilized guerrillas will be eligible for a monthly government stipend for two years as well as one-time cash payments of more than $2,000 to start businesses.
The FARC says some former fighters may continuing living together in small rural collectives to organize political campaigns. Others may leave the jungle and their comrades to enroll in school, have children, or return to families they haven’t seen or spoken to in years.
Reunions will not be easy. The conflict sometimes pitted guerrillas against their own relatives, with rebel leaders instructing young fighters to forget blood ties and be prepared to kill.
“They haven’t heard from me in many years,” Andres said of his family. “My mother probably thinks I’m dead.”
Wandering the rambling conference site were mothers looking for their sons who had joined the group. There was also at least one son who came looking for his mother, a 36-year-old guerrilla named Tatiyana.
She left him to be raised by her brother shortly after birth. The FARC discouraged its members from having children.
Now 16, the boy arrived with his uncle, who saw the conference as a safe opportunity for him to meet his mother.
Hours after the boy left to return home, Tatiyana was still quivering. “Difficult doesn’t begin to describe it,” she said. “He is young and still doesn’t understand why I did what I did.”
The FARC was founded in 1964 when bands of peasants calling for land redistribution took up arms against the government. The group’s strongest days were the late 1990s, when profits from drug trafficking and kidnapping ransoms allowed it to expand its control in the countryside.
In 2002, Uribe launched an offensive, backed by the United States and aided by conservative paramilitary groups, that killed many leaders of the FARC and thinned its ranks. Up until the peace talks began in Havana four years ago, the guerrillas spent much of life on the run, dodging airstrikes and sometimes changing encampments every few days.
The peasants whom the guerrillas claimed to be defending were often caught in the crossfire. In all, nearly a quarter million Colombians were killed. Millions were displaced, and tens of thousands more disappeared and were never found. Makeshift graves are scattered across the countryside.
Reminders of war cast a shadow on peaceful moments, including a muggy afternoon when several guerrillas blared merengue on an MP3 player and stripped down to their underwear to bathe.
A Kate Moss T-shirt dries on a clothesline alongside a FARC uniform in Colombia’s Yari Plains, a key rebel stronghold.
David, 33, was missing an arm. Jon, 34, had a bullet scar on his left leg.
Viviana, 28, was still recovering from a shattered elbow she suffered when paramilitary soldiers attacked her and her boyfriend while they were walking through the jungle a few years ago. The scar looks like a thick spider web. Her boyfriend, who was hit in the leg, nearly died from blood loss.
Viviana was 14 when a paramilitary group formed by wealthy farmers to defend themselves against the FARC pillaged her family’s farm and stole the animals. When several classmates decided to seek vengeance by joining the FARC, she went with them.
Some human rights researchers estimate that as many as a quarter of the FARC’s fighters are younger than 18.
“Guerrilla life is hard on occasion, but it’s also beautiful,” recruiters would tell children to sway them to join.
Viviana said she doesn’t regret her decision. She has gotten used to life in the jungle, where she neatly lines up shampoo, lotion and perfume bottles on the edge of her tree-limb and cardboard bed.
But she is ready for the end of a war that sometimes forced her to fight old classmates from school.
“We’re all kids from the same town, and we’ve been killing each other,” she said.
The FARC has tried to enter mainstream politics before, with disastrous results.
In 1984, the group signed a peace deal with the government that led to a three-year cease-fire and the formation of a FARC-allied political party called the Patriotic Union. But the peace agreement broke down when right-wing death squads killed about a thousand of the party’s members, including several congressmen and two presidential candidates.
“Now we are trying again in the name of peace for the Colombian people,” said Emiliano Lemos, 54, a one-time member of the former party who came to the FARC conference to report for an independent radio show he helps run from the United States, where he gained political asylum in the 1990s.
Over 200 FARC commanders and hundreds of soldiers gathered to discuss the movement’s future at their final national conference as an armed group.
“It’s scary,” Lemos said. “We are scared that the paramilitary groups will take power in the areas where the guerrillas were protecting the people. We are scared we will be killed again.”
But for now, any fears about the future are overshadowed by joy, he said.
“We are finishing with all this,” he said. “This is a celebration in peace that the warriors have never had.”
Transforming the FARC into a viable political force means counteracting years of sophisticated anti-guerrilla messaging by the government.
“It’s not that easy because in Colombia there’s been a war going on for a long time, not only a military war but also a media war,” said Tanja Nijmeijer, a Dutch-born guerrilla who joined the FARC in the early 2000s and is known as Alexandra. “For us it’s going to be difficult to reverse.”
The organization now has YouTube channels and Twitter accounts, in part to appeal to young voters in Colombia’s urban areas, regions far from the group’s traditional rural strongholds.
With its lineup of hip Bogota musical acts and a stage featuring massive screens and laser lights, the conference is the group’s “coming-out party,” said Alex Fattal, an anthropologist who studies the group’s media strategy and teaches at Penn State University.
Or as one of his friends described it, a nod to the AK-47 rifles some guerrillas had slung over their shoulders: “It’s like open-carry Burning Man.”
The nightly concerts drew large crowds of fighters as well as local supporters, some of whom watched the spectacle with cases of Aguila beer from the beds of dusty pickup trucks.
The bands included a cumbia group made up of guerrilla musicians called Rebels of the South, as well as a socially conscious funk band whose lyrics praised recycling and permaculture.
“We want peace, but with social justice,” rapped a FARC member who joined the stage with a reggae band from Bogota called Alerta Kamarada.
FARC members with guitarist Pablo Araoz of the Bogota reggae group Alerta Kamarad on the first night of the conference. It was the first concert some FARC members and residents had ever experienced.
Watching the scene, a FARC member, Fabio, shook his head in disbelief. The 50-year-old guerrilla leader said there had always been always a musical component to the group’s conferences in the past. But those were secret meetings, where guerrillas made war plans and went to lengths to avoid detection, and the bands had to play quietly.
The concert made him think of all the people who have died.
Gesturing to the shadows, he said, “It feels like they’re here with me.”
With the exception of a small group of FARC fighters in a southern jungle province who have said they won’t give up arms, the organization’s leader reported that the peace deal has the group’s “total” support.
“In this war, there are neither victors nor vanquished,” FARC Commander in Chief Rodrigo Londono, known as Timochenko, told a group of hundreds of guerrillas gathered on the first day of the conference. He had traded his army fatigues and beret for a bright white T-shirt. “Our greatest satisfaction is that we won peace,” he said.
But even with the accord, peace is not guaranteed.
“This only fixes 5% of our problems,” said Mauricio Velez, a photographer who has been documenting the conflict for 18 years. Drug trafficking and organized crime will persist, as will other armed groups, such as the National Liberation Army.
“When they leave, immediately other groups will enter their spaces,” he said.
Velez came to the conference looking for a picture for the last page of a book about the conflict that he is currently editing.
It wasn’t long before he found it. The photograph he snapped was of a young guerrilla, standing alone beneath a giant sky. Behind him, on the horizon, was a bright orange setting sun.
The future of the Golfito commercial duty free zone is at financial risk of closing, the association of dealers and vendors denies the possible imminent closure announced by JUDESUR, administrator of the duty free zone. Photo from La Nacion
The future of the Golfito commercial duty free zone is at financial risk of closing, the association of dealers and vendors denies the possible imminent closure announced by JUDESUR, administrator of the duty free zone. Photo from La Nacion
QCOSTARICA – Those heading south to Golfito for the savings may be surprised to find the Depósito Libre Comercial de Golfito (Golfito Commercial Duty Free Zone) closed starting October 1.
Carlos Murillo, executive director of the Regional Development Board of the Southern Zone (JUDESUR), administrator of the Golfito duty free, said on Friday on Radio Colosal, the savings will end when the duty free trade zone closes its doors at the end of business day on September 30.
However, in a report by La Nacion, vendors and dealers belied the closure and that the commercial free zone is at (financial) risk.
Golfito is a small town set in the Golfo Dulce and has grown considerably thanks to the drive that has given the free zone, where you can buy tax-free.
According to Murillo, the closing is due the Ley Orgánica de Judesur (9.356) that went into effect on June 13 of this year, that lowers the tax paid on products, hence defraying the income of JUDESUR to administer the duty free zone.
““We have a gap between income and expenses, the situation is serious. We’ve been seeing it in the two months of the law. Not being able to meet (financial) obligations without disrespecting (breaking) the law, we have only to close our doors,” said Murillo.
Meanwhile, Susan Naranjo, advisor to the Asociación Concesionarios Depósito de Golfito (Acoldelgo), said the group rejects the technical closure.
“The operation of the Deposito will not be compromised, 5,000 families depend on it economically and it is not fair to speculate,” explained Naranjo.
Murillo added that on Tuesday there will be a meeting to define the actions to prevent the closing, such as filing an action with the Constitutional Court for an injunction against Ley 9.356 and restoring the original tax scheme.
Many say the savings are worthwile to make the 6-8 hour car trip from San Jose
For the longest time the Golfito duty free has been a favourite by many to shop for appliances, furniture, gifts, etc. at a usually much lower price that in retail stores across the country. For many the 6 to 8 hour car ride to Golfito is more than savings, but an outing for family and friends.
Thousands of families in the area of Golfito, Osa, Corredores, Coto Brus and Buenos Aires directly depend on the operation of the commercial free trade zone.
Postal workers are the Zapote post office. Photo ANEP
Correos de Costa Rica, the country’s postal service, has transformed itself from a simple mail delivery to an online e-commerce business. Image from Box Correos website.
QCOSTARICA – Long hours and excess of daily deliveries of packages from China are among the top complaints of a group of 32 mail carriers who protested outside the Legislature Friday morning.
Postal workers are the Zapote post office. Photo ANEP
The National Association of Public and Private Employees – Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos y Privados (ANEP) – reported the letter carriers and eight administrative support staff working at the Zapote, San Jose mail centre, were one a work protest for several hours.
The Zapote centre is where all packages are received, processed and sorted for delivery to homes, businesses and mailboxes.
The Correos de Costa Rica (Post Office), made a point to let the media and customers know that the protest did not affect deliveries on Friday, service resuming to normality by 9:30am after a last-minute meeting with the workers by Correo’s general manager, Mauricio Rojas.
The ANEP says its members are complaining that each has to deliver and average of 2,000 packages a day, from 6:30am to 7:00pm, Monday through Friday and from 7:00am to 4:00pm on Saturdays.
But, according to Correos, each carrier does not delivery daily more than 300 packages. Meanwhile, Claudio Sanchez, ANEP’s point man in the carrier’s claim, said the work accumulates every day, because of a lack of personnel causing a delay in the delivery of all the packages promptly.
The increase is due to the transformation of Correos from a simple delivery of mail to an e-commerce business, Boxcorreos.com, where customers can make purchases online. Correos says the majority of the purhcases are from China on websites like Wish and Aliexpress, as well as Amazon and other online retailers, and delivered to Costa Rica.
According to Correos, the number of package arrivals grew 826% from January to June this year, compared to the first half of 2015.
The increase in traffic congestion in the Central Valley contributes to the increase demand for fuel
The increase in traffic congestion in the Central Valley contributes to the increase demand for fuel
QCOSTARICA – The end of the month will bring an increase in fuel prices: ¢13 colones per litre of super and regula gasoline, and ¢24 for diesel, following the Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Público (ARESP) approval Friday afternoon.
The increase is in response to a request by the Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo (RECOPE) – Costa Rica’s State refinery.
Once the approval goes into effect, the price at the pumps will increase: for a litre of super from ¢566 to ¢579; regular from ¢541 to ¢554; and diesel from ¢443 to ¢467.
In Costa Rica, the price of fuel is the same at all pumps across the country.
The adjustment will take effect the day following the publication in the official government newsletter, La Gaceta, which is to occur probably by the of the week.
The RECOPE is citing hikes in the international price of petroleum products and the exchange rate of the dollar in Costa Rica.
According to RECOPE, the international price for a barrel of super gasoline rose US$3.50 a barrel, going from US$57.40 to US$60.90. Regular gasoline went from US$56.20 to US$59.60, a difference of US$3.40. And diesel rose US$6.70 a barrel, from US$52.70 to US$59.40.
RECOPE justified said the increases are due to two main factors: one, U.S. prices remain affected upward by a seasonal factor because it has not completed the period of greatest demand for gasoline (driving season), when it is usual that the price of gasoline rise in this part of the world; and two, a potential Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) production freeze or a cutback, at a meeting of the members of the convened in Algeria in the framework of the International Forum Energy.
A vibrant and popular choice with locals and tourists, the street Calle La Calzada in Granada fills up in the late afternoon. La Catedral de Granada is in the background.
NICARAGUA TRAVEL – Mention Nicaragua and a lot of people still think contras and rebels and civil war.
“But that’s changing now,” says Raymundo Solorzano, a guide with 22 years of experience. “There are so many people saying ‘Forget Costa Rica, that’s over.’ Nicaragua is the new big destination in Central America.”
Solorzano is referring to the spate of articles touting his home country as the next big thing in travel, spurred on by the realization that the country is affordable and hasn’t yet been plundered by large hotel and restaurant chains.
This lack of development is a result of the fact that tourism, itself, is relatively fresh in Nicaragua.
It was just over 20 years ago, when the political turmoil settled down, that a few intrepid surfers and backpackers started exploring the Pacific coast as an alternative to increasingly pricey Costa Rica.
Many credit the show Survivor — which filmed three seasons here — for helping North Americans tweak to the idea that Nicaragua is a safe and desirable destination.
Colours light up Iglesia y Convento at night in Granada, Nicaragua.
Travellers are discovering this Central American hidden gem has volcanoes to explore, a vibrant cultural scene with non-stop festivals, and a bounty of local fresh food and drink.
Granada, a small, traditional-looking city on Lake Nicaragua, is easily the most picturesque hub for nightlife, festivals and foodism, beating out the less walkable capital, Managua, where life gravitates towards the suburbs.
Granada is laid out in accordance with Spanish colonial urban planning, with narrow cobblestone streets spreading out from a pedestrian-friendly, tree-filled square — similar to a Mexican zocalo.
This is the town’s heart, where street vendors hawk goods and bands play to tourists and families alike on weekends and holidays, all under the shadow of La Catedral de Granada, the city’s most recognizable building.
A vibrant and popular choice with locals and tourists, the street Calle La Calzada in Granada fills up in the late afternoon. La Catedral de Granada is in the background.
Connecting Granada’s central square to the malecon (the lakefront recreational area) is Calle La Calzada, a charming street that, at night, is full of people relaxing on patios, people spilling out from the sidewalk cafés, restaurants and ubiquitous Irish bars.
These bars don’t just specialize in stout and whiskey, they also do a brisk trade in tropical rum cocktails, notably, the Macua, Nicaragua’s answer to the Margarita.
Invented in Granada in 2006, the country’s signature drink is a tart and refreshing lemon, orange and guava juice mixture, spiked with a heavy-handed pour of Flor de Cana, which, for all intents and purposes, is the country’s only rum.
Flor de Cana — along with locally brewed Tona and Victoria beers — dominates bar life and cocktail culture in Granada.
On patios, people often sip the award-winning rum straight up after dinner, along with smoking a local hand-rolled cigar, one of the country’s other most valuable industries.
The slow-aged rum’s loyal following and accolades are the result of its relatively unique style and method of production: Although most countries south of Mexico make spirits distilled from either molasses or sugar cane, for the large part, these sugar-derived liquors are either unaged aguardiente (sometimes known as firewater) or produced according to the solera technique.
Cigars are for sale on the streets of Granada. Nicaragua’s hand-r
The latter blends together different streams of distillates of various ages, a process that some — especially rum aficionados in Nicaragua — consider a cheat. Flor de Cana rum has no additives and its rich colour and vanilla-butterscotch flavour come from its time spent in recycled American whiskey barrels — the one ingredient sourced from outside the country’s borders.
While the rum has a loyal local following, that’s only part of the overall ethos of this remarkably locavore-friendly nation resistant to multinationals and their products.
Solorzano, who only drinks his country’s native spirit, shakes his head disapprovingly at the prospect of solera-style rums made in “far away” places such as Guatemala. He says this extends to eating and points out there are very few American fast-food outlets in Nicaragua.
“The most popular fast food here is the fritanga,” Solarzano explains, referring to small family-run, casual restaurants that specialize in grilled meat and chicken entrees served with fried plantains and gallo pinto (rice and beans).
Street food, such as cabbage salad, in Granada is simple, unpretentious and fresh.
There is no shortage of higher-end and more adventurous eats to be found in surf and turf restaurants, where Nicaraguan grass-fed beef and local fresh seafood is plentiful. New restaurants that incorporate more eclectic styles and Asian influences, vegetarian foods and bocas bars (like tapas) are starting to crop up all over Granada and other tourist areas.
Solorzano believes it’s inevitable and the best Nicaragua might do is resist foreign highrise hotels that seem to crop up in popular beach destinations, such as and Panama and Acapulco.
He points to Mukul as a model. The new luxury resort in San Juan del Sur is run by the same family that owns Flor de Cana. Its exclusive beachfront bungalows command upwards of $500 (U.S.) per night, likely a harbinger of a new, far less rustic, tourist trade in Nicaragua.
But, for now, Nicaragua’s still affordable, charming, and the perfect place to drink up good, fresh, local fare.
Not to mention a few tasty Macuas.
Getting there: There are no direct flights to Granada, but there are daily flights to Managua through. From Managua, Granada is only a one-hour car ride.
Business Above Politics Between Costa Rica and Nicaragua
(Q24N) The union of private companies in Nicaragua – Consejo Superior de la Empresa Privada (COSEP) – will be promoting a meeting in the week of October 17 with Costa Rican business owners in order to explore new business opportunities.
The head of the COSEP, José Adán Aguerri, noted that during 2015 the trade balance between both countries was US$606 million dollars, with a favourable balance for Costa Rica which exported products worth US$479 million, compared with US$127 million of Nicaragua.
Exports from Nicaragua to Costa Rica accounted for 6% of that country’s total sales abroad in July, only surpassed by the United States (41.9%) and El Salvador (10.6%), according to official figures.
Aguerri told ACAN EFE “… ‘We have studied the main products lines being imported from Costa Rica, starting with clinker, which is a linchpin in the cement making process, and “concentrates for preparing soft drink syrups, etc.’.”
Aguerri also noted that in 2015 Nicaragua was visited by 167,448 Costa Rican tourists, 12% of all tourists to Nicaragua. In addition, a total of 406,000 Nicaraguans traveled to Costa Rica last year, he noted.
Costa Rican investments in Nicaragua totaled US$67 million in 2013 and US$50 million in 2014.
A large Nicaraguan population in Costa Rica made the country the second largest source of remittances to Nicaragua, surpassed only by the United States.
Nicaragua received US$707.4 million dollars in remittances during the first seven months of this year, of which 54.7% came from the United States, followed by Costa Rica with 21.6%, according to Nicaragua’s Central Bank.
A Costa Rican Red Cross member distributes food to migrants in an encampment of Africans in Penas Blancas, Guanacaste, Costa Rica, on July 19. In a makeshift camp hundreds of tents shelter Haitians, Congolese, Senegalese and Ghanaian migrants waiting to continue their journey to the United States.
Ezequiel Becerra/AFP/Getty Images
A Costa Rican Red Cross member distributes food to migrants in an encampment of Africans in Penas Blancas, Guanacaste, Costa Rica, on July 19. In a makeshift camp hundreds of tents shelter Haitians, Congolese, Senegalese and Ghanaian migrants waiting to continue their journey to the United States. Photo Ezequiel Becerra/AFP/Getty Images
QCOSTARICA – More than 100 illegal migrants are entering Costa Rica every day, looking for “coyotes” (smugglers) to take them across the Nicaraguan border and on to the United States, President Luis Guillermo Solis says.
Solis, said on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly that 85% of the new arrivals were from Haiti by way of Brazil, where many settled after Haiti’s 2010 earthquake but whose construction jobs had disappeared now the Rio Olympics were over and the country wallowed in recession.
“The phenomenon has shifted quite significantly,” Solis said.
The Soils administration has set up centres that offer the migrants basic shelter and food on their arrival to Costa Rica at the Panama border, before they take the day-long bus trip through the country to the northern border with Nicaragua.
Nicaragua first refused Cuban migrants last October, a policy that continues and extends to all migrants who want to enter, forcing them in the hands of smugglers or illegal guides, often linked to criminal gangs and more often than not, scam the migrants by taking their money and then leave to their own means.
The President said the other 15% of arrivals were Cubans as well as African and Asians. Several months back many of the Haitians told immigration officials they were Africans to avoid being deported. Costa Rica is more tolerant of African migrants due to the distance to return them home, contributing to the high cost of deportation.
It is not the same with Haitians. In addition, the United States, in responding to a surge in Haitian immigrants, would end special protections for them dating back to the devastating 2010 earthquake, the Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday.
“Migration is a global phenomenon and it is not new. But something unexpected is happening, a refurbished flow of migrants is on the move in Latin America,” Solis said.
So far, Solis said, Costa Rica could handle the movement – inflow and outflow – of migrants passing through the country.
“What if they start deciding to stay on in Costa Rica after hearing that the United States has changed its tolerance policy and is going to start deporting them?” Solis said. “That’s a concern.”
More than 5,000 Haitians have entered the United States without visas this fiscal year, according to Department of Homeland Security officials, up from 339 in fiscal year 2015.
In February Michel Martelly stepped down as president of Haiti without a successor. New elections are scheduled for October 9.
QCOSTARICA article by Shannon Farley – Local eco-community Portasol Living is coordinating donations and volunteers for the unfunded program to continue its vital protection for sea turtles in Costa Rica. Over the past three decades, the world’s population of sea turtles has declined drastically.The world they have occupied since the time of dinosaurs has become a very dangerous place.
Sea turtles are threatened by rising sea temperatures and climate change, pollution in the oceans,increasing boat traffic, fishing gear and bad fishing practices like long-lining, destruction of their nesting beaches (mostly from construction), and humans poaching their eggs and shells.
Nearly all seven sea turtle species on the planet have been classified as endangered or facing extinction.Why is this important? Sea turtles are significant to our oceans’ ecosystems.
They maintain marine habitats, help cycle nutrients, and are part of a balanced food web. As turtles disappear,it affects the health of the world’s oceans, which in turn affects us.
Countries such as the U.S. and Costa Rica in Central America are leading the cause to protect sea turtles, demonstrating that recovery for these ancient reptiles is possible.
The United States in 1973 enacted the Endangered Species Act (ESA) under which all sea turtles are protected in U.S. waters; the Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) was just added to the protection list this year (2016).
Helping to protect and recover sea turtle species is critical as they decline at an alarming rate.
Sea Turtle Conservation in Costa Rica
The most famous place for sea turtle conservation in Costa Rica is Tortuguero on the Caribbean Coast. The Sea Turtle Conservancy has worked here since 1959 to save several species of endangered sea turtles; and the Tortuguero National Park was formed in 1975.
Also important are the Ostional Wildlife Refuge on the Nicoya Peninsula, which receives mass arrivals of Olive Ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea), and the Las Baulas National Park at Playa Grande where giant Leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) make their nests.
However, there are many lesser known beaches in Costa Rica where endangered sea turtles come to lay their eggs, and which are vital for the species’ survival.
The Forgotten Sea Turtle Nesting Beaches of Costa Rica
South of the very popular beaches of Manuel Antonio and north of the laid-back surf town of Dominical, the long, palm tree-lined beach of Matapalo stretches along the coast for 12 kilometers. There is nothing but empty dark sand, blue Pacific Ocean, and a very small community. It is to this “lost coast” that hundreds of Pacific Black sea turtles (Chelonia mydas agassizi), Olive Ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea), and Hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) come every year between July and December to lay their eggs; and where thousands of baby turtles begin their lives and return to the sea.
A small grassroots organization called the Matapalo Sea Turtle Conservation Project has been quietly working to save sea turtles at Matapalo Beach since the 1990s. For the past 10 years, the non-profit Association of Volunteers for Service in Protected Areas in Costa Rica (ASVO) used its large volunteer base of national and international students to work the project. However, earlier this year, ASVO pulled its support.
The program has been continuing under the guidance of Costa Rican biologist Roberto Solano, who has worked with the sea turtles in Matapalo since 2009. But there are no funds. Operating 100% on donations, Solano and local community members, along with visiting volunteers, do their best to patrol the beach to protect female sea turtles as they arrive at night to lay their eggs, collect the eggs and safeguard them in a hatchery with 24-hour care, and release the baby turtles back to the sea when they are born.
Poachers are an ever-present problem. They steal the turtle eggs to sell, even though it is illegal, since turtle eggs are thought to be an aphrodisiac and there continues to be a black market. In addition to humans, Solano said that dogs, raccoons and even crabs are a threat to the fragile eggs. When a nest is found, volunteers carefully recover the eggs using medical gloves and biodegradable plastic bags to bring them to the hatchery where they are guarded with fences and by volunteers.
Solano said that between 180 and 250 turtles nest at Matapalo every year; each female depositing on average from 80 to 120 eggs. He said the program so far has been able to save about 17,000 eggs in a season. With a birth rate between 88 and 93 percent, that’s a lot of turtles.
“Matapalo is important for sea turtles, with such a variety of different species coming here. But in this community, there aren’t many resources. People steal the eggs for money, and don’t have the education to practice conservation,” said Solano. “Matapalo doesn’t have the big hotels nearby like in Guanacaste to help sponsor a turtle project and promote it among their guests to give donations. For me the most important thing is to protect nature.”
The nearby eco-community of Portasol Living is collecting funds for the Matapalo Sea Turtle Conservation Project, and helping to coordinate volunteers. So far, Portasol has helped raise more than $5,000 for the turtle project from sponsors in Costa Rica and the United States. The funds were used for supplies, and for materials and labor needed to rebuild the hatchery, create nests, and construct a perimeter fence to protect the area.
“We strongly believe in conservation, especially with species in danger like these sea turtles. Helping to save these species is important to nature,” said Guillermo Piedra, General Director of Portasol Living.
Donate to the Matapalo Sea Turtle Conservation Project, or Volunteer
The peak arrival time for nesting sea turtles is August through the end of October; turtle babies will be hatching until January, and volunteers are needed until then. Training will be provided to volunteers, and there are rustic cabins available at Matapalo Beach for people to stay. Or, volunteers can stay in vacation rentals at Portasol Living.
The Matapalo Sea Turtle Conservation Project needs donations to buy flashlights for patrols, biodegradable bags to collect turtle eggs, gloves for volunteers to not contaminate the eggs, materials for the nests, and to help offset the costs of food and lodging for volunteers. Expenses are estimated at $2,000 per month.
To make a donation to the Matapalo Sea Turtle Conservation Project, or if you would like to volunteer, please contact Portasol Living at (506) 2787-5020; WhatsApp +506 8507-9393; info@portasol.cr.
A woman grinding corn into meal, using a stone table called a metate
(QCOSTARICA) by Michael Miller – In May of 2014, Costa Rica’s Jade Museum moved from the insurance building in Downtown San José, to a new building five blocks away. The day that the move took place, two things instantly happened:
First, the Jade Museum expanded from five crowded rooms in the old building, to five spacious floors (and 75,000 square feet), in a brand new building dedicated totally for the Museum.
Second, the Jade Museum went from being a parochial collection of artifacts, to become a world-class museum.
Placed throughout the Museum are life-size dioramas, or models, that will virtually take you back to life in indigenous villages over 2,000 ago.
When you approach the new Jade Museum, you will see an imposing structure with interesting angles and curves and a rough earth-toned exterior. This look comes from a special Spanish porcelain that covers most of the building. There are no windows except up and down its center on the east and west sides.
A tribesman fishing with bow and arrow.
Once inside, you will see why the building was given such a unique appearance. Its architects shaped it to represent a big block of jade. One of the first things you will see when you enter the building, is . . . . a big block of jade. It has interesting angles and curves, and a rough earth-toned exterior. Then, where the exterior has been cut away, you will see the rich lustrous jade that glistens in different shades of green.
You will learn that this big block of jade is not from Costa Rica. In fact, Costa Rica has no sources of the jade ore. All of the raw materials for the country’s jade products came from Guatemala and Honduras.
Row after row of priceless pottery and jade, much of it over 2,000 years old, will help you understand what a remarkable treasure the Jade Museum is in Costa Rica.
Beginning about 600 years before Christ, raw jade ore, such as this big block on display at the Museum, was brought into Costa Rica over ancient trade routes. Once here, it was worked on by tribal craftsmen, mostly in the coastal areas of Guanacaste on the Pacific side, and near the present-day city of Limon on the Caribbean side.
For over 1,000 years, this jade industry was one of the hallmarks of life among the indigenous tribes of Costa Rica. And today, the new Jade Museum displays the largest collection of American jade anywhere in the world.
A brutal image of a tribal warrior in the act of sacrificing a vanquished enemy.
When you enter the first exhibit room on the ground floor, you will see a display of the tremendous variety of objects created from jade. There are jade necklaces, bracelets, anklets, pendants, religious objects, and figurines carved with images of birds, butterflies, bats, and other animals with which the indigenous people would have been familiar.
However, the real impact of the new Jade Museum is experienced on the second floor and each floor above. When you enter the display rooms on each floor, you will see why the new Jade Museum is being hailed as one of the best museums in all of Latin America. The displays are, in a word, stunning!
The display room called “The Night” creates the images, the sounds and the feel of being in a Costa Rican jungle after dark.
As you move through the Museum, you will see much more than jade. There are thousands of pieces of priceless pottery, ceramics, and tools made from stone and shells, all from the pre-columbian peoples who lived in what is now called Costa Rica.
What is most impressive to me, is that the creators of the new Museum have not just laid out a bunch of artifacts in glass cases. Rather, they have gone to great lengths to show how these pieces were made, and how they were used in the every day lives of these ancient people.
Visually stunning images on glass walls are one of the reasons the Jade Museum is being hailed as a world-class museum.
When you step into the new Jade Museum, you are, in a virtual sense, taking a step back over 2,000 years.
The Museum uses dramatic visual images on glass walls, and even on the floors, to portray how the indigenous people lived, and what they would have encountered. Each section has written descriptions of what you are seeing, both in Spanish and in English.
However, the features that get the most attention, are the life-size dioramas that are found throughout the Museum. These dioramas, or models, give you a taste of what life was like in Costa Rica’s pre-columbian villages. You will see men hunting and fishing. You will see a woman grinding corn into meal. There are people weaving cloth, women feeding children, and even a group preparing a corpse for burial.
The Jade Museum displays, not only objects made from jade, but also magnificent examples of pottery and porcelain from the same period.
The display room that had the greatest impact on me was called “The Night.” Here, the lights are low, you can hear the sounds of the night birds, and it feels almost as if you have entered the dark mysterious Costa Rican jungle at night. You learn about the owls and the other nocturnal birds and animals that roam the forest after dark.
Many of these animals are considered to be magic or sacred by the tribes people. They were often regarded by tribal shamans as being messengers from the underworld. These nocturnal creatures were often the subjects of images carved on jade pendants, or formed with pottery.
Once inside the Jade Museum, you can see and touch a big block of jade. Like the building itself, this block has a rough earth-tone exterior, but inside you see the glistening jade.
“The Night” display room also explores the burial practices of the indigenous people. One of the dioramas shows a corpse of a man laid into the ground, as his living tribesmen and women prepare him for eternity. His body is adorned with jade pendants and jewelry, the amount depending on his status in the tribe. Across his body is placed a “metate”, a stone grinding table used for grinding corn and other grains, something that he will need for his journey through the afterlife.
You should not think that life in these Costa Rican villages was all peace and harmony. These tribal people faced what all mankind has had to endure, in every period of history. There is a section of the Museum that deals with warfare and the lives of the warriors of the tribes, including some very graphic displays of the brutality of that part of tribal life.
There are many other fascinating sections of this museum. For example, on the top floor there is a massive collection of all the pieces that the museum curators did not use elsewhere. As you look at this, row after row of beautiful pottery and jade, and you realize that each of these pieces is between 1,500 to 2,500 years old, you can begin to understand what an extraordinarily valuable collection this is.
Now in a brand new building, Costa Rica’s Jade Museum is located on Avenida Central and Calle 13. It’s architects designed the building to resemble a big block of jade.
If you have children with you, there are all kinds of interactive displays throughout the Museum that will keep them interested. Some are hands-on “games.” Some are presentations on computer screens. But perhaps the most creative is a “sandbox.” Here, children are given archaeologist’s brushes which they use to uncover buried artifacts, and . . . . yes, a human skeleton.
The “jade era” was roughly from 600 BC to 500 AD, just over 1,000 years. No one quite knows why, but the use of jade for adornments and for religious figurines quickly came to an end. At that time, the attention of the tribal craftsmen turned to gold, a substance that could be collected from the rivers of this region.
By the time the Spanish arrived in the early 1500’s, jade was a forgotten part of the distant past, and gold had taken its place. Of course, that is why the early explorers named this area the Rich Coast; Costa Rica.
The new Jade Museum focuses on life during that forgotten part of history, in the region that would, centuries later, be called Costa Rica. And today, here in this very special place in Downtown San José, you can get a small glimpse of life during this ancient time.
A sandbox . . . . really. Children are introduced to archaeology by “discovering” artifacts, and a skeleton.
The Jade Museum is one of the extraordinary treasures of Costa Rica, and is a “Must See” location for Ticos and for visitors alike. It is truly a world-class museum.
The new Jade Museum is located on the corner of Avenida Central and Calle 13. That puts it just across the plaza from the National Museum. The hours are Monday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed Christmas Day and New Years Day.
Admission in U.S. currency is: $15 for adult non-residents, and $5 for non-resident students. $5 for adult Costa Rican citizens and residents, Costa Rican students are free. There are special group rates available for groups over 50 people. (To arrange for group rates call 2521-6610.)
There are audio tapes available to self guide you around the museum. You should plan to spend at least two hours at the Jade Museum, but quite honestly, you could easily spend all day.
If you are going to be in San Jose in December, the Jade Museum is planning many events for the holiday season, including concerts, plays, and guest speakers. To learn about those events, call 2521-6610.
I would like to give a warm thank you to Adriana Guzmán, a public relations specialist for the Jade Museum; and to Sergio Garcia an archaeologist for the Museum. They spent over 2 hours of their very busy day with me, to show me around and to help me appreciate the new Jade Museum.
Public Relations officer Adriana Guzmán, and archaeologist Sergio Garcia are part of the professional staff at Costa Rica’s new Jade Museum.
And finally, a thank you to David Eminente, for his help in introducing me to management of the Museum. David is the owner of the coffee shop on the ground floor of the Museum, which features wonderful coffee and pastries. He is also the owner of Sapore Trattoria, a fine Italian restaurant right around the corner from the Museum.
Michael Miller is the author of the first and only guide book that focuses on Downtown San José, Costa Rica, titled: The Real San José. Paperback copies of The Real San José are available at the office of the Association of Residents of Costa Rica and at restaurant Sapore Trattoria. An electronic version is available at Amazon/Kindle.
Click here: The Real San José. You can see additional stories that Michael has written about Downtown San José at his website, by clicking here: Website TheRealSanJose
QCOSTARICA – With magma rising to one kilometre from the surface, volcanologist Raul Mora says “it is very possible that the Turrilaba may have eruptions of greater magnitude.
The expert believes that the volcano may see greater activity – stronger eruptions – before calming down.
The University of Costa Rica (UCR) volcanologist, who had been studying the Turrialba, there is no reason to panic, the greatest effect would be a release of more ash.
Click here for a video of the interview, part of La Nacion Dialogos series, where Mora explains what is happening at the Turrilaba.
The United States on Wednesday denied having flown over Venezuelan airspace during the 17th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), as reported by Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino López.
Padrino López last Tuesday disclosed that an airplane type DH-8 crossed the Venezuelan “flight region without informing the control center” on September 16 and 17, when the NAM event was under way in Margarita Island, north-eastern Nueva Esparta state.
For its part, the US Embassy in Caracas issued a communiqué recognizing the flight.
“On 16 September, a U.S. (military/civilian) DH-8 was conducting a counter-narcotics detection and monitoring mission over Caribbean international waters. The aircraft remained in international airspace throughout its entire mission,” reads the document, as reported by private news TV channel Globovisión.
Likewise, the communiqué maintains that “any claims to the contrary are baseless and without merit. US-led counter-narcotics missions are conducted with the highest respect for the sovereignty of the nations in the region.”
Shocking images from a Venezuela hospital reveal the extent of the country’s problems, lacking cribs newborn babies are placed in cardboard boxes.
The photos are from the Domingo Guzman Lander hospital in Barcelona, in the northeastern state of Anzoategui, leaked by a doctor who asked to remained anonymous, reaching out to opposition lawmaker, Manuel Ferreira, who posted them on his Twitter account.
“The babies spent all night in the cardboard boxes until the pictures were made public,” Congressman Manuel Ferreira told Fox News Latino on Thursday morning. “After that they discharged the babies to avoid further exposure.”
Ferreira added that the babies sleeping in cardboard boxes is just one instance of the demise of health care within Venezuela’s hospitals.
“This week we had 15 cases of newborn deaths here in Anzoategui’s Razetti hospital,” he told FNL. “Mothers are not fed properly and babies are born really weak. On top of that, the shortage of medicines and vaccines creates a mortal situation that is like a death cocktail.”
Everything from common painkillers to cancer and HIV drugs have become almost impossible to find across the country and some doctors have resorted to using veterinary medications in lieu of human ones — according to the Pharmaceutical Federation, the shortage of medicines is more than 80 percent.
Some hospitals are working with just 5% of the medical equipment that they need and around 13,000 doctors (more than 20 percent of the medical staff in the country) have emigrated in the last four years. he president of the Venezuelan Medical Federation Douglas León told the Daily Mail.
Venezuelan officials reacted angrily to the images of the newborn babies and claimed that the media was manipulating images to paint the country’s hospitals in a bad light.
“We do not justify the actions taken by a professional without the authorization of the management,” Carlos Rotondaro, the country’s director of social security said. “Our hospitals have to deal with hundreds of patients despite the efforts of the media to manipulate things. Unlike many, we recognize our fault and we continue.”
The shocking images of the babies inside cardboard boxes came to light at the same time that many Latin American leaders at the United Nations General Assembly are decrying the decaying political situation in Venezuela.
“It is unavoidable that I mention our concern for the very critical political, economic and social situation that our friendly nation of Venezuela is experiencing,” Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said.
“Full-fledged democracy requires absolute respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as due process. It also requires the full guarantee of the respect of the separation of powers and checks and balances.”
Since global oil prices plunged in 2015, Venezuela hasn’t had the funds to import basic goods such as food and medicine, creating acute shortages and stirring anger toward the socialist administration of President Nicolás Maduro.
Adding to the overall misery are a drastic rise in violent crime, especially in the capital city of Caracas, rolling blackouts and widespread and often times bloody protests against the government. There have been casualties and deaths on both sides of the protests and accusations from the international community of human rights abuses and political oppression.
QBLOGS – While we stop traffic in protest over one thing or another, spend lots of money that we do not have, and make international fools out of ourselves such as the UN “Walk Out” by our president; so many places on our globe are on fire but we are not. At least not yet, anyway.
We have our share of violence, and we have our share of corruption. We also have our share of organized crime, but nothing like the reports from CBS News, ABC News and/or CNN from all other places around the world.
It reminds me of the film, “Mad Max,” when there is nothing left on earth but war, tribal killings and the deadly struggle for water, food and even gasoline.
Costa Rica is a relatively peaceful place. This is especially true compared to the anger and violent racism charges in the United States, the Middle East wars, Mexico assassins; we are, so far, unscathed by terrorism and our sense of racial discrimination is not five stars, yet we have not seen reports of killings while DWB (Driving While Black) or WWBN (Walking While Being Nicaraguan.)
However, I argue hate and anger have no national boundaries and make no doubt about it; we are living in a global community.
Sometimes I worry that Costa Rica, while stumbling over its own feet will, one day not so far in the future, experience national strikes and violence as in Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela.
Once the public protesters hit the streets and taste blood, it is hard to stop.
What might spark violence in the land of Pura Vida?
I fear it boils down to economics. If the lower income folks can’t find a way to escape poverty and middle class cannot sleep at night for worry of paying bills and finance companies (Banks) who have pushed credit with the theme that, “We will make your life just like that in the U.S. and Europe,” then the people will rebel when their money runs out and jobs are cut.
Costa Rica is in a delicate balance of contradictions and we must absolutely pay attention to the qualities of life for those who call this country “home” and those poor, downtrodden refugees who either really need political asylum or really need food on the plate.
Historically we welcome Nicaraguans who generally take jobs Ticos don’t want. But not Haitians or Africans who for years have been devastated with extreme poverty, ruthless dictatorships and finally suffered the ultimate poverty maker, a wipe out from an earthquake. They are not on the list of, “Welcome, and have a nice day.”
We, as a country that advertises peace, social justice, no military (although there are some 22 police agencies) must soon live up to the moral values being advertised of helping others in need. It is the humane thing to do and cannot be supported by those who got up and simply walked out of the United Nations during the speech of the acting president of Brazil, Temer a country, a wealthy country, having its own struggle serious internal crisis and how to manage poor.
If impeachment was possible, perhaps any of the last three presidents would qualify. But in Costa Rica we need to live with what has been elected for four years and simply grind our teeth in frustration.
View of the Turrialba volcano on September 20, 2016 in Cartago, 46 km from San Jose.
The Costa Rican authorities suspended operations at the country's main airport Monday after the nearby Turrialba volcano erupted, sending a thick ash cloud into the sky. Turrialba erupted twice Monday, first at dawn and again just before noon. The second eruption sent an ash cloud 4,000 meters / AFP / Ezequiel Becerra (Photo credit should read EZEQUIEL BECERRA/AFP/Getty Images)
View of the Turrialba volcano on September 20, 2016 in Cartago, 46 km from San Jose.
QCOSTARICA – Since Monday the Turrialba volcano had over 20 significant eruptions, spewing ash and gas up to 4,000 metres (4 kilometres) above the crater, that ended up closing the country’s main airport for almost 24 hours.
The ash plume this Friday morning was small in comparison to the images and videos of the last several days.
The volcano, located some 35 kilometres east of San Jose, woke up in 2010. Since it has been hot and cold, that is with relatively little activity and then periods of intense eruptions and emanations of ash, gases and incandescent material.
The eruptions this week started in the small hours of Monday, September 19, with several ‘important’ eruptions, that combined with strong winds blowing west, forced the closure of the San Jose airport shortly after noon on Monday.
Airport operations were at a halt. An attempt to re-open the airport lasted only 30 minutes. On Tuesday morning, September 20, the airport continued closed with updates that it would first re-open at 6:00am, then 8:00am and 11:00am. Finally, airport operations resumed shortly before noon. But by that time dozens of flights had been cancelled or diverted, flights at the San Jose airport were grounded, thousands of passengers stranded. In total, more than 12,000 people were directly affected.
By Tuesday afternoon the volcano had calmed down some, continuing with eruptions, but nothing violent or concerning.
Thursday morning, September 22, the volcano blew its stack again, spewing ash and gas to 3.000 metres above the crater. Prevailing winds were mainly to the north and then changed direction to the east, sparing the San Jose airport.
Although airport operations resumed, the San Jose airport website with a green notice that all was clear, few flights were coming in and out on Thursday, following what as described by a Q reader as a “mad house” of passengers on Wednesday.
The major concern this morning is the avalanche of ash – almost like snow – off the volcano wall into the Toro Amarillo river, that is space gray. Ash is up to three times dense as ice or snow, a little ash accumulation adds up real fast.
For us in Costa Rica we have learned to live with the rumblings of this colossus. Although it may be “big” news internationally, in Costa Rica we take it with normality, concerning ourselves more with the real big problem of daily traffic congestion in San Jose.
Keep tuned to the Q for the latest news on the Turrialba volcano.
Use the comments section below or post to our official Facebook page your experience with the Turrialba. We would love to hear from you.
Davide Strecket, known as "Cuba Dave" to his followers, faces up to 12 years in prison for promoting Costa Rica a sex tourism destination. Photo from Cubadave.com
David Strecker, known as “Cuba Dave” to his followers, faces up to 12 years in prison for promoting Costa Rica a sex tourism destination. Photo from Cubadave.com
QCOSTARICA – The “World’s Most Famous Sex Tourist”, David Strecker, known by his followers as “Cuba Dave”, will have his day in court in November.
Strecker faces up to 12 years in prison on three charges that include promoting the Costa Rica as an easy destination for commercial sexual exploitation.
Strecker is being called the “World’s Most Famous Sex Tourist” by VICE.com, in an article published September 14, 2016.
Strecker was detained at the San Jose airport on September 4, 2015. Thinking he was only having to answer a few questions before he could board his flight home to Florida. Strecker never made his flight home, rather, he’s been behind bars ever since.
Costa Rica, as many other countries, likes to hold foreigners facing criminal proceedings in its jails until trial.
Strecker is being charged under is part of a 2013 Human Trafficking Law that, among other things, prohibits the use of any media to promote the country as a “tourist destination accessible for the exploitation of sexual commerce or for the prostitution of persons of any sex or age.”
The prosecution claims that the blog CubaDave.com, was “created to advise the single male tourist” with the aim that “it takes advantage of the legal prostitution industry,” says VICE.
In Costa Rica, prostitution is not illegal – different from being “legal” as it is often mislabeled in the media and streets. Pimping (proxenetismo in Spanish), however, is illegal.
Strecker’s lawyer, Luis Diego Chacón, said he’s confident that the case will be dismissed in the trial set to begin November, since the sex tourism law was meant to combat organized human-trafficking groups, not bloggers.
Fernando Ferraro, a former Costa Rican justice minister who sponsored the 2013 law, told VICE that it was designed to prevent illegal dealings, like sex slaves and child sex workers. A 2016 US State Department report found that child sex tourism was a “serious problem” in the country and that it remains a common destination for trafficking victims.
“Certainly the country has to protect its image as a tourist destination,” Ferraro said. “But it’s not just a matter of image. A lot of times criminal organizations, or human traffickers, are connected to the prostitution industry,” said Ferraro.
Strecker told VICE that his website was nothing more than a travel blog created to advise the single male tourist, but prosecutors say he was purposefully promoting the country to fellow gringos to come and take advantage of the legal pay-for-sex industry. “The criminal case began after various publications were found on the internet made by the suspect in which he was apparently inviting other North Americans to visit Costa Rica, indicating that prostitution services in the country were easy to find,” a spokesperson from the prosecutor’s office told VICE via email.
Before starting his blog, Strecker told VICE he had received “hundreds of emails from tourists asking for advice on the best friendly hotels with prostitutes and safer neighbourhoods for gringos. Instead of answering each one, he used his website (blog) to give his advice.
QCOSTARICA – This has to be a first for Costa Rica, the Ministry of Public Education (MEP) ordering the singing of a foreign national anthem in public schools.
At first it was thought to be a joke, but it turns out to be true.
In a ‘circular’ dated September 15, the Ministra de Educación Publica, Sonia Marta Mora, tells school supervisors that on the last day of the month they are to play the national anthem of Nicaragua in all schools.
Minister Mora justified it by saying the act “closes the civic month alluding that it is a month of celebration of the independence of all Central America.”
The Minister’s circular was questioned on the social media “El Chamuko“, who publishes the blog “El Infierno en Costa Rica” (Hell in Costa Rica).
EL Chamuko asks, “is this circular serious?” The minister responded in the affirmative.
In the Twitter exchange between El Chamuko and Mora, the minister says “public schools celebrate Central America’s independence and cultural diversity”.
“Schools are places where Central American independence and cultural diversity is celebrated”, says Mora.
Minister Mora added that foreign school children, referring to the large Nicaraguan student population in the Costa Rica school system, should also lead to recognize their own national symbols.
But, here is the tico bull: despite the minister’s insistence that September is the month independence of not only Costa Rica, but of all Central America, school children will not be singing the hymns of the other countries in the region – Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, that along with Nicaragua and Costa Rica that celebrate their independence from Spain.
Before moving to Costa Rica, I had no idea that feeding monkeys was harmful.
Or that their main diet didn’t consist of grubbing on bananas all day.
Fortunately, the Kids Saving the Rainforest organization set me straight. Founded by two young girls, this amazing nonprofit wildlife sanctuary in Costa Rica is protecting not only the rainforest but the incredible biodiversity that lives in it as well.
After taking a tour of their wildlife sanctuary and partnering with them on our trips to Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica, I discovered their 10 reasons we shouldn’t feed the monkeys and had to share.
As the President of the foundation, Jen Rice, puts it: “You might find feeding the monkeys (and other wild animals) to be a thrilling experience, but you are not doing the monkeys a favor. In fact, you are actually harming them.”
1. Monkeys are highly susceptible to diseases from human hands
Monkeys can actually die from bacteria transferred by your hand.
Since monkeys live in a very different environment than us, they are exposed to different types of bacteria. If they’re introduced to a foreign bacteria, such as something that could have come from your hands, they may not have the proper defense system to fight it off and could be more susceptible to illness.
Therefore, if you get the amazing opportunity to hang out with monkeys, treat the situation much like a museum: look, but don’t touch.
2. Migration to human-populated areas to be fed increases the risk of dog attacks and road accidents
Intuitively, monkeys have an understanding of what is safe in their natural environment. When they move outside of this environment, they are faced with dangers they are not equipped for.
It’s like raising a kitten in your apartment for years and then one day releasing it into the jungle. The domesticated cat is going to have a lot of difficulty adjusting to the wild, just as a wild monkey is going to face unknown dangers in our modern world.
When monkeys are fed by humans in more populated areas, they approach humans and suddenly become very susceptible to foreign dangers in these novel environments.
Like dog attacks. And road accidents.
3. Irregular feeding leads to an aggressive behavior towards humans and other species
If a monkey receives food from a human they assume the next time they see a person with food they are going to get some.
If they don’t the result could look something like this:
Keep your food to yourself and let’s not induce aggressive behavior with our monkey friends.
4. Contrary to the stereotype, bananas are not the preferred food of monkeys in the wild
It turns out, bananas are native only to Australia & South Asia so they never existed in any other country on Earth before humans started to farm them.
I know, mind blown, right?
Because of this, monkeys in Central America do not even have the proper digestive system to process these foreign foods–especially if they’re not wild bananas since farmed ones contain pesticides.
Lastly, there is a lot of sugar in bananas (it’s why they like them so much) which can lead monkeys to have serious dental problems and even diabetes (yes, monkeys can get diabetes too).
5. Feeding creates a dangerous dependency on humans that diminishes the monkeys’ survival abilities
Every day a monkey is dependent on a human for food, they diminish their ability to naturally find it in the wild.
As this continues, it becomes very dangerous for the monkey to survive on its own. By feeding the monkeys, we are literally robbing them of their survival skills and increasing the likelihood they will won’t live as long.
So that banana isn’t helping them. It’s hurting them.
6. Feeding interferes with the monkeys’ natural habits and upsets the balance of their lifestyle
The natural diet and lifestyle of monkeys is centered around eating wild fruits, seeds, small animals, and insects.
If we disrupt this process by feeding them other food, it can negatively impact their daily lifestyle and how they naturally interact with their environment.
This isn’t good for obvious reasons, but there are also unknown negative side affects this may cause in the complex web that is our ecology within the animal kingdom.
7. Contact with humans facilitates poaching and the trade in illegal wildlife
Believe it or not, there are people who will actually capture and poach monkeys for financial gain and when a monkey does not have a natural fear for humans, it is more likely they will be captured by a poacher compared to a monkey who retains their instinctive caution of human beings.
In fact, Kids Saving the Rainforest won’t even release monkeys from their sanctuary back into the wild if they have no fear of humans because of the danger it imposes on the monkey.
Unfortunately, the more contact monkeys have with humans, the more it decreases their ability to survive in the jungle.
8. Pregnant females who are fed nothing but bananas during their pregnancy will not give birth to healthy infants.
If monkeys become solely dependent for food via humans, it can have dangerous consequences.
Since bananas aren’t a regular part of their diet, if they’re only fed bananas during their pregancy, the babies will be malnourished, or never develop to term, and even die before birth.
9. Monkeys need to travel an average of 17 kilometers each day to be in good physical condition
Unlike humans, monkeys aren’t going to work out for the sake of staying in shape. If they know that delicious food is readily available in a safe location, they are going to travel there and stay.
This can be extremely harmful for monkeys since it is essential for them to hunt and forage for food naturally so they can stay in shape physically.
10. Not only do we pass on diseases to animals when we feed them by hand, but they can pass diseases to us as well
The monkeys do not realize any of this but now YOU do.
Don’t facilitate the extinction of one of Nature’s most amazing creatures for your own pleasure or financial gain.
Please help save the monkeys by reporting anyone feeding the monkeys: 506-2777-2592.
If you are feeding the monkeys, you now know why you should stop. If you don’t stop we owe it to the monkeys to publish your name with the local media.
The Turrialba this Thursday morning. Photo courtesy RSN
The Turrialba this Thursday morning. Photo courtesy RSN
(QCOSTARICA) An early Thursday morning eruption of the Turrialba volcano may mean a repeat of Monday and Tuesday, as ash and gas reaching a height of 2,000 metres (2 kilometres) spreads north and west through the Central Valley.
The eruption occurred at 3:25am.
The intensity continued for more than three hours, reducing around 6:20am, says the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica (Ovsicori) and the Red Sismológica Nacional (RSN).
During this period, the colossus has spewed ash, gases and steam, as well as some incandescent blocks. Mauricio Mora, of the RSN, said that the wind direction has been variable, according to the Instituto Meteorológico Naciona (IMN) – national weather service – weather station but a scattering of ash to north is occurring.
For now the Braulio Carrillo and Poas national parts and the area of Carrizal de Alajuela (south of the Poas) have been mostly affected, but winds could change direction at any moment.
For now, airport operations at the Juan Santamaria (San Jose) international has not been affected.
The Turrialba resumed activity on September 13 after almost a month of relative calm, culminating in a major eruption that started in the small hours of Monday morning and continued to Tuesday morning. In that event the winds blew west, affecting for almost 24 hours operations of the international airport, where dozens of flights cancelled or delayed, affecting more than 12,000 passengers.
(QCOSTARICA) The Constitutional Court (Sala Constitucional or Sala IV) has declared unconstitutional for being “disproportional” the fines in the draft bill against animal abuse, “Ley de Bienestar Animal”.
The Court said “reasonablenessand proportionality” were violated, specifically articles 279 bis, 279 ter and 405 bis.
Article 279 bis calls for a prison sentence for cruelty, including the organization and execution of fights between animals, perform sexual acts with them, or for cutting or damaging organs or limbs for purposes other than research. As to 279 ter, it is the definition of death of animals as an offense, when done willfully, directly or through another person. In 405 bis, it is where sanctions of 20 to 50 days imprisonment for those who perform acts of animal abuse or abandon them, placing their lives at risk.
The Court’s unanimous decision was announced on Wednesday (Sept 21) and reported to the Legislature by Magistrate Nancy Hernandez.
The draft bill also imposes monetary fines, from one to two base (minimum) salaries for cruelty to animals that includes causing physical discomfort and pain, not providing treatment for disease, malnutrition and dehydration, among others.
The draft bill was approved in first debate on July 26, with 50 legislators in favour and four against. The draft bill was then sent to the Constitutional Court for analysis before submitted to second and final vote.
With the Constitutional Court ruling, the draft bill is now returned to the Legislature, to be analyzed by the Committee on Affairs of Constitutionality, before it can be re-submitted to debate and vote before it can become into law.
Some websites this morning published very ambiguous headlines, leading the reader to believe the Court struck down the draft law in its entirety. In reality, if and once the penalties are adjusted, the law could take effect !!
By Wilberth Villalobos Castrillo, Vozdeguanacaste – In the shade of a guava tree, inmate Rodrigo Jiménez sits on a plastic bucket and tells me how 30 years ago he decided to become a landscaper.
It’s 9 a.m. on a Tuesday in August and we’re at Liberia’s Center for Institutional Attention (CAI), also known as the Calle Real prison. We’re sitting outdoors, in a vast garden tended to by Jiménez and his helpers.
Sitting here, the only reminder that freedom remains on the other side is a harsh perimeter wall blanketed by razor wire. The images of overcrowding broadcast by news outlets at other correctional facilities in the country don’t reflect the reality here, and actually seem to contradict it.
Foto by Ariana Crespo
This is the third least populated prison in Costa Rica, with an overcrowding rate just under 6 percent. That statistic is noticeable: As I walk around the facilities, I see paved roads and green areas with heliconias, palms, fruit trees and rose bushes.
“What happened here?” I ask José Mario Coronado, the prison’s director, who in September will have completed 33 years on the job. In all of Central America, Coronado is longest-serving correctional facility director in terms of consecutive years served.
His answer is concise, but profound: “Humanizamos los espacios” – “We humanize the spaces.”
It was he who suggested Rodrigo Jiménez create green areas here, an idea born from the prison’s overall philosophy.
Although there are maximum security cell blocks to house the most dangerous inmates, such as D1 and D2, the general practice is to allow the more than 900 inmates to practice sports, small-scale farming, craftwork – including the use of sharp tools – and studying, all accompanied by the natural sunlight.
A Different Landscape
Behind the razor wire, there is a story of pain that Rodrigo Jiménez prefers not to tell, and that has left at least one victim’s life damaged. But inside these prison walls, there is a different story, one of light, in which this same man has brought joy to hundreds of inmates.
Jiménez, who has served 16 months so far, is a landscaper by trade, and all of the prison’s gardens reflect his trademark skill.
“When don José Mario first suggested the project, I sketched out a design of the spaces to work with, as well as the nurseries. Later we taught the others to prune and graft plants. We gave them technical training on how to maintain a garden.”
The job required measuring step-by-step every single street and space that would house plants and trees. Later, he drafted a layout, selected land and plants, and began to grow his vision.
To date he’s produced 35 gardens in 12 areas of the prison and a nursery where inmates can sell plants to visitors for $1-2. Income is used for expenses inside, such as at prison pulperías, or small stores.
Foto by Ariana Crespo
He says the work has helped him grow as a professional, but it also has taught him humility. Before he was sent here, Jiménez was accustomed to giving the orders and being the boss at his company.
“I hadn’t touched a shovel in more than 30 years,” he said. Now, he has to work with his hands like everyone else.
It is, however, a liberty with limits: As Jiménez tells us his story, the head of prison security, Roger López, keeps close watch. López later tells me about the stress and tension he experienced at other prisons, quite unlike the calm he feels at Calle Real.
“A few months ago I worked at La Reforma (Costa Rica’s sprawling prison north of the capital) and the environment there was very tense. Inmates and guards are very stressed, and that generates a lot of friction and misunderstandings. It’s completely different here,” López said.
Exporting Green
Jiménez’s work hasn’t gone unnoticed elsewhere in the country. José Mario Coronado said other prison directors now want to create their own green spaces to help make them more humane. Coronado, who says he is a promoter of the humanization of prisons and is an adviser to the Justice and Peace Ministry, plans to extend the idea to all of the country’s correctional facilities.
Foto by Ariana Crespo
He will start by sending the landscaper to the San Rafael de Alajuela CAI and the Liberia Semi-Institutional Correctional Center to train other inmates and produce similar designs for gardens with native plants. His aspiration is for inmates to be rehabilitated, instead of adopting worse behaviors when they leave, and helping them envision a new, different life in the future.
At noon, I catch up with Jiménez again, who is accompanied by five shiny foreheads covered in sweat from gardening.
The gardens not only have changed the scenery at Liberia’s CIA, they have given new meaning to the lives of inmates here. They have provided an incentive for inmates to turn their lives and behavior around. And in so doing, the punishment and pain become a little more tolerable.
(QTRAVEL) The next time you fly to Costa Rica or any other international destination, here’s a short list of of items you should and most important three things NOT to bring on a flight.
Headphones (Noise Cancelling Even Better)
Airplanes are loud. Good noise cancelling headphones can cut the noise down significantly, adding to a more relaxing flight. They won’t help with your loud neighbour (person sitting next to you, or behind or ahead or even acrying baby. Nor are all noise cancelling headphones the same. Earbuds (those small earphones used with mobile phones and tablets) help, but nothing like a set of over the ear headphones.
USB cable / USB battery pack
Many new planes have USB plugs at every seat, but don’t hand out cables. Also, these plugs don’t charge your phone or tablet like your computer USB plug does. The cable should be long enough for a comfortable use.
Typically phones and tablets today have long battery life, that is true if you keep your screen time to a minimum, like listening to music. A USB battery pack to externally charge your device, especially on long-haul flights, will keep you plugged in to your videos and music.
Camera (or your phone or tablet)
Most smartphones and tablets have a camera. I have yet to see one not. So why not put it to use. Your smartphone or tablet can be more than music, games and videos, especially if you’re a window seat. Selfie time.
Warm Clothing
Yes, you are heading to a warm climate. And possibly you are leaving from a warm climate. But airplanes can get cold, especially at night. An extra layer of clothing will make your flight comfortable. For me, I have my favourite (had to get a new one after 20 years) jacket that I wear on every flight. Some prefer a sweater, a pull over of button up (easier to get on and off in your cramped economy seat).
Travel Pillow & Eyemask (both optional)
Me, I can sleep anywhere, anytime when I am tired. No need for an eyemask and travel pillows are too bulky to carry around. Thus the “optional”. If you need neck support, the pillow is a must.
If you can’t sleep with the light, then an eyemask is must. Noise? See about earphones. Me, I try not to sleep the night before or sleep as little as possible, depending on the hours I will be up in the air. I also take afternoon or evening flights if possible, guaranteeing me sleep. Amazing how fast time passes by.
Pen, Passport and Address where you’re staying
Costa Rica, as most countries require you to fill out a short form with some basic info. Finding a pen to write the information can be impossible, asking a flight attendant won’t help much, they almost never have spare pens. Life in the air becomes easier to have a pen. Great also to jot down those great ideas.
Having your passport handy, not in the bin above, helps in getting that passort number and expiry date. Unless you are one of those who insists on using a part of their brain to remember things you can look up. And the address where you will be staying in case you are asked. Some places demand you to have a place to stay and contact info. If staying at a hotel, jot down (put the piece of paper in your passport) the name of the hotel, location and phone number. If staying with friends, a general idea of where you will be staying and a contact number.
Things you SHOULD NOT have with you
Fruit (and often nuts and seeds), Meats and Vegetables
This might vary a bit per country, but more often than not, this is a no-no. Costa Rica is one of the countries that does not allow fresh fruits, meats and vegetables. You may get away with it if they vacuum packed.
I have never had a problem bringing in my sopresatas into Costa Rica, always vacuum packed and checked in luggage, always in small quantities, more more than 2kg each pack and always prepared to dump them.
Up to now, I have come into the country with prosciutto, capicollo and parmiggiano (all Italian staples) in vacuum packed. I keep the items to small quantities (under 2 kg) for each. But be prepared to dump them.
Water/Liquids
If you haven’t flown in a while, you can’t bring water or containers of any liquid through security. Some airports will allow liquids under 100ml, some not more than 30ml and must be in a zip lock bag.
Anything that smells
This is a big one, not for you, but for me and everyone else on the fligth. Seriously. This means everything smells. You know what they are even though you are used to the smell, grew up with the smell, it is normal. For you. But not for me and everyone else of your fellow passengers.
This includes stinky feet. Where closed shoes and don’t take them off. Under any circumstances. Flip flops are great for the beach, but not so for sitting next to me, subjecting me to your smelly feet. Hey, we can have contest. Up to it?
Please take a shower befor your flight, including washing your hair. And for the sake of everyone, don’t overdo the perfumer/cologne. We are going to be together in a nearly-sealed tube for hours. And I don’t have my noseplugs.
This is all for me sitting next to you (and all the other passengers on the flight). This isn’t your living room.
Ok, gotta go now, take a shower and rush to the airport!
Inspired by an article by Geoffrey Morrison posted on Forbes.com
(QCOMMUNITY) A Non-Partisan absentee voter registration drive for U.S. citizens living in or visiting Costa Rica during the election will be on Saturday September 24, in San Jose at Tin Jo restaurant.
People living in/voting from abroad MUST register with EACH Federal Election. So come fill out your Absentee Registration Form and/or just come to enjoy our After Concert & Optional Tin Jo Lunch Special!!
Write-in ballots will also be available.
SATURDAY – September 24 at SAN JOSE – Tin Jo Restaurant
AT LEAST VOTING FOR CONGRESS IS CRUCIAL!!!!
Even if you’re not happy with the presidential choices & don’t want to vote you NEED to at least VOTE FOR CONGRESS!!!
It’s CRUCIAL that we get out & vote for CONGRESS as we’ve seen how a heavy one-sided Congress can block a president’s agenda!!
Are you receiving or plan to receive Social Security, Medicare, Disability, Veterans Benefits & other things – they ARE SERIOUSLY being threatened.
Click here for more details on this fun event & to RSVP & also info on how to vote online & where to send it, additional Absentee Voter Registration drives around CR, upcoming DACR meetings, DACR & more!
And check back to the Facebook page for more upcoming Voter Registration Drives around Costa Rica.
PLEASE Share this on your favourite social media!
CONTACT US:
Within Costa Rica: (506) 8-378-6679
WhatsApp#: +(506)8-378-6679
U.S.#: 1-941-312-7569
SKYPE: VallartaVicki
Dozens, at the airport, found out they were banned from leaving the country, by error.
Dozens, at the airport, found out they were banned from leaving the country, by error.
(QCOSTARICA) Anyone can find themselves not being able to leave the country … by error. Dozens have found themselves in this ordeal caused by a mistake in the Sistema de Obligados Alimentarios y Penal (SOAP) – family support system.
The SOAP is tied in to the immigration service – Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (DGME) – to stop people from leaving the country while owing on child support and/or alimony payments.
But a simple error such as in typing the name of a person can mean you could be stopped from travelling abroad (leaving the country) until the matter is cleared up.
This happened to Patricia Carrera, who last week was unable to travel to New York to celebrate her anniversary. Patricia does not have any children and had no relation with the woman who filed the complaint, yet her name appeared in the system. She was able to travel abroad only after filing, in person, a correction with the court, in this case in San Carlos.
Miguel Abarca, now 47, was banned from leaving the country for being a minor. An error in the system permitted the ban to continue since he was 13 years of age.
In another case, Miguel Abarca, now 47 years of age, was told by the immigration police that he could not leave the country for being underage. Yep, a minor. Obviously he wasn’t, it was visible there was an error. But that did not mean the he could travel.
In Abarca’s case, the impedimento de salida was placed by his father back in 1981, when he was 13. The man explains that his father, who died two years after placing the ban, while his parents were going through a nasty divorce and wanted to ensure his child was not taken from Costa Rica.
“At first they thought it was a joke. I had to explain it all and they behaved super nice and could not believe what they saw in the documents. The ban was from 1981 and it was obvious that it no longer applied,” said Abarca who added that American Airlines helped him manage the twists and turns so to he could later travel.
Abarca went through his ordeal last October, but after seeing the Carrera story he decided to contact Crhoy.com with his.
An “Impedimento de Salida” (travel ban) can also occur in cases where a parent or guardian wants to stop a minor child from leaving the country without their permission. Or in criminal cases, the courts can order a travel ban and informing the immigration service.
The immigration service is emphatic that a travel ban can only be resolved at the courts personally, their role is only one of enforcement of a court order. The DGME officers will only inform the person to which court they should be directed to normalize their legal status and obtain exit permits or request to update the information contained in the SOAP.
