Despite the crackdown by authorities and while illegal, cockfighting is still a common fixture in Costa Rica. and now attracting cockers from other parts of the continent, who travel to Costa Rica to participate in these clandestine events.
According to the Servicio Nacional de Salud Animal (SENASA) – National Antmal Health Service – so far this year, they have realized two important raids on two underground events operating in the Central Valley (San José greater area).
SENASA authorities say they were able to determine that cocks being brought in from places like Panama, Mexico, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and other Central American countries.
In the raids, authorities were able to seize 179 fighting cocks, all presumed smuggled into the country. According to Allan Sánchez, Director Regional de San José, the health conditions of the animals and the spread of diseases through the cocks is a constant concern.
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinkar/
“In the San Jeronimo de Moravia raid…we found boxes used to transport cocks illegally from Mexico. They all had logos. The reason why we see the cockpits as a major health and animal welfare concern…”, said Sánchez.
The SENASA director added that in Mexico there is a worrying highly pathogenic of avian influenza, which has killed millions of birds.
Also concerned with the brutal and illegal activity is the Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería (MAG) – Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock – and the Fuerza Publica (police), that also work to dismantle organizations involved in cockfighting. MAG officials say that some groups even provide stands for spectators.
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinkar/
Another raided cockfighting operation was in Los Diques, in Cartago, where the SENASA was able to seize 90 cocks.
Other areas identified by authorities where cockfights are held are in Desamparados and the Zona de Los Santos, two areas under close investigation. Cockfighting has also been investigated in Perez Zeledon and La Rita de Pococi.
Cockfighting has been banned in Costa Rica since 1922. However, this is an activity that takes roots in ancient culture and in Costa Rica is said to have the following of thousands, with more than 150 different groups, some of who in the last couple of years have been defending cockfights. Last year the Fighting Cock Breeders Association ran a full page ad in La Nacion.
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinkar/
In support of SENASA is the Humane Society International. “We are pleased to see the resolute efforts on the part of the Costa Rican authorities to crack down on the widespread practice of animal fighting throughout the country,” said Cynthia Dent, regional director for HSI/Latin America. “Appealing to tradition to defend these gory spectacles, where animals are forced to fight each other, often to the death, is simply unconscionable and unbecoming for a country such as Costa Rica.”
Cockfigthing In a cockfight, two roosters fight each other to the death while people place bets. Cockfighters let the birds suffer untreated injuries or throw the birds away like trash afterwards. Under normal conditions, roosters rarely ever hurt each other badly during the course of a territorial confrontation. In cockfights, however, the birds are often made to wear razor-sharp blades on their legs that can cause critical injuries such as punctured lungs, broken bones, pierced eyes and multiple lacerations to their skin.
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/reinkar/
People often bring young children to animal fights. Seeing adults relish such brutality can teach children to enjoy violence while sending the dangerous message that animal suffering is acceptable. In addition to being cruel, animal fighting often goes hand in hand with gambling, drug dealing, illegal gun sales and murder.
Legal same-sex unions in Costa Rica have taken a step closer to reality with the Desamparados Family Court acceptance an application by two men, seeking recogniition for the union and and their rights.
For the Movimiento Diversidad (Diversity Movement) this is only a first step.
The lawyer of the Movimiento, Marco Castillo, said that the application will be treated as summary judgement given that there is no established procedure for such cases. In explaining the process, Castillo said that the next step is for the parties and witnesses to be called to testify before the judge.
The expectation by Castillo and the Moviemiento Diversidad is that the judge “will rule in favour of the couple”.
Cartago Bishop, Monseñor José Francisco Ulloa, however, is confident that the Desamparados Court will reject the request. Ulloa said, “if the judge rejects the application it will create case law on the subject”.
So far, eight same-sex couples have applied for the same, the right obtained with the reforms to the Ley de la Persona Joven (Young Person Act) earlier this month.
23-year-old Miss Fabianna Granados reacts after being crowned as Miss Costa Rica 2013 in San José, on July 12, 2013.
Selected as the new Miss Costa Rica 2013, Fabbiana Granados is from Hojancha, Guanacaste. A student of business management and industrial engineering, Fabianna said she is proud to be the winner of this year’s contest.
Fabianna told reporters that a woman “should have attitude, confidence in herself, and humility; without humility you cannot do anything.”
The Miss Costa Rica 2013 prize is a new car, cash, accessories, clothing, footwear and all the support towards Miss Universe 2013.
By Christopher Howard, Live in Costa Rica blog – When renting an apartment or house in Costa Rica retirees should always have their lawyer look over the rental contract before signing it. Nevertheless there are a few things retirees should know to avoid misunderstandings and headaches down the road.
(1) The amount of the monthly rent should be stipulated in a written contract.
(2) The amount that the rent may be increased yearly if in colones.
(3) The length of the contract should be stipulated.
(4) Any contract should include the amount of the deposit.
(5) There should be a clause in the contract that states how and under what circumstances the deposit may be used. Unfortunately the deposit is not usually returned to the tenant, so many renters knowing this don’t pay the last month’s rent.
(6) Make sure you have a written contract. In the absence of one it will be difficult to prove what were terms of a verbal contract. However, in the worst case scenario rent receipts can be used to show the amount agreed to.
(7) Any contract should also specify who is responsible for repairs and improvements. Usually in a contract it says that the deposit should not be used for paying the last months rent but to cover any damage to the premises once the renter has moved. If the deposit was to be used to pay the last months rent it would not protect the landlord in the event the renter didn’t pay the final month’s rent, or cover any damages or outstanding bills for utilities.
(8) According to the Rental Law numbers 35 and 37 the renter and landlord share responsibility for the repairs of the rental. According to the law if the landlord is notified by the tenant and does nothing to repair the property within ten days, then the tenant can repair the property and charge the owner. In the case of improvements done by the renter without consulting the owner or without permission, the latter does not have to pay anything to the tenant.
By Christopher Howard, Live in Costa Rica blog – I was married to a wonderful Costa Rican woman for almost twenty years. Unfortunately she passed away about nine years ago after a long illness.
My wife was not the typical Costa Rican woman in that she kept her family at a distance. Why? Because she didn’t want them meddling in our personal life. One of the downsides of having Costa Rican relatives is that you are basically married to the whole family, thus the statement above about polygamy is partially true. Family ties are very strong here and family always comes first. It always amazes me to what lengths Costa Rican women will go to in order to look out for their children’s wellbeing.
One of the complaints of many gringos is that it is hard to form friendships with Costa Ricans. The reason is that family ties are tight here especially among poorer families. The latter are too busy trying to survive so they don’t have the time to form many friendships let alone wine and dine their acquaintances.
In some ways close family ties are admirable. On the other hand, they can be a real drag as many gringos have found out. Most often Costa Rican families look at their American in-laws as nothing more than an ATM machine. The majority of the local woman consider gringos as a means for upgrading their lifestyles.
I do know a couple of gringos who are very happy with their Costa Rican relatives despite footing the bill. Ed married a Costa Rican woman about 20 years ago and had six children with her. He loves his wife’s family dearly because he never had a real family growing up so his Costa Rica relatives give him the sense of family he never had.
Bill is another acquaintance who got involved with a Costa Rican. Bill has a good sense of humor and jokingly says, “When looking for a spouse it is best to find someone who is an orphan and without any brothers or sisters. That way one can virtually reduce the chances of problems with inlaws.”
Many single male retirees who move to Costa Rica do so with the purpose of finding a mate. If they do get involved they should be aware of what they are likely to confront.
Behind the Scenes: FIAT Body Paint Shoot
A behind-the-scenes look at pulling together one of the most complex, ambitious and beautiful body paint photos you’ve ever seen.
Once again the husband of Presidenta Laura Chinchilla, José María Rico, had to be hospitalized. This time for a blow to his arm after falling in his home, in Santa Ana,last Friday.
Rico, 78, was taken to the Hospital Metropolitano (private hospital) by Doña Laura (54), where she stood by the “first husband” as they took x-rays and ruled out any major injurty.
This was all confirmed by the Casa Presidencial, as the minister of Communications, Carlos Roverssi, explained that José María had been admitted to the medical centre, but released in less than a day.
This is not the first time Rico has given us and his wife a scare. In 2010 he required hip surgery after a fall while on a family vacationin Punta Islita, Guanacaste.
And in April 2012 he was again hospitalized following a car accident, receieving a blow to the arm.
Even though it is among the most powerful newspapers in Latin America, La Nacion has its severe critics. But no matter how it may conflict with one’s political sensibilities, one must admit — they are brutally frank about all politicians.
In a Sunday color piece, political writers Esteban Mata and Esteban Oviedo depicted Environment Minister Rene Castro as a sort of political Houdini, escaping underwater from the locked trunks of political scandal.
As secretary general of National Liberation party in 2007, he was arrested for drunk driving after smashing into two cars and attempting evade police. Yet, only two years later, he was very visible as Laura Chinchilla’s campaign manager.
After winning the election, Chinchilla appointed him as her Foreign Minister. But then came the San Juan River crisis and he was blamed for not taking a harder line. Despite a storm of criticism, the still-new President shifted him over to the Environmental and Energy Ministry.
It might have seemed that he could stay out of hot water in that post (although even there he was not loved by environmentalists). But when the Comptroller General’s office torpedoed plans for the $1.5 billion new petroleum refinery at Moin in Limon, Castro’s defense was that feasibility and profitability studies were at fault.
That cost, wrote the analysts, RECOPE president Jorge Villalobos his job — but so far, Castro hangs on. Even members of his own party have blasted his role.
Castro has been Environment Minister twice, the first time being under President Jose Maria Figueres (1994-96). He claims to have become interested in the environment when he served as deputy minister of Governmnet under President Luis Alberto Monge (1982-86).
In the latter role, he made a tour of Corcovado National Park where gold miners were working. Castro threw the miners out of the park with a great fanfare. They returned as soon as the last policeman had left the park.
During tjhe eight years after his stint with Monge, Castro followed the advice of another President, Oscar Arias, and studied at Harvard in the U.S., getting his Masters and Doctorate degrees in Environmental Economy. But, La Nacion noted, he collided with President Figueres on Castro’s plan to install another petroleum refinery, which Figueres felt contradicted a “green country’s” image.
President Chinchilla named him Foreign Minister despite the fact that he had no diplomatic experience. Longtime diplomat Carlos Roverssi, his vice minister, had many arguments with Castro. After 14 months in the job, Castro was hastily bundled off to the Environment Ministry.
It was during those 14 months that Castro overruled his deputy Roverssi and made a trip to Managua after which he told congress there would be “no problem” from Nicaragua’s plan to dredge the San Juan — which directly led to the confrontation and invasion of this country. (See previous articles.)
Will Castro survive until the end of Chinchilla’s term in May of next year? Don’t count him out.
Luis Milanés Tamayo (left) on June 20, 2008, being escorted to Costa Rica from El Salvador. Milanes was wanted by Costa Rican authorities for fraud.
Luis Milanés Tamayo (left) on June 20, 2008, being escorted to Costa Rica from El Salvador. Milanes was wanted by Costa Rican authorities for fraud. Foto Archive.
During 1999 and 2000, Savings Unlimited (also known as the “Cuban”) worked out of their luxurious offices in the Centro Colon building and received some US$46 million dollars at impossibly high interest from 2,600 investors. Then, abruptly, the office closed and investment “counselor” Luis Milanés Tamayo , now 62, disappeared.
It was an old story for Costa Rica where through the decades, starting with Latin American Bank in the 1970s, investors have lost millions of dollars to Ponzi schemes, fraud and dubious investments. The difference: Milanes is still free and stringing along the courts with empty promises to pay investors back.
The file has passed through the hands of six criminal judges, criminal magistrate Edgar Castrillo told La Nacion. But Judge Castrillo says the case is complicate by the number of victims to be paid, the demands of their lawyers, the time it has dragged on and the negotiations.
For example, Milanes (who was finally captured June 19, 2008, trying to fly out of El Salvador with a phony passport) turned over the Hotel Europa in downtown San Jose to a trust. It is valued at US$6.1 million but there have been no buyers. He rents a room there to live.
After police turned him over to the court, he offered to pay $14 million to his victims. The prosecutor did not ask for preventive prison because of the promise by Milanes to sign in with police every two weeks, to not leave the country or talk to the plaintiffs, and to post bond with various properties.
Three years after his capture, on May 23, 2011, he promised to pay $1.8 million in cash plus turning over properties valued at $12 million to a trust. So far, only three of the nine properties have been sold for just $353,500.
Tired of waiting for Milanes to keep his word, Judge Dayanna Segura gave him six months to produce the promised cash at $100,000 per month with $578,000 to have been paid by Nov,. 23, 2012. Some of his victims have complained that they have received nothing from Milanes so a hearing is invoked for October, this year, to see if he has kept his word.
Milanez offered a guarantee of payment of the $578,000 of an apartment on La Sabana valued at $70,000. But they have not been paid.
Originally 580 investors demanded their money back and one lawyer managed to get around 500 to accept a settlement deal. The other 80 were not included. They, naturally, want to be paid. Milanes, with a three year sentence hanging over his head for fraud, remains free.
Government seizes ¢300 million colones (US$600.000 dollars) from citizen who could not justify the origin of the funds
The Juzgado Contencioso Administrativo y Civil de Hacienda (Administrative Court), in Goicoechea, ruled in favour of the Fiscalía (prosecution) against a man named Soto, and ordering that ¢77 million colones and US$487.500 dollars (¢238 million colones) pass to the State, because the man was “unable to justify” the increase in his financial worth.
This is the first sentence for “capitales emergentes” (emerging capital), applying the tools of administrative law by government to pursue funds that has no lawful justification, even when criminal proceedings have not been able to establish with certainty that the funds were acquired illicitly.
The Soto case started back in June 2011 when the Fiscalia filed a complaint against Soto, a lottery vendor and resident of Hatillo on the south side of San José. Immediately the Juzgado Contencioso ordered Soto’s funds frozen, which were held in two accounts at a state bank.
The Ley contra la Delincuencia Organizada (Organized Crime Act) of 2009, authorizes the Attorney General and three other state institutions to act in cases of suspicion. According to Article 20, the Attorney General, the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas (ICD), the Minsiterio de Hacienda (Ministry of Finance) and the Contraloría General de la República (Comptroller’s office), can file “complaints” for “capitales emergentes”.
The Soto case was initially handled by the Fiscalía Adjunta de Delitos Económicos (Deputy Prosecutor for Financial Crimes) alleging money laundering. However, despite intense investigations that included the Financial Intelligence Unit of the ICD, it was not possible to determine if money laundering had taken place.
Costa Rica’s laws provides that, to prove the offence of money laundering, a crime must be established, for example, fraud, tax evasion and drug trafficking, among others. The Soto case was closed without proving any crime was committed.
The case was stalled unitl May 2013, due to several filings with the Constitutional Court by the Juzgado Contencioso Administrativo .
On July 9 said Juzgado Contencioso Administrativo ordered a forfeiture of the money in favour of the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas (ICD).
The Attorney General, Jorge Chavarria, said regarding money laundering, it is difficult here and globally, to establish criminal liability where the action is bound to prove the predicate offense, thus it is important to design new mechanisms to combat money laundering like the use of tools of administrative law, as was applied in this case.
“The tool has great relevance for addressing money laundering because, although there is no imprisonment, there is loss of all goods unrelated to legitimate sources,” said the Chavarria.
From National Geographic – Analyzing the DNA of 85 dog breeds, scientists found that genetic similarities clustered them into four broad categories. The groupings reveal how breeders have recombined ancestral stock to create new breeds; a few still carry many wolflike genes. Researchers named the groups for a distinguishing trait in the breeds dominating the clusters, though not every dog necessarily shows that trait.
Wolflike
With roots in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, these breeds are genetically closest to wolves, suggesting they are the oldest domesticated breeds.
Herders
Familiar herding breeds such as the Shetland sheepdog are joined by breeds never known for herding: the greyhound, pug, and borzoi. This suggests those breeds either were used in the creation of classic herding dogs or descended from them.
Hunters
Most in this group were developed in recent centuries as hunting dogs. While the pharaoh hound and Ibizan hound are said to descend from dogs seen on ancient Egyptian tombs, their placement here suggests they are re-creations bred to resemble ancient breeds.
Mastifflike
The German shepherd’s appearance in this cluster, anchored by the mastiff, bulldog, and boxer, likely reflects its breeding as a military and police dog.
The length of the colored bars in a breed’s genetic profile shows
how much of the dog’s DNA falls into each category.
Here, Nokia pairs an ultralarge camera sensor with the company’s PureView image-processing software, finally bringing us the smartphone we hoped the Lumia 920 and its many variants would be.
Camera geeks looking for the nitty-gritty will find six-lens Carl Zeiss optics (as in the recently unveiled Lumia 925), which also takes on wide angles.
Focus on camera misses the big picture. The Finnish phone maker released its remarkable Lumia 1020 phone with a 41-megapixel camera – but it’s still missing native apps for low-quality Instagram, Vine and Snapchat
It has high-resolution 3x zoom, autofocus (you can manually focus, too), and a dual-flash system. A smaller LED flash complements the larger Xenon flash — a design we saw in Verizon’s Lumia 928 — and the entire shooter captures 1080p HD video at a rate of 30 frames per second.ou can sum up Nokia’s just-unveiled Lumia 1020 in three words: 41, megapixel, camera.
Teased and leaked to death up to the very last minute before the big reveal, the Lumia 1020’s 41-megapixel shooter is what makes Nokia’s next marquee Windows phone, and what gives hardware jockeys a reason to salivate.
The Windows Phone 8 device will sell in the U.S. exclusively at AT&T for a hefty $299.99 with two-year contract. Preorders begin July 16, with the Lumia 1020 becoming available online and in stores July 26. (The Lumia 1020 will also sell globally.)
It’s all about the camera
Make no mistake about it: the Lumia 1020’s stunningly enormous image resolution is this smartphone’s single killer feature and sole reason for being. Yep, the 1020 puts the mega back in megapixels.
Ball bearings surrounding the lens promise image stabilization, which CEO Stephen Elop demonstrated onstage with photos he took on a wobbly boat. We suspect that ball bearings replaced the stabilizing springs found in the Lumia 920 to conserve space and keep the camera mount profile as low as possible.
Nokia has also made strides — and had successes — with its low-light photos. In fact, the Lumia 928’s camera has the best low-light quality of any phone’s that I’ve seen, with the iPhone 5 a close second in my photo tests. Nokia aims for even more improved low-light performance from its Lumia 1020.
Nokia’s Pro Camera settings boast controls that let shutterbugs and serious photographers easily navigate their options on the 41-megapixel beast, including manual exposure settings and long exposure times. The camera app also includes a tutorial, which sounds helpful for newbies wanting to learn how to use their high-octane phone, though we’ll have to wait and see what the phone can teach us.
Couple that with Windows Phone camera apps, called lenses, that layer on additional settings you won’t find in the native camera app, and you have an interesting camera story that — Nokia hopes — will run Samsung’s 16-megapixel Galaxy S4 Zoom smartphone camera into the ground.
We got a chance to try out the Lumia 1020’s camera app, which felt lively when fired up, taking photos quickly. Manipulating the Nokia’s graphical camera settings was also intuitive once we got the hang of it. We did notice that the phone’s fancy Map app took a while to launch and stuttered a bit when we tried the “Here” augmented-reality function.
Forty-one megapixels amounts to a lot of captured information, more than most people can and will really use, but — as with the Symbian-birthed Nokia 808 PureView before it — the Lumia 1020’s higher megapixel count translates into a 5-megapixel image with lossless zooming for higher-quality cropped photos.
In the Lumia 1020, Nokia is extending this “oversampling” method to video as well, which could mean some really high-fidelity HD captures when you zoom in. It isn’t just about images with Nokia. Audio technology that Nokia calls “rich recording” promises to capture clear, distortion-free sound even in loud surroundings.
Design and specs
Of course, the matte white, black, or yellow Lumia 1020 is more than just a camera. Toss the large, round shooter module aside and it looks a lot like the Lumia 920 phones, both in terms of the squared corners and rounded spines, and also its guts.
Close up, there are a few differences between the two handsets. When we got a chance to handle the new Lumia 1020 in the flesh, the phone certainly impressed with its build quality and premium feel. Like its predecessor’s, the 1020’s chassis is a unibody piece molded from high-quality polycarbonate. It also sports similar smoothly rounded edges and a slightly curved back, making it comfortable to hold.
The Lumia 1020 is slightly thinner and lighter than the Lumia 920; that’s no mean feat considering the enormous camera. The back of the 1020 also uses a soft-touch coating that feels less slippery than the 920’s often-glossy back surface.
The screen on this 4G LTE smartphone has the same familiar 4.5-inch AMOLED PureMotion HD+ display with a 1,280×768-pixel HD display and a 16:9 aspect ratio. Nokia’s Clear Black filter lies on top for cutting down outdoor glare. As with the new guard of Lumia phones, this 1020 has an ultrasensitive touch screen that you can operate with your fingernail or gloved hand; the 1020 is new enough to get Gorilla Glass 3 as its topper.
Above the display, a 1.2-megapixel wide-angle front-facing camera sits at the ready to capture shots and HD video.
The 1020 runs on a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, and has 32GB of internal memory, supplemented by 7GB of SkyDrive cloud storage, courtesy of Microsoft. The phone is sealed in typical high-end Lumia fashion, so there’s no expandable memory, though 32GB is a healthy helping.
Nokia has managed to keep the phone fairly thin, coming in at 0.4 inch like the rest of the Lumia line.
Although the Lumia 1020 will not come with wireless charging built in, you can buy an aftermarket charging cover. You can also pick up a camera grip made for the phone for $79.
Turning up the heat
With its 41-megapixel camera, Nokia’s Lumia 1020 absolutely brings the wow factor, proving that Nokia can innovate in its own way, that it is a mobile force to be reckoned with.
Nokia has certainly made good on its promise to produce Windows Phone devices at every price point. Yet with the Lumia 1020 being unveiled so soon after the Lumia 925 global flagship and Verizon’s 928 variant, Nokia is now out and out flooding the market.
Still, it’s hard not to get excited about a modern smartphone powerful enough to replace your point-and-shoot, and possibly even your dSLR. The $300 asking price is a high one; we haven’t seen costs like this for some years. However, Nokia is betting on folks seeing the value of a true two-in-one device and making an investment.
I’d bet on those prices certainly coming down as the months progress, particularly around the holiday season. But before then, we’ll have plenty of time to see just how this PureView camera handles.
There’s no doubt about it: photographs taken with Nokia’s new Lumia 1020 device are enormously impressive if you print them out onto a large-format high-quality print measuring, say, 1.3m wide by a metre deep. Here at Pier 42, where the launch took place earlier on Thursday, there are a number of prints showing photos taken in the past few days here in New York.
One of the most striking (not online yet, but coming at Nokia’s press site) shows a view towards the apartments overlooking Central Park. The lines of the apartments are razor-sharp; the grass in Central Park is vigorously green; the pools of water are pellucid blue. Viewing it online doesn’t really do the 41-megapixel shot justice.
Along with the other dozen shots hanging in a sort of gallery, you need to see it published professionally to comprehend it. And that’s before you learn that it was taken from a helicopter. “That’s a challenge for most smartphones,” said one of Nokia’s engineers, who has worked on the device for quite some time. “But we’ve got optical image stabilisation…” He wasn’t too fazed at the specifications leaking out ahead of the official announcement. “41 megapixels is just a number,” he said. “That doesn’t tell you what it’s like to look at.”
Yet here’s a strange thing: if Nokia were to release the 1020 as a stand-alone camera, stripping out the mobile phone element, it would certainly bomb. The compact camera market “is in free fall”, to quote the writer from Amateur Photographer (who is also out here as a guest of Nokia). People have given up buying compact cameras because they’re digital, just like their smartphones, and take nice pictures, just like their smartphones, but they don’t have the capability to send their pictures to social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine or Snapchat. And the cameras on smartphones are generally “good enough” – just as MP3-quality sound has generally been found to be “good enough” by the vast majority of buyers.
By making the Lumia 1020 a superlative camera that has a phone attached, Nokia seems to be going after a very specific segment of the market: “prosumers” who want to take really good photos and have the connectivity that a smartphone provides. It’s not, however, going to attract the sort of people who want to take a picture and upload it to the main social networks.
Price of success
For one thing, there’s the price. The Lumia 1020 will cost $299 upfront for the basic 32GB model plus the cost of a contract from AT&T in the US; for comparison, the AT&T iPhone 5 is $199 for the base 16GB model before the contract. (Update: the 32GB iPhone costs $399, so the price is the same if you equalise those specifications. However there isn’t a 16GB Lumia 1020, which means price-conscious buyers might stop at the 16GB iPhone.) For another, there’s the fact that it’s Windows Phone – which still doesn’t have native apps for Vine, Instagram or Snapchat. Chief executive Stephen Elop points out that there are third-party apps which will do the posting to Instagram (via Hipstamatic, a company which went through its own near-death experience last August when it laid off all but one of its staff). You can post to Instagram via Hipstamatic, and then read Instagram via an app called Instance. And there’s a Snapchat-compatible app.
Yet none of this is like having the native apps. And the question of whether ordinary people will really pay top whack for a fantastic camera is already answered by the compact camera market; and of whether they’ll pay top whack for a top-end smartphone seems increasingly to be “no” as sales forecasts for the Samsung Galaxy S4 are revised down, along with those for the iPhone.
So what is the purpose of the Lumia 1020? I think it’s to show off a top-end capability that Nokia can then push down to its lower-end phones – rather as Samsung does with the Galaxy S range, where the top-end phone is the flag carrier for the cheaper range that follows it.
People who appreciate high-quality photography (in terms of pixels captured) tend to assume that everyone will want just the same, if only they’re shown the chance to get it. But this is rather like the argument that hi-fi manufacturers fooled themselves with a decade or so ago, thinking that by offering “24-bit” audio quality on Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio they would tempt people away from lo-fi MP3 listening.
Sound argument
The reality is that most people listen to music in very low quality from car radios, small bookshelf speakers, lousy headphones. MP3s weren’t, and aren’t, much worse – sometimes, better – than what they used to get. And you have to have ridiculously good hearing to distinguish the difference in 24-bit sound (and even that might be imaginary). SACD and DVD-Audio died like dogs in a ditch.
Now, we’re much better at distinguishing differences in quality in photos, particularly when they’re printed out; but viewed on a 5in smartphone screen or even a standard laptop screen, the lack of quality in most of the photos we take isn’t visible. Nokia’s best hope may be that screen technology improves so rapidly that the difference in picture quality becomes more visible. For the meantime, though, it will be the cheaper Lumias – the 520 and 610 particularly – which will be the bedrock of its sales. (In fact, as I wrote this article, Kantar WorldPanel ComTech tweeted that the Lumia 520 had helped Nokia to reach its highest smartphone share in the UK since April 2011 – back in the days when Nokia still sold Symbian. It didn’t however specify how high that is.)
Even then, what Stephen Elop really needs more than Lumias with fantastic cameras is for Vine, Snapchat and Instagram to write native apps for the Windows Phone platform. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be in his hands.
Changeover begins Monday and continues for the next 30 months
Costs is ¢15.000 for each set of plates
No word on what will be be done with old plates
Here is a twist to the license plate changover that begins on Monday, what happens if a vehicle owner does not or refuses to switch to the new, more secure plates?
As of today, both the Registro Nacional (National Registry) and the Dirección de Policía de Tránsito (Traffic Police) have yet to define the type of penaly to be applied.
The director of the National Registry, Dagobert Sibaua, confirmed that the changeover begins next week (Monday July 15) for all the “old” license plates ending 1, three months later for plates ending in 2 and so on…every three month a new number, until the last quarter in 2015 with the number 0.
Under this plan, come October all vehicles ending with the number 1 must have the “new” plates. But what happens if a traffic official stops a vehicle still with the old plates?
Sibaja says the penalty will be based on the established traffic law (ley de Transito). However, the Ministerio de Obras Publicas y Transportes (MOPT) has yet to determine which article (of law) applies and what the penalty/fine would be.
According to the director of the traffic police, German Marín, the penalty can be established by several mechanisms. “We are looking forward to the word of the Registro, because they are in charge of the process (changeover)”, said Marín.
In other words, the director of traffic has no answer.
Approximately 250.000 vehicles have already made the switch voluntarily, either by requesting the new plates or replacing damaged or lost plates. Still to change their plates are more than 1 million vehicles.
The cost for the changeover is ¢15.000 colones for each set of plates.
Editor’s note: We have yet to get a response from the Registro of any plans to recycle the old plates. In the changeover there will more than 2 million single metal plates that will no longer be attached to vehicles. What will be of them?
Two persons were detained suspected of forming a network trafficking women from other countries to work as prostitutes in Costa Rica.
The detention came Thursday with the raid on a Liberia house known as “Casa Rosada” by the La Unidad de Investigación de la Policía de Migración (immigration police).
At least 15 women, the majority from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, were victims of sexual exploitation. The arrested were as a man with the last names Bonilla Alvarado adn a woman with the surname Moya Picado.
Both are suspected as leadering the trafficking of persons network.
Employees of Santa Ana on Thursday lifted the work stoppage, agreeing to return to work following a municipal council meeting Thursday that voted on a special commission to analyze if an annuities increase is viable.
Workers say they will give the municipality one month, with a commitment to be back on the picket line if no action is taken.
The work stoppage began on Tuesday when the municipal council flat out refused to approve an annuities increase to its 211 employees.
Besides picketing outside the municipal offices in downtown Santa Ana, groups of disgruntled employees took to the streets of the small city and even blocking traffick on the Ruta 27, near the Santa Ana exit.
By: Arianna Mckinney, VozdeGuanacaste / A free concert will be presented in the Samara community hall on Saturday, July 13 beginning at 10 a.m.
According to Bonifacio Diaz, Samara syndic, who is coordinating the event, 70 musicians from two symphonic groups, The Cartago Band and The Liberia Regional Band, will play regional music to commemorate the annexation of Guanacaste to Costa Rica. In addition, three couples will perform folkloric dances and a male vocalist will sing.
Diaz explained that the groups were originally planning to perform in Jicaral but do to lack of lodging had to find a new venue. They contacted Diaz and he jumped on the opportunity to host such an event in Samara for the first time.
Environmentalist Jairo Mora Sandoval was the victim of a violent and senseless murder, but his life was not in vain. Case in point: Around 82 leatherback sea turtle hatchlings were released by the volunteers of the Widecast environmental protection non-profit organization this past weekend in Moin, province of Limon. These hatchlings emerged from the eggshells and nests that Jairo Mora loved to protect.
According to Widecast director Didier Chacon, Jairo had protected the leatherback sea turtles as they massively arrived from the ocean to nest on the beach of Moin this past April. It takes a couple of months for baby sea turtles of the Dermochelys coriacea species to hatch.
Widecast incubates the eggs to keep them safe from poachers and returns the hatchlings to their nests since the baby sea turtles must become acquainted with the specific chemical composition of their native beaches in Costa Rica. This allows female leatherbacks to return 20 years later and nest, provided that they survive the difficult life in the ocean.
A Perfect Memorial for Jairo
That the baby sea turtles are now in their natural habitat would have delighted Jairo. Environmental activists in Costa Rica are calling for the Gandoca-Manzanillo National Wildlife Refuge to be named after Jairo. Even Paul Watson, the controversial founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and star of Animal Planet’s popular Whale Wars reality TV show, has stated that he plans to name a Sea Shepherd vessel in memory of Jairo.
These initiatives to memorialize Jairo’s life are certainly heart-warming, particularly when we remember that Paul Watson is on the run from Costa Rican authorities. However, the hatching and releasing of the baby sea turtles that Jairo gave his life to protect are the most endearing memorial to remember the selfless work of a Tico whom Paul Watson referred to as “a courageous young man.”
Hope and a Sense of Mission in Moin
Young people from the Moin community accompanied the Widecast volunteers as they released the babies. Widecast director Chacon mentioned that:
“[these young people] released the two nests with a heart full of hope, admiring Nature’s power and convinced that change is within all of us; we have the power to either protect these animals or destroy them by consuming products that cause their deaths.”
For Widecast, Jairo’s work is not over. Mr. Chacon told La Nacion that he expects to release even more baby sea turtles in the coming days.
A sharp increase in real estate acquisition and development by foreign investors in Costa Rica contributed $377 million to the national economy in the first quarter of 2013 (Q1). In real estate offices around the Central Valley, purchasing activity during the first three months of the year climbed by 13 percent when compared to the previous year.
According to a report by Oscar Rodriguez of La Nacion, the Pacific coastal housing market is experiencing healthy demand with regard to residential investment. In the Central Valley and San Jose’s Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM in Spanish), there was a greater focus on commercial real estate.
The Central Bank of Costa Rica reported that the $377 million enjoyed by the real estate sector represents 90 percent of revenue in 2012; in other words, the real property industry seems to be booming once again. Estimates by La Nacion indicate that the quarterly increase has been the highest since the year 2000.
Overall Recovery
Although real estate was the greatest contributor to direct foreign investment in Costa Rica during Q1, it is important to note that other sectors also saw great inflows of cash come in from overseas investors. The total foreign investment for Q1 of $866 million represents an improvement of 41 percent over the previous year.
To estimate direct foreign investment in Costa Rica’s real estate sector, the Central Bank accounts for all acquisitions and development projects valued at $500K or more that appear in the National Registry. Both capital inflows and the parties involved must have a foreign origin when considered by the Central Bank.
La Nacion interviewed Andres Zamora, Vice President of the Costa Rican Chamber of Real Estate Agents, who mentioned that the area surrounding the Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia was ripe for business. A Century 21 spokesman explained that the recovery this year has been a long time coming, and that further improvement is expected for Q2.
Proceed With Caution
In late 2011, The Costa Rica Star published a series of articles that highlighted the volatility of real estate in our country. Haciendas of the Rich and Famous, for example, took a look at celebrity real estate. A few months later, there was a report about an uptick in residential acquisitions by foreigners and soaring home values. By the time HSBC was acquired by the Colombian Davivienda Group, middle-class Ticos were applying for mortgages en masse, and Mel Gibson was selling his massive Hacienda Dorada in Nicoya.
It is easy to get caught up in the excitement of the real estate market in Costa Rica; after all, who wouldn’t want to own a slice of paradise and make a few dollars in the process? Would-be investors are advised to proceed with caution when it comes to speculating in the volatile and uncertain real estate market in Costa Rica. Keep in mind that just last year San Jose was home to the most expensive homes in Latin America, and that haphazard development is the norm around the country.
Yes, espionage and monitoring take place in Costa Rica, but not to the Orwellian extent carried out by the United States. Unpleasant snooping activities in Costa Rica have been revealed in the past; in fact, there is an ongoing legislative effort to either shut down or minimize the National Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS), an agency tasked with protecting presidential interests as well as spying.
Thanks to the systematic release of secret information by Edward Snowden, the former technical contractor for a couple of U.S. espionage agencies, people in Costa Rica and around the world know about the grievous work of shadowy outfits like the National Security Agency (NSA). We know, for example, that the NSA can collect audio and video communications from VoIP services such as Skype and magicJack through PRISM. We recently learned, via La Nacion and Brazilian news daily O Globo, that the NSA’s Boundless Informant program has been used to monitor private email communications and Facebook, the most popular social network in Costa Rica.
President Laura Chinchilla was not too happy about this latest revelation; to this end, she had this to say:
“As a citizen of an unarmed democracy such as Costa Rica, such things make me uncomfortable: I don’t like them.”
She added that she understands the need of some countries to assume protective measures in light of terrorists threats of high magnitude, but she also mentioned the rights of other nations to guarantee the privacy of communications among citizens.
The revelation of this secret monitoring of Costa Rica by the U.S. arrives a couple of months after President Barack Obama’s visit, and political leaders do not like it at all. Legislators Luis Fishman and Claudio Monge called for the matter to be discussed at the National Assembly, and Jose Maria Villalta from the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) opposition party called on the government to confirm the reports on what he called:
“an intolerable affront to the sovereignty of our country. The government must demand clear answers in an energetic manner, leaving aside subservient attitudes.”
It is interesting to note that legislator Villalta is also behind a proposal to minimize the scope and activities of the DIS (PDF), an agency that was created in 1994. The problem is not so much that the DIS is an eavesdropping agency; after all, intelligence gathering is in the best interest of most nations. The problem is that the DIS operates with impunity and without any checks or balances from the citizenry by virtue of its structure as a presidential security detail.
A History of Espionage
Spying in Costa Rica is an uncomfortable vestige of the Cold War. When former U.S. President John F. Kennedy visited our country in 1963, he lamented the lack of intelligence agencies in Central America that could snoop on the activities of Cuba and the former Soviet Union in the region. Shortly after his visit, the first Costa Rican spy agency was created under the name of the Agencia Nacional de Seguridad, which curiously translates in English to National Security Agency. And where were the headquarters of this spy agency were located? Across from Kennedy Park in San Pedro.
The DIS was created during the administration of former President Jose Maria Figueres Olsen. At the time, many Ticos shook their heads and said: “Like father, like son.” The elder former President Figueres was truly a Cold Warrior; after all, he presided Costa Rica during that era. Subsequently, his son and former President Figueres Olsen had a bit of the Cold Warrior streak in him as well, which worried Ticos who thought: “Doesn’t he know the Soviet Union dissolved a few years ago?”
The old Costa Rica NSA operated under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Safety (MSP in Spanish), which is supposed to oversee all matters of law enforcement and security. The DIS, however, answers to no one but the President of Costa Rica. This is a grave concern to legislators since the DIS has a history of abuses of authority and sweeping espionage on Ticos. This is what happens when such an agency is allowed to operate without restraint -corruption and obscurity ensue along with severe abuses of power.
Spy Versus Spy
In 2008, the MSP and the Organization of Judicial Investigations (OIJ) decided to spy on the DIS after receiving piles of complaints from Ticos about unethical behavior and general wickedness. What the MSP and OIJ found was a series of constitutional violations and general malfeasance by the DIS. For example, under President Figueres Olsen, multiple illegal telephone wiretaps were found in Costa Rica -this was the result of clumsy ICE technicians retained by the DIS to do the job.
Then there was the issue of the DIS not doing what they were supposed to, such as the apprehension of a Colombian citizen hiding in Costa Rica due to his responsibility for a massacre in South America. The DIS had snooped on the suspect but kept prosecutors in the dark, until the MSP finally intervened with old-fashioned police work and moved to arrest the man.
The most egregious accusation against the DIS, which is an agency that cannot be prosecuted, is that they not only use their spying powers and resources to commit extortion against Ticos, but they have also foregone their allegiance to Costa Rica in favor of yielding to U.S. interests.
WikiLeaks, CINEC, the CIA, Monsanto, ICE, etc.
Even more of the shadowy work of the DIS was brought to light by the WikiLeaks Cablegate affair. In the past, The Costa Rica Star has reported on these topics, some of which were fictionalized by sci-fi author William Gibson in Spook Country -wherein Costa Rica is a haven for retired U.S. intelligence agents. A scary diplomatic cable transmitted during the administration of former President George W. Bush has been labeled as “high-level horse trading and diplomatic bastardy” suggested that the U.S. could exert pressure on European nations that did not do business with agro-industrial giant Monsanto.
The WikiLeaks Cablegate affair also exposed the existence of CINEC, a joint operation between the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the DIS to ostensibly combat drug trafficking in Costa Rica and the region. A former MSP director confirmed that the DIS received training, safe houses and vehicles from the CIA under the CINEC program, authorized by (who else?) former President Figueres Olsen. A cable originated from the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica mentioned that this former MSP director threatened to air dirty laundry on former President Oscar Arias, which suggests that the DIS has been used for political espionage.
The inherent relationship between the DIS and the former telecommunications monopoly ICE, which ultimately answered to the government of Costa Rica, came to light in 2010. At that time, seven ICE security officers became spooks and followed a labor union leader around as he went about his business. The shadowing took place over two weeks as the subject went to the doctor’s office, his favorite restaurants, the bank, and even to church. According to ICE, this act of corporate espionage was conducted to catch the union leader skipping on his work responsibilities, but no one bought that excuse. ICE did not like this particular union leader and resorted to DIS tactics to try to snoop on his work as an advocate for the rank-and-file ICE employees.
For the reasons above, legislators and former prosecutors have been calling for a comprehensive reform to the DIS and its espionage capacity in Costa Rica. Another area of concern is that this snooping outfit is eating up a lot of money: $6 million just in 2008. There is a glimmer of hope, however, in the sense that the agency’s relevance is fading. Under the administration of President Chinchilla, the DIS has been mostly relegated to serving as a presidential security detail (and not even a very good one), and calls to reform the agency are stronger among legislators.
There is no doubt that Costa Rica, a country without an army, should rely on intelligence collection and analysis to defend herself; but, such activities should not be conducted in complete secrecy. At the very least, the National Assembly and the MSP should supervise these operations.
After a shutout victory against Cuba, members of the Costa Rica National Football Team are ready to face their Belizean counterparts, who are in the midst of an investigation by the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) on bribes and nasty allegations of match fixing.
Costa Rican fans will see a radically changed lineup of their beloved Sele as they match up against the Jaguars of the Belize National Team on Saturday, July 13th at the Rio Tinto Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah. According to Radio Columbia, coach Jorge Luis Pinto has chosen six different players to start against Belize: Giancarlo González, Carlos Johnson, Kendall Watson, Celso Borges, Mauricio Castillo, and Kenny Cunningham.
On July 11th, the Ticos practiced at the University of Utah. The training session was closed off to the public and the media due to the uncertain backdrop of match rigging and bribes confirmed by CONCACAF investigators who are looking into possible malfeasance in the Gold Cup tournament.
Preliminary details into the investigation, which will also be reviewed by FIFA, indicate that Belize players Ian Gaynair and Woodrow West have come forward and stated that they were approached by unidentified individuals who offered bribes in exchange for their cooperation in throwing matches within their group, which includes the national teams of Costa Rica, Cuba, and the United States.
The United States delivered a 6-1 goal fest against Belize on their first game of the Gold Cup; the game was played in Portland, Oregon, right after Costa Rica imposed a clean-sheet 3-0 score against Cuba a few days ago.
Starting Monday July 15, all vehicle owners will be required to changeover their “old” metal license plates for the new, a changeover that will be ongoing for the next 30 months.
Starting Monday and for the next three months, all the old license plates ending in 1 must be turned in for the new; plates ending in 2 begin the changeover in October; ending with plates ending in 0 in the last quarter of 2015.
The changeover is compulsory.
The cost is ¢15.000 colones for each pair of license plates, ¢8.000 for motorcycles.
The Registro Nacional promises a quick and secure process. For vehicle owners who cannot personally take part in the changeover, can assign a third party, providing the Registro with a notarized authorization.
La Nacion Tuesday revealed that the RECOPE Refinery at Limon paralyzed since August, 2011, but still keeps 350 workers on salary. The obsolete refinery installation has been idle and awaits the construction of a new one with Chinese help. But that may not happen.
When the Comptroller General’s Office annulled the feasibility and profitability studies, its officials made the new refinery doubtful at best. But the government has two good reasons to keep the payroll alive.
The first is that Limon is an area of high unemployment that would be economically and socially devastated by firing its workers. The second is that firing of workers would cause many to drift away, leaving RECOPE with few (or at least fewer) experienced workers.
In all, RECOPE employs 1,600 workers and the 350 only receives already refined fuels at the dock in Moin and stores it, awaiting distribution. The refinery was originally built by Allied Chemical in the late 1960s and nationalized during the administration of Jose (Don Pepe) Figueres.
The old refinery was closed as being costly to run. “The country needs to refine to fulfill the need for storage and for the social security of Limon,” says RECOPE manager Henry arias, a chemical engineer, “Here, (Limon) there are few employment opportunities.”
This payroll of 42 billion colones per year averages out to 24 million per employee. It is the sector of energy in the country that costs the most. But as Xinia Rose, a Limon customs official, told La Nacion, “If you open up a single job here, 60 persons show up to fill it. The problem of Limon is employment.”
The paper asks a question that perhaps only a Solomon could answer: Is it worth the higher price of fuel to keep these workers employed? The Comptroller gave RECOPE six months to come up with an alternative to the Chinese-Costa Rican $1.5 billion construction and investment plan.
The ambitious construction of a new refinery would raise production of fuels from the former 25,000 barrels per day to 65,000 barrels of crude oil refined.
Guillermo Rodriguez of the Limon Development Agency is brutally frank about the present situation. “Today we only import (refined fuels.) RECPOE has a great number of workers that are not doing anything and at a high fixed cost,” he said.
Comment: It is a dilemma that only politicians can answer. The cost of more social turmoil in Limon could cost the government more in the long run that keeping idle workers on salary. Already the city and its environs are a hotbed of crime and drug addiction.
Meanwhile, the cost of fuel here continues to be unnecessarily high. Is building a costly refinery to, perhaps proceed more than the country needs,the way to go? The political answer is that the construction would be a short term boon to the area.
Since last month the “urban lung” has been capturing some of the air pollution in San José in the area of the Antigua Aduana (Old Customs House).
This special filter sees to raise the awareness about vehicle emissons and the damage they cause to health.
Researchers at the Universidad Nacional have been taking regular samples captured by the filter and will be releasing a report next month on their findings.
Air pollution in San José is the main cause of respiratory and reproductive problems and kidney failure, among other conditions.
The reasons behind same-sex couples wanting to “legalize” their relationships are varied. For one couple, Fiorella Bruno(39), and Ana Cristina Binda (34), it is simply to protect their child.
Fiorella and Ana Cristina is one six couples seeking to legalize their union, made possible by a reform in the Ley de Persona Joven, that went into effect this past Monday.
The couple are demanding the same civil rights of heterosexual couples.
Both women fear that, not having their union legally recognized, their child suffers the consequences, for example, not being able to obtain insurance coverage and not having an inheritance.
Fiorella and Ana have been living together as a couple for the past 10 years and the last seven parents to Luca.
They say they are completely honest with their child and that he understands well that his family consists of two moms.
Right there on the very front page of our most important daily Spanish language newspaper, just below sports, La Nación alleges that the United States of America has spied on its good friend Costa Rica. As reported by a Brazilian news outlet.
First hand, we don’t know for sure. It is supposition.
But considering the around-the-world trips of doña Laura, our president, and the plethora of national corruption, the evident distrust of the legislature of the U.S. who made such a pump up your chest big deal because a Coast Guard ship got tired cruising around the waters with a load of Tico cocaine on board and was denied to dock in order to unload the stuff. Costa Rica the apparent drug traffic darling of the north – south cartels, not to mention a “Haven for money laundering,” what the hell can you expect?
Wait there is more. And then there is the biggie: Our new best friend, the Chinese who found Costa Rica like a bride in waiting, the honeymoon was on. The Arias government started it all and ceremoniously dropped Taiwan for a better and bigger money deal whose terms and conditions which were kept a secret for almost a year. (Sounds like a U.S. free agent NBA player.)
Now the Chinese, which are not exactly the best friends of the United States are trying to make a major foot print in Costa Rica with their loans, wish list, their money, their workers, their products imported duty free of course, and their management.
The best part of the Tico government is this all comes as a “loan” and the money needs to be paid back over XYZ years. So we buy from the Chinese, import from China, a quasi Chinese company designs and manages the operation as a partner and Costa Rica is expected to pay all those bills incurred back to that nation of origin: China? (Sounds like a Ponzi scheme with a kick)
“Yes Virginia, we did fall off a pineapple truck.”
Next, Costa Rica is considering making this country the sede (Main Office) of the Chinese government in order to have an even larger foot print into Latin America such as the huge canal project ($40 billion) in Nicaragua which to this moment seems like a fairy tale.
But the main office concept could become a reality and the United States wants to know exactly what and the hell is going on in this nation of so called “Friendlies”.
I would be disappointed if the U.S. Russia, England, China itself did not spy on Costa Rica. There are just too many anomalies here to avoid. As the newsstand tabloids say, “Inquiring Minds Want to Know”.
Costa Rica has never helped itself by pretending to be a country of neutrality. It has, for years and years preached a good sermon but the realities do not bear the nation out.
We go where the money is, almost like an Eva Peron “Rainbow Tour” but then again she came back with buckets of bucks, selling out to the Nazis, ex-Nazis and fascists.
So history says.
So, “Do not cry for me Costa Rica,” you should know that with all of the international activity, spying comes with intellectual paparazzi such as comes with Johnny Depp. We are viewed by the East and West plus perhaps to a lesser extent South America. As caught in the middle .
Wouldn’t we make a great launching pad for terrorism, for cyber-war, while all the time not pressing our very own Oscar Arias’ to answer, “Who me Innocent?”
Yesenia Valero Vargas sits in her lawyer's office while bein interviewed by La Nacion. Photo: EYLEEN VARGAS
Yesenia Valero Vargas sits in her lawyer’s office while bein interviewed by La Nacion. Photo: EYLEEN VARGAS
For many foreigners, North Americans in particular, getting married to a Costa Rican national is the quickest method to obtain residency and naturalization (citizenship). And for the most part, these marriages are nothing more than a paper shuffle, dissolved when the objective is met.
The transaction is simple, either by direct contact or by way of an intermediary (usually a lawyer or notary), the couple accord to enter into an arrangement where typically, the man pays the woman for the use of her name to register the marriage that is then used to file for residency and/or naturalization. Once the legal status is obtained, a divorce is filed. Foreign women do the same, though the numbers are significantly lower as compared to the men.
By and large this arrangement is straight forward. Case of extortion, the national demanding additional compensation in exchange for the divorce is uncommon. Usually the foreigner lives a low key lifestyle, careful not to reveal to his or her spouse the true nature of their wealth and assets held in Costa Rica.
But what happens when the foreigner is super wealthy, as in the case of Arthur Budovsky?
On May 25, Budovsky was arrested in Spain and extradited to the U.S. on money laundering and other charges. U.S. officials allege that the Costa Rica-based Liberty Reserve laundered some US$6 billion over a period of seven years.
Following the arrest, Costa Rican authorities moved quickly to seize Budovky’s assets that includes four Roll Royces, a Mercedes Benz and a motorcycle. Under costa Rica’s laws, the assets must be auctioned off by the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas (ICD)– an arm of the Presidencia to finance Costa Rica’s fight against drug trafficking.
Learning that her “paper” husband was a mult-millionaire with tons of cash and tons of assets – cars, real estate, etc- in Costa Rica, Yessenia Valerio Vargas, has decided to get her share of the pie.
Yesenia Valerio Vargas (now 39 years old), according to her lawyer, Javier Vargas, will be seeking that the Juzgado de Familia (Family Court) hand over half of the assets seized from her husband, saying, “it is the right thing”.
“I am the wife, it is not right that I face eviction because I don’t even have ¢100.000 colones (US$200) and have no where to grab, having such a rich husband”, Valerio told La Nacion in an interview his week.
“It’s been almost six years, it’s all legal, there are witnesses, lawyers. I accepted (Budvosky’s offer) because I have three children, I had to accept. That was enough to convince me”, said the woman.
“Two weeks later (the lawyer) introduced me to him, I married him (Budvosky) and both went on with our normal lives. I dated him about four times, we went out for coffee, we talked, he never came by car and never saw him wealthy.
“He later told me that he had a business in the United States. He came and went (from Costa Rica). It was nine months ago the last time I had contact with him, he said he was going to the U.S. and then realized it was him who was arrested in Spain”, Valerio, who is currently unemployed, related to La Nacion.
Today, Valerio considers it “unfair” given her circumstance, having such a rich husband and she is just getting by.
However, Valerio feels it worse that the Costa Rican government is trying to get it all. “It’s not fair that he became a naturalized Costa Rican because of me and now the government wants to win (take everything for themselves) and nothing for me. I am his wife, I’m biting my nails because I have no job”, said Valerio.
Valerio’s lawyer said on Tuesday that “there is no reason to annul the marriage”, an action being sought by government as part of the process to revoke Budovsky’s nationalization.
Vargas told La Nacion that his client will be filing a case to seek “one half of everything Budvosky acquired in the country from 2008 to 2011, when the money laundering investigation began”.
As Canadians and Americans, personal security issues tend to be minimal in nature in most areas of Canada and the U.S., with the exception of some inner-city neighbourhoods in some of the larger Canadian and U.S. cities.
Such is not the case in Costa Rica and Latin America in general.
After having lived in Costa Rica for fifteen years and practiced law for ten of those years, I have had the opportunity to identify many personal security issues which arise in Latin America because of more dramatic differences between the rich and the poor classes.
This leads to the adage adopted by the poorer folks of, “what’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine if you’re not watching over it”. This adage is particularly applicable when expats are viewed by poorer Ticos.
Having said that, because of the social safety-net (CAJA) adopted by Costa Rica following the last civil insurrection in 1948, Costa Rica is by no means as bad as the majority of other Latin American destinations with respect to this issue.
When purchasing property in Costa Rica, this adage translates to, if you want to be secure, don’t purchase a free-standing property in a Tico neighbourhood if you are an expat.
You will most certainly be a target for the neighbours if you do.
My advice to an expat purchasing property is to look for a housing circumstance in a gated and guarded community, preferably under a Condominium Property Regime, where the Condominium By-laws will be enforceable and provide for an acceptable solution to these personal security issues. That’s not to say that some expats have not found other living arrangements to those suggested that meet these requirements of personal security, but on-balance, the gated and guarded community is the best option.
To contact Attorney Rick Philps about hiring him as your Costa Rican Attorney, please use the following information: Lic. Rick Philps – Attorney at Law, Petersen & Philps, San Jose, Costa Rica Tel: 506-2288-4381, Ext. 102; Email: rphilps@plawcr.com Website: www.plawcr.com
– See more at: https://qcostarica.com/one-misconception-made-by-expat-canadians-and-americans-about-costa-rica/#sthash.kHHTfggP.dpuf
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.) recently unveiled a Sheraton-branded property in San Jose, Costa Rica. Located in Escazú (adjacent to the Intercontinenal Hotel) the upscale property – christened Sheraton San José – aims to ramp up Sheraton’s presence in the fast-growing Latin American market.
The Sheraton San José has an easy access from the Aeropuerto Juan Santamaria airport. The key commercial hub, Escazú, boasts offices of various world-class retail companies such as Guess’ and Tiffany & Co. as well as the first Costa Rican outlet of the leading coffee maker, Starbucks Corporation .
The hotel featues 172-guestrooms and a hard to miss casino, announced with big bright glittering lights.
Starwood has appointed the Colombian company, GHL Hoteles (with hotels Colombia, Panama, Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina) for managing the property. GHL’s association with Starwood goes back to the days when the former managed the operations of Sheraton Bijao Beach Resort, Panama.
With this opening the company has moved a step ahead towards fulfilling its dream to operate 100 properties in Latin America by the end of this year. With a population of around half a billion, the region’s emergence as a business hub and its fast-growing economy caught the attention of the hotelier.
Starwood which currently operates 76 hotels in Latin America plans to take advantage of the surge in demand in Latin America. In this regard, the hotelier aims to open seven hotels each year on an average for the next five years, thereby increasing its Latin American portfolio by 50%.
This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company sees more opportunities for its largest brand, Sheraton, in Latin America. Starwood plans to add four more hotels to the list of more than 30 Sheraton branded properties operating across Latin America, within 2014. Starwood is continuously trying to boost the Sheraton brand, which is likely to reach the benchmark of 500 hotels worldwide by 2015.
