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Quick Route To/From the San José Airport and Ruta 27
The typical route from the Pacific coast to the San José airport is on the Ruta 27 to Santa Ana, weaving your way through Belén, past the Marriott and Intel, onto the Autopista General Cañas and to the airport. The reverse is for those heading out from the airport.
But, there is a new route that few know about AND IT IS NOT MARKED. Here it is:
From the airport – take the Bernardo Soto, the highway headed west of the airport (in the direction of Alajuela), past the Dos Pinos plant to the Coyol intersection bridge, right, do the full turn headed south on the “radial”, which takes you to the Siquiares intersecton on the Ruta 27, right, pay the toll and in less than 30 minutes you on the Pacific coast.
From the Ruta 27 – exit at the Siquiares (the exit before La Guacima toll), up the ramp, pay the toll, make a right, do the roundabout to head north and stay to the left of the Y, this takes you the radial, to the Bernardo Soto, left (east) and within a few minutes you are at the airport. Note, there is no “airport” marking at the Siquiares exit, nor along the entire route.
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San José – Caldera Road Users Leave Behind For Autopistas US$4 Million Monthly
At ¢300 colones at a time, users of the San José – Caldera leave behind for Autopistas del Sol some US$4 million dollars monthly.
According to figures provided by the Consejo Nacional de Concesiones (CNC), in May a total of 174.588 vehicles crossed the tolls on the concession highway.
Drivers moving between Escazú and Pozón de Ortina on the Ruta 27 face four toll stations: Escazú (¢300 colones), La Guacima (¢450), Atenas (¢600) and Orotina (¢450), for a total of ¢1.800, one way.
Based on CNC figures, most of the vehicles using the highway cross the Escazú station with a a total of 83.961 vehicles a month. The next busiest station is the La Guacima, located in San Rafeal de Alajueal with 23.517 vehicles and third is Cuidad Colon (the exit off the Ruta 27 to Santa Ana) with 17.713 vehicles.
As the numbers show, the majority of vehicles leaving the greatest income for the concessionaire are in Escazú, Santa Ana/Cuidad Colon and Alajuela.
Toll rates adjusted every quarter, based on current economic conditions and set by an agreement between the CNC and the concessionaire.
The Autoridad Reguladora de Servicios Publiclos (ARESEP), the government regular of public prices and services does not take a role in the setting of the rate, as it does with other public services like gasoline prices. According to Carolina Mora, spokesperson for the ARESEP, the entity would only participate if there is a dispute between the CNC and the Concessionaire. Mora explains that the toll rate model are set out in the private contract and out of the reach of the ARESEP.
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US Coast Guard Cocaine Off Costa Rica
The U.S. Coast Guard reports confiscating 1,250 pounds of cocaine while in routine patrol 300 miles southwest of Isla del Coco (Cocos Island), Costa Rica.
Authorities say the haul is worth US$19 million dollars, confiscated off a go-fast vessel and detained six peple on board the boat.
The Coast Guard says the suspects were transferred to Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) officials in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The drugs will be transferred to DEA agents in Miami Beach.
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LGBT Community in Costa Rica Insists Same-Sex Marriage
Paseo Colón and Avenida Segudna yesterday became a gateway of colour and politics in favour of legalizing same-sex marriage in Costa Rica.
Related: LGBT San José Parade in Photos
Costa Rica’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community insists beyond civil unions or societies of coexistence.
Inspired by the advancement of same-sex marriages in other countries, especially in the United States, organized groups used their San José parade as a statement of intent, to collect some 165.000 signatures required to present a bill for same-sex marriage in the country.
Once the signatures are obtained, the bill could be presented in the Legislature in the form of a “popular initiative”, though it is unlikely it will make during this term, according to legislator Carmen Muñoz, who lead the march Sunday, along with the Costa Rica’s Ombudswoman, Ofelia Taitelbaum.
Related: LGBT Rights in Costa Rica
“With so much negativism, the movement got tired and decided to push ahead with the concept marriage”, said Muñoz.
The word marriage could be seen on flags, printed on shirts, written in smeared sun tan lotion. Slogans for the Nuevo Partido Socialista (New Socialist Party), a party that expects to remove the Heredia legislator in the 2014 elections, were among the demonstrations.
LGBT acitivists from Nicaragua, Panama, and El Salvador helped make Sunday’s demonstration the largest, even surprising organizers.
Floats, costumes and even dancers from gay clubs all took part in a day filled with sunshine. The rains in San José on Sunday did not start until well after the sun had set on the city.
From Paseo Colon, gathered in Parque Central on Avenida 2, as the sound coming out of the U.S. Embassy sound system competed with the Metropolitan Cathedral’s bells calling for mass.
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LGBT rights in Costa Rica
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Costa Rica have made significant cultural, social and legal progress since the 1970s. While certain politicians, such as president Óscar Arias, have expressed some support for LGBT-rights, Costa Ricans tend to be socially conservative when it comes to sexual orientation and gender identity issues, in large part due to the strong influences of the Roman Catholic Church and cultural traditions about machismo.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Costa Rica have made significant cultural, social and legal progress since the 1970s.
While certain politicians, such as president Óscar Arias, have expressed some support for LGBT-rights, Costa Ricans tend to be socially conservative when it comes to sexual orientation and gender identity issues, in large part due to the strong influences of the Roman Catholic Church and cultural traditions about machismo.
Mario Núñez, a member of the Libertarian Movement Party (ML), introduced a bill in the Legislative Assembly in 2007 to ban LGBT people and same-sex couples from adopting or having custody of children. The bill did not pass.
The constitution does not explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Since 1998, “sexual option” (Article 48 Costa Rican General Law 7771) is one of the categories in which discrimination is generally prohibited in areas such as employment. Yet, societal prejudice keeps most LGBT people from “coming out”.
ARTICLE 48. Costa Rican General Law 7771 – Discrimination
Who ever applies, arranges or practices discriminatory measures because of race, nationality, gender, age, political, religious or sexual option, social position, economic situation, marital status or by any suffering of health or disease, will be sanctioned with penalty of twenty to sixty days fines. The judge will be able to impose, in addition, the disqualifying penalty that corresponds, of fifteen to sixty days.
While homosexuality was technically legal, police harassment and raids of LGBT people and private establishments were formerly commonplace. In 1990, for instance, Minister of Government Antonio Alvarez Desanti announced that he would not allow foreign women to enter Costa Rica to participate in an “Encuentro,” an international meeting of lesbians. He instructed Costa Rican consulates not to grant visas to women travelling unaccompanied by men, warning that all such women would be stopped at the airport. He also informed airlines that if they sold tickets to women travelling alone, or appearing likely to attend the meeting, they would be required to provide for the suspected lesbians’ immediate return. When pressed to explain how lesbians could be identified at the airport, he reportedly asserted that women who had short hair, wore pants, or travelled alone could be identified as lesbians. Organizers changed the dates and location of the meeting, and it finally took place.
Furthermore the government did not want to grant legal recognition to political organizations seeking to advance LGBT rights. These policies started to change in the 1990s, when the Supreme Court of Justice of Costa Rica ruled that the constitution gave LGBT people the right to peaceful assembly, associate, create their own private establishments, as well as their own LGBT rights associations.
In 1993, it came to light that the Universidad Internacional de las Americas has a policy of expelling LGBT students and firing LGBT faculty and staff. When an AIDS-HIV education association, Instituto Latinoamericano de Educacion y Prevencion en Salud, filed a complaint with the Ministry of Education they were unable to come up with a specific example of the university’s policy being enforced, but the Ministry stated that if the policy is enforced it would probably violate Articles 20, 33, and 70 of the constitution.
In the later 1990s the Costa Rica Catholic Church organized protest against LGBT tourism, often arguing that it was a cover for sex tourism. Yet, there are still several tourist groups that cater to LGBT people.
In 1998, a planned LGBT pride festival was cancelled out of concern of the possibility of violence. During the initial planning of the event, the then President of Costa Rica publicly opposed granting permits for the event to occur.
In 1999, the City of San José attempted to close down a gay sauna, but the Supreme Court in 2000 ordered the city to allow the sauna to remain open, stating, “subjective criteria of morality and proper behaviour have no legal basis … and represent a violation of the fundamental rights granted by our Constitution”.
In 2008, the Costa Rican Supreme Court ruled against a gay prison inmate receiving conjugal visits. In October 2011, the Costa Rican Supreme Court reversed the 2008 ruling that now allows equality for gay couples in receiving conjugal visits only for partners outside of prison.
Until recently, most Costa Rican political parties and politicians tended to ignore LGBT rights issues. However, this has slowly begun to change.
On 27 March 2008, then president of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias Sanchez, signed an executive order designating 17 May as the National Day Against Homophobia,[ committing Costa Rica to join others around the world in working to eradicate bias against gays and lesbians.
On 21 April 2013, Carmen Muñoz (Partido Acción Ciudadana) became the first openly lesbian member of Costa Rica’s legislative assembly, after being interviewed by La Nación newspaper.
With notes from Wikipedia
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LGBT San José Parade in Photos
Related Articles: LGBT Community Insists on Same-Sex Marriage LGBT Rights in Costa Rica
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In Costa Rica 17 Persons Ordered Daily To Preventive Detention
Expats in Costa Rica Frequently Jailed For Fear of Fleeing Country
“Prisión preventiva” (preventive detention) or “Remand” in English, is the process of keeping a person who has been arrested in custody, during pretrial, differing fundamentally from post-adjudicatory detention, or imprisonment.
Preventive detention can mean imprisonment for some time without a criminal charge. It means that if the government feels that a person being at liberty can be a threat to the law and order, it can detain or arrest that person to prevent him from doing this possible harm.
In Costa Rica, the 1998 Criminal Proceedings Code allows for a normal “preventive” imprisonment of 12 months if the person is considered a “flight risk”, but if the case is declared “complex”, it can be increased to up to three years and a half of imprisonment without conviction, or even more in some cases.
According to the Adaptación Social, on average 17 people are remanded each day, spending their time usually in the San Sebastián (San Sebas) jail a few blocks south of downtown San José.
In the period of January and March 2013, Adaptación Social reports that, 42% of the remanded were released in the first 15 days, 31% leaving the detention centre between 16 days and two months, while 27% remained behind bars between 61 days and 10 months.
The cost to maintain people in preventive detention is very expensive, figures showing that it costs US$45 a day to maintain an inmate. A two month stay equals to US$2.700 per each person.
The panorama in Costa Rica prison system is as such as of May 23, 2013: in the country’s prisons there are 13.466 detainees, of which 3.259 (24.2%) had no firm conviction or to say are in pretrial detention. Of that 282 are women.
The use of preventive detention by the courts has resulted in prison overcrowding. Currently, there prison system has capacity for only 2.371 persons in pretrial detention, so there is an overpopulation of 37.5%.
The jails with serious overcrowding are in San Carlos and Pérez Zeledón, where overcrowding is 119% and 123%, respectively. In San José’s San Sebastian, a detention centre specifically designed for pretrial detention, there are 273 prisoners over capacity.
By the numbers, one in four being held in preventive detention is for crimes against property, 30% for illegal drugs, 14% for crimes against life, 8% for sex offences, 4% for assaulting or killing women and the remaining 4% for a variety of offences.
Persons held in preventive detention can continually appeal their detention, petitioning the courts for release on bail, for instance, or even dropping of the charges.
In some cases, like that of lawyer Arcelio Hernández, who spent nearly 11 months awaiting trial, make appeals to the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights. Many, however, do not have the financial resources to make such appeals and can end up spending years behind bars while their case makes its way slowly through the judicial system.
Whatever you call it, preventive detention is something of interest to foreign expats in Costa Rica who frequently are jailed for fear they will flee the country despite the years the may have spent in Costa Rica, setting roots like having a family and a business.
In such cases, foreigners held in preventive detention confront conditions that are abusive, degrading and dangerous.
Some argue that Costa Rica does not observe the presumption of innocence as required by the Constitution when it puts suspects in prison indiscriminately.
Some prominent names that have spent time in preventive detention include two former presidents, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Echeverría (1998 to 2002) and Rafael Angel Calderón Fournier (1990 to 1994).
On 27 April 2011 Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Echeverría, accused him of having accepted a kickback from the French telecommunications firm Alcatel, which had been awarded a large government contract for cellular phone bandwidth during Rodríguez’s tenure as president, was sentenced to 5 years in prison of his role in the ICE-Alcatel scandal. In 2012 the sentence was revoked amid accusation of prosecutor misconduct and partisan bias
Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier, accused of receiving money from the Finish firm Instrumentarium in exchange of contracts for the firm with the Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social (CCSS), was held in preventive in October 2004. He was later released from jail and was placed under house arrest.
On 5 October 2009 Calderón was sentenced to five years in prison. He walked out of the court room and notified the press that he would appeal the sentence and that he was not running for president in order to focus on his appeal. On 11 May 2011 Calderon Fournier’s appeal was rejected by the tribunal (the so-called Sala III). The judges confirmed the previous sentence. However, they reduced the term to serve in prison from five to three years. According to the Costa Rican law, he can be expected not to serve this time in prison.
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Warehouse Fire Cause By Welder’s Spark
A plume of smoke rose out of a warehouse fire on the south side of San José Friday, caused by a welding spark.
The director del Cuerpo de Bomberos (Fire Department), Hector Chavez, confirmed that a welder’s spark caused the fire that completely consumed the warehouse located in San Sebastian.
Firefighters took more than an hour to bring the flames under control, this due the large amount flammable material in the auto parts warehouse.
No one was injured in the fire, a total of 15 homes adjacent to the warehouse were affected has been threatened by the fire.
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La Gaceta Becomes Totally Digital
The printing presses at the Imprenta Nacional (National Printer) have come to a stop, sort of speak, as the La Gaceta (Spanish for Gazette) turns the page to a totally digital format.
Started in February 23, 1878, La Gaceta is the oldest “daily” in the country.
In the days of past, La Gaceta was the main source of information for Costa Ricans.
Over the years La Gaceta was and and continues to be the “official” news and information source of the government. Everything legal – laws, presidential decrees, even gasoline price changes – “must” first be published in La Gaceta to take effect.
Publication in the official gazette or public journal is a condition for official documentation to come into force in a number of Latin American countries.
As of Monday, July 1, La Gaceta, after 135 years becomes digital leaving completely behind paper and ink.
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[Video] Dozens Marched in San Jose To Motivate Ticos to Donate Organs
With ballons greednd t-shirts and wrapped in blankets dozens of people marched in downtown San José Saturday, to encourate the donation of organs.
Some of those taking part in the march were recepients of donated organs and others who are waiting, living with the uncertainty of finding a donor.
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Warehouse Fire in San José
The plume of smoke is caused by a fire in a parts warehouse located in San Sebastian, south side of San José. Photo by Esteban Jiménez, by way of Facebook.
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Minister Number 17 Steps Down
Decentralization Minister, John Marin, tendered her resignation Friday saying the decision was solely for”personal reasons”, according to the Press Office
“My departure is strictly is due to personal matters that required my undivided attention. I am leaving with the board of directors of the Governing Council and the Comptroller General of the Republic, my report, as required in Article 12, subsection e, of the Internal Control Act”
Marin’s departure had been rumoured for weeks.
Over average, President Laura Chinchilla has been faced with replacing a minister every two months. Marin is minister number 17, leaving only 8 of the original appointments made by the presidenta in May 2010.
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San José Without Johnny Araya
As of Friday Johnny Araya is no longer the mayor of San José, leaving the mayoral chair he has occupied for the last 22 years, headed for the presidential chair in Zapote.
Known as the “eternal” mayor, Araya will now begin his role as presidential candidate for the Partido Liberacion Nacional (PLN) in the February 2014 presidential elections.
Moments after his last press conference as mayor, Araya shared hugs and farewell kisses with workers at the José Figueres Ferrer, the official name of San José municipal building. Many told the outgoing mayor, “see you in Zapote”.
In his final act of mayor, Araya handed the mayoral power to Sandra Garcia, first deputy mayor, in an official transfer of power ceremony.
During his more than two decades heading Costa Rica’s largest municipal government, Araya was responsible for a number of cultural programs, instituted traffic management, a solid waste management program and an rescued urban spaces.
The outgoing Araya noted that in the last years he no longer needed to go with bodyguards in neighbourhoods that were “miserable” at the beginning of his administration, including areas like Cristo Rey, Sagrada Familia and San Sebastian.
Araya will not focus on national issues like security and economic growth. One of the challenges is to promote renewals of the PLN political party. “We need a renewal. I am not the most visible face of renewal for the party”, said the now presidential candidate.
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Food Prices At San José Airport Double
Being hungry or thirsty at the Juan Santamaria (San José) airport can be expensive. Hamburger combos, soda drinks, bottled water, coffee, candy, etc. can be twice or more expensive inside the airport terminal than you would pay for the same product on the outside.
Passengers using the terminal can only describe the prices as “shocking”, a cup of java can run you US$4, a hamburger combo meal (we left out the restaurant name on purpose) ¢8.000 colones (US$16), while the same meal at the same restaurant chain in the mall a short distance from the airport sells for half of that.
A bottle of water can run ¢2.500 (US$5), a cup of coffee ¢2.000 (US$4), a cappuccino ¢3.000 (US$6) in the San Jose airport terminal
The high prices at the terminal are due to several factors. One, there are only four food concessionaires competing for your food dollar: Grupo QSR (Quiznos, KFC, Smash Burger and Cinnabon), Casa Phillips (Malinche restaurant), Café Britt and Lavazza coffee shops.
Setting up shop inside the terminal includes a 1o or percentage of sales and rent that starts at US$40 per square metre, per month, according to Aeris, the airport terminal manager. Food concessions also have to maintain process control and quality standards.
This combination high standards and high rents, all increase the cost which is passed on to the consumer.
Jorge Alfaro, Aeris‘ commercial advisor, told La Nacion that retailers cannot offer just any product and only at prices approved by the airport manager. Any changes to prices – up or down – must be assessed and approved, explains Alfaro.
Prices at airports around the world are typically high. Compared to airports in other countries, food prices are very similar.
Only the Bogota, Colombia airport, has cheaper prices for meals and beverages. A hamburger combo at the El Dorado airport runs about US$10. In Panama, prices for food and drinks are lower than in Costa Rica, though not as low as in Colombia.
Airports in Peru, Mexico and Brazil, are priced about the same as those in Costa Rica.
With notes from La Nacion
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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites
You won’t believe it!!!!!! NO FLOUR, NO OIL, NO WHITE SUGAR
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups canned* chickpeas, well-rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (165 grams) natural peanut butter (can use PB2 from gym to make healthier, check your labels)
1/4 cup (80 grams) honey (agave would be amazing too!)
1 teaspoon baking powder**
a pinch of salt if your peanut butter doesn’t have salt in it
1/2 cup (90 grams) chocolate chips
* My can was a 400 gram can, 240 grams without the water, and I used all but a few tablespoons
** If you need grain-free baking powder, you can use 1 part cream of tartar + 1 part baking soda + 2 parts arrowroot.
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350°F / 175°C.
Combine all the ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, in a food processor and process until very smooth. Make sure to scrape the sides and the top to get the little chunks of chickpeas and process again until they’re combined.
Put in the chocolate chips and stir it if you can, or pulse it once or twice. The mixture will be very thick and sticky.
With wet hands, form into 1 1/2″ balls. Place onto a piece of parchment paper. If you want them to look more like normal cookies, press down slightly on the balls. They don’t do much rising. Bake for about 10 minutes.
Yields about fourteen 1 1/2″ cookie dough balls.
*** Don’t even try with regular peanut butter! They’ll come out oily. You MUST use natural peanut butter.
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Costa Rica’s Economic Growth Lowest Since 2009
The growth of Costa Rica’s economy will be slower than forecast, with a growth of 2.43% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, it is the weakest expansion since the country exited recession at the end of 2009, Central Bank data showed on Friday.
The growth was the slowest since the country emerged from four consecutive quarters of economic contraction in the final three months of 2009, the bank’s figures showed.
During the final quarter of last year, the Costa Rican economy grew by 3.05 percent.
Last week Cental Bank president, Rodrigo Bolaños, said that economic growth would be below 4% this year, however did not give a more precise estimate.
The Central Bank said gross domestic product totaled some US$12.7 billion in the January-March period.
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Traffic Police Begin Intensified Patrol of Major Highways
Starting tomorrow Saturday, more than half of the traffic police force will be on full duty as road patrols are intensified with the start of the mid-year school vacation period.
Germán Marín, director of the la Policía de Tránsito, said that 650 officials will be working around the clock on the major highwasy leading to and from the beaches and resorts, that inclue Ruta 27 (San José – Caldera), Ruta 1 (Interamericana from San José to Peñas Blancas, the Nicaragua border), Ruta 32 (San José – Limón), Ruta 2 (San José to Perez Zeledon) and a number of roads in Guanacaste tourist areas.
The intensified police presence will be until July 14, with emphasis on this weekend and the weekend in two weeks.
Also, Ruta 27, will be reversible – only one way to San José from Orotina – on July 7 ad 14.
The vehicle restrictions of downtown San José are suspended until July 15, freeing up traffic officials to patrol the tourist routes.
Traffic police will looking for speeders (they now use a mobile photo radar to clock speeds), driving without a license, Marchamo and Riteve, unsafe vehicles and drunk driving.
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New Tico Airline Proposes Take Over of Dropped TACA Routes
TICOS-Líneas Aéreas de Costa Rica is the name of a new airline that has begun the process of certification and intent on taking over the routes left behind by TACA Airlines after its complete integration with the Colombian airline, Avianca.
The Dirección General de Aviación Civil – Costa Rica’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation – says it has received a proposal from the representatives of the new airline, according to Aviacion subdirector, Alvaro Vargas.
Vargas said that the new airline is in the process of preparing financial and feasibility studies, to operate three to five Airbus aircraft.
Last month, TACA laid off 261 employees in Costa Rica and cancelled five direct flights to and from San José, as part of he integration process with Avianca.
The direct flights operated by TACA were Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaria International (SJO) airport in San José and Los Angeles, New York, Havana (Cuba) and Quito and Guayaquil (Ecuador).
Passengers on Avianca can still fly to those destinations, making stops in either El Salvador or Bogota.
Civil Aviation authorities failed in their meetings with Avianca officials to restore the flights and are now in the process of obtaining outside legal counsel to research and recommend sanctions against TACA.
Very little can be found about TICOS-Líneas Aéreas de Costa Rica, which is not to be confused with the Líneas Aéreas de Costa Rica or LACSA, the Costa Rican airline that was integrated into Grupo TACA.
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JetBlue Adds Nonstop Florida – Costa Rica Flight
On Thursday JetBlue launched its daily nonstop service between Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International airport (FLL) and Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaria (San José) aiport.
To celebrate, the airline’s is offering through July 2, flights from Fort Lauderdale from $135 one way for travel between September 6 and December 13, 2013.
“Adding San Jose capitalizes on our success in South Florida with continued growth to a key Central America destination,” said Scott Laurence, vice president of network planning for JetBlue Airways. “The combination of a great customer experience, low fares and the best people in the industry has clearly resonated in both Ft. Lauderdale and Costa Rica.”
“In just four years of operating in the country, JetBlue has shown a steady growth in the number of passengers the airline carries to our country and opening new routes, which shows the company’s success to invest in our destiny,” says Minister of Tourism of Costa Rica Allan Flores.
“The new route, we are inaugurating today from Fort Lauderdale allows to increase the availability of seats from the United States to the Juan Santamaria International Airport, strengthening options for travel to our country from the state of Florida, ranked third as a popular point of departure to Costa Rica”, added Flores.
In addition to Fort Lauderdale, JetBlue offers flights to San José from Orlando and nonstop from New York’s JFK to Liberia.
In addition to Costa Rica, JetBlue serves 26 Latin American and Caribbean destinations, including: Aruba; The Bahamas (Nassau); Barbados; Bermuda; Cayman Islands (Grand Cayman); Colombia (Bogota, Medellin and Cartagena); Dominican Republic (La Romana, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, Samana, Santiago and Santo Domingo); Jamaica (Kingston and Montego Bay); Mexico (Cancun); Puerto Rico (Aguadilla, Ponce and San Juan); St. Croix; Saint Lucia; St. Maarten; St. Thomas; and, Turks and Caicos (Providenciales).
JetBlue says its flights to San Jose will be operated with its comfortable 150-seat Airbus A320 fleet.
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Soap Purchases Used in Alleged Money Laundering in Costa Rica
Judicial officials on Thursday descended on a small office building in La Sabana in search of evidence of a money laundering for Venezuelan government firms after a state bank detected shady money transfers to buy millions of bars of soap.
The raid on the office building, located next to the Pops, and a house in Santa Ana was to collect evidence by judicial officials following up on information by the state bank involving some US$15 million dollars in wire transfers to the Costa Rica bank.
Suspected of leading the money laundering operation is a Costa Rican lawyer and a Venezuelan businessman, alleges to have made suspicious transactions for a company owned by the government of Venezuela.
No detentions were made on Thursday. The Attorney General’s office told the media that they were in search of documentary evidence before any arrests could be made.
“The suspicion is that bank accounts are being created in Costa Rica to launder money in the United States and other countries, from companies belonging to the Venezuelan government”, the statement said.
Costa Rican investigators believe the two men also created other companies to launder money coming from Venezuelan government-owned firms.
According to Costa Rica’s judiciary, a bank in Costa Rica detected a suspect transaction on June 13 in an account belonging to a company that lists the Costa Rican lawyer as a general manager and the Venezuelan as a counter-signatory. The men, the companies and the bank were not named publicly.
The two associates had submitted paperwork for the receipt of US$9.7 million from a Venezuelan state company for the planned purchase of 10 million bars of soap, the agency said.
But police findings showed international transactions were far higher, with $15.5 million deposited.
Investigators said last year that several million dollars were deposited internationally to accounts belonging to the two men for planned purchases, but the money was instead deposited to bank accounts in the United States, China and Panama.
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BLOG: Google Server Not Found?
Over the past while I’ve received a number of complaints on the connection to Qcostarica, the site is not accessible, non-existent even. Server not found!
Subscribers of Tigo (formerly Amnet) and ICE internet have found this happening for some time. Sites like Google, Amazon, Yahoo, etc. all unavailable at some point in time during the course of the day.
I am not talking about a slow connection, the browser searching, no an actual “server cannot be found”.
The problem is not in the website, rather the ISP (internet service provider), you know the folks you hand over each month money for a connection that is less than optimal?
For example, in searching Google.com I get a failed response, but if search on Google.ca, for instance, I get a full connection. How is that possible?
If anyone can shed some light on why this is happening and more important, a permanent solution, please add your comments below. I and many out there will appreciate it.
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President Will Sue Anyone Who Offends Her On Social Media
Alexander Rodríguez, the lawyer for Presidenta Laura Chinchilla, told Repretel news that anyone making offensive and derogatory comments about her can expect to be sued.
Rodriguez explained that is not a matter of cyber espionage or censure, rather a matter of respect for the presidenta.
The lawyer told Repretel news that an employee in his law firm has been assigned to real all messages posted on the social media, like Facebook and Twitter, for example, about the presidenta.
Criminal lawyer, Rodrigo Araya, added that in these types of cases, as evdence a simpe copy of the comment will suffice in court.
Earlier this week, the presidenta filed as suit against a hotel operator for alleged defamation. In the suit the president i seeking ¢100 million colones in damages.
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Sound Costa Rican Road Engineering. Not.
This photo comes to us from our Facebook friends at Solo en Costa Rica, demonstrating sound road engineering in Costa Rica. Not. Just in case you are interested, this intersection is in Barva de Heredia.
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65% of Drivers No Registered With Cosevi
Have you filed your contact information with the Consejo de Seguridad Vial (Cosevi)t? If like most, probably not. In fact,
Despite that the deadline is “today”, the Cosevi says that only 455.000 (35%)of the 1.3 million licensed drivers have submitted the form.
(Form is included at the bottom of the this article).
The Ley de Transito requires every licensed driver to submit his or her contact information to the Cosevi, the information used for notices of appeals and any other communications from the drivers licensing office.
According to Deputy Minister of Transport, Silvia Bolanos, the public will be encouraged to register themselves. However, since there is no fine for not doing so, there is no real incentive for drivings complying with the law.
So, what happens if you don’t register? Nothing really.
As of today, the Cosevi will be faced with the task of assigning an email to all the drivers who have yet to register. The process, according to Cosevi officials, is to enter the information into the database and then publish it in the official government newsletter, La Gaceta. The Cosevi will them use “that” email to send you notices.
Registering your email is as simple as sending the a copy of the scanned form and ID to direccionelectronicavial@csv.go.cr.
The form can also be delivered personally at the Cosevi licensing office in La Uruca (San Jose), any traffic office or traffic (Transito) police or Riteve station across the country.
The form requests the name, phone number and ID (cedula or passport) of the license driver, an email, physical address and a signature.
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Presidenta: “Almost No Poor In Public Sector”
In a speech at the Instituto Nacional de Aprendizaje (INA), presidenta Laura Chinchilla said that “there are almost no poor in the public sector”.
The presidenta said on Wednesday, at the National Training Institutes’ launch of the Arts and Crafts Centre that “there may be public workers who earn less than others, but few in comparison to the private sector, where poverty is around 20%”.r
The comments were in reference to the protest marches on Tuesday that amassed a large number of public sector employees. Chinchilla questioned those who took part in the manifestation, added that “there many in the private sector that would give anything to work in the public sector”.
In her speech, the Presidenta thanked those public sector employees (an estimated 10% of the 300.000 civil servants) who did not take part in the manifestations.
Chinchilla’s comments were quickly rejected by the public sector unions.
Albino Vargas, head of the Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos y Privados – one of the largest public sector unions – said the presidenta’s comments are “unfortunate” and even “disrespectful”.
In the same vein, Sebastian Villalobos, head of the Sindicato de Trabajadores Hacendarios y del Servicio de Aduanas, said Chinchilla’s position reflects “an ignorance” as many public sector employees earn minimal wage and live in debt.
Similar opinions were voiced by various public sector union leaders, including Jorge Arguedas, head of the Asociación Nacional de Técnicos y Trabajadores de la Energía y las Comunicaciones (Anttec).
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Paul Watson: Costa Rica Is “Serving Boy” to Japan
Paul Watson, the fugitive founder of the environmental group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, is back in the Costa Rica news again, saing that the government had charged him with a crime that doesn’t exist in a country that is being a “serving boy” to Japan, which wants him extradited.
Watson, 62, was charged in Costa Rica with endangering a Costa Rican shark fishing boat and its crew in 2002.
In a telephone interview aired Wednesday on Costa Rica’s Rainforest Radio, Watson said his lawyers told him that crime doesn’t exist in the country.
“Costa Rica has been a serving boy to Japan in this case,” said Watson, adding that he suspects Costa Rica wants to arrest him and turn him over to Japan in exchange of economic aid.
Watson and his group have repeatedly clashed with Japanese fishing fleets they accuse of illegally hunting whales, sharks and other endangered sea animals, prompting Japan to call Sea Shepherd a terrorist group.
Watson has become well-known for his attempts to disrupt Japanese whalers through Animal Planet’s “Whale Wars” TV show.
Sea Shepherd says Watson was filming a documentary at the time of the alleged incident with the Costa Rican crew, which took place in Guatemalan waters in 2002.
The U.S.-based group said it encountered an illegal shark finning operation run by a Costa Rican ship, the Varadero, and told the crew to stop and head to port to be prosecuted. The crew accused Sea Shepherd of trying to kill them by ramming their ship.
Watson has been on the run from authorities in three countries since May 2012, when he was detained in Germany on a Costa Rican extradition warrant. The Canadian skipped bail after learning that Japan, too, was seeking his extradition from Germany.
German authorities issued a warrant for Watson’s arrest after he failed to report to police as required under his bail conditions, which also included a 250,000 euro ($320,000) bond.
Watson, who left Greenpeace in 1977 to set up the more action-oriented Sea Shepherd, also criticized the Costa Rican government for failing to protect an environmentalist who was recently shot to death while trying to protect leatherback turtles along the country’s Caribbean coast.
Last month, Jairo Mora Sandoval was found dead on a beach authorities said is also used by drug traffickers.
The 26-year-old “wouldn’t have been in a dangerous situation if Costa Rica were doing its job to protect turtles and other species,” Watson said.
Mora Sandoval was a volunteer with the nonprofit group Widecast, which abandoned its work to protect turtle nests from poachers in Moin beach in Limon province after his killing.
To show his solidarity with Costa Rican environmentalists, Watson said he was offering a $30,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons who killed Mora Sandoval.
“I would like to offer the Costa Rican government our services to protect these beaches,” Watson added.
In February, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals labeled Watson’s group pirates.
“You don’t need a peg leg or an eye patch,” Chief Judge Alex Kozinski wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel. “When you ram ships; hurl glass containers of acid; drag metal-reinforced ropes in the water to damage propellers and rudders; launch smoke bombs and flares with hooks; and point high-powered lasers at other ships, you are, without a doubt, a pirate, no matter how high-minded you believe your purpose to be.”
The same court in December ordered the organization to keep its ships at least 500 yards from Japanese whalers. The whalers have since accused the protesters of violating that order at least twice in February.
With files from Associated Press
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In Costa Rica What Goes Down, Goes Up? Asks Q
Being highly touted as a substantial savings only a few days ago, the government entity ARESEP has released an “OOOOPS”, and the price per litre of gasoline is going up ¢9 colones and not down ¢4 colones as promised.
A quick ¢13 colon switch raising the cost for a liter of Plus to US$1.41 or ¢707 colones. At today’s exchange rate that brings it to US$5.45 per US gallon. A Little expensive considering light crude for August delivery is down to US$95.
Nothing new.
ARESEP simply side stepped the entire issue by saying that it discovered another one of its mathematical mistakes on Monday. However, I am more than casually suspicious that is not the case.
While the massive anti-government protest might not have had much impact, the threat of gas stations to shut down for a day and not accept credit cards seems to have worked an economic miracle for them.
They announced the plan on Friday, to take place on the following Wednesday and voila…the government folds its tent and the consumer pays.
The same tactic used by the motorcycles, porteadores (gypsy cabs) the medical staff at the public health system, the real taxis (red ones) and the public universities. Groups with gripes need to hold up and disrupt the country one at a time in order to get government attention and their desired results.
Maybe the San Ramon folks need to block off the route more often so Doña Laura really gets the point that they want a promised road and not willing to pay an $8 round trip toll. She did put it limbo but has not quite gotten out of mess yet.
So, protesting on a macro level is just too complicated for the administration to comprehend. They cannot fathom the people of Costa Rica are demanding much improved governmental practices than what we have been given. In short, the national strike clearly demonstrated a deep, very deep deception with government and indeed democracy itself.
A good strategy to get what you want, is to cause isolated guerrilla type havoc. It seems effective especially when we see how well the gasoline stations did it.
This government is just not a multitasking administration!
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Costa Rica Says It Will Wait Before Raising Concerns Over Canal in Nicaragua
Concerned about affect on the riverbeds of the San Juan river, which runs along the border, Costa Rica’s Foreign Minister, Enrique Castillo, said on Wednesday that his country will wait for Nicaragua to define the canal’s route before raising concerns with the Nicaraguan government.
In his comments, Castillo said, even if the canal along Lake Nicaragua, it would affect the riverbeds of the San Juan river and the San Carlos river in northern Costa Rica.
Earlier this month, Nicaragua’s Legislative Assembly approved and voted to grant Hong Kong-based HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co. a 50-year concession to study, then possibly build and run the canal.
A first proposal says it would run through Lake Nicaragua, that country’s primary source of fresh water.
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FDI In Latin America And Caribbean Hits Record High
By Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com – In 2012, Latin America and the Caribbean received a record USD173.4bn of foreign direct investment (FDI) (6.7 percent more than in 2011), despite an external context characterized by shrinking FDI flows worldwide, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
The figures are attributable to the region’s steady economic growth, high prices for raw materials and the impressive returns on investments related to natural resource exploitation, according to the report Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 2012, which was launched at the Commission’s headquarters in Santiago, Chile.
ECLAC predicts that this year’s FDI inflows to the region will range between a fall of 3 percent and a rise of 7 percent.
Brazil remains the main recipient of FDI, despite the slight 2 percent decrease recorded in 2012, when it received USD65.3bn – or 41 percent of regional inflows. In 2012, the largest increases were represented by Peru (which received USD12.2bn) and Chile (USD30.3bn), making the latter the second largest recipient of FDI.
Other countries that posted higher figures than in 2011 were Argentina (27 percent), Paraguay (27 percent), Bolivia (23 percent), Colombia (18 percent) and Uruguay (8 percent). In Central America, the most striking results were El Salvador (34 percent), Guatemala (18 percent), Costa Rica (5 percent), Honduras (4 percent) and Panama (10 percent) (which remains the subregion’s main recipient).
Mexico’s figures were much lower than in 2011, and this is largely attributable to the USD4.1bn flotation of 25 percent of the subsidiary of Spain’s Santander bank. Other countries that experienced falls in 2012 were Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
FDI inflows to the Caribbean rose for the third year in a row, but failed to reach the record levels of 2008. The main recipient is the Dominican Republic, with inflows swelling by 59 percent in 2012.
United States and European Union countries remain the main investors in Latin America and the Caribbean, with Canada and Japan also making significant contributions. Having said that, 2012 saw a dramatic rise in the proportion of FDI from the region’s own countries (14 percent of the total). A high percentage of the investment received cannot be attributed to any particular economy because of the increasingly common practice of transnationals channelling their investment abroad through subsidiaries in third countries.
Outward direct investment by Latin American and Caribbean countries abroad grew by 17 percent between 2011 and 2012, to reach USD48.7bn. This is 2 percent higher than the record reached in 2010. In the past decade, most investments came from Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, while in 2012 they came almost exclusively from Mexico and Chile.
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