The Cámara Costarricense de Hoteles (CCHCR) – Costa Rica’s Chamber of Hotels – is calling the Avianca-Taca decision to cancel five flights and layoff 261 people as “despicable”.

The CCHCR criticized the airline for making the announcement hours before the changes went into effect and not giving the industry and employees time to react.

Last week TACA airlines, which is now owned by the holding company that also owns Colombia’s Avianca made the announcement, saying it was part of the company’s restructuring, cutting five direct flights from Costa Rica. Passengers will now have to take flights with stops in Taca’s hub in El Salvador or Avianca’s hub in Colombia.

The CCHCR is demanding Civil Aviation, Costa Rica’s Tourim Board (ICT) and Presidenta Laura Chinchilla to take action to correct the situation.

The brand name TACA will diasppear at the end of this month, replaced with only single brand, AVIANCA.

The Deputy Director of the Dirección de Inteligencia y Seguridad (DIS) was involved in a driving accident Sunday night while driving apparently drunk.

According to the Policia de Transito director, German Marin, Jose Luis Torres, was arrested after being involved in an accident with another vehicle in the area of San Antonio de Escazú, 200 metres east and 100 north of the church.

At first, the traffic police did not disclose the name of the DIS official or the details of the accident, only saying it was a high ranking official. But thanks to the social media the name was quickly provided and authorities joined in divulging the details.

According to reports, the driver of the truck hit by Torres decided to take the car keys from the DIS official when he smelled alcohol and waited for authorities to arrive on the scene.

Torres refused an onsite breathalyzer, prompting his arrest and a visit to the Fiscalía de Flagrancia (Flagrancy Court), where he was duly processed for what he appeared to be driving under the influence of alcohol.

The Escazú municipal police were the first to arrive at the scene of the accident that occurred at around 7pm. Christopher Madrigal, a municipal police officer, told the press that he smelled liquor on the driver who identified himself as the DIS deputy director and that he refused a breathalyzer test.

The Ministerio Publico (Prosecutor’s office) confirmed that the DIS official was questioned and taken to a clinic for a blood test.

The Prosecutor is now waiting on the results of the blood test, meanwhile the courts let Torres free.

If Torres is found with more than a 0.75 blood alcohol content he faces criminal charges for reckless driving.

The internet, through social networks and pages to collect signatures, has become the relief of many Costa Ricans who criticize Presidenta Laura Chinchilla’s use of a private jet to travel to Peru.

And, despite the humour known as “memes”, the criticism is so strong that many feel the Presidenta should be the next main character in the Colombian telenovela (soap opera) “Escobar”, that portrays the life of drug trafficker Pablo Escobar.

Collages, cartoons and jokes all appear on Facebook, Intagram, Twitter, Pinterest and many others, all taking shots at the disrespect that the Presidenta and her group of “disloyals”.

On one site, www.avaaz.org, a collection of signatures has begun, asking the Presidenta to step down from office because she has “disappointed the people of Costa Rica”.

“Laura Chinchilla heads the most corrupt government in recent times in Costa Rica…” says the Avaaz post that has so far collected 746 signatures.

The petition as filed by Sergio R and asks the public to sign on this statement:

“Based on endless government corruption by the Laura Chinchilla government and her inability to rule and as a result of policies to attack the rights and freedoms of all Costa Ricans, the people of Costa Rica represented by the undersigned demand the resignation of Laura Chinchilla in charge of President of the Republic”.

Costa Rican authorities arrested four members of a drug ring charged with smuggling cocaine via boat from South America to Mexico, a case described as unusual because it involved Costa Rican rather than foreign traffickers.

La Nacion reports that the suspects were arrested as part of a series of raids carried out by the country’s anti-drug police. The crew is accused of using Costa Rican fishing boats to move cocaine shipments from South America to Mexico. The crackdown comes after three suspected members of the same drug trafficking organization were captured 150 miles off the coast of Ecuador in late February, on board a speedboat packed with more than 300 kilos of cocaine.

Among those arrested was a man with the last name Gamboa Gomez, the presumed leader of the group.

Costa Rica is typically used as a stopover point for drug trafficking organizations moving cocaine shipments northwards through Central America. Still, cases in which drug traffickers make the long journey from Costa Rica to South America to pick up cocaine shipments — without using other stopover points such as the Colombian coast or Panama along the way — are more unusual.

Costa Rica’s security minister noted that the case was also “new” because it involved a Costa Rica-based organization that used boats to transport cocaine. Boats are typically used by foreign drug trafficking organizations to move cocaine shipments, while Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast was merely used as a refueling point and a logistical center, he said. However, in this case, the disguised fishing boats would sail from Golfito, off Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, towards South America.

The minster suggested that the ships sailed under the Costa Rican flag because they followed a route typically used by fishing boats, and believed they could detract the attention of international authorities.

Mexican crime organizations, namely Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel, are staking their claim to the Central American country and taking advantage of its “inadequate resources” in fighting organized crime.

Cocaine seizures continue to surpass all-time highs as more than five tons have been confiscated between January and March, and the issue of security remains high on the list of priorities for current Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla.

During a visit from President Barack Obama earlier this month, Chinchilla stressed the importance of the US’s role in helping Costa Rica combat rising insecurity.

The death of Canadian in his Escazú home appears to be a victim of a hit and not a home invasion.

Brad Deering, 42,of Vancouver, Canada and three others were inside his gated community home in Guachipelin (west of San José) Thursday morning, when three men stormed the house, shot and killed Deering and tied up the others.

According to local private investigator, Douglas Smith, who spoke to the Vancouver newspaper The Province, local police are calling the attack a home invasion, but “that doesn’t make sense.”

“This wasn’t a household robbery this was a hit,” Smith said from his office in Costa Rica. “They had one intention and one intention alone of capping him.”

While Smith isn’t investigating the case, he was made aware of the slaying by close friends of Deering.

According to Smith, three men dressed as security personnel fooled a guard outside Deering’s home into letting them in by claiming they were they to fix an alarm system.

They tied up the guard, crashed Deering’s home, tied up three of the four people inside while Deering tried to escape, but the intruders ultimately shot Deering three times.

“A home invasion usually is at night and they crash the doors, crash the gates and … most of the time in home invasions they wait for people not to be there,” said Smith. “In this case they went in prepared, tied people up in broad daylight.”

“It doesn’t measure up as a home invasion.”

According to Smith, Deering “sold futures” in Costa Rica — which is unregulated and a dangerous business in the country.

“Buying futures as an investment is the most dangerous, most speculative investment you can possibly do,” he said. “Buying them from any broker in Costa Rica you’re playing in the twilight zone.”

Smith speculates that someone targeted Deering because they either lost money in a deal with him, or simply because his wealth was known, as he owned three fancy cars and lived in a high-end home.

“He had all the toys in the world,” said Smith. “He made himself a target in Costa Rica.”

But according to Smith, those who knew Deering had “nothing but nice things” to say about him. He also had a young daughter around 4-years-old from a previous marriage.

Besides Presidenta Laura Chinchilla, her husband, José Maria Rico, the former Communications Minister, Franscisco Chacón and his wife, the Minister of Foreign Trade, Anabel Gonzalez, who we know flew in the plane last weekend, the rest of the cast of characters who have flown the plane that allegedly belongs to the Colombian allegedly investigated for ties to drug trafficking, is still a total mystery.

Telenoticias, the foremost television news service in Costa Rica, attempted to know this what would seem very simple information to obtain.

However, what they found is nothing. Nothing from Civil Aviation. Nothing from the immigration service. Nothing from Sa José airport management.

The airport manager says they only handle flight plan and pilot information, the source and destination of the flights and other technical information on the aircraft. The names of the occupants are not included in their information list. Any more information was referred to Aviación.

This is where the Telenoticias news team hit a brick wall.

At Aviación, deputy director Alvaro Vargas promised to fetch the (passenger) information, but never did.

At the immigration service the news team was told that they (immigration) do not file by the call letters of the aircraft, even though there is space on the form to do so. The immigration service (also) promised to provide a list of all forms filed during the past month and they (also) did not provide the information as promised.

Celso Gamboa, the new director of Costa Rica’s spy, er, intelligence service, the DIS

The Dirección de Inteligencia y Seguridad (DIS) is the  intelligence service of Costa Rica, is the public body with the function of informing the president on national security issues. And it is this service, a body attached and subordinate to the Ministerio de la Presidencia, that is at the centre of the presidenta’s private trip to Peru scandal last Saturday.

On Thursday, as part of the house cleaning by Presidenta Laura Chinchilla, Mauricio Boraschi, was removed as the DIS director, replaced by Celso Gamboa, who was the viceministro de Seguridad de Costa Rica.

On Friday, the new director  in an interview with the radio program ‘Nuestra voz’ (Our Voice) defended the work of Boraschi, even though the Presidenta said the night before, on a television address to the nation, that “he (Boraschi) let his guard down in his responsibility to protect and prevent the use of the private plane in question”.

At the helm of Costa Rica’s intellegince service, some call a “spy agency”, Gamboa affirms that “the role of the DIS is to protect national security and not spy or investigate on citizens, as some people believe”.

Gamboa would not elaborate on the private plane scandal that has made national and international headlines this week, simply saying, “there was an error exposing the integrity of the president”.

For the new director of the spy, er, intelligence service, his priority is, he says, to protect the physical integrity and dignity of the president.

The DIS is located in La Sabana, in a grey building with no physical identification at the end (or start) of the ruta 22, across from McDonalds.

The DIS was created on May 14, 1994, under the presidency of José María Figueres Olsen. It has its legal framework regulated by Ley 7410, as body to inform the president on national security matters.

Subsequently, by was of decrees, the govenrment made changes to the role of the DIS, the latest in 2005, under the presidenty of Able Pacehco de la Espriella, defining the DIS as a police force.

The DIS annual budget information is not revealed.

Despite all the sturm und drang, a minor invasion of its troops and an international law suit in the World Court at the Hague, Nicaragua has decided that it will not build an inter-ocean canal on the San Juan River, after all.

The information was sent to Costa Rican Foreign Minister Rene Castro by Nicaraguan Deputy Foreign Minister Orlando Gomez Wednesday. Gomez cited a technical study by the Chinese-funder HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co. Ltd.

Gomez sent all the Central American nations the news, promising details later. Just two weeks ago, during the visit of U.S. President Barak Obama, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega reiterated to Obama and the presidents of other Central American nations his determination to build the canal.

Although Deputy Minister of Foreign Relations Carlos Roverssi had noted the resistance of the Costa Rican government as an obstacle for Ortega to complete his project (see previous article) Roverssi still was skeptical. “We still can’t believe it,” he said, “We’re satisfied with the decision of the Nicaraguan government.”

Roverssi said he had information that potential investors would not get on board the project if Costa Rica opposed the plan. After problems encountered during the preparatory dredging of the river that provoked the Costa Rican government to protest environmental damage, Chinchilla’s Administration would not approve.

“This has been a difficult struggle the government of the republic, headed by the President,” he said, “to try of avoid using the San Juan for a canal due to the devastating effects it would cause in both Costa Rican and Nicaraguan territory.”

Analysis: Some of our sources tell us that Eden Pastora, who was authorized by Ortega to dredge the canal, told Costa Rican television that the main factor in the withdrawal from the canal plan was the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

But not even oil-rich Venezuela could have financed the canal alone. It was no doubt that this was a contributing factor but not the deciding one. No doubt the “technical reasons” cited by the Nicaraguan Deputy Foreign Minister has to do with the cold diplomatic climate between the nations and economic factors.

Ortega will probably blame Costa Rica–that is standard with most Nicaraguan governments when they have egg on their faces. But make no mistake–Ortega has only himself to blame for the collapse of the project.

From the very beginning, Ortega’s attitude toward the spirited little republic to his south generally has been contemptuous and high handed. In nearly any other country he would be in deep political doo-doo for having either proposed such a grandiose plan or having failed.

But not in Nicaragua.

Source: iNews.co.cr