On the third anniversary of her government, Presidenta Laura Chinchilla acknowledged that her to some conflicts have been slow, but did not specify which ones.
Although she argued that she has been constant with dialogue, the Presidenta also admitted some lapses in communication channels when situations reached a boiling point, and consequences were inevitable.
In a bried interview with Amelirueda.com, Chinchilla said that the style of governing is one of the things that has to change in this last year in office.
The President also acknowledged deficiencies in facilitating access to information by the public and needs to promote transparency of the decisions made by administration officials.
Basically, these are the items of focusing by Presidenta during the next twelve months.
According to political analysts, the Presidenta’s last year in office will be much of nothing, probably spending her time bolstering her image and less of governing.
The presidential elections are in February 2014, with the new president taking office the first week in May. Under Costa Rica’s reformed constitution, a president can only run for re-election after skipping out one term. Thus, Chinchilla could make a run in 2018.
Companies in Costa Rica are concerned about the increase in corruption in the country, this according to a survey published by the Costa Rica Chamber of Commerce (Cámara de Comercio de Costa Rica) of 54 companies.
According to the report (published in September 2012), 93% of the companies interviewed consider the problem of corruption in the country as serious or very serious. This is reinforced by the fact that 46% of the companies reported having been proposed by a corrupt public official.
Asked how the private sector can fight corrupion, the majority of the companies surveyed said that developing policies and codes of ethics to not tolerate or promote corrupt practices and resort to filing complaints is the key.
The survey also found that in 35% of the cases corruption is related to abuse of authority, in the negotiation of contracts, followed by favouritism and influence peddling.
The report also notes that in many cases complaints aren’t filed due to the high cost (in economic terms, time and processes) and that there is no penalty. Worse, the companies must continue facing the same corrupt officials.
Ovarian cancer, often been referred to as a ‘silent killer’, is a cancerous growth that is responsible for 67 deaths each year in Costa Rica.
The signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer are frequently absent early on and when they exist they may be subtle. In most cases, the symptoms persist for several months before being recognized and diagnosed. Most typical symptoms include: bloating, abdominal or pelvic pain, difficulty eating, and possibly urinary symptoms. In such cases, you can visit the site https://www.cvmus.com/ to understand the symptoms and their causes. Remember that the earlier you diagnose the cause, the more the chance for you to get cured and healthy.
Other findings include an abdominal mass, back pain, constipation, tiredness and a range of other non-specific symptoms, as well as more specific symptoms such as abnormal vaginal bleeding or involuntary weight loss. There can be a build-up of fluid (ascites) in the abdominal cavity.
Ovarian cancer is associated with age, family history of ovarian cancer (9.8-fold higher risk), anaemia (2.3-fold higher), abdominal pain (sevenfold higher), abdominal distension (23-fold higher), rectal bleeding (twofold higher), postmenopausal bleeding (6.6-fold higher), appetite loss (5.2-fold higher), and weight loss (twofold higher).
In most cases, the exact cause of ovarian cancer remains unknown. The risk of developing ovarian cancer appears to be affected by several factors:
Older women who have never given birth, and those who have a first or second degree relative with the disease, have an increased risk.
Hereditary forms of ovarian cancer can be caused by mutations in specific genes (most notably BRCA1 and BRCA2, but also in genes for hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer).
Infertile women and those with a condition called endometriosis, and those who use postmenopausal estrogen replacement therapy are at increased risk.
According to statistics, each year 133 Ticas (Costa Rican women) are diagnosed each year. Micheal Liberman, medical manager at the pharmaceutical Roche, says that 80% of the case are detected at later stages, and there is no procedure for early detection.
“In proportion, is a very similar figure to the global statistics. The importance is that it is a deadly disease, then even though the rate of incidence sounds low, is a very high figure (…) would be the second leading cause of death from gynecological cancer after cervical cancer”, said Liberman.
Worldwide, around 140,000 women die of ovarian cancer every year. Even modern screening tests for ovarian cancer, which include a blood test for the CA 125 marker, combined with ultrasound, often result in unnecessary surgery and “..are failing to catch early signs of the disease..”, a study at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center revealed.
Main types of ovarian cancers (tumors)
Epithelial ovarian cancer is by far the most common form of ovarian cancer. Germ cell and stromal ovarian cancers are much less common. Ovarian cancer can also result from a cancer somewhere else in the body that has spread:
Epithelial ovarian cancer (epithelial ovarian tumors) – derived from cells on the surface of the ovary. It occurs mainly in adults.
Germ cell ovarian cancer (germ cell ovarian tumors) – derived from the egg-producing cells within the body of the ovary. This rare type of cancer more commonly affects children and teenage girls.
Stromal ovarian cancer (sex cord stromal tumors) – develops within the cells that hold the ovaries together.
Cancers from other organs in the body can spread to the ovaries – metastatic cancers – a metastatic cancer is one that spreads from where it first arose as a primary tumor to other locations in the body.
It was the evening of April 22 when Presidenta Laura Chinchilla took to national television to announce that the concession contract with the Brazilian company, oAS, for the reconstruction of the San José – San Ramón project was cancelled by “mutual accord”.
However, last night in an interview with 7 Dias, the Presideta contradicted herself, saying “there never was by mutual agreement, but a political decision”. Watch the video below.
“There have been no agreements”, Doña Laura answered her interviewer, Gerardo Zamora.
The Flip Flop. “What I said was that I was going to ask the respective authorities that the political decision was to terminate by mutual agreement, but that is a process that must be attached to technical and legal processes”, said chinchilla.
The Presidenta chose not to answer if there will be compensation payment for the cancellation of the contract.
“I will not comment on how the mutual agreement will be implemented, it is not up to me, it is a legal issue”, were the words of the Presidenta.
What we do know is that on Monday (after the taping of the interview) the government confirmed that it had sent OAS a letter of the decision to cancel and that minister of Planning, Roberto Gallardo, informed that an auditing firm would be hire (by way of tender) to assess the costs incurred by OAS.
An answer by OAS is expected within 60 days to terminate the contract by “mutual agreement”.
The video following is he report by TeleNoticias and clips of the 7Dias interview. Scroll to minute 1:05 for the Presidenta’s answers.
A solar home that consumes less natural resources and produces minimal waste is the entry that a group of 35 students from Costa Rica’s Instituto Tecnológico (TEC) – Institute of Technology – will take to a global competition.
With the solar home project, an interdisciplinary initiative involving 12 career groups of the TEC, including architecture, construction engineering, information technology and business administration, Costa Rica intends to win the European Solar Decathlon, a competition in which young people will face 19 other universities worldwide.
The aim is to create a sustainable housing model using clean energy, said the project manager, Juan Carlos Martí.
Currently, the team of students is refining the concept that will become a housing proposal for a Costa Rica of the future.
Solar Decathlon Europe has contributed 100.000 Euros to the Costa Rican team for classifying. However, according to Marti, the amount barely covers one third of the total estimate to complete the project that includes the cost of moving the house to Europe.
The Solar Decathlon Europe is an international competition that challenges collegiate teams to design and build houses powered exclusively by the sun. The winner of the competition is the team able to score the most points in 10 contests.
Modeled after the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, the first Solar Decathlon Europe began in Madrid, Spain, in June 2010. Decathletes from 17 teams spent 10 days competing in the Villa Solar near the Royal Palace of Madrid (Palacia Real). A combination of task completion, measurement, and jury scoring determined Solar Decathlon Europe’s first champion: Virginia Tech. The second Solar Decathlon Europe occurred in spring/summer 2012.
This competition takes place during even years, alternating with the U.S.-based competition, by agreement between the United States and Spanish governments.
In order to discreetly reach abused children, one aid organization designed a clever billboard that only displays a hotline number for people shorter than 4’5″.
The secret is a precisely serrated surface, a Lenticular lens, that reflects light differently to those looking from above and below a specified height. Shorter people (children) see the following message on a street sign: “If somebody hurts you, phone us and we’ll help you,” along with a confidential number to call the Spanish organization, Aid to Children and Adolescents.
Adults see, “Sometimes, child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it.” The ad is especially designed for children who may be traveling with their abuser.
Lenticular lens have been a popular gimmick for decades, from toy rulers to a Species II movie poster (below) that changes images as a pedestrian walks passed it.
n the future, we could imagine more advanced warning systems. IBM is reportedly developing ads that remotely targets a user’s individual interests, based on radio frequency-enabled cards that they expect consumers will carry with them. Similarly, malls can now track users’ cell phone signal as they travel from store to store for marketing data. It’s not hard to imagine a billboard beaming abuse-notification messages to a child’s cell phone, or, more discretely, to a technology like Google Glass.
For an explanation of the ad, watch the video below.
Costa Rica News – When it comes to dating in Costa Rica it can be very difficult as many times you need to teleport back in time to play the dating games that you learned in middle school……for adult relationships.
You fell in love quickly and thought the ecstatic feeling would last forever. You may have found out by now that you were in for an emotional roller coaster when dating a Costa Rican woman or “Tica”.
Ticas tend to be very jealous. After a while they will call more often to see who you are with and where you are. If you decide to break up note that Ticas are very sensitive. They will fight the breakup and get more possessive. Girls breaking up with Ticos (Costa Rican men0, on the other hand, will find that they will get the cold shoulder and be shunned from the guys group of friends.
For those who keep dating, a note about motels: they are not cheaper than hotels and are not a place to spend the night. Most motels charge by the hour and are used for only a few hours at a time. If you are going to spend the night you can find a cheaper hotel.
In Costa Rica birth control is available over the counter without a prescription. In fact, this has not lowered teen pregnancy statistics.
50% of marriages in Costa Rica end in divorce. Some are immediate because of some kind of abuse following the union. In most cases the mother is awarded custody of the children as well as child support and alimony. Any property acquired during the marriage is generally split evenly.
Hopefully any relationship you get involved in will have better luck than the above problems of drama, birth control, single parents, and divorce. Good luck at being in the successful 50 percent!
Oscar Arias, former president of Costa Rica (1980-1984 - 2006-2010) and winner of the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize.
Two-time Costa Rican president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias believes his nation’s greatest contribution to the world is peace, which has come in the form of a homegrown initiative approved last month by the UN as the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).
Arias made the statement during an exclusive interview with Gulf Times. “This is the most important legacy that Costa Rican diplomacy has given to humanity and the world. I feel so proud that this was born in my foundation,” said the Nobel Laureate, who is also the founder of the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress.
The foundation was set up with the monetary reward he received from the Nobel Peace Prize and produced a code of conduct for arms transfers that gained support at a New York meeting in 1997. “I never thought I would see it approved by the UN in my lifetime. All the hard work put in to convince nations around the world that arms trade needs to be regulated to prevent trafficking that fuels conflict has paid off,” he said.
Arias was in Doha en route to Bahrain to attend the Interaction Council, an association of former heads of state.
The ATT was adopted by the UN General Assembly on April 2 as a resolution with 154 votes in favour, three against by North Korea, Iran, and Syria and 23 abstentions, including China and Russia, who are among the world’s leaders in weapon exports.
During his first term as president from 1986 to 1990, Central America was riddled with conflict and proxy wars between the two superpowers engaged in the Cold War. After proposing a peace plan that didn’t require a military solution as an end to conflicts between governments and rebels in El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and Panama – a move that wasn’t in the interest of either of the two nations but solved the conflicts within a decade and landed him the Nobel Prize – Arias started dreaming, planning and promoting a legislation to end the life support of conflicts Costa Rica had peacefully witnessed at its borders: arms smuggling and trade.
“Costa Rica abolished its military in 1948 but I kept my country safe by isolating it from the conflicts. The next step was to offer a peace plan to our neighbours in which all parties were involved, even at an international level, and that democracy was a prerequisite for peace. It worked,” he said. “But the weapons were still there. ‘How did they get there in these conflicts and in all the others around the world?’ I was asking myself.”
The treaty regulates the estimated $70bn-a-year worth of commerce of conventional weapons and can become an international law if the parliaments of 50 UN member-nations approve the order to become such a law, according to Arias.
Costa Rica’s only diplomatic mission in the Arab World is in Qatar, set up during the second term of Arias (2006-2010) in line with his aim to boost Costa Rica’s diplomatic relations across the world. During his Doha visit, Arias met briefly with HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser; the visit also included Qatar Foundation and the Museum of Islamic Art.
“The architecture is spectacular, and while I may not be an expert in Islamic art, it’s very impressive that Qatar holds such a collection,” he said, adding that his foundation is working to establish a museum of peace. “I want this to show the world that not all conflicts have to be solved by military means. I want this to be my legacy. We’ve seen this in Central America, Northern Ireland, South Africa.”
The “boletas” or parking stubs that has been in use for street parking in San José will come to an end this week, replaced by the new electronic parking meters.
The Municipalidad de San José said it will continue to accept the paper stubs as proof of parking until the end of the week, but starting next no more when all the “boletas” in circulation lose their value.
It is estimated that some 5.000 vehicles use street parking spaces daily in San José. The Muni recently installed the electronic meters and is confident they will be a success.
The new meters can be loaded with parking space time by was of a cellular phone, virtual pins, credit and debit cards and on the municipality’s website.
Before the new meters were installed, street parking meant, after finding an empty parking space, locating a vendor or point of sale, like a nearby hotel, restaurant, etc.
Once the boleta was paid for a specific time, it was placed on the dash, inside the windshield, for street parking officials to control. Once time ran out, it meant a parking ticket.
With the new meters, the paper boleta is no more.
This also means the hundreds who depended on the sale of the boletas will be out of a self-made job.
On Friday night, during the meeting of the Central American presidents with U.S. President Barack Obama, Nicaragua’s president, Daniel Ortega, reiterated to his American counterpart that his government will build the inteoceanic canal.
Witness to the statement was Costa Rica’s minister of the Environment and Energy, Rene Castro, one of the attendees of the Central American Integration System (SICA) and United States dinner at the Teatro Nacional.
Daniel Ortega and Barack Obama together in Costa Rica on May 3, 2013
Chinese and American Investment would finance the canal
Daniel Ortega plans to build the canal during his presidency
Panama offers technical assistance
Costa Rica’s support is required for the project to go anywhere
According to Castro, who was Minister of Foreign Relations from May 8, 2010to August 1st, 2011 , President Ortega said the canal projec is moving ahead and will be built with Chinese and American investment.
“Very soon there will be two canals in Central America”, were the words spoken by Ortega says Castro.
During the dinner with Obama, each of the of the presidents of Central America took ten minutes to present their topic of interest.
What did Costa Rica say on this? “Nothing, we just took note. We all know that the project goes nowhere without Costa Rica’s support”, said Castro.
Costa Rica’s current Foreign Minister, Enrique Castillo, said on Monday that he di not hear what Ortega had said on the subject. However, he recalled hearing the President of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli, offering his Nicaraguan counterpart help with the development of the canal.
“He (Martinelli) said they were willing to provide technical assistance to Nicaragua, with the experience they had”, Castillo told La Nacion.
The Castillo version of the story is confirmed by Minister Castro, that Martinelli offered Ortega help if and when they are ready to build the canal.
Last September, Ortega announced that his government had signed a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese company that commits Hong Kong-based HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co. Ltd. to financing and building the Nicaraguan canal that would unite the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. The route would include passage through the San Juan river, a river that divides Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Costa Rica has navigational rights of the river, but it clearly belongs to Nicaragua.
Costa Rica and Nicaragua are currently before the International Court of Justice at The Hague on the neighbouring issues.
In October 2010, Costa Rica alleges Nicaragua invaded the area known as Isla Calero, while the government of Daniel Ortega says it belongs to Nicaragua.
Nicaragua Canal
The Inter-Oceanic Nicaragua Canal is a proposed waterway through Nicaragua to connect the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. Such a canal would follow rivers up to Lake Nicaragua and then 10+km through the isthmus of Rivas to reach the Pacific.
Such construction of a canal along the route using the San Juan River was proposed in the early colonial era. Louis Napoleon wrote an article about its feasibility in the early 19th century. The United States abandoned plans to build such a canal in the early 20th century after it purchased the French interests in the Panama Canal at a reasonable cost.
Speculation on a new canal continues. The steady increase in world shipping may make this an economically viable project. Alternatively, a railway, or a combined railway and oil pipeline, could be built to link ports on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Nicaragua has let contracts to Korean developers to construct a deepwater port and facilities at Monkey Point on the Atlantic coast to improve capacity there.
Several possible routes have been proposed for a canal in Nicaragua, all making use of Lake Nicaragua, the second largest lake in Latin America. Three routes have been discussed to carry traffic from the Atlantic up to the lake, which is at an elevation of 32 m (105 ft) above sea level:
from Bluefields, up the Rio Escondido and then an artificial canal to the lake
from Punta Gorda, up the Rio Punta Gorda and then an artificial canal to the lake
from San Juan de Nicaragua, up the San Juan River — with improvements and new locks — to the lake
An artificial canal would then be cut across the narrow isthmus of Rivas (its lowest point is 56 m (184 ft) above sea level) to reach the Pacific Ocean at San Juan del Sur or Brito.
The idea of building a canal through Central America is a very old one. The colonial administration of New Spain conducted preliminary surveys. The routes usually suggested ran across Nicaragua, Panama, or the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico.
In 1825 the newly established Federal Republic of Central America considered the canal. That year the Central American federal government hired surveyors to chart the route and contacted the government of the United States to seek financing and the engineering technology needed for building the canal, to the great advantage of both nations. A survey from the 1830s stated that the canal would be 278 km (172.7 mi) long and would generally follow the San Juan River from the Atlantic to Lake Nicaragua, then go through a series of locks and tunnels from the lake to the Pacific.
While officials in Washington, D.C. thought the project had merit, and Secretary of State Henry Clay formally presented it to the Congress of the United States in 1826, the plan was not approved. The US was worried about the poverty and political instability of Nicaragua, as well as the rival strategic and economic interests of the British government, which controlled both British Honduras (later Belize) and the Mosquito Coast.
On August 26, 1849, the Nicaraguan government signed a contract with the U.S. businessman Cornelius Vanderbilt. It granted his Accessory Transit Company the exclusive right to build a canal within 12 years and gave the same company sole administration of a temporary trade route in which the overland crossing through the Rivas isthmus was done by train and stagecoach. The temporary route operated successfully, quickly becoming one of the main avenues of trade between New York City and San Francisco. Civil war in Nicaragua and an invasion by filibuster William Walker intervened to prevent the canal from being completed.
Continued interest in the route was an important factor in the negotiation of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850. The canal idea was discussed seriously by businessmen and governments throughout the 19th century. In 1897, the United States’ Nicaraguan Canal Commission proposed this idea, as did the subsequent Isthmian Canal Commission in 1899. However, the commission also recommended that the French work on the Panama Canal should be taken over if it could be purchased for no more than $40,000,000. Since the French effort was in disarray, the U.S. was able to make the purchase at its price.
The Nicaraguan Canal Commission carried out the most thorough hydrological survey yet of the San Juan river and its watershed, and in 1899 concluded that an interocean project was feasible at a total cost of US$138m. At the same time the Geological Society of America published the “Physiography and Geology of Region Adjacent to the Nicaragua Canal Route” in its Bulletin in May 1899 which stands to this day as one of the most detailed geological surveys of the San Juan river region.
In the late 19th century, the United States government negotiated with President José Santos Zelaya to lease the land to build a canal through Nicaragua. Luis Felipe Corea, the Nicaraguan minister in Washington, wrote to US Secretary of State John Hay expressing the Zelaya government’s support for such a canal. The US signed the Sánchez-Merry Treaty with Nicaragua in case the negotiations for a canal through Colombia fell through, although the treaty was later rejected by John Hay. Before Corea completed a draft of the Nicaragua proposal, Congress was considering the Spooner Act, to authorize the Panama Canal. In addition to the promise of earlier completion of the Panama canal, opponents of the Nicaraguan canal cited the risk of volcanic activity at the Momotombo volcano. They favored construction of a canal through the isthmus of Panama.
According to Stephen Kinzer’s 2006 book Overthrow, in 1898 the chief of the French Canal Syndicate (a group that owned large swathes of land across Panama), Philippe Bunau Varilla, hired William Nelson Cromwell to lobby the U.S. Congress for the Panama Canal. In 1902, taking advantage of a year with increased volcanic activity in the Caribbean, Cromwell planted a story in the New York Sun reporting that the Momotombo volcano had erupted and caused a series of seismic shocks. This caused concern about its possible effects on a Nicaraguan canal. Cromwell arranged for leaflets with the stamps featuring Momotombo to be sent to every Senator, as “proof” of the volcanic activity in Nicaragua. An eruption in Saint-Pierre, Martinique, which killed 30,000 people, persuaded most of the U.S. Congress to vote in favour of Panama, leaving only eight votes in favour of Nicaragua. The decision to build the Panama Canal passed by four votes. William Nelson Cromwell was paid $800,000 for his lobbying efforts.
At the start of the 20th century, Nicaraguan president José Santos Zelaya tried to arrange for Germany and Japan to finance the canal. Having settled on the Panama route, the US opposed this proposal.
After the Panama Canal
Since the Panama Canal opened in 1914, the Nicaragua route has been reconsidered. Its construction would shorten the water distance between New York and San Francisco by nearly 800 kilometers (500 mi). Under the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty of 1916, the United States paid Nicaragua US$3 million for an option in perpetuity and free of taxation, including 99-year leases of the Corn Islands and a site for a naval base on the Gulf of Fonseca.
In 1929, the US Interocean Canal Board approved out a two-year detailed study for a ship canal route, known as the Sultan Report after its author, the US army engineer Col. Daniel Sultan. From 1930 to 1931 the US Army Corp of Engineers survey team of 300 men, surveyed the route of any future canal, called the Forty-Niners route because it followed closely the route that miners took in the 1840s California Gold Rush.[5] But Costa Rica protested that Costa Rican rights to the San Juan River had been infringed, and El Salvador maintained that the proposed naval base would affect both it and Honduras. Both protests were upheld by the Central American Court of Justice in rulings that were not recognized by either Nicaragua or the U.S. Both nations repealed the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty on 14 July 1970.
Between 1939 and 1940, with war in Europe underway, a new study was made for the construction of a barge canal. Three variants were considered with minimum channel depths of six-feet, ten-feet and twelve feet.
Present day
In 2004, the Nicaraguan government again proposed a canal through the country—large enough to handle post-Panamax ships of up to 250,000 tons, as compared to the approximately 65,000 tons that the Panama Canal can accommodate. The estimated cost of this scheme may be as much as US$25 billion, 25 times Nicaragua’s annual budget. Former President Enrique Bolaños has sought foreign investors to support the project. The scheme has met with strong opposition from environmentalists, who protest the damage that would be done to the rivers and jungle.The project will be like the original plans only in the fact that the US government would buy the land for investors to start building the canal.
In addition to the governmental waterway canal proposal, private proposals have been based on a land bridge across Nicaragua. The Intermodal System for Global Transport (SIT Global), involving Nicaraguan and Canadian and American investors, proposes a combined railway, oil pipeline, and fibre optic cable; a competing group, the Inter-Ocean Canal of Nicaragua, proposes building a railway linking two ports on either coast.
In 1999, Nicaragua’s National Assembly unanimously approved an exploration concession, Ley 319, for the construction of a shallow-draft waterway along the San Juan river, known as Ecocanal. This would connect Lake Nicaragua to the Caribbean, but would lack the inter-ocean link to the Pacific Ocean. This project is loosely based on the 1939/40 study.
It is possible that these schemes could exist in parallel to the proposed inter-ocean canal.
On October 2, 2006, President Enrique Bolaños, at a summit for Defense ministers of the Western Hemisphere, officially announced that Nicaragua intended to proceed with the project. Bolaños said that there was sufficient demand for two canals within the Central American isthmus. Bolaños proclaimed that the project would cost an estimated US$18 billion and would take approximately 12 years to construct. It could take one of six possible routes at approximately 280 km, reduce the transit time from New York to California by one day and a total of 800 km, would considerably reduce transit costs from Europe to China and Japan, and have capacity for ships of up to 250,000 tons.
The construction of the canal would more than double Nicaragua’s GDP based on the canal alone (exclusive of other investments which were estimated in Nicaragua as a result of the canal’s construction). Some sources suggest that construction of the canal would enable Nicaragua to become one of the wealthiest countries in Central America, and one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America in per capita terms. The government has been studying proposals for such a development. Supporters believe that all Central America would benefit from the construction of the canal. If a Nicaraguan canal were built, “it would bring an economic effervescence never seen before in Central America,” Bolaños said.[11]
In 2009, Russian President Dimitry Medvedev suggested that Russia would be interested in pursuing the construction of the inter-oceanic waterway canal. However, no progress has been made to date and the construction of the Third Set of Locks for the Panama Canal has apparently dampened Russian enthusiasm for the project. Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates has also expressed interest in sponsoring an inter-oceanic canal project.
On July 27, 2012 engineering services provider Royal HaskoningDHV announced that the Nicaraguan government has commissioned a feasibility study to be completed early 2013 at a cost of $720,000. The contract has been awarded to a consortium of Royal HaskoningDHV and Ecorys.
On September 26, 2012, the Nicaraguan government and a newly formed Chinese company have signed a memorandum of understanding that commits Hong Kong-based HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co. Ltd. to financing and building the Nicaraguan canal.Plans call for construction to be partially completed by 2019 when the canal would have the capacity to accommodate 416 million tonnes of cargo.
The Superintendencia General de Entidades Financieras (Sugef) is requiring banks to be more strict with dollar loans, as part of the new regulations it is has been in discussing with the banks, since last week.
Financial institutions, including cooperatives and mutuals have until May 30 to submit comments to the proposed rules. Subsequently, the Sugef will evaluate the comments and may incorporate them into the reforms to be approved by the Consejo Nacional de Supervisión del Sistema Financiero (Conassif).
The goal is to have the changes in effect between July and August. The proposed measures means a more rigorous assessment that banks make of their customers as wells as its inernal operation on issues such as liquidity.
The primary objective is to extend dollars creidt only to those with the ability to pay despite exchange rate fluctuations.
The proposed changes means banks will have to take a closer at its debtors, the guarantees and credit history. Currently, the “stress tests” are reserved for loans excessing ¢65 million colones. Although there are banks that already perfom strict evaluations of all its customers.
In addition, finacial institutions have to increase their reserves for any contingency by 0.5% of its total loan portfolio.
The changes will be gradual, financial institutions will have from three to 36 months.
Gilberto Serrano, president of the Asociación Bancaria Costarricense (ABC) – Costa Rican Banking Association – says the measures will make it more difficult for baks to make loans. “The provisions will disquality people to have access to cheap dollars, forced to borrow in colones, which is more expensive”, said Serrano.
The train to Cartago is ready to roll. The engine and cars have spit shined, the passengers are waiting to board. So, what’s the hold up?
It appears that a delay in the printing of the train tickets has kept the San José – Cartago whistle blowing silent.
Accordig to the Instituto Costarricense de Ferrocarriles (Incofer) the tickets are still at the printer and then require to be officialized, delaying the train service until Wednesday or Thursday next week.
Miguel Carabaguíaz, president of the Incofer, assures this is a small glitch in the process. “If you were to ask me if the train is ready today I would say, yes…but there are small details to work out”, says Carabaguíaz.
The commuter trip between San José (San Pedro) and Cartago is 30 minutes and costs ¢550 colones.
The Incofer expects to move some 5.500 people daily.
The Incofer reactivated train service in San José serveral years ago with the San Pedro – Pavas commuter service. Since it added service to Belén and Heredia centre and is working on reactivating the Heredia – Alajuela route.
Planning Minister, Roberto Gallardo, confirmed on Monday that the government has “officially” notified the Brazilian company, OAS, the cancellation of the concession contract.
Gallardo said that a letter by the Consejo Nacional de Concesiones detailed the reasons for the cancellation.
The Minister added that, through public tender, a company will be hired to calculate the payment of expenses incurred by OAS, an amount estimated at US$34 million dollars, which could be more based on the findings of the audit firm.
In cancelling the controversioal concession contract of the San José – San Ramón cotract, Presidenta Laura Chinchilla said on national television on April 22, the cancellation would not cost Costa Ricans. She did, however, explain that the company will be compensated for costs incurred in the process.
The high temperatures and the mugginess of the first days of May is expected to continue for the rest of the week, maybe even into next, says the national weather man.
Juan Diego Naranjo, of the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional (IMN), explained that the rains, albeit irregularly, around May 10 and that could help lower the heat.
Naranjo said that temperatures in Central Valley (San José) during the past few days have been averaging 30 Celsius, a few degrees above normal.
The same is around the country, such as Guanacaste and Limón recording higher than normal temperatures.
In the Central Valley, a breeze typically cools the hot air. In the last few days there are times that the air is still.
The IMN is forecasting by the weekend the transition to the rainy season to be complete, meaning hot and sunny mornings followed by rainy afternoons and cool evenings.
Neither Zarella Villanueva nor José Manuel Arroyo managed to get the 12 votes needed to become president of the Supreme Court. On Monday, the 22 justices voted five times and hinted at the division between those who lead the Judiciary.
Judge Jesus Ramirez, who chaired the session, argues that what happened during the election process is a reflection of the internal division between three generations of judges, vying to take the reins of the Judiciary.
Among three ballots, even null vote were greater that recevied by each candidate.
Arroyo himself argues that there is a lack of leadership and no one can fill the void left by the late Luis Paulino Mora.
U.S. President Barack Obama spent about 22 hours in Costa Rica this past weekend, leaving many wondering about the purpose of his visit, which concluded without any commitment, agreement or joint-declaration.
It was Obama’s first-ever visit to Costa Rica, and his motorcade was cheered by people – students mostly – lining the streets as he arrived Friday afternoon.
In 22 hours following, Obama met privately with Costa Ricas Presidenta Laura Chinchilla, followed up by a joint press conference and working dinner with presidents of Central America and the Dominican Republic.
“Costa Rica shows the benefits of trade that is free and fair,” Obama said at the press conference. “Over the last few years, under the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), our trade with Costa Rica has doubled, creating more jobs for people in both of our countries. Our partnerships are creating more opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs, including young people and women. As I told Presidenta Chinchilla, the United States will continue to be your partner as Costa Rica modernizes its economy so that you’re attracting more investment and creating even more trade and more jobs.”
For some in the Costa Rican government, Obama’s visit was about a special recognition of their country. Foreign Minister Enrique Castillo said the U.S. President’s visit puts Costa Rica in a “better position to become a modernized country on the path to progress,” according to The Christian Science Monitor.
An analyst for Teletica Channel 7 News, Nuria Marín, called Obama’s visit an acknowledgement of his country’s “regional protagonism” and its “return to the geopolitical map” because Obama helped “strengthen Costa Rica’s brand name for attracting more U.S. tourism and investment.”
“The U.S. recognizes our fates are tied up with your success,” Obama told entrepreneurs and other leaders in San José. “If you are doing well, we will do better. And if we’re doing well, we think your situation improves.”
However, nothing substantial came out of Obama’s visit, no joint declaration or agreement.
Luis Guillermo Solís, a 2014 presidential hopeful and analyst, found Obama’s visit mysterious. “This has been one of the most mysterious presidential visits I have witnessed in the last two decades,” he was quoted as saying. “Nothing seemed to make sense about the objectives of Obama’s visit.”
Some are saying Obama merely sought to respond to criticism that he neglected the region during his first presidential term. Obama was heavily supported by Hispanic population in the 2012 election.
Obama said Saturday that the United States needed to deepen economic ties with the Americas to create more jobs. “One of the best ways to grow our economy is to sell more goods and services made in America to the rest of the world,” he said in his radio and Internet address. “That includes our neighbors to the south.”
But what led Obama to visit Costa Rica was perhaps that it was a politically safe country to visit as he was returning from Mexico, Nicaraguan political analyst Arturo Cruz said to The Christian Science Monitor. “It’s difficult to go wrong with Costa Rica – It’s a democracy with a vibrant economy and a friendly government that will always be friendly to the US,” Cruz was quoted as saying. “Costa Rica is like vanilla ice cream; it’s a safe bet. How can you go wrong with vanilla ice cream?”
At midnight on Wednesday, April 17, the National Service of Animal Health (SENASA- Servicio Nacional de Salud Animal) entered Samara with four vehicles, one truck, and two Public Force patrol units from Liberia to roundup animals wandering lose in the streets, and by 4:30 a.m. on April 18 they had loaded up 15 horses into the truck and shipped them off to a slaughterhouse in Alajuela, where they were sacrificed the following Monday, April 29.
According to Dr. Harold Marin Esquivel, regional director of SENASA, 13 of the equines were adults and 2 were foals. The use of resources for the operation came after repeated warnings that owners should not let their animals wander loose. Marin noted that the animals cause accidents and they defecate on the beaches, thus endangering public health.
In February of 2011, the former police chief, Jose Angel Gomez Matarrita reported to VON that animals had caused at least seven accidents in recent months. For example, in November 2010, an Alfaro bus hit two horses, killing the animals and completely damaging the front end of the bus. And this year the Samara police reported that a car hit a horse near Villas Playa Samara, damaging the car and killing the horse.
Law 5346 prohibits animals from wandering in roadways, stipulating that cows, goats, pigs, sheep or horses found in roads, streets, airports, parks or other public places shall be collected or killed, and after being slaughtered the animal products can be delivered to charity if their consumption does not present a risk to human or animal health.
Marin said that in general the animals are used for work during the day and then let loose at night, and in many cases they don’t have a brand mark. When SENASA is able to identify the owner of the animals, the owners are notified and given warnings or fines, but sometimes this is not possible, in which case the animals are considered abandoned. Marin explained that the animals are generally sent to slaughter because they don’t know who the owners are and don’t have veterinary records to know if the animals are in good health and have been given anti-parasite treatments.
One owner who lost two horses in this roundup was Concepcion “Chong” Diaz Jimenez. Diaz has eight other horses and operates horseback riding tours into the mountains. He said he normally keeps the horses on a property near the mechanic shop in Cantarana, but because of the lack of water at present he has been bringing the horses to his house to give them water, and at 3 p.m. he usually encloses them again, but on April 17 these two horses got loose. Diaz said he never received any warning from SENASA, although he mentioned that the police have talked to him about not working with the horses on the beach, although he is allowed to pass along the beach.
“It affects me a lot because they are animals that one very much loves,” Diaz said, noting that his horses are pampered and that one of the horses had been bought with money that was given to him as a gift by a friend many years ago.
After hearing from the police that the horses would be sent to slaughter, Berit Funke of Animales de Samara tried to find out if the horses were still alive to see if they could be rescued but found that it was too late.
“They are innocent creatures and they teach us so much about the free life in peace with nature,” Funke wrote on the Animales de Samara Facebook page, where she posted information about the roundup and called for a change in Law 5346. Funke said she is hoping a bigger rescue organization or a legislator will take interest in the case. Posts about the horses were shared 39 times and received more than 100 comments of support and updates from other people likewise investigating the issue.
For example, Maribel Cordero Solis wrote, “It’s incredible that SENASA commits these crimes.
Sacrificing animals in this way can NOT be accepted. I PROTEST emphatically against this crime.”
And Kristen Cretecos added, “This is such a sad time for Samara. I will always remember the magic of seeing the horses roam freely through town, living peacefully alongside us. I wish you all the best of luck in creating a safe space for horses in the region for the future.”
Dr. Marin acknowledged that a woman from Samara contacted him about rescuing the horses but noted that for this to happen the animals would have to go to a properly registered organization whose facilities have been inspected to insure that the animals will be kept in better conditions and cannot be donated for work, for example on horseback riding tours.
Samara resident Bea Jiron, who spoke with Marin, is now looking into the legalities of creating an animal rescue foundation. The foundation would need to have proper grounds for the horses, including a stable or shelter where the horses can be protected from the rain, as well as enough food and water, medicine, a veterinarian in charge of their welfare and volunteers to help care for them. It would also need to be approved and advised by SENASA and not exploit the animals.
“I have been considering the option,” Jiron told VON. “I am thinking of creating a group, get together and organize some kind of activity to raise money.” But to succeed, Jiron acknowledged that she would need a lot of legal advice and she plans to contact several lawyers that she knows to see if they would be willing to help or perhaps contact law students who might take on the project. If you are interested in helping, contact Jiron at b.jironarias@yahoo.com.
According to Marin, three such roundups have been conducted in Samara, including one last year and one the year before.
CRHoy.com offers up a little Tico humour, the police officer rounding up the police cutouts, saying “well…the mr. is gone, time to collect the cops and replace the potholes in their place”.
Composers, songwriters and collective rights societies gathered in Costa Rica last week and called for the government to strengthen its focus on author’s rights protection as the country hosted the 31st International Council of Creators of Music (CIAM) conference.
The two day event was preceded by a press conference on 17th April where renowned Costa Rican composers from the local society ACAM were supported by senior representatives from CISAC. The press conference was also attended by the Vice-president of the board of the Legislative Assembly Martin Monestel and three deputies. They shared the concern of musicians and composers in the region that next year’s general elections might see the reinstatement of many regulatory changes made during the previous administration that weakened the effectiveness of international author’s rights agreements in Costa Rica.
These changes included draft legislation that greatly reduces the requirement for national radio and television companies to pay artist rights. In addition, legal reservations had been raised that aimed to exempt the country from certain clauses of the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s Performances and Phonograms treaty. Both would directly impact the livelihoods of authors in the region.
“Our objective is to raise awareness and understanding in Parliament of the importance of authors’ rights both culturally and a fair means of remuneration for creators,” said Simon Darlow, chair of BASCA, the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and Deputy Chair of PRS for Music. Authors are global rather than national artists and it’s vital that the international agreements that Costa Rica has signed are properly implemented and fully respected.
A mediation will be organised between users and composers members of ACAM by one of the deputies present at the press conference in order to discuss the different points of view, find common ground and unblock the situation.
The CIAM conference drew in over 60 delegates from Member Societies and key regional bodies around the world including the European Composers and Songwriters Alliance, the Pan-African Composers and Songwriters Alliance, Music Creators North America, the Alianza Latino-Americana de Autores de Música, as well as the Costa Rican Minister of Culture Manuel Obregon, as guest of honor.
The bases for CIAM as a hub were settled. South America, Europe, Africa and North America are now directly affiliated with CIAM as an umbrella organization. CIAM is much more representative that before. Authors are now connected in an unprecedented manner. Information can flow seamlessly from Malawi to the Americas and up to CIAM’s board, allowing regions to learn from each other, allowing a coordinated global response to local challenges.
New business models being developed every day for online music distribution make this a rapidly changing landscape and a number of panels were held on sub-publishing, online licensing, and future collection management.
CISAC director general, Olivier Hinnewinkel, praised the work of CIAM and its chairman Lorenzo Ferrero in bringing these issues to the fore.
President Daniel Ortega sat at the dinner table with Obama and his fellow Central American presidents.
After sitting politely and quietly through last Friday’s dinner summit with U.S. President Barack Obama, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega flew to Venezuela on Saturday to assume a more revolutionary posture by condemning perceived U.S. aggressions against the continuation of the “Chavista” government by second-string successor Ricardo Maduro.
“Today, more than ever, we are with Chávez, we are with the Bolivarian Revolution, we are with the fight for peace that’s being waged by the people, this country, we are for justice, we are for liberty,” Ortega said Sunday afternoon, during a commemoration of the two-month anniversary of Chávez’s death to cancer.
Taking the liberty to speak on behalf of “the people of Latin America, the people of the Caribbean and, in particular the people who are part of ALBA and Petrocaribe,” Ortega expressed hemispheric solidarity with Maduro’s government, which he said “is facing an onslaught from the historic enemies of revolutionary processes.”
The “historic enemy,” whose president was Ortega’s dinner companion the night before, is accused of taking an aggressive stance against Venezuela by calling on its government to respect democracy and human rights.
In a recent interview with Noticias Telemundo, Obama said his government wants Venezuela to be able to “choose their own leadership in fair and free elections in a democratic process that is credible.”
The U.S. president denied that his government has “tried to interfere in any way with what happens there.”
“What we’ve said is, let’s make sure that the rules are being followed, that people are not being thrown into jail or intimidated, that the press is allowed to report fairly on what happens, that the ruling party doesn’t resort to intimidation in terms of skewing results,” Obama said.
The U.S. president declined to comment on whether the U.S. government will join the rest of the hemisphere in recognizing last month’s election results in Venezuela, which have been decried as fraudulent by opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.
Obama did, however, call Venezuela’s recent espionage charges against detained U.S. citizen Timothy Hallet Tracy, “ridiculous.” Venezuela claims Tracy, a 35-year-old self-proclaimed documentarian, was funneling money to opposition students in an effort to provoke a “civil war.”
“When you want to do intelligence work in another country, all those big powers do this type of spying—they often use the facade of a filmmaker, documentary-maker, photographer or journalist,” Venezuela’s Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez told government-run TV on Sunday.
Venezuela accuses Obama of inciting ‘dogs of war’
Venezuela on Saturday responded to Obama’s brief comments about its democracy with an angry and grandiloquent statement that accuses the U.S. of “meddling” and reminds the U.S. president of Venezuela’s “novel public policies that allow everyone who lives in our dignified country to have more and better guarantees to gain access to civil rights, political rights, economic rights, social rights, cultural rights and the collective rights of the people.”
In a lengthy prepared statement released by the Ministry of Popular Power for Foreign Relations, the Venezuelan governmentblames Obama for worsening bilateral relations and “confirming to the world the policy of aggression that you and you government maintain toward our nation.”
Venezuela went on to accuse Obama of trying to incite “the dogs of war” to spark violence and create chaos in Venezuela to “justify imperialist intervention.”
“Know this, friends of the world: The son of Liberator Simón Bolívar and Comandante Chávez are ready to defend our rights to be free against any imperial domination,” the statement reads. “Compatriots, we raise the slingshot of David to confront the new aggression by Goliath!”
Politics make bad dinner conversation
Despite echoing Venezuela’s revolutionary bravado during this weekend’s Petrocaribe summit in Caracas, Ortega was on his best behavior 24 hours earlier during his roundtable dinner with Obama and the other presidents of Central America. Instead of bringing David’s sling to the summit, Ortega brought his dinner napkin and an earpiece to listen to the translation of Obama’s table talk.
Other than a few brief comments offered to the press upon his arrival at Costa Rica Juan Santamaría Airport on Friday afternoon, President Ortega’s participation in the Central American summit with Obama appeared to be minimal. Even when the conversation turned to topics on which Ortega had reason to boast about his country’s impressive gains in recent years—advances in clean energy technologies, increased trade and investment under CAFTA, and citizen security—the Nicaraguan president remained mostly quiet.
Costa Rican news outlets reported that Ortega was one of the few presidents who declined to give any comments upon exiting from the closed-door meeting with Obama. Hours later, Ortega hastily departed Costa Rica to fly to Venezuela, skipping out on a meeting that Obama and several of his colleagues held with Central American business leaders to discuss ways to increase investment and joint development initiatives in the region.
While Ortega’s participation in both summits suggests he is still trying to straddle the growing divide between Venezuela and the U.S., it becomes strange theater when he tries to play both roles in the same 48 hours.
Storyline: The Croods is a prehistoric comedy adventure that follows the world’s first family as they embark on a journey of a lifetime when the cave that has always shielded them from danger is destroyed. Traveling across a spectacular landscape, the Croods discover an incredible new world filled with fantastic creatures — and their outlook is changed forever.
Directed by:Kirk De Micco & Chris Sanders With the voices of: Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds Playing in Costa Rica at:Cinemark (Mulitplaza Escazú), Nova Cinema, Cinepolis and other theatres
Review:What do we teach our children? All cartoons are to some extent tools for passing on the messages that we think kids should know – but what are those messages? ‘Don’t talk to strangers’, for instance. Pinocchio talked to strangers, and look what happened to him. ‘It’s OK to be different’: Dumbo had big ears, and that’s perfectly fine. Both those examples are 70 years old, but the second message is bigger than ever in our age of diversity (‘Don’t talk to strangers’ seems to have fallen by the wayside, maybe because kids are cooped up at home these days anyway). But we’ve also seen a new message in the past few years, driven perhaps by recessions and new technologies, first in the Ice Age franchise and now in The Croods: The world is changing. The old rules are no longer valid. Adapt or die.
The Croods is a clever, slightly formulaic cartoon from the folks behind How to Train Your Dragon. There’s a Homer Simpson-ish dad (voiced by Nicolas Cage) whose bossiness barely disguises his uselessness. There’s a ‘spunky’ teenage-girl heroine (Emma Stone) straining at the patriarchal leash, though she does become more generic once her warrior-woman credentials have been established (‘Girls are just as good as boys, and probably better’ is another of those messages we want kids to know). There’s a family – feral toddler, pudgy younger brother, crotchety grandma – and family values galore. There are visual marvels, especially once the dank Stone Age setting turns into a world of dandelions, tendrils and eye-popping colours. There are hungry monsters, funny jokes and slapstick set-pieces.
The film can be viewed simply as a Hollywood cartoon. Does it work? It does. Will kids love it? They will. Is it scary? Not really, though some of the details are macabre (like our heroine Eep recalling the demise of her various caveman neighbours) and the hungry critters have big teeth. Is it funny? Surprisingly, yes – and, despite the title, crude humour isn’t allowed to take over (there isn’t a single fart joke). The slapstick is over-extended, and there’s probably too many of those moments where the music swells inspirationally – but The Croods, even in itself, wipes the floor with all four Ice Ages.
That’s not all, however – because the film also speaks to us in post-debacle Cyprus in a way that goes beyond its cartoon ambitions. Maybe it’s pretentious to view it as a kind of unintended metaphor – but films don’t exist in a vacuum, and any adult sitting in the K-Cineplex with his/her kids can’t fail to recognise our own situation in the story of the Croods, a Stone Age clan who live in a cave, nice and snug and protected from outside dangers, at least till their world literally collapses in an epoch-defining earthquake and they have to start anew. It’s not just their circumstances that change; they also have to change their mentality, specifically Papa Crood’s conservative insistence that “new” equals dangerous.
Enter Guy (Ryan Reynolds), an inventive young orphan who has everything the Croods lack: creativity, modernity, civilisation, above all “ideas”. Guy wears shoes and eats from a plate; he wears a belt, albeit a living belt (called Belt) who punctuates his warnings about the End of the World with a cheerful “dun dun duuuuunnnn!”. He also introduces the clan to concepts like jokes and leftovers, not to mention pets (“It’s an animal you don’t eat,” he explains; “We call those ‘children’,” replies Grandma). This may be the most unexpectedly touching aspect of The Croods, the notion of discovering the world for the first time – and the way the family blossom once they allow themselves to try something new. The feral baby speaks her first words. The boy finds a dog, and even Grandma starts to reminisce: “I was in love once. He was a hunter, I was a gatherer…”
The film is very American. Not in the dismissive way people sometimes use those words, but in the specific sense that America, more than any other culture, stresses creativity and adaptability in the face of crisis. Americans who lose their jobs simply move to another part of America and start over (it’s the legacy of being a nation of immigrants). Watching The Croods from our own vantage-point – not as wide-eyed children absorbing messages, but as adult chaperones trying to make sense of a world that’s been struck by a fiscal earthquake in the past month – it’s easy to get caught up in the story Guy tells the Croods (except Papa, who skulks in the background grumpily). It’s the story of a bold young tiger who wanders away from the stultifying safety of the cave, goes to the very edge of a forbidden cliff – then, having dared to take a risk and think outside the box, flies off into the sun. ‘Where did she fly to?’ ask the Crood kids, entranced. Tomorrow, replies Guy. She flew off to Tomorrow, a place of a thousand suns – “a place where things are better”. Let’s hope so.
Ángel Rafael never imagined that one day he would be face-to-face with a U.S. president, let alone doing his makeup. So, when he got the call from the Whitehouse giving him the job of making up President Barack Obama, he was thrilled and nervous at the same time.
Ángel Rafael was recommended by Telenoticias reporter and Telemundo correspondent in Costa Rica, Yessenia Alvarado. After an extensive interview, Ángel Rafael was chosen by the Whitehouse as he local professional.
“They asked for my resume, asked me very personal questions”, said Ángel Rafael.
Ángel Rafael arrived at 7am Saturday at the Intercontinenal hotel in Escazú amid heavy security that took him almost 45 minutes to reach president Obama.
“I was very nervous, I could feel my heart beating out of my chest”, commented Ángel Rafael who got to spend about 20 minutes with Obama, five of which were to apply makeup.
Ángel Rafael said that the president as “super good people”. The prez asked for a very soft makeup, “basically something light for skin correction, powder to give high definition”.
The makeup artist said he got to recommend his favourite Guanacaste beaches to President Obama, who had asked him for vacation recommendations.
Obama let out his charisma, joking with Ángel Rafael, including that Michelle would sure like Ángel Rafael to make up her.
But, what impressed Ángel Rafael most was Obama thanking him for his work and using his name. “When he left he thanked me for the work and the tips, he called me by name three times, which impressed me very much”, said Ángel Rafael.
It was 3:04am when a strong earthquake woke many in Costa Rica. The quake registered 3.6 on the Richter scale was located soe kilometres northeast of Corrarillo de Cartago and was felt in various parts of the country including the greater metropolitan area of San José.
The quake was confirmed by the Red Sismológica Nacional a (RSN) and the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica (OVSICORI).
President Barack Obama participates in a press conference with Presidenta Laura Chinchilla of Costa Rica at the CENAC, San Jose, Costa Rica. May 3, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
Transcript of the press Obama / Chinchilla press conference following a private meeting by the two presidents.
PRESIDENTA CHINCHILLA: (As interpreted.) Good afternoon. Good afternoon, dear friends. Dear friends, international journalists and for American and SICA. Thank you very much. Thank you for being here with us this afternoon.
In the first place and before we get any deeper concerning the results of the meetings that we just had recently, in the first place, what I would like to do is to reiterate our warmest welcome on behalf of all the Costa Rican people to President Barack Obama and his delegation. And also I would like to reiterate on behalf of our Costa Ricans the feelings that we feel towards the United States of America.
And I also wanted to thank you very much for the way so cordial and constructive in which we have been able to develop this afternoon’s issues, Mr. President, because I think that we have had very successful conversations in the bilateral meeting. It was my pleasure to report that precisely thanks to this open process of conversations that we have had, it is that we can explore new horizons, always trying to strengthen these traditions based on the essential values that have characterized the relationship between the United States and Costa Rica.
Particularly speaking, I’m talking about values of peace, freedom, democracy, respect to the human rights and the human development. These are the values that we share. And these are the values on which we aspire to continue to develop the relationship between our two nations.
The conversations that we have had have been very useful and they have basically focused on six fundamental issues that reflect this rich diversity that characterizes the relationship between the two nations. We talked about institutional strengthening. We talked about issues of international policy and the involvement, in particular to which Costa Rica aspires in the international economic scenario.
We also talked about the use of fundamental instruments in the relationship of the two nations, like CAFTA, for instance. We talked about an issue that is important but it is not the one that defines our relationship, which is security. And we also talked about a fundamental issue that undoubtedly is going to define the progress and the joint development not only between the United States of America and Costa Rica, but also between the United States and the Central American region, which is the area of energy.
And finally, of course, in our Costa Rican agenda, we included issues having to do with education, entrepreneurship and innovation.
Please allow me to briefly walk you through these six issues so that you can get to know which has been the central element in each of them.
In the area of institutional strengthening, as you know, the government of the United States is promoting what is called the Alliance of Open Government, that basically seeks to strengthen practices that are much more transparent and integral in everything that has to do with the exercise of institutions of public function.
Costa Rica has been an enthusiastic participant in this initiative. We have already proposed our action plan, and we expect to continue to share initiatives, practices, exchanges of experiences on this issue.
In the area of involvement of Costa Rica in the economic global scenario and some of the issues of international policy, we are taking into account — we have used this session to talk about the involvement of the United States in the area of fire weapons — and that together they have been able to get the approval in the recent meeting of the United Nations.
Thank you very much, Mr. President, for having sponsored one of the — that is going to contribute the most to the peace in the world. In addition, I would like to recognize in particular the efforts of President Obama in his own country in order to raise awareness concerning the regulation of fire weapons.
Costa Rica, as some of you already know, is trying to play a more protagonistic role, especially in the area of global development. Costa Rica is a small economy, but it’s a very open economy. It’s a model of success. The accession of global value changes with more and more competitive in the attraction based on high technology. And being a middle-income country, we are a country that is not seeking to get more aid. We basically want to have more opportunities to export what our people are producing.
As we have said in the past, we either export our products the people are able to produce or generate, or we’re going to end up exporting our own people. And Costa Rica will continue to keep Costa Ricans in Costa Rica with better opportunities of economic growth and with better opportunities of welfare.
And that is that the aspirations of Costa Rica include to be able to insert itself in the different fora where we will continue to widen the opportunities of trade, investment, and as a consequence, the opportunities to continue to generate employment and welfare in our country.
To this extent, we have talked to President Obama about two important fora where Costa Rica aspires to be present. One is the Trans-Pacific Alliance, the TPP, where the government of the United States and especially the Obama administration is paying an important leadership to the effect of hosting this negotiation. And we would hope that Costa Rica will continue to be the center of attention of the pioneer countries to be able to insert ourselves in the same initiative.
And the other important forum where we have given our best efforts is the forum for the cooperation and development. Costa Rica wants to be there precisely because we want to continue to adopt the best possible practices in matters of development of public policy.
In the area of the using of the CAFTA platform, as you know, this is going to be an issue — an issue of regional scope. But it has become a bilateral issue to the extent that Costa Rica is one of the economies that has taken advantage of the opportunity provided by the American market. We have become in the SICA framework the most important partner with the United States. Thanks to CAFTA, the countries in our region have increased by 70 percent the international trade. And what we basically seek is to be able to promote initiatives in the area of facilitation of trade.
Concerning the area of security, this, as I mentioned before, is an obligated issue. As you know, Costa Rica considers this a fundamental issue — has been considering this issue a fundamental one in recent years. We have been able to do well facing common crime. We have been able to reduce the homicide rates significantly. We have been able to reduce the rates of violent crime, thanks to an integral approach in the area of prevention and sanction, as well as the issues having to do with control. But we also have to admit that the issue of organized crime continues to be important on the institution of stability and the integrity of our nations.
Thus, we talked about this issue. We had a conversation about it. We reiterated the importance of keeping the levels of cooperation that we have had so far. But very particularly, we made the point on the efforts that are being displayed by the SICA countries as well as the United States government with the purpose of approaching the issue of organized crime and drug smuggling from a much more integral approach, a much more diverse approach — not only through the instruments of war, thinking that we’re going to be able to overcome this evil. A country like Costa Rica cannot go, of course, to war, but we have to take very seriously the strengthening of those mechanisms and those policies that would allow to prevent the entity of organized crime in our country.
And in that sense, we are deliberating the efforts that we might be able to continue on doing in the matter of prevention of consumption with the matter of more opportunities for the younger community of our country on the subject of strengthening the law, of judicial independence, of free press that might be able to carry out the necessary investigations and the accusations without having on them any effect or threat.
The fifth point of the agenda was a subject regarding energy. It is well-known also for Costa Rica the energy subject has been a value from the point of view of its sustainable development. Ninety percent of the energy that we consume comes from renewable sources. Nevertheless, Costa Rica, as well as the rest of Central America, have a very big challenge ahead of them from the point of view of the cost of this energy. If we do not solve this in the short, midterm, this will have a tremendous weight on the level of competivity [sic] of our region.
Therefore, we have explored with President Obama the possibilities of using the platform of CAFTA so that in the future and once the government of the United States resolves some of the internal discussions that it might have, to be able to enjoy some preferences in regard to the import of natural gas, natural liquefied gas, a source of energy to which the government of President Obama has put a lot of emphasis on.
We have also commented about the efforts that we are developing here in Costa Rica with the purpose of promoting a group of new energies, especially the energies based on hydrogen, and the initiatives that have already been working on by the private enterprises both in North America and Costa Rica with the cooperation of the public sector of Costa Rica, to take them into consideration as part of the initiatives that he has promoted in the framework of the Alliance of the Americas for the energy and for the climate change.
And I finish by talking about the subject of the partnership of innovation and of the education that has such elements of further development. For Costa Rica, education has been a constant in its historical development. As I was telling President Obama, we were born as one of the poorest provinces of the colony, and we have become little by little a nation with great opportunities in the subject of economic development and of well-being for the people, and a fundamental factor, an essential factor has been precisely education.
Much before many other nations of the world, Costa Rica decreed the free and mandatory access to education. And now we dedicate 7 percent of our GDP to finance the public education, and we need, above all, to face the challenge of the reallocation of this education to the demands of the new economy to which we are aspiring to move our country.
In that sense, we have called upon the attention in regard to the possibility of using with greater intensity the very beautiful program that has been characterized by the international policy of the United States, which is the Peace Corps, so that through them, we might be able to improve even more. They have programs of bilingualism that Costa Rica, for 15 or 20 years we have already been introducing in our public education.
We believe that through Peace Corps we can achieve training programs with our teachers, with our professors, our English professors, so that that English is a more proficient English, more competitive, with greater quality and bound precisely through the aspirations of attracting investments and generation of employment that we are working on.
Finally, also we have called President Obama’s attention to the fact that there is nothing more valuable, that there is nothing more important than anybody to get to know a society from the inside. I am a true example precisely of the benefits of scholarship programs that the United States in the past have offered the Central American region. As a matter of fact, that is why we have — so that we can continue on promoting those scholarship programs and intensify them so that the youth of the Central American region and, of course, of my country can continue on also knowing or competing not only for knowledge of the best universities, of the quality of education of the United States, but also the values that have characterized this great nation.
So thank you very much. President Obama. (Applause.)
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Buenas tardes. Thank you so much, President Chinchilla, for your kind words and for welcoming me here today. This is my first visit to Costa Rica. And even though it is a brief one, I can already tell the incredible spirit of the people, the natural beauty of the country. I understand that the official slogan for those who are thinking about visiting Costa Rica is “un pais sin ingredientes artificiales.” So there’s nothing artificial about Costa Rica. Everything is genuine. And that’s certainly true about the friendship between our two countries.
And President Chinchilla has been so gracious in her hospitality. We are very grateful to her. I want to thank publicly the wonderful schoolchildren who sang for us. And I noticed that, Madam President, you and I didn’t sing. We didn’t trust our voices. (Laughter.) But we certainly enjoyed the spirit that those children delivered.
In the United States, we are so grateful for the contributions that Costa Ricans make to our country every day. You welcome many Americans as tourists, eco-tourists, and many others who have chosen to make Costa Rica a new home. This year we’re also marking the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps here, including President John F. Kennedy’s visit to Costa Rica and his vision for partnerships that advance development and democracy in the Americas.
I had actually a chance during the bilateral meeting to see a photograph of President Kennedy at the same table that we were meeting at — it had been specially commissioned. And so it shows the longstanding ties between our two countries.
And I’m here because Costa Rica is a great partner not just regionally, but globally. Given Costa Rica’s proud democratic traditions, we stand up together for democracy and justice and human rights in Central America and across the hemisphere. And I want to commend Costa Rica for your landmark law against the scourge of human trafficking. I’m proud to be here as you host World Press Freedom Day. So everybody from the American press corps, you should thank the people of Costa Rica for celebrating free speech and an independent press as essential pillars of our democracy.
Costa Rica shows the benefits of trade that is free and fair. Over the last few years, under the Central America Free Trade Agreement, our trade with Costa Rica has doubled, creating more jobs for people in both of our countries. Our partnerships are creating more opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs, including young people and women. As I told President Chinchilla, the United States will continue to be your partner as Costa Rica modernizes its economy so that you’re attracting more investment and creating even more trade and more jobs.
Costa Rica, of course, has long been a leader in sustainable development that protects the environment. The President and I agreed to continue deepening our clean energy partnerships. For example, we’re moving ahead with our regional effort to ensure universal access to clean, affordable, sustainable electricity for the people of the Americas, including Costa Ricans. And this is also another way that we can meet our shared commitments to address climate change.
The President and I reaffirmed our determination to confront the growing security concerns that have affected many Costa Rican families and communities. And under the Central America Regional Security Initiative, the United States has committed nearly half a billion dollars to helping Costa Rica and its neighbors in this fight. We’re disrupting drug cartels and gangs. We’re working to strengthen law enforcement and the judicial system. And we’re addressing the underlying forces that fuel criminality — with prevention programs for at-risk youth and with economic development that gives young people hope and opportunity.
Meanwhile, as I said in Mexico yesterday, the United States recognizes that we’ve got responsibilities; that much of the violence in the region is fueled by demand for illegal drugs, including in the United States. So we’re going to keep on pursuing a comprehensive approach not only through law enforcement, but also through education and prevention and treatment that can reduce demand.
And finally, I updated the President on our efforts in the United States to pass comprehensive immigration reform. I know this is of great interest to the entire region, especially those with families in our country. And I’m optimistic that we’re going to achieve reform that reflects our heritage as both a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants — men and women and children who need to be treated with full dignity and respect.
So, President Chinchilla, thank you so much for your partnership. Thank you and the people of Costa Rica for your hospitality.
I’m told there’s a well-known quote here in Costa Rica — “Where there is a Costa Rican, wherever it is, there’s liberty.” And in the United States, we’re thankful for the many Costa Ricans who contribute to our prosperity and our liberty. And we’re grateful for Costa Rica’s leadership in this region, as we’ll see again when President Chinchilla hosts tonight’s SICA meeting.
I’d note that our presence at tonight’s meeting with the leaders of Central America and the Dominican Republic is a sign of the importance that the United States places on this region, as well as our commitment to being a steady and strong and reliable partner — because we believe that no matter where you live, the people of this region deserve security and opportunity and dignity.
So let me, again, say thank you — and in my best tican — pura vida. (Laughter and applause.)
So I think we’re going to go Costa Rican press first and then I’ll call on someone?
Q Good afternoon. Welcome, President Obama. The policy of the United States for Central America on drug smuggling and organized crime — don’t you think, for both Presidents, that the time has come to improve our relationships and go on to an agenda that apart from security, we have the social aspects of education and health?
And my second question would be if we’re going to be supporting Costa Rica in subjects that were presented today for the SICA? So, thank you, and welcome.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, thank you very much. First of all, I completely agree with you, and I’ve tried to emphasize this throughout my trip: So much of the focus ends up being on security. And we understand that in the absence of security, it’s very hard to develop. But we also have to recognize that problems like narco-trafficking arise in part when a country is vulnerable because of poverty, because of institutions that are not working for the people, because young people don’t see a brighter future ahead.
And so what President Chinchilla and I spoke extensively about are initiatives like education, institution-building and capacity, trying to create greater economic opportunity, because the stronger the economies and the institutions for legitimate — for individuals who are seeking legitimate careers, the more those are there, then the less powerful these narco-trafficking operations are going to be.
And so not only are we interested in promoting trade and highlighting the already extensive trade that we’re doing, but we also want to see how can we build on the successes to improve education even in our strategies to fight narco-trafficking. We, for example, helped to finance youth centers that can give young people a different vision for their futures. We consider that to be part of our overall effort. So it can’t just be law enforcement. It also has to be human development, inclusive economic development. We’ve got to make sure that everybody feels opportunity.
Now, even if a country is doing well, the scourge of drugs and drug trafficking will still be there, and there still needs to be a strong law enforcement component. But we can do better than we’re currently doing. And I know that President Chinchilla is taking a great interest here in Costa Rica around these human development issues.
As far as the issues that you mentioned around international organizations, as I indicated earlier, Costa Rica has shown itself to be a world leader and model around free trade, freedom of the press, democracy, respect for human rights, and that makes it an outstanding candidate for membership in the OECD, for example. And so we will expect that we’ll continue to support Costa Rica in expanding its influence.
We enjoy a great partnership on, for example, regional human rights councils, as well as international human rights efforts. Costa Rica has been a real leader, and we appreciate that. And there’s something very effective when large countries like the United States, smaller countries like Costa Rica share values. We come in together. And I think it’s a great way to make the point that regardless of the country’s size, regardless of the language that it speaks, the idea of certain universal rights that are observed for all people is important. And that’s why we value this partnership so much.
PRESIDENT CHINCHILLA: I’m just going to add a couple of comments. And I think that it seems to me that I should start by thanking President Obama for his expressed support to the aspirations of Costa Rica for being a member of OECD. We know that there are tests that we have to comply with, and we know that we will be able to comply with them.
Also, let me add something more precisely — a comment in regard to the subject of narco traffic, organized crime. We believe that there is not a single doubt that President Obama’s administration — since his coming to Mexico, and now his visit here in Central America — brings along an agenda that is trying to redefine those relationships based on a greater diversity.
As has been said, our countries are more than just security and violence and narco traffic. That doesn’t mean that it is not an important problem, but I would like to basically finally add the following. What some other countries for a few years now, with the purpose of trying to review some strategies that fall under the fight against drugs, are based basically on the fact that some of the most immediate experiences we have seen in region are experiences that have had to call upon the extreme fight of the war on drugs. Costa Rica doesn’t have an army. And since we don’t want to found an army, we do not want to allow ourselves to come to war scenarios to face drug smuggling or organized crime.
Many times the generals ask me, how has Costa Rica done to face such a big threat when you don’t have an army and precisely the countries next to you do have an army? But curiously enough, Costa Rica has demonstrated that we have been more effective and more successful in fighting against these threats precisely without having an army. And where am I going through with this? That what we’re looking for, for a while now, is precisely the signals that the Obama administration is sending in the sense that an effective policy for the fight against drugs and narco traffic goes through the strengthening of the institutions — through prevention, through an open society, a more transparent society, and through a citizenship that is much more aware of the problem.
It seems to me that advancing that direction is precisely advancing in the correct direction.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: All right, Mark Felsenthal, of Reuters.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. Madam President. Mr. President, on Syria, you said yesterday that anything the United States does should make the situation better, not worse. How long are you prepared to wait to determine whether chemical weapons were used? What happens when you make your determination? And will you take your case to the United Nations? And have you ruled out putting U.S. troops on the ground in Syria?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, first all, I emphasized yesterday, so let me re-emphasize — we’re not waiting. We’re not standing by. We are currently the largest humanitarian donor to deal with the crisis in Syria. We are the largest contributor of nonlethal aid to the opposition. We’ve mobilized 80 countries to support the opposition. We are working to apply every pressure point that we can on Syria, working with our international partners.
And so we are actively engaged on a day-to-day basis to try to deal with this crisis and to restore a Syria that is respectful of the rights and aspirations of the Syrian people.
Now, as I’ve said before, if, in fact, we see strong evidence that we can present and that allows us to say that the Syrian military and the Syrian government is using chemical weapons, then that is a game-changer for us because not only is there the prospect of widespread use of chemical weapons inside of Syria, but there’s the possibility that it lands in the hands of organizations like Hezbollah.
We have evidence that chemical weapons have been used. We don’t know when, where, or how they were used. We are initiating on our own to investigate and get a better handle on the facts inside of Syria. We’re also working with the international community and our partners to try to get a better handle on what’s happening, and we’ve already gone to the United Nations to say we want a full-blown investigation inside of Syria — so far, for unsurprising reasons, President Assad has resisted.
We will stay on this. Now, if, in fact, there’s the kind of systematic use of chemical weapons inside of Syria, we expect that we’re going to get additional further evidence. And at that point, absolutely we will present that to the international community, because I think this is, again, not just an American problem; this is a world problem. There are international rules and protocols and norms and ethics. And when it comes to using chemical weapons, the entire world should be concerned.
Now, in terms of what that means in terms of American action, keep in mind we’re already taking a whole range of actions. We’re going to continue to take a whole range of actions. Separate and apart from the chemical weapon use, we got tens of thousands of people who are being killed inside of Syria and we want to see that stopped — for humanitarian reasons but also for strategic reasons.
But in terms of any additional steps that we take, it’s going to be based on, number one, the facts on the ground. Number two, it’s going to be based on what’s in the interest of the American people and our national security. And as President of the United States, I’m going to make those decisions based on the best evidence and after careful consultation — because when we rush into things, when we leap before we look, then not only do we pay a price, but oftentimes we see unintended consequences on the ground. So it’s important for us to do it right. And that’s exactly what we’re doing right now.
Q Good afternoon, President Obama. Good afternoon, Madam President. President Obama, 10 years ago you were about to come to the Senate. Well, 10 years have gone and Central America has lost more than 130,000 lives caused by drugs traffic. This has been the sacrifice that the region has had because of this problem. What is the sacrifice that in your four years of government you intend to undertake for this business that feeds on the profit that are produced especially by the consumption in your country? And if the United States also believes that the best option is to use warships to be able to survey or keep a watch on the seas on the joint anti-narcotic drug war?
And, Madam President, you have also expressed the values that the government of Costa Rica has with the government of the United States and your point of view with President Obama, for example, on the subject of the international create of weapons — fire weapons. You say that President Obama said the time has come to recognize the rights for the homosexual couples of the United States. When is the time going to come for that in Costa Rica?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I think all of us recognize the pain and hardship that’s been caused by drug trafficking and transnational drug cartels here in Central America. There’s a cost obviously in the United States as well. It’s not as if we don’t have tragic drug problems throughout the United States. And when you look at poor communities inside of the United States, including communities in my hometown of Chicago, there are young people who are killed every day as part of the drug trade.
So this is not a situation where we do not feel the effects. There are common effects, and there are common responsibilities, which is why it’s so important that we work on this on a regional basis.
Now, since I’ve been President, we’ve put our money where our mouth is. I’ve spent — my administration has spent approximately $30 billion in reducing drug demand in the United States over the last several years. And we’re actually seeing an impact in terms of reduced demand. But the United States is a big country and a big market, and so progress sometimes is slower than we’d like it to be.
There is obviously a role for law enforcement. I’m not interested in militarizing the struggle against drug trafficking. This is a law enforcement problem. And if we have effective law enforcement cooperation and coordination, and if we build up capacity for countries in Central America, then we can continue to make progress.
But the important thing that I’ve tried to emphasize throughout is that this is a common problem. This is one where we’ll only solve it when we’re working together. It has adverse effects in all of our countries. But — last point I’d make — I think it’s very important to make sure that our bilateral relationship and the United States relationship with the region as a whole is not solely defined by this problem. Because when it is, we’re missing all the opportunities that exist out there.
When I got off the plane I was greeted by Dr. Chang, obviously a well-known scientist here who worked at NASA and is working now on developing a whole new vision for clean energy, and he brought along four young people — these incredibly talented young people who are in their last year of high school here. And all of four of them, thanks to some of the good work of our Ambassador and others, will be attending universities in the United States next fall.
And when you talk to those young people, there’s incredible hope and incredible promise and incredible optimism. And I don’t want every story to be about drug traffickers and nobody is writing a story about those four young people and what they represent in terms of the future of Costa Rica and the future of this region.
PRESIDENT CHINCHILLA: Every nation or every society has its own way of evolving towards to the responses that have to be provided to the different demands of the social groups and of the different collectiveness that a country might have.
And when we analyze the evolution of the different nations, we see how some of them have advance a little more accelerated — to subjects maybe of commitment towards the environment, in subjects, for example, for the control of some important aspects in the subject of protection of human life, like for example, the the subject of the control of fire weapons. And others are advancing furthermore in the recognition of certain rights, among them like the one that you have mentioned, the rights of couples of the same sex.
The important thing, Alvarro, is that we cannot simply pass on or go beyond the rhythm or the evolution of the debates from one nation to another. Each one of the nations has its own rhythm. The important thing here I believe — and what’s it’s worth here — is that in Costa Rica the framework precisely of democracy that has characterized us, the debate has to be an open debate, a live debate, an active debate — a debate like the one that I have in qualifying it that has to take place with the greatest of respect without putting a stigma on the different positions that are brought to the debates that take place in a democracy.
And only the mature, ripened, seasoned debate will end up giving the result that will have to be given where it has to be given, which is inside the parliament. So it seems to me that that is what is important, that the debate in Costa Rica is an open debate, a free debate that has to continue as a debate without restrictions.
That is why I have advocated and restated opportunities in my recent report to the nation that this is a dialogue that has been faced sometimes inconveniently on some positions that take sides. And as long as this is faced in this way, I think that the advancement is going to be very slow. I hope and I trust that the debate might really be a much more balanced, much more mature dialogue without putting stigmas on it, and that this might eventually generate a decision in the Congress of the Republic.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Okay, last question, Lisa —
Q Thank you, Mr. President. Senator Leahy is pushing for a bill on recognizing same-sex couples as part of the immigration bill. Are you concerned at all that that undermines the success of the package? And given that you made a point throughout your presidency to make clear that you don’t think LGTB Americans should be treated any differently, will you sign a bill that will do exactly that?
And for you, Madam President, is there any concern that the more — that by creating more stringent immigration standards could hamper the ability of Costa Ricans to emigrate to the U.S.? Thanks.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Lisa, I hope you don’t mind, before I answer your question I want to get back to Mark because I realize there was one clause in your question — sometimes you guys have a lot of clauses in your question — (laughter) — that I didn’t specifically answer, and I didn’t want anybody to extrapolate from that.
You asked about boots on the ground and whether we’ve ruled boots out on the ground in Syria. As a general rule, I don’t rule things out as Commander-in-Chief because circumstances change and you want to make sure that I always have the full power of the United States at our disposal to meet American national security interests.
Having said that, I do not foresee a scenario in which boots on the ground in Syria, American boots on the ground in Syria would not only be good for America, but also would be good for Syria. And by the way, when I consult with leaders in the region who are very much interested in seeing President Assad leave office and stabilizing the situation in Syria, they agree with that assessment.
So I just wanted to make sure that my omission there did not turn into a story.
To your question, Lisa, as I’ve indicated, I’ve got four broad criteria for immigration reform. I want to make sure that our border is secure and well regulated, in part so that we can get down to the business of smoothing trade and commerce across our borders and creating jobs in the United States, but also making sure that negative actors aren’t able to penetrate the United States.
Number two, cracking down on employers who are breaking the law. Number three, making sure we’ve got a legal immigration system that works better, smarter, and so what we can continue to attract the best and the brightest to the United States.
And by the way, when it comes to legal immigration, the issue here is not going to be stringency, per se. The issue is do we make the system more rational, more effective, better. If there are smart engineers and young people and scientists and students who are looking to emigrate to the United States from Costa Rica, then we want them to know that we’re a nation of immigrants. But we want to make sure that the legal process is in place so that it’s easier and simpler, but also more effective in managing the legal immigration process.
And finally, that we’ve got a pathway so that the 11 million or so undocumented workers inside the United States are able to pursue a tough, long, difficult, but fair path to legal status and citizenship.
So those are my broad-based criteria. Now, the provision that you’ve discussed that Senator Leahy has talked about is one that I support, and I’ve said in the past that the LGBT community should be treated like everybody else. That’s, to me, the essential, core principle behind our founding documents, the idea that we’re all created equal and that we’re equal before the law, and it’s applied fairly to everybody.
And so Senator Leahy may present this provision in committee. It may be presented on the floor. It will be one of many amendments and provisions that are presented, some of which I’ll support, some of which I’ll think are really bad ideas. And I think that the general principle for me is are we advancing, are we improving the immigration system — because ultimately this is an immigration bill.
And we’ll evaluate the end-product. I think it’s premature for me to start talking about what I will or will not do before I get a final product since the road is going to be long and bumpy before I finally see an actual bill on my desk. But I can tell you I think that the provision is the right thing to do.
I can also tell you that I’m not going to get everything I want in this bill. Republicans are not going to get everything that they want in this bill. But if we keep focused on what our main aim is here — which is creating a smart, effective immigration system that allows us to be a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants — then we’re going to be in a position to not only improve our economy and what’s happening inside the United States, we’re going to I think have a much stronger relationship with the region and that’s going to help enhance our economy and jobs and our growth over the long term.
And, last point I’ll make, as is true with every bill, if there are things that end up being left out in this bill, or things that I want to take out of a bill, but if it’s meeting those core criteria around a comprehensive immigration bill that I’m looking for, then we go back at it and we fix what’s not there and we continually improve what’s been presented.
I think that this comprehensive immigration bill has the opportunity to do something historic that we have not done in decades. But I don’t expect that, after we’re finished with it, that people are going to say, there’s not a single problem that we have with our immigration system, any more than is true after any piece of legislation that we pass.
Well, thank you very much everybody. Muchas gracias.
PRESIDENT CHINCHILLA: Thank you very much. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
Costa Rica’s strong tradition of democracy and longtime friendship with the United States ensured President Obama would enjoy a smooth – if uneventful – trip this weekend.
Costa Rica is like vanilla ice cream; it’s a safe bet. How can you go wrong with vanilla ice cream?
Latin America’s least popular president finally has something to cheer about. Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla, whose approval ratings barely register in double digits, could receive an “Obama bounce” in the polls after the US president traveled to San José and heralded her country as an exemplary leader for Central America.
In just his second visit to Central America and his first trip to Costa Rica, U.S. President Barack Obama this weekend called for new partnerships and increased integration with the region – especially in the areas of trade, innovation, and energy. Obama, who arrived in San José Friday afternoon to a rock star’s welcome of people lining the streets to cheer his motorcade, lauded Costa Rica for its historic commitments to democracy, peace, human rights, education and socio-economic development.
Costa Rican government officials and local pundits are proudly interpreting Obama’s visit as first-world recognition of their country’s new standing as an international player. Costa Rican Foreign Minister Enrique Castillo said Obama’s visit puts Costa Rica in a “better position to become a modernized country on the path to progress.”
Nuria Marín, a political analyst for Teletica Channel 7 News, echoed those sentiments, calling Obama’s visit an acknowledgement of Costa Rica’s “regional protagonism” and the country’s “return to the geopolitical map.” Just by spending 24 hours in the capital city of San José, Obama has helped to “strengthen Costa Rica’s brand name for attracting more US tourism and investment,” Marín predicts.
Other analysts, however, are still scratching their heads over what the summit was all about. Some are even questioning whether Obama’s stop in Costa Rica was just part of an extended layover on a circuitous return flight to Washington after a tough two-day working trip in Mexico
“This has been one of the most mysterious presidential visits I have witnessed in the last two decades,” says Costa Rican political analyst and 2014 presidential hopeful Luis Guillermo Solís. “Nothing seemed to make sense about the objectives of Obama’s visit.”
During his stay in San José, Obama met privately and publicly with President Chinchilla, held a private dinner with his counterparts from Central America and the Dominican Republic, and participated in an investment forum with nearly 200 MBA students and Central American business leaders. The agenda items ranged erratically from trade, drugs, and immigration, to clean energy, gender equality, education, infrastructure, and gay marriage. The summit ended without a joint declaration and with no agreements, resolutions, or even a clear sense of what comes next.
Even the most innovative proposal that was discussed during the meeting (the possibility of using the US-Central American Free Trade Agreement [CAFTA] as a platform for the US to sell liquid natural gas to Central America to reduce the region’s soaring energy costs) was delivered with an asterisk when Obama said he still has to make an executive decision whether or not the United States even wants to export liquid natural gas.
Some analysts are calling Obama’s trip to Costa Rica an empty-handed courtesy call after being criticized for neglecting the region during his first term in office. And when it came to deciding which Central American country to visit, Costa Rica was viewed as a safest choice to get in and out without incident, says Nicaraguan political analyst Arturo Cruz.
“It’s difficult to go wrong with Costa Rica – It’s a democracy with a vibrant economy and a friendly government that will always be friendly to the US,” Cruz says. “Costa Rica is like vanilla ice cream; it’s a safe bet. How can you go wrong with vanilla ice cream?”
Costa Rica also holds the pro tempore presidency of the Central American Integration System (SICA), which gave Obama the excuse of not playing favorites.
But given Central America’s current cast of presidents – Guatemala’s Otto Perez is a leading critic of the US drug war, El Salvador’s Mauricio Funes has failed to assume a regional leadership role that the US had hoped he would step into, Honduras’ Porfirio Lobo is viewed as a political byproduct of the 2009 coup, Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega is democratically challenged and prone to “anti-yanqui” political ranting, and Panama’s Ricardo Martinelli is considered a loose cannon autocrat who is well-suited for his nickname, “El Loco” – Chinchilla was an easy pick, despite her unpopularity and socially conservative views.
Though the presidents of the region managed to gather at the same dinner table for a meal with Obama, Central America’s strained integration process started to show through the smiles soon after desert was served. Few details were made public about the presidents’ private meeting on Friday night, but by Saturday morning the presidents of Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras had already left the country before Obama’s meeting with Central American business leaders.
Central America’s political integration, which has been a nonstarter since the early 19th Century, has become even more strained in recent years as the various political leaders of the isthmus lead their countries in diverging directions. As Nicaragua seeks closer ties with countries such as Russia, Iran, and the leftist Latin American nations belonging to the Bolivarian Alliance for Our Americas (ALBA), Costa Rica is celebrating what former president and Nobel Peace Laureate Oscar Arias this week called his country’s “extraordinary new chapter in the long history of friendship” with the United States.
Ironically, Nicaragua in some ways is on an equally good footing as Costa Rica to talk with Obama about the issues of renewable energy technologies, growing trade and investment under CAFTA, and citizen security – three areas in which Nicaragua is excelling. But politics being what they are, President Ortega, the former socialist firebrand whose revolutionary government battled US-funded counterrevolutionaries in the 1980s, remained quiet during the summit while Costa Rica grabbed the spotlight. Ortega departed Costa Rica early Saturday morning for another summit in Venezuela, where attitudes toward the Obama administration are markedly different than they are in Costa Rica.
Thousands of spectators invaded the autopista to take pictures of U.S. president Barack Obama. At least of “the Beast”, the presidential limo.
“When comparing the image of the arrival of John F. Kennedy in Costa Rica 50 years ago, the arrival of Barack Obama, yesterday, you’ll notice the idionsyncracis of Costa Rica is still very similar”, writes Luis Miguel Herrera in his article in La Nacion.
Like a half centry ago, thousands of Costa Ricans took to the streets to welcome the visiting dignitary, despite the rigorous security operation put in place by the U.S. Secret Service.
With with and playfullness, and equipped with smartphones, Ticos hunted memories. “We’re here to see Obama or see Obama. Please we are in Costa Rica, they may sneer but this is history and we have to see”, Rosa Cascante, who cam from Belén to see what she could see, told La Nacion.
A crowd greeted the Obama limo on Friday from the airport to the Intercontinental hotel. Outside the airport terminal, in the park across from the airport, many gathered to see the presidential plane land and then invaded the security line, crossing the autopista to get close to the limo.
Along the autopista, there were people lined up all along the route, many close enough to possibly even touch the vehicles if they had slowed down any.
The same occurring today on Obama’s ride back to the airport. Secret Service agents must have scolded Costa Rican authorities, for the park today was roped off and the security line manned by officials of the “intervention unit” -a specialized arm of the Costa Rica police force – and the closeness was now a few metres (yards) instead of centimetres (inches).
Although the Secrect Service had maintained that people would not get any closer than 200 metres from the president or his limo – and this was certainly true to their word where Obama was outside the limo – in other places there were instances where there were close encounters of the presidential kind.
Many, like good Ticos ready for the Tope or Light Festival parade, came out armed with folding chairs and coolers (probably filled with cold imperial beers), while others abandonded their cars and motorcycles, hoofing it to get close to the motorcade.
Although reports of the security breaches and the headaches many a Tico caused the Secret Service have not been made public, posts in the social media tell tales of more than one Tico spending several minutes with hands up in the air, so that American snipers could be clear of the situation.
No matter, it was worth the price of getting close.
In the departing words of president Obama, Pura Vida. Muchas Gracias.
Carlos Arredondo, the Costa Rican who became news after the attacks in Boston weeks ago, is visiting his home country and this morning (Saturday) tried to meet U.S. President Barack Obama.
Arredondo said he was in front of the Intercontinental Hotel at 6am this morning, looking for an opportunity to come face-to-face with Obama.
Although he did not achieve his goal, he said he got a chance to talk to Secret Service agents who recognized and thanked him for his work during the emergency in Boston.
It was 12:38pm when the wheel of Air Force One lifted from the tarmac at the Juan Santamaria airport, almost 22 hours to the minute, of the arrival of U.S. President Barack Obama on his first visit to Costa Rica.
During the 22 hours, under heavy security, Obama held bilateral meetings with Costa Rican president Laura Chinchilla and participated in a summit with the presidents of Central America and the Dominican Republic, forming part of the Central American Integration System (SICA).
The Obama visit even brought Nicaraguan President, Daniel Ortega, to Costa Rica, his first visit to the country since May 2010 and the border conflict between the two countries occurring in October 2010.
In addition to the closed public appearances that included a “working dinner” at the Teatro Nacional Friday night, Obama participated at a meeting of Central American business leaders at the Old Customs House. Here he answered questions by INCAE Business School students, before heading out to the airport for his trip home.
Sending off the U.S. president on the tarmac of the airport were presidenta Laura Chinchilla, who received a Presidential peck on the cheek; vice president, Luis Liberman, Costa Rica’s ambassador to Washington, Muni Figueres; and Foreign Minister, Enrique Castillo, among others.
It would be ironic that the autopista General Cañas would inconvenience U.S. President Barack Obama much in the same way it does daily Costa Ricans.
It was minutes before noon that woman driving a small SUV plowed into the back of a bus, near the toll booths, a short distance from the airport.
This was also the time that Obama was wrapping up his participation in the Central America Forum sponsored by the INCAE, Costa Rica’s elite business school, in downtown San José.
The news of the accident sent the President’s security team scrambling for alternate routes.
However, Costa Rican authorities were able to clear the accident in record time, not affecting the Obama motorcade and his flight leaving on schedule.
Reports indicate that the woman driver plowed into the back of a bus a short distance from the toll booths, on exactly the route the presidential motorcade would take.
The woman suffered fractures in her legs and required hospitalization. Four others suffered minor injuries in the accident.
