Costa Rica Digest, Feb. 7

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NEWS DIGEST
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*Back to School Today!

Today is the first of 200 days of the 2005 school year, more than 900.000

children make their way back to classrooms all over the country.

Some 39.500 teachers polished their study plans and some 50.000 support
staff

for the 7:00am "campanazo" or ringing of the school bell this morning.

The Ministerio de Educación Publica (MEP) has ensured that schools in the

Atlantic zone affected by the flooding last month will also be opening and

over the last several months re-building several schools in the Quepos areas

that were damaged in last November's earthquake.

Transit officials are on full operation, as every available Transit officer

is working detail in and around schools to ensure that this first day is a

safe one.

Transit officials will also be keeping a close eye on the school buses to

make sure that they are in good working order and operating safely. School

buses are operated by private individuals who have obtained a license and

must clearly mark the vehicle as a school bus.

Thousands of members of the Fuerza Publica (police officers) will be on hand

at schools throughout the country to make the return back to school safe.

Walter Navarro, director de la Fuerza Pública, said his officers will be

paying close attention to "vulnerable" areas, schoold where they have had

incidents occurring in the past. Their special attention will be at the end

of the school day, making sure that all school children get picked up and
get

home safely.

Each school will have at least one or more Fuerza Publica officers posted

during the arrival time, lunch and end of school periods. Their role is make

sure that the children are safe in an around schools.

The Ministerio de Seguridad Pública will also have officers give daily

lessons in many schools about safety. Their role is teach the youngsters to

avoid strangers and their gifts, what to do in the case of an emergency and

to wear bright clothing when walking to and from school.


*Former President Figueres To Be Charged With Contempt

Tomorrow, Tuesday, is a the day that Costa Rica will formally charge former

president José María Figueres Olsen, for not appearing before the Comisión

Legislativa de Control de Ingreso y Gasto Público (legislative commission).

The charge of "contempt" will be presented before the Ministerio Público

against the former president by several legislators who make up the

commission.

Figueres is being asked to appear before the legislative commission to
answer

their questions surrounding his admission receiving a us$906.000 payment
from

the French telecommunications firm Alcatel. Figueres says that the payment

was a consulting fee for services he rendered the company by way of a

contract given to his former presidential aide, Roberto Hidalgo, who also

received us$900.000.

Another us$900.000 was paid to Carmen Valverde, sister of then Alcatel Costa

Rica president, Edgar Valverde, who was fired by Alcatel and is currently

under investigation for corruption.

The charge will come following the Figueres' refusal to appear before the

commission on four calls. The former president will be charged under Article

307 of the Penal Code which calls for 15 days to one year jail time for

anyone who disobeys an "official" order given by a public official.

Costa Rica's political constitution gives legislative deputies the right to

call anyone before a commission to answer their questions. Ricardo Toledo,

former Ministro de la Presidencia in president Abel Pacheco's
administration,

is heading the push to have Figueres charged.

One the charge against the former president has been made, the Fiscalía

(Prosecutor's office) can then ask a competent court to have a international

warrant of capture issued against Figueres and ask the International Police

organization, INTERPOL, to arrest Figueres wherever he may be and brought

back to Costa Rica forcibly.

Former president Figueres is currently living in Switzerland and has ignored

a formal letter by INTERPOL that his presence in Costa Rica was requested.


*Madam Trial Begins Tomorrow

Miguel Hernán Monge Muñoz and Gustavo Poltronieri Barrantes, associated of

the Madam known as Sinaí had admitted to belonging to the prostitution

organization headed by woman, who is to face her first day of trial tomorrow

(Tuesday).

Monge and Poltronieri have accepted the charges against them presented by
the

Fiscalía (Prosecutor's office) in a preliminary hearing last November and

were given each three and fours months prison time for their role in the

organization.

Monge and Poltronieri, in an agreement they made with the Fiscalía, also

agreed to pay ¢5 million colones to each of the three minors who made the

charge against the group.

Based on the charges presented by the Ministerio Público, the organization

was headed by Sinaí Monge Muñoz, between 1992 and October 2003, the time of

her arrest, operating out of a house located in Hatillo 3, south of downtown

San José.

Customers would contact Sinaí by telephone and arrange to meet the girls on
a

nearby street or would have them delivered to them. It was well known that

you could call on Sinaí and she would send a bus load of girls to choose

from. Some of the girls who worked for the Madam were underage, authorities

say.

Documents on the investigation say that the Madam would instruct the girls
to

charge between ¢25.000 and ¢90.000 (us$50 and $200), of which the girls were

to kick upstairs to the Madam between ¢5.000 and ¢25.000.

Police had been on the trail of the Madam for a long time. On October 9, an

undercover officer convinced the Madam by telephone that he was a client and

agreed to pay us$100 for the services of one of her girls.

Poltronieri personally delivered to the undercover agent a 15 year old girl

along with a 19 year old . The undercover agent chose the minor and took her

to a motel in San José when the young girl was ready to provide sexual

favours to "the client".

That is all the evidence the authorities needed. Police had already arrested

Poltronieri soon after he dropped off the young girl and the proceeded to

raid the home of Sinaí and arrest her and one other associate.

Cristian Solano Brenes and a woman only known as Jimena, avoided being

captured and are still at large.

Jimena was featured in a Spanish television exposé where she was caught on

hidden camera delivering two young girls, dressed in school uniforms, to the

news reporters. The video was shown on Spanish television and caused a

scandal here, which intensified the investigation of the prostitution

organization run by Sinaí.

If convicted, the Madam could spend the next four to ten years behind bars,

with no time off for good behaviour, the sentence given for those involved
in

prostitution involving minors.


*Colon to Hit 500 by December

Been keeping a close eye on the devaluation of the Colon? Well, the Banco

Central de Costa Rica (BCCR) is predicting that by the end of the year, the

buy and sell of the colon will at least ¢41 Colones more for each US Dollar.

The BCCR is predicting that by December of this year, the Colon will be at

¢501 Colones to each US Dollar, up from the ¢459.69 opening at the beginning

of January.

Fifteen years ago, the Colon exchange was at ¢100 Colones to each US Dollar.

In 1990, a round trip airfare to neighbouring Nicaragua cost us$170 or

¢17.000 colones at the then exchange rate. The cost of the fare in US
Dollars

is pretty well the same today, but due to the devaluation of the Colon, the

cost in Colones is currently ¢78.000 Colones. Ok, if you earn in Dollars,
but

not, as most, earn their salaries in Colones.

The BCCR is predicting a devaluation rate of 9% and and inflation rate of
10%

for this year.

Last year the BCCR had predicted basically the same, but the inflation rate

closed at 13.3% and the devaluation at 9.69% in December, that is to say
that

the Colon really lost 3.44 percentage points.

The BCCR is worried that if inflation is not lowered or at least maintained

under control, they will need to further devalue the Colon and this will

worsen an already bad economic situation the country is facing.

The BCCR is calling on the government to keep a tight belt on it's spending

and maintain tight fiscal controls.


*Coalition for 2006

Independent persons and political parties - both registered or in the
process

of doing so - are talking on the possibility of establishing a coalition for

the February 2006 presidential election.

Meanwhile, there are other parties striving to establish alliances, with the

same goal in mind.

Even though nobody has so far made a commitment, almost all of the groups

that plan on partaking in the 2006 race agree on their interest to establish

coalitions.

According to analysts, even though the two major parties have lost power

because of the involvement of several of their leaders in corruption

scandals, the candidacy of Dr. Oscar Arias represents the possibility of

those organizations to extend their influence at the highest government

level.

As a result, the dissenters from the major parties, the new and emerging

groups are pondering a coalition as their sole means to have true say in the

next presidential term.


*Rains Hit Banana Crop
The damage caused by recent heavy rains and floods in the banana plantations

on the Costa Rican Caribbean will prevent the country from exporting some 2

million boxes of the fruit.

"We are actually scared about the negative consequences," said Luis Umana,

the chairman of the National Chamber of Independent Banana Growers.

He explained that a banana tree that is in the water for 12 to 24 hours is

damaged, but survives; however, if it is exposed for 36 hours, the tree is

rendered useless, and a grower has to wait for seven to nine months to get

another crop.


*Puntarenas Festival
Puntarenas is the largest province in Costa Rica and each year this port
town

hosts, what is perhaps the best Carnaval, with music, dancing and girls in

bikinis.

This year the Carnaval goes on until the February 13. It all started with
the

choosing of the "Reinva del Caranval" (Festival Queen) on Thursday, and the

Tope on Saturday.

Some of the activities planned for today are soccer or football on the
beach,

public dances, parades and music on the Paseo de los Turistas, the boulevard

that fronts the ocean and of course, the bulls.


*President Conditions FTA

The President of Costa Rica Abel Pacheco insisted that he will not submit
the

Free Trade Agreement between Central America and the United States to the

Legislative Assembly, even though El Salvador has already ratified the FTA

and other nations are in the process of doing so.

President Pacheco has reiterated that the FTA will be approved here once it

is certain that it will benefit all social classes.


*Alterra and Government Advance On Negotiations, But Slowly

Negotiations are slowly advancing between Juan Santamaría (San José) airport

concessionaire Alterra Partners and Costa Rica's government to resolve the

former's US$18.7mn claim for lost revenue.

Mónica Nagel, executive director of Alterra's Costa Rica unit, said
"we are closer to a solution now than two months ago... but it is not enough

as the rough draft has not been reviewed by [Costa Rica's civil aviation

board] Cetac and is far from being approved," referring to the draft of a

government proposal to resolve the situation.

"There have been good intentions on both sides, and the issue has been

advancing well. But it is a complicated issue that has taken two years to
get

to this point," Minister of Ministro de Obras Publicas y Transport (MOPT),

Rándall Quirós, said in a recent interview.

The government is due to send the proposal to the country's comptroller

general by end-February, with the comptroller ruling on that proposal by

mid-April for works to restart during June, the minister added.

The debate over lost revenue occurred when Costa Rica's comptroller general

interpreted differently a contract governing the concessionaire's tariff

model, causing Alterra to suffer a shortfall in projected income.

Alterra and government officials met last Monday with representatives from

the 10 international banks that are financing Alterra's modernization

projects at the Juan Santamaría airport. Due to the impasse between Alterra

and the government, the banks have held up some US$30mn in financing of the

total US$120mn for airport modernization.

Project lenders will need to know all branches of the government back the

eventual resolution to the concession. And for works to continue, the banks

need guarantees that the project agreements will be upheld within their
legal

framework, according to local press.

"Legal security does exist in Costa Rica," minister Quirós said. "The

Santamaría contract with Alterra was the nation's first concession contract,

together with a concession contract for the Caldera highway. The problem is

lack of experience, not lack of legal security."

Alterra, controlled by US construction giant Bechtel, signed a 20-year

contract in 2002 to run operations at the Juan Santamaría airport.


*$25 Million Investment

The facilities of the Real Intercontinental Hotel, in Escazu, west of San

José, will be enhanced through a $25-million investment, manager Ramon Diago

and Real Group general director Fernando Poma disclosed.

The hotel currently has 261 rooms, to which another 100 will be added this

year.


*Earthquake Shakes the Southern Zone

A 4.0 earthquake Friday morning at 5:29am was registered some 25 kilometres

southeast of Paso Canoas, at the Panama border.

According to the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica

(Ovsicori), the quake had depth of 24 kilometres in an area where the Coco

and Nazca plates meet.

The movement was felt throughout the southern part of Costa Rica but there

were no reports of being felt in the Central Valley.



*Environment: 18th in the World

Costa Rica placed 18th among the world countries according to the
possibility

of preserving natural resources.

The Environmental Sustainability Index - from US Yale and Columbia

universities - classifies countries according to the chances they have of

effectively preserving their natural resources for decades ahead. In order
to

do so, 76 variables are taken into consideration, and graded 0 to 100.

The countries with the highest grades are Finland (75.1), Norway (73.4), and

Uruguay (71.8).Turkmenistan (33.1), Taiwan (32.7), and North Korea (29.2)
are

at the bottom.

Costa Rica placed 18th with 59.6 points.


*Texas Bank Robber Captured in Costa Rica

Houston's KHOU television news station reports that FBI agents arrived in

Costa Rica to bring back a man who has now been charged with a bank burglary

in Crystal Beach.

David Thomas Hughes allegedly robbed a bank in Crystal Beach. He's suspected

in at least 20 similar cases in Texas and around the nation. Hughes appeared

before a federal judge in Houston Friday morning.

Suspect David Thomas Hughes was brought back to Houston to face bank robbery

charges in Crystal Beach and around the country.

Federal authorities say Hughes led a team of robbers who stole $200,000 from

the Texas First Bank in Crystal City this past August. The FBI says they
were

no amateurs. "They came in through the roof. They used torches to open the

safe. The bank was closed and no one was there," said Bob Doguim of the FBI.

Dallas officials and officials in South Carolina also want him on parole and

passport violations. According to the FBI, Hughes was living the good life
in

Costa Rica until federal agents showed up at his door.



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