Otto Guevara called on his rivals Arias and Solis to offer solutions to the Costa Rican people instead of calling each other names.  On Friday Arias called Solis "taliban" and Solis responded with "little dictator".  Guevara said, "the country needs solutions, not insults that degrade politics. The Expresident and his exminister are both traditional politicians who don’t see anything wrong with trading insults. But this doesn’t help in any way. The Libertian Party, on the other hand offers ideas and proposals, solutions to the country’s problems instead of insults."

ARESEP is studying a proposed change in the way gasoline is priced and sold in Costa Rica.  Currently one price is set for diesel, regular and super gasoline, gas stations purchase at a discount in the RECOPE plant and sell retail at their station.  Gas stations only compete for clients based on service and infrastructure.

Under the new proposal, ARESEP would fix a maximum and minimum price, which would allow stations who can cut costs (or who are willing to make less money ) to sell gasoline at a lower price.  

The Association of Gasoline Distributors was studying the proposal but made no comment.

Yesterday, at midday, an Unidentified Flying Object was spotted over San José.  Hundreds of people observed for over 1 hour a giant, glowing globe. The luminous object was easy to see as it moved slowly through the  clear blue sky. Police officers at the scene tried to calm bystanders saying it was a satellite, a reflection of Mars or space station tracks. 

Wálter Fernández, an astrophysicist, put forth the theory that it was one of the weather balloon launched daily from the airport at 6 am, 12 noon, 6 pm and midnight.  The Meteorological Institute confirmed that they launch the probes, however indicated that they travel in a westerly direction so it would be very difficult for people in San José to see them.

Diario Extra consulted with Astronomer Victor Fung on possible explanations.  The first two theories were that the object was the planet Venus, which is sometimes visible in the daylight or that it was a satellite owned by Iridium.  However, upon further investigation both possibilities were ruled out. The location in the sky eliminated the possibility that it was Venus, and Iridium had no satellite pass programmed for Costa Rica at that time. 

The air traffic control tower at Juan Santamaria Airport did not register any unknown objects and pilots did not report sighting any UFOs either.

Which leaves only Gilda Aburto, UFO Investigator interviewed by Al Dia with the only sure explanation.  According to Aburto space ships have been visiting Costa Rica more frequently in the last week.  "No one can deny that UFOs exist. This means that they want to warn us of something.", she said.

Aburto added that Costa Rica has a special energy that the aliens want to protect.  She also indicated that the giant wave seen in the Pacific on Wednesday could have been due to alien experiments, since they frequently investigate the ocean and tectonic plates.

Otto Guevara has expressed his desire to participate in any debate between front runners and has offered to purchase the television time necessary to broadcast the debate.

“The Costa Ricans have a right to know the ideas and proposals that the 3 leading candidates are offering them.   Costa Rica is an established democracy and it would be a crime to deny the citizens this debate. Arias should accept a debate, if not he is disrespecting the citizens.”, said Guevara.

The National Association of Public Employees (ANEP) seconded the idea of a debate. Albino Vargas, secretary, said "Arias should not hide behind a Nobel Prize, or think that it makes him the chosen one.  He should show his face to discuss his proposals in depth.  He can take on the responsibility of defending ideas that nurture the financial oligarchy that is the enemy of populist organizations of every type."

Arias responded, "I don’t want to be a cock fighting in the ring, I want agreements not blood. I told Otton, who is my friend, let’s have coffee and chat.  We don’t have to debate, we have to discuss what help he will need if he wins, or if not what help he can provide.  Two can’t fight if one doesn’t want to, so if Otton and Otto want to fight they can go ahead amongst themselves.  They have more differences between them anyway.  A debate makes sense when there are 2 or 3 points of difference between candidates. But I am not hiding from someone who trails by 30 points, I am doing what I know I should do." 

Arias also though that ANEP supports the debate because they support many of the ideas in the PAC platform, and several union members tried to become legislature candidates in the PAC tickets.

On Wednesday, 3 pilots reported sighting gigantic waves in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Costa Rica.  Many people in coastal areas of Honduras and Costa Rica evacuated low lying areas and some hotel guests were thinking of departing. Most fears were based on the idea that the waves could be a warning of a tsunami.

While the waves were confirmed, they presented no danger and dissipated as they approached the coast.  These waves are natural and created by an accumulation of energy between the ocean and the atmosphere, they commonly occur between December and February, although this is the first time they have been seen without the aid of special equipment. 

The waves were between 2 and 6 kilometers long and 1 to 1.5 meters high. They present no danger to fishing vessels or people on the coast, but can affect marine life.  The alarms were mostly in the area between Quepos and Parrita, with some people evacuating and others leaving work to attend to their families.

Responding to a challenge by the PAC campaign team, Oscar Arias rejected any possibility of a debate between front runners "for the good of the country", even though PAC representatives reminded him that in his previous campaign he asked politicians to be more open "in order to make Costa Rica the first developed country in Latin America, we have to lose our fear of dialogue."

Otton Solís, the PAC candidate reacted, "Then Oscar Arias believes he is God, because only God is above the Pope." 

The well-organized festivities in Palmares take center stage this weekend, and traffic police will be on the watch for drunk drivers.  120 officers will be on call to control traffic from January 11th to January 23rd. 

Huanelge Gutiérrez, subdirector of the Transit Police said that from 10 pm until dawn they will stop every vehicle to verify the condition of the driver.  The checkpoint will be at the Naranjo toll booth. 6 other posts will be on the Bernardo Soto and General Cañas freeways. 

The police will have 2 tow trucks, 10 radar guns, 10 alcohol sensors, 15 patrol cars, 20 motorcycles and a large capacity tow truck for hauling trucks.

According to reports filed with the TSE, PLN (Oscar Arias) recieved a whopping 75% of contributions in the second half of 2005.  Between July and November, national parties recieved 414 million Colones in donations.  PLN reported 313 million.

The PAC has accused PLN of placing green and white flags inappropriately, and without permission, in several areas of Costa Rica. PAC claims that they have received multiple complaints from people who have found unauthorized PLN flags flying over their homes. In some cases they have found homes of illegal immigrants flying flags, and in addition have found that these immigrants were promised home repairs in exchange for allowing the PLN flag to fly.

At PLN headquarters they denied that they have authorized party members to post flags without permission or to offer bribes in order to gain permission.

The Juan Santamaria Airport in Alajuela was projected to have a useful life only until 2020.  The main limitation is that there is only 1 runway and no space around the airport to add another safely.  The government has considered Orotina as the best spot to place the replacement airport for over a decade, but has not even picked a location yet, much less expropriated the land. 

This makes it highly unlikely that the apparition …er airport will be ready in time.