By Leland Baxter-Neal
Tico Times Staff

As a part of the ongoing expansion of the private Clínica Bíblica Hospital in downtown San José, administrators dedicated a new building to two brothers hospital officials said saved the hospital from closure in 1968.

“Today, we are celebrating. We have a new building,” said Jorge Cortés, the hospital’s Medical Director, in his welcoming speech July 20.

Though the entire seven-story, 18,000-square-meter building is not yet finished, some floors have been opened and integrated into the hospital’s functions. According to Susana Guzmán, spokeswoman for the hospital, the $25 million building is being opened in phases, which should conclude next year. The fourth and fifth floors have already been opened, and consist of state-of-the-art hospital rooms.

“You could say that it is an intelligent building, built with the highest standards of quality, to international standards,” Guzmán said, adding that when the building is completed, it will add 95 patient rooms to the Clínica Bíblica’s capacity.

“The new building represents Clínica Bíblica’s leadership as a institution of health, not only in Costa Rica, but in the Central American and Latin American region,” Cortés told The Tico Times. “It is the most modern, the most secure, and the most technologically advanced.”

The doctor added that Clínica Bíblica is currently in the process of applying for certification from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, which he said certifies 80% of the hospitals in the United States. Costa Rica is the second country in Latin America to enter the process behind Brazil, Cortés said.

“This guarantees quality and security for our patients, and is a guarantee that we comply with international quality standards,” he said.

The new building was officially named the Cabezas López Building, after the Cabezas López brothers who stepped up to take over the hospital when the original founding organization was planning to close it in 1968.

Founded in 1929 by Christian missionaries Henry and Susan Strachner, a Scottish-Irish couple, the hospital was slated to close when the missionaries decided to move on to more needy countries in 1968.

Enríque Cabezas, 82, a U.S.-educated Costa Rican engineer and architect, approached the missionaries with a group of investors and asked for permission to form an association to continue the administration of the hospital. With the mission’s permission, they founded the Association of Costa Rican Medical Services (ASEMECO) – which owns of the hospital – and Enrique served as the president of the association’s board of directors. He also designed most of the hospital’s buildings.

His brother, Dr. Arturo Cabezas, 84, who studied medicine at various universities in the United States before returning to Costa Rica in 1956, began working at Clínica Bíblica in 1957 and took over as the hospital’s medical director in 1968.

“If it weren’t for them, the Clínica Bíblica would not have been available for the thousands of people who have needed it,” said Dr. Roberto Rodríguez, a member of the ASEMECO board of directors.

“Of course it is an honor,” Enrique Cabezas told The Tico Times following the dedication. “But like I have been told, these kind of honors should be for the deceased, so what can I say to that? It is an honor, nothing more, and I am very thankful.”

The three-day weekend stimulated hundreds of pilgrims to start their walk to Cartago a little earlier this year.

A steady stream of walkers was arriving at the Basilica de los Ángeles Sunday under partly cloudy skies, 90 percent humidity and temperatures that reached 32.5 Celsius or about 90.5 Fahrenheit.

Wednesday is the feast day of the Virgen de los Ángeles, the patroness of the country, and a legal holiday. Nearly two million persons are expected to have paid their respects by then. So some walkers expressed the desire to avoid the crowds by making their pilgrimage Sunday.

The annual religious event already has been marred with one death. A walker, Cristian Rodríguez Alvarez, 27, died when he was hit by a vehicle in Curridabat Sunday morning. The driver fled. A companion of the victim was hospitalized.

Police and emergency personnel were out in force. Not everyone was traveling by foot, and neither are the police. In addition to motor vehicles, there are police along the routes on bicycles, horses and motorcycles. Some pilgrims or romeros, as they are called in Spanish, were on horseback Sunday, too.

Although other roads lead to Cartago from the east and south, the principal route for walkers is the Autopista Florencio del Castillo between that city and San José.

The Fuerza Pública is being joined by the Policía de Tránsito, the Comisión Nacional de Emergencias, the Cruz Roja Costarricense and the Patronato Nacional de la Infancia, the child welfare agency.

The Cruz Roja has three aid stations set up along the autopista. The major complaints are blisters and cramps. More than 100 had been treated by Sunday night.

Also involved in providing security for the romeros are the Ministerio de Salud, the Instituto Acueductos y Alcantarillados, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad , the Policía Municipal, Seguridad Presidencial, la Municipalidad de Cartago, Hospital Max Peralta, the Cuerpo de Bomberos, the Junta Administrativa de Servicios Eléctricos and the Comisión del Santuario de Cartago.

Security will be cranked up Wednesday when national officials, including President Óscar Arias Sánchez, show up for a 9:30 a.m. Catholic Mass at the basilica. By that time, the plaza in front of the church will be filled with hundreds of thousands of the faithful. The event will be televised.

The statute of the Virgin itself has new security. Three bungling crooks tried to hijack the statue, known lovingly as La Negrita. So basilica officials had what amounts to a small safe constructed. The small statue still is above the main altar of the basilica, but the heavy steel in which it is now contained can be closed to secure the statue of the Virgin during off hours.

Wednesday the Virgin will be taken down from the lofty perch and carried through the faithful.

Many Catholics here consider the Black Virgin, La Negrita, to be the Costa Rican manifestation of the Mexican Virgin of Guadalupe. A youngster in 1635 found the dark stone statue said to be of the Virgin Mary. The statue mysteriously kept returning by  unknown means to the site where the basilica stands now in Cartago some 23 kms. (about 14 miles) east of San José, according to legend.

The actions of the statue were interpreted by church leaders as a desire of the Virgin Mary to have a church built on the Cartago site, and one was.

There also is a spring just south of the church where the faithful descend to obtain bottles of the water. The statue was found close to the spring.

Both the police and the weather bureau have suggestions for the romeros. The Mininsterio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública suggested that walkers bring nothing of value, including cell phones, to tempt thieves. The pilgrimage also attracts the less religious.

Nevertheless, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad said it was beefing up the cell stations in  Curridabat, Tres Ríos, Ochomogo and Cartago in anticipation of a lot of cell phone use. The telecommunications giant said it moved in mobile switching stations.

The Instituto Meteorológical Nacional said that the best time to walk is in the mornings because afternoon thunderstorms are likely this time of year.

The weather bureau issued a special report for the romería Friday in which it said temperatures can dip to 16 degrees Celsius or 61 degrees Fahrenheit overnight in Cartago at the basilica grounds where many persons camp out. That’s cold for Costa Ricans.

The instituto also warned of sunburn danger, heat stroke and lightning. The rains swept in Sunday around 2 p.m. and continued off and on through the night. Sunday was better for pilgrims than Saturday that had heavy rain all day.

The institute said that low pressure areas exist on both sides of the country and that moisture is pouring in from the Pacific. The afternoon and evening showers are likely in all parts of the country.

There is probably no phenomenon like the annual pilgrimage in Costa Rica. There is no real organization. It just happens. Some persons walk from Panamá or Nicaragua, Each either is fulfilling a promise made to the Virgin or has a request. One man, a fireman, was walking to Cartago Sunday in full, heavy gear, including helmet. He said he was completing a promise he had made. Others were disabled and in wheelchairs or on crutches.

For some, the romería is an outing. Young men and women holding hands can be seen in the mass of people.

To be invited by a young man to join him on the romería is equivalent to being a prom date elsewhere, a prom with spiritual overtones.

Today is the relocated anniversary of the Annexation of the Partido de Nicoya, the time in 1824 when residents of Guanacaste decided to join with Costa Rica. The ceremony marking the event took place Tuesday, the actual date, July 25. The three-day weekend is a creation of a new law.

With Wednesday being a national holiday, too, thanks to the Virgin, not much official activity will take place Tuesday. In fact, Tuesday will be the day that pilgrims change from a stream to a flood headed to Cartago to be there in time for the Wednesday morning ceremonies.

The board of directors of Radiográfica Costarricense S.A., the government Internet company, has authorized a cut in rates and an increase in the speed of connection, the company said.

The company did not specify the rate cuts, but the cable modem rate for 256 download and 64 kilobits per second upload that is now $25 a month is expected to fall to $17. There will be similar cuts in higher speeds. The company is expected to outline the full rate structure this week as well as new options.

The company known as RACSA is in competition now with its parent, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, which is supplying high-speed Internet via the company’s telephone lines. The RACSA cable modem rate is only half the monthly cost. Private cable companies also charge a rate that also includes cable television services.

Some organic food producers fear the free trade treaty with the United States and consider it the kiss of death for their business.

They made themselves visible Sunday at the Feria Agroecológica at the Museo Nacional.

The event was billed as a time to share information on organic farming methods and to sell organic produce. But some shirts carried buttons seeking a no vote on the free trade treaty. In fact, the buttons were for sale there at a small stand that also featured buttons carrying the face of Argentine revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the architect of Fidel Castor’s victory in Cuba.

Although larger agricultural producers lust after the free trade treaty, some of the smaller operators working Sunday said that the treaty would put them out of business. They fear a flood of produce from the north.

The fears may not be misplaced. U.S. pork producers said Costa Rican marketers have told them that more money can be made here simply by reselling U.S. pork. The efficient U.S. techniques produce a product that is even cheaper when transportation is considered.

There were no pork producers at the fair Sunday, but nearly all products of small-scale agriculture were represented, including some, like the fruit jocotes, typical of Costa Rica. There also were displays of seed specimens from dozens of tropical plants.

Everything there from the products to the tourists was organic, but the word has come to mean products raised without chemical fertilizers and insecticides.

One small booth offered information on an insecticide made from citrus rinds.

The event was organized by the Movimiento de Agricultura Orgánica with the support of the Museo Nacional de Costa Rica and other agencies.

The organic organizers also are concerned with transgenic products, that is products that have been subjected to genes inserted artificially. For example, a corn variety has been developed that produces its own insecticide via a gene from a bacterium. A video outlined in Spanish a mock trial at a Brazilian university where the defendant was transgenic plants.

Opponents fear polluting the gene pool of certain crops and effects on humans when the transgenic food is eaten.

Some of the producers need not worry about the free trade agreement. The United States is not a big producer of ayote or star fruit or bananas.

One free trade opponent agreed that the key to success under the treaty is marketing, something she did not feel small producers could accomplish.

Those who missed the annual organic fair have a chance to visit a similar event every Saturday from 6 a.m. to noon in Barrio Carmen, Paso Ancho. The Centro Ferial el Trueque features organically grown products there. The location is two blocks north of the Circumvalacion’s Paso Ancho traffic circle and one block north of the Catholic church there.

Another hitch has developed with lawmakers approving the free trade treaty with the United States.

The Centro para el Desarrollo Indígena says that Costa Rica is bound by a 1992 international labor convention to consult Indian tribes about the measure.

In Costa Rica international treaties and conventions trump the Constitution and other laws.

The Indian group, based in Buenos Aires de Puntarenas said that the Departamento de Servicios Técnicos of the Asamblea Legislativa has confirmed that such consultation is obligatory. The legislative experts were asked about the matter by Janina Del Vecchio Ugalde, president of the Comisión de Relaciones Internacionales y Comercio Exterior, which is studying the treaty, said the center.

The treaty contains matters that directly affect the Indian groups, the center said.

It is not clear how such consultation needs to be done. The commission is holding hearings for a broad cross section of Costa Rican society. The center is associated with the Boruca Indians of southwest Costa Rica. There are other tribes.

The executive branch has sent legislators 38 law proposals to be considered and perhaps acted upon during the so-called extraordinary session that begins Aug. 1

Among the proposals, according to legislative sources, is an executive branch proposal for changes in the income tax law and a law to create new taxes for the elimination of slums. Two other pressing issues are a change to stop the new immigration law from going into effect and the approval of a number of loans, including one for $130 million from the government of Japan to help redo the Central Valley sewer system.

The Costa Rican Constitution says that the Asamblea Legislativa may only meet from May 1 to July 31 and from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30. In order to keep the legislature working, this administration as well as previous ones have called the lawmakers into extraordinary session, which also is permitted by the Constitution.

During these special periods, lawmakers may only consider matters brought before it by the executive branch.
In an announcement Thursday, Casa Presidencial listed some 20 laws that the executive branch has endorsed. The announcement came after Rodrigo Arias, the minister of the Presidencia, met with legislative leaders.

But Casa Presidencial briefly mentions the free trade treaty with the United States and the two tax laws, but there were no details. The proposals are expected to be for an increase in the tax rate and a surcharge on homes and properties to eliminate slums.

There was no mention of a value added tax, which the executive branch supports, although creation of such a tax in place of the existing sales tax could be within one of the tax laws.

The administration is expected to change the tax laws to put more burden on those who earn more while increasing the number of workers who pay no taxes.  And also expected is what amounts to a national tax on real estate that will be used to clear slums.

In addition to the Japanese loan, the executive branch is seeking approval for loans from the World Bank to finance a project for efficiency and equality in education, a contract with the Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo to finance a program to aid competitiveness and a loan from the Banco Centroaméricano de Integración Económica to beef up the nation’s tax collections.

The immigration law, passed by the previous legislature, is due to take effect Aug. 19. The executive branch says it does not have the resources to enforce it and wants the effective date put off to December 2007.

Lawmakers will not meet Monday because it is a national holiday.

A 2-year-old experiment in the commercial production of hay has resulted in significant income for farmers in the  Bagaces areas. They are growing a high-protein mix of two tropical grasses.

More than 140,000 17-kilo (37-pound) bales have been shipped in two years resulting in an income of 800 million colons, about $1.6 million, said a summary from the Ministerio de la Producción, the former agriculture ministry. The hay is being marketed through the  Asociación de Productores Agroindustriales de Bagaces under the trade name of Nutriheno. Heno in Spanish means hay.

Some 25 farmers in the areas of La Soga, Falconiana, Tamarindo and Bagatsí have allocated 100 hectares (about 247 acres) and are netting about 400,000 colons per hectare, about $775, said the ministry. The program was promoted as an option for farmers of the region.

The hay is a combination of pinto peanut or  maní forrajero (Arachis pintoi ) and pangola grass (Digitaria decumbens), called trasvala here. The maní forrajero is a perennial herb and pangola grass stays green though wet and dry seasons.

Both crops are highly digestible by cattle and have been used for years elsewhere in the tropics. They can even be found in the subtropical United States.

Costa Rica’s schools have chronically suffered from a shortage of desks and chairs for their students, but the expansion of an agreement between the Public Security Ministry and the Public Education Ministry (MEP) through which prisoners build furniture for schools seeks to end this problem by having prisoners build 80,000 desk-and-chair sets by the end of next year, according to a statement from MEP.

Nationwide, there is a shortage of 30,000 sets, especially in San Carlos, in north-central Costa Rica; Talamanca, in the southern Caribbean; and Guápiles and Turrialba, on the Caribbean slope, the statement said.

The expanded agreement also allows the Education Ministry’s regional offices to collect and distribute furniture to nearby schools. In the past, schools far from San José have had to wait to receive furniture from the capital, the statement said.

Each desk-and-chair set costs ¢11,900 ($23), while the sets of one table and four small chairs used in preschools cost ¢25,800 ($50). This school year, MEP’s spending on furniture will reach ¢600 million ($1.16 million), according to the statement.

Education Minister Leonardo Garnier told The Tico Times during a recent interview that the notorious desk shortage is more of a logistical problem than a financial one. When school starts every February, schools across the country complain of kids sitting on the floor because furniture has not arrived on time (TT, July 7).

-Tico Times

The highway from San José to Cartago is about 23 kilometers, and it is but one of three major routes to the town.

Starting this weekend, all those routes will be congested with pilgrims on their way to do homage to the patroness of Costa Rica, the Virgen de los Angeles.

The feast day of the Virgin is Wednesday, and the day is a national holiday. Due to a new law, the weekend is an unusual one. Monday is a holiday, too.

It is the new and controversial date for Costa Ricans to celebrate the Annexation of the Partido de Nicoya. The actual date for that is July 25, but Costa Ricans have a three-day weekend, thanks to the new law.

Tuesday is the only day that stands in the way of a five-day weekend. But this is the day pilgrims will be on the move and will be converted into an unofficial holiday.

Perhaps as many as 2 million persons will make the trip from their homes to the Basilica de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles, the site of the small statue venerated by Costa Ricans.

The weekend is the biggest effort of the year for police and Cruz Roja workers. Some pilgrims certainly will be injured, perhaps by vehicles and perhaps by fellow walkers. Some may die.

Traffic deaths are possible with so many thousands of person on the road and at very early and very late hours.

A Zarcero man died last year after being hit by a car on a service road alongside the Autopista General  Cañas in La Uruca.  The motorist faced a drunk driving charge. The Policía de Tránsito will be out in force, and some traffic in the Cartago area and along the approach routes will be detoured.

Not all who march to Cartago have religion on their mind. Some are crooks or worse, so Fuerza Pública officers will be stationed every few hundred feet. Thefts and other crimes of opportunity are the unpleasant prospect for a small number of pilgrims.

Officials are trying to crack down on the number of vendors who depend on the pilgrims, but walkers frequently depend on roadside stands for water and other drinks and food.

The faithful come on foot from as far as Panamá and Nicaragua.  Some come early and are back home by the time the Tuesday morning religious service takes place. Most officials attend.

Lawmakers just could not get around to accepting a $130 million loan from the Japanese Bank of International Cooperation.

The deadline will be Monday, but there is little chance of passage by then. Ricardo Sancho Chavarría, executive president of the Instituto de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, told lawmakers that he had to seek a 30-day extension from the Japanese bank manager, Hajime Takeuchi.

It was Sancho who went before lawmakers July 4 and urged them to hurry up and pass the measure. The money will be used to reconstruct the sewer system in the Central Valley and build a sewage treatment plant. Now Central Valley sewage flows into the Río Tarcoles and then the Gulf of Nicoya.

The loan is a favorable one with a low interest rate. But some lawmakers, remembering the corruption scandals of last year involving foreign loans, want a full study of the contract.

The metropolitan sewer system does not cover the whole area and where it does the pipes are rusted through in some cases. Large quantities of raw sewage flow into streams when rain infiltrates into the sanitary system.