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Costa Rica news, information, plus real estate & investment advice

Autor: Writer

~ 05/10/06

Following a recent trend of falling gasoline prices, the prices of regular gas, super gas, diesel fuel and cooking gas dropped yesterday.

The price of one liter of super gas dropped from ¢513 ($0.99) to ¢499 ($0.96), while the price of one liter of regular gas dropped from ¢485 ($0.93) to ¢469 ($0.90).

Additionally, consumers of diesel fuel yesterday paid ¢342 ($0.66) per liter, down from ¢364 ($0.70) per liter, and the cost of filling a 21-liter tank of cooking fuel dropped from ¢7,860 ($15.14) to ¢7,534 ($14.52).

These price reductions went into effect after being approved by the Public Services Regulatory Authority (ARESEP) and published Tuesday in the official government daily La Gaceta. They reflect gas price variations on the international market, according to a statement from ARESEP.

-Tico Times

Autor: Writer

Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno yesterday said the United States’ plans to build a wall along the border with Mexico are a step in the wrong direction.

U.S. President George Bush yesterday signed a controversial homeland security bill that includes $1.2 billion for fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border to stem illegal immigration, reported The New York Times.

Stagno told the press that Costa Rica, like the United States, has a problem with illegal immigration. However, Costa Rica has always called for “integral treatment” of this problem using “policies that respect international norms and human rights.”

“Walls will not detain immigration. We’re asking for developed countries, in this case the United States, to comply with the U.N. Millennium Development goals,” he added.

Striving to meet these goals by 2015, which include developed countries investing 0.7% of their gross domestic product to help developing countries, is a better strategy for combating illegal immigration than building a wall, Stagno said.

Autor: Writer

By Blake Schmidt, Tico Times Staff

The Labor Ministry has begun investigating the legality of recent protests by Caribbean port workers using tortuguismo, or working as slowly as possible, Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias said yesterday after the government’s weekly Cabinet meeting.

The Chamber of Exporters (CADEXCO) has estimated delays from these protests — carried out by unionized workers at the Caribbean ports of Limón and Moín to show their opposition to government plans to privatize the ports’ management –have cost exporters $10 million.

Police officers stepped in early Sept. 28 at Moín in a controversial pre-dawn port takeover to intervene in the protests (TT, Sept. 29). Public Security Minister Fernando Berrocal has said the police will continue to occupy the ports as needed, offering no exit date.

More than 200 police officers remained at Moín this week, and the port was operating normally. However, delay tactics at the smaller port of Limón, where only about 15 police officers were stationed, continued delays this week.

The Union “has been setting the agenda; it’s time for the government to set the agenda,” said Inter-Institutional Coordination Minister Marco Vargas.

The intervention has stirred up animosity between union workers and the government. It has also drawn fire from opponents of the Arias administration who accuse the President, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, of militarizing the country’s police to carry out his agenda.

Autor: Writer

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff


The Panduit Corp., a Grecia electronics manufacturer with some 650 employees, said Tuesday that it would build a second structure to double production and bring the workforce up to about 1,000 by next year.

Company executives met Tuesday with President Óscar Arias Sánchez and made the announcement. They are  William Ernest, general manager in Costa Rica; Tom Donovan, company president; Barry Page, vice president, and John Caveney, chief executive officer.

The manfacturing facility has been in operation here since 1996.

The company makes all sorts of connectors and raceways for fiber optic and copper cables as well as other hardware.