by Rod Hughes

RACSA, a part of the government Internet access monopoly, is offering 20,000 new wireless Internet connections via WiMax for San Jose, Alajuela, Cartago and Heredia and promises to extend the service to Ciudad Colon and Paraiso in three months. Other than being wireless, WiMax also is more powerful, ranging from 512 kilobits to two megabits of download in RACSA’s case.

The latter capacity is 30 times that of RACSA’s land lines. With WiMax, RACSA is hoping to attract consumers who desire broadband that has been closed to them by technology limitations in the company’s cable modem service and in ICE’s ADSL system.

According to RACSA marketing strategist Mauricio Barrantes, WiMax connection rates will be $29 for the 512 to 256 kilobit tehcnology to $244 for the two megabits. Microwave-generating bases are in action in central San Jose, Santa Ana, Alajuela, Desamparados, Heredia and Cartago. An antena outside the customer’s home and from there through wires to the computer via a decoder that is rented from RACSA for $6 monthly. The equipment functions 24/7. If you purchased the decoder, it would cost you $500, according to the newspaper La Nacion.

In three months, RACSA will rent out equipment that will allow customers to transform WiMax into WiFi which will allow laptops, cell phones and even electronc agendas to access WiFi. But WiFi has a much shorter range and slower speed and is contemplated for whole city networks.

To inquire about these services one can call (in Costa)Rica, 800-NAVIGAR (800-628-3427 or access www.racsa.c… . RACSA has been looking ahead, anticipating the opening of the telecommunications market to competition, doing what the subsidiary can to be competitive.

by Rod Hughes

Jorge Rojas, director of the Judicial Investigation bureau OIJ, who announced his resignation last month because he said his budget did not allow OIJ to do its job, is staying on. The emergency increase in his departmental of seven billion colones for this year is an immediate result of the top-level meeting of law enforcement and court officials yesterday.

The move underscores just how seriously the government is taking crime. And well they might, since no fewer than seven cabinet members have been victims over the years, including the brother of President Oscar Arias, Rodrigo, who is also Minister of the Presidency and the most powerful cabinet member.

The injection of funds will allow OIJ to hire 500 additional officials and buy 250 vehicles to allow investigators to probe crime scenes, haul evidence and perform other duties. The money represents a healthy 26% hike in the budget previously earmarked for the country’s equivalent of Scotland Yard or the FBI.

Other decisions made at yesterday’s meeting include the opening of seven misdemeanor courts to function 24 hours per day in the central valley to process those captured for such minor crimes as stealing cell phones. The move is an attempt to free up court agendas for more serious felonies. The meeting also decided to push even harder on crime bills currently stuck in congress.

Five of the cabinet members have been victims of violent crimes over the last four months: Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno, Finance Minister Guillermo Zuniga, Minister of Public Works Karla Gonzalez, Deputy Minister of Health Lidieth Carballo and Deputy Education Minister Alejandrina Mata. It was for this reason that the country’s chief prosecutor Francisco Dall’Anese especially targeted organized crime—all were victims of violent gangs.

Ironically, crime figures themselves are down slightly for last year, especially in the tourism area, thanks to the creation of a special tourism pollce force. The President Oscar Arias made it clear yesterday that he was making crime a top priority.

by Rod Hughes

In a short time you will be able to cash a Banco de Costa Rica check at a Banco Nacional branch or deposit in your account in either bank through a Bancredito branch, if the shared technology does not develop any last minute glitches. The new arrangement may make doing business a bit easier although it may not do anything about the long lines at certain times of the month.

The three state banks have embarked on this shared technology for efficiency’s sake and hope to save $1 billion a year while doing it. But that may not be the end of it. A special committee has been created to study a merger of the three entities to compete with the big private banks established here. There may be a paper saving of $90 million from branches they will not have to open to get better nationwide coverage. Banco Nacional general manager William Hayden promised that the merger of services will not result in personnel firings.

By the last week of February, the first step should be up and running. But those who have used the banks are somewhat cynical. One said, “I suppose in many places the lines will be three times longer…”

by Rod Hughes

Crime pays very well—at least until you get caught—appears the lesson to be learned from an alleged car thief captured at his luxurious mansion. The gates were so striong that authorities had to use a small tractor to bring them down during their raid.

According to police, the thief earned a million colones per day on an average—even at 500 colones per dollar, not bad wages for this country. His modus aparandi was simple. He pulled up beside the car he intended to steal from the parking lot, driving a respectable looking four-wheel-drive pickup. Then he calmly got out and went to work on the front doors of the target, using state-of-the-art tools that left no finger prints.

But the judicial police detectives got good images from security cameras at some parking lots. Now he will need his ill-gotten gains for lawyers.

by Rod Hughes

Just before Christmas, we reported that the president of the Citizen Action Party (PAC), Otton Solis, was quoted by a reporter from the newspaper Al Dia as saying that his party’s congressional delegation would discontinue their blockage of 11 bills needed to implement the CAFTA free trade pact with the United States.

Perhaps we misread the news story. Or, maybe, the reporter misunderstood Solis. Or perhaps Solis meant that the party would not absent themselves from floor sessions so that legislators cannot attain a quorum. Or, perhaps…

Oh, my! We nearly suggested an unthinkable alternative. But we all know that politicians don’t lie, don’t we?

PAC opposed CAFTA bitterly, aligning themselves with government monopoly labor unions, but the October referendum ratified CAFTA, although not by an overwhelming margin. The opposition party then began to boycott congressional sessions so that 13 bills necessary to bring Costa Rican law into harmony with the pact would be blocked.

Two bills were passed and now 11 remain. And PAC has another tactic: The party has presented about 5,000 amendments to certain parts of three of those bills. The most changes, nearly 2,000, have been levied against the bill that would open the telecommunications market, currently the monopoly of the government company, ICE, the most controversial result of the trade treaty. Each must be read and voted on.

You read that right: five thousand. The opposition have been busy little beavers. The leadership of President Oscar Arias’s party in congress underscored this freezing of the legislative process Wednesday by calling a news conference where they showed stacks of documents on which the opposition amendments were printed, including a bright blue wheelbarrow piled with them. It was an impressive display.

Now, we might assume that some of these amendments are sincere attempts to mend flaws in these bill, to fill loopholes and to generally clean up legislation that can cause untold headaches if it passes. But the sheer volume of changes brings doubt to the reasonable mind. And note that a Feb. 29 deadline looms for these bills and that behind the logjam are important bills that cannot be discussed, including a vital immigration reform and a traffic law.

On Oct. 7 the people spoke. Is PAC telling them to shut up?

The point of view of this blog does not necessarily reflect that of American-European Real Estate or its member brokers. We welcome your commentaries.

by Rod Hughes

A delegation of trade representatives from mainland China will be meeting with their local counterparts all week here to study a possible free trade treaty with China. The meeting is a direct outgrowth of President Oscar Arias’s visit to Beijing last October.

Earlier last year, the Arias Administration opened full diplomatic relations with China, a controversial foreign policy turnaround. The move made it necessary to sever the cordial four-decade-long relations with Taiwan since China claims the island nation as a break-away province.

The latest (Jan. 4) edition of the English-language weekly, The Tico Times, indicates how uncomfortable many are with the new arrangement. The editorial pointed out that Chinese tourists must go through an arduous two-month-long bureaucratic maze to receive a visa simply to visit here. This is because China is included in a somewhat unsavory list of countries including North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Mynamar and Cuba. to get a visa, Chinese travelors must present a written request, an intinerary, a return passage and proof they have enough money to travel.

The editorial called these requirements “contradictory and embarrassing” in the light of the new relations, especially since the all-powerful Chinese government has recently designated Costa Rica as a “recommended destination” for its tourists.

But in a letter to the editor just below it, reader George Prosser of Golfito blasted China eloquently for, among other things, using more than its fair share of non-renewable resources, consuming shark fins, occupying Tibet for its gold and uranium deposits, claiming Taiwan and numerous repressive human rights offenses including the jailing of journalists. He did not forget the export of tainted toys and pet food as an example of what he termed “blatant disregard for the consumers of its products.”

This administration and the newspaper obviously do not share Prosser’s misgivings. Perhaps they agree with a paraphrase of cynical comedian W. C. Fields: Anyone who poisons dogs and little children can’t be ALL bad…”

by Rod Hughes

The government has apparently given up trying to put a spin on the crime rate and invoked a high-level conference for tomorrow. President Oscar Arias has admitted that the incidence of crime in the country is real, not a perception fabricated by the press.

He is still standing behind his Minister of Public Security Fenando Berrocal, however. The President told the press that crime is the number one worry of Costa Ricans. The daily paper La Nacion noted, however, that the high cost of living tops the latest polls as the chief cause of worry.

The Arias Administration has increased the number of police and is making arrangements for further training but admitted that this is not enough. Moreover, a number of bills increasing penalties and raising some misdemeanors to the level of a crime are in congress. But they have been bumped down the list due to the rush to pass CAFTA implementation bills.

The crime rate, although not particularly alarming compared with many other countries, has increased markedly over the past two decades, from 135 per 1,000 population in 1990 to 205 in 2006. Arias pulled no punches about his view of this jump. “Gangs continue having their way in the plain view…of the people, society and government,” he said.

It has been in the robbery category that the greatest jump has occurred: an incredible 700%. Drug-related crimes are up 280%. And most chilling of all has been the number of households where someone has been a crime victim, rising from 20% in 1990 to 40% in 2004. Nor was Arias attempting to whitewash things. Crime, especially against tourists, has dropped and overall rate dropped slightly in 2007 but not enough to satisfy Arias.

But Minister of Justice Laura Chinchilla, an ex-cop herself, considers that the doubling of the physical violence rate is the most worrisome of all. Indeed, many Ticos over the age of 40 can remember when violent crime was rare and when the majority of police did not even carry firearms. Since then, crime rates have soared throughout the world but this is hardly consoling to a people accustomed to a quieter, kinder country.

Expected to attend the top-level conference are Chinchilla and Berrocal as well as Vice-Minister of the Presidency Jose Torres, Supreme Court Chief Justice Luis Paulino Mora, director of the judicial detective agency OIJ, Jorge Rojas, and the nation’s top prosecutor Francisco Dall’Anese. The latter has announced his resignation for early this year, considering that his agency is too understaffed and underfunded to accomplish its task adequately.

by Rod Hughes

Never mind asking those helpful baggage handlers at the doors of Juan Santamaria International Airport what the standard rate is for lugging your stuff to your car or to a taxi. There isn’t a standard anything.

The daily newspaper La Nacion today revealed that baggage handlers are completely without supervision either by Civil Aviation or by the airport concessionaires, Alterra. The travelor must negotiate his own price (usually between $1 and $10, depending on the amount of baggage and the avarice of the handler.)

And forget using one of those free carts in the airport—they are not allowed outside for fear of theft and they cost $200 a piece to replace. The result is confusion at the exit to Immigration, a traffic jam of carts.

That the situation is not more chaotic and that more passengers are not cheated is a tribute to Costa Rican worker good will and the two companies Sky Cap and ABC who hire the handlers. Sky Cap spokesmen say that an indirect supervision comes with the $1,800 per month the Aterra airport administration charges for the physical space the handlers take up outside the airport doors. if they don’t do it right, they could be exiled

Sky Cap, an association of handlers, employs 80 workers and carries an insurance policy in case a cart scratches a car in the parking lot. Its chief has 17 years of experience with airport baggage handling. All in all, as sometimes lax as the system may seem in theory. it is a tribute to free enterprise that the service is reasonable and reasonably efficient.

January 8, 2008

The visit with Mike was fun, as always, and the baby looks more like me every day. Not really, just a standing joke.
Yesterday, Carlos, Oscar, Linda and I went to San Jose and Heredia to buy materials. We have most of the stuff now, and hope to get the rest in Esparza today. It was a very hectic day, driving in heavy traffic, which I am used to and don’t mind too much, and shopping in seven or eight different places, which, as a man, I am genetically inclined to hate. We still have to make another trip for the kitchen counter and window bars. I think I have to go with him. We have had a few problems with money. I don’t want to comment too much before the house is done, but if you decide to build here, go with the builder to buy all the materials, and pay for them yourself. Front him some money for labour costs, and pay that in sections, with a reserve at the end when the house is completed.
According to Jose, when you give a Tico money for materials, he might solve another financial problem first, and worry about the materials later, when it’s too late. Apparently, that’s what happened here. I’ve paid for a few things twice, and Carlos assures me he will pay me back, IF he can. I never built a house in Canada, and I have know there can be problems there, too. This house has taken more time and money than we ever expected. My friend Luis had his house built, and the builder stuck to the price, even though it was low. He finished much of the work himself to save money at the end. Other people have had houses left unfinished when the money runs out. I guess I’m somewhere in the middle. At least it’s getting finished, and the quality of work is superior to any I have seen. And we’re still here!

by Rod Hughes

The traffic code reform that a citizens’ campaign had urged by hundreds of thousands of petition signatures in November and December is still not ready to see the light of day, according to legal experts Humberto Fallas and Agustin Atmella. They contend it contains serious defects that turn it into a “dangerous monstrosity” that could bend citizen rights and be outright unconstitutional.

Citizens who had lost loved ones in traffic accidents banded together in an unprecedented petition campaign to push through a reform that would stiffen sentences for drunk and reckless driving from their current “pat-on-the-wrist” fines and jail time infractors currently receive. The bill came out of committee Dec. 20 just before Christmas recess.

The last amendment that would have delayed passage, presented by the Libertarian movement, would have opened the Riteve vehicle inspection for bid again, causing extreme complications, was rejected. Even the Transport Minister fretted that it could be “a weapon against citizens” and recommended that it be returned to committee.

But congressional majority leader Jorge Mendez struck down that plan and he and committee chairman Alexander Mora assured those lawmakers uncomfortable with the bill that its defects can be cured in floor debate. Mendez snorted that if it were bounced back into committee “it could continue to be discussed indefinitely.”

One aspect of the final draft that made legal beagles uncomfortable were the fines ranging up to 600,000 colones that might be termed “confiscatory.” But the main objection seems to be the vague definitions of varied infractions such as reckless driving. Costa Rican legal experts are far more wary of allowing judges to exercise discretion than their counterparts in the United States and Europe, preferring an almost lockstep approach to sentencing.