by Rod Hughes

A 15-year-old San Carlos lad is what understating Costa Ricans would call “a problematic person.” He has been arrested by police 50 times so far this year for assaulting and robbing senior citizens and school kids in Ciudad Quesada north of the capital.

“He’s the person who causes us the most work in the the whole canton,” said Oscar Fonseca, chief of the San Carlos police, adding, “Sometimes we arrest him three times in the same day and that’s just too much!” Fonseca describes the one-person crime wave as well dressed and slender and never resisting arrest, which by now must seem as unremarkable as breathing.

Repeat offenders are known to every police department in the world but Fonseca’s Costa Rican patience appears to be wearing thin. The boy is also linked with car theft and, if getting into a locked car door defeats him, takes out his frustration by breaking the windshield with rocks.

The son of an alcoholic mother who was institutionalized, he was placed in a group home by social workers but ran away. Then the child welfare agency (PANI) tried to obtain psychological treatment for him but he resisted–persistently but never violently. (He has never hurt one of his robbery victims.) PANI is at a loss as to what more the agency can do for him.

He is well on his way to bettering the record of one older criminal we wrote about last year, arrested for the stabbing to death of a street person in downtown San Jose. Police booking him found that he had 399 prior arrests. And, yes, a Judicial Police spokesperson referred to him as “a problematical person.”

by Rod Hughes

President Oscar Arias’s dream of having an inter-urban mass transit electric train running between Alajuela and Cartago, passing through the capital, has been “derailed,” using the apt word employed by La Nacion reporter Vanessa Loaiza in today’s edition. The project was aimed at reducing downtown traffic and conserving fossil fuels.

The Comptroller General’s Office annulled the contract between the government’s concession office and a Brazilian firm charged with running a feasibility study. It appears that when the concession council opened the international bidding for the study, they did not notify all the firms that had shown interest in the project, rendering the contract illegal, according to the Comptroller’s legal beagles.

The mass transit project would have meant a major financial effort on the government’s part. Just the first stage alone, Heredia, Pavas, Curridabat, would have cost $150 million, according to Vice Minister of Concessions Viviana Martin. Yet, if petroleum continues to climb in price, threatening the country’s balance of trade, the sacrifice might be worth it.

Costa Rican’s nationalized railroad fell on evil times in the 1970s, as had other nations” similar networks during the same era, as relatively low fuel prices for trucks and better highways came into play. In 1995, President Jose Figueres (Jr.) closed down the system that had been bleeding red ink for a decade or more, leaving only the banana-carrying system in Limon province still working under private concessionaires.

In 1998, then-President Miguel Angel Rodriguez envisioned cargo and passenger service to the Pacific port of Puntarenas but the only bidder required a strong investment that the government was not willing to make. In 2003, President Abel Pacheco refocused attending on inter-urban passenger service and a French company’s study showed the project to be feasible. In 2005 a feasibility study contract was cancelled due to defects in the writing and the fact that Pacheco’s austerity administration did not want to shell out $1 million.

But Arias was enchanted with the idea and was nervously eying rising petroleum prices. Moreover, traffic glut in the downtown capital and even interurban expressways had been increasing alarmingly since Arias’s first presidency. But the Comptroller’s blocking of the tracks may mean the end of the plan for now; the President is half-way through his four-year term and international bidding for a new study will take him through the end of his time in office.

It appears that only if the next president is interested will the project prosper.

by Rod Hughes

Those orphan fire hydtrants the have had no legal guardians for the last dozen years, funally got one, the Water and Sewer Institute (A y A), thanks to a vote yesterday in the Legislative Assembly. Delighted firemen blew station sirens in the capital every time one of the 50 lawmakers present voted yes to the bill. And they all did.

The bill was the result of countless incidents in which defective fire hydrants have turned firemen into frustrated spectators at conflagrations. The press made a big fuss after a chemical plant went up in huge pillars of smoke several years ago while firemen were hamped by having to fight it with tank trucks. But the fact is that for 12 years no one has had legal responsibility for maintaining and replacing the hydrants.

In the past, legislators have not been exactly attentive to the problem. This is the third bill on the subject to have been presented in that dozen years and the only one to have made it to floor debate. Said fire operations chief Luis Salas, “There’s no excuse why it should not have been a reality that hydrants are in accord with present and future necessities. We are now working on regulations to determine the distance between hydrants.” A dismaying lack of hydrants exists throughout the nation.

by Rod Hughes

The Arias Administration has fired National Production Council (CNP) CEO Guido Vega for having rushed through 21 projects, valued at 21 billion colones (at 475 colones per dollar) at the last minute before this function passed from CNP hands. The Comptroller General’s Office blew the whistle on 18 of them for violations of legal procedure.

On April 10, a Legislative Assembly bill creating the Devekopment Bank System passed into law, removing this function from CNP. On that day, CNP rushed through the projects benefitting cooperatives, farming, cattle and dairy operations while it still had the funds. Only three of those projects met legal standards.

Last week, Vega admitted that he was responding to pressure from interested parties who feared delays if the projects passed into a new system of financing, according to the national newspaper, La Nacion. Both Vega and Deputy Minister of Agriculture Carlos Villalobos were parties to the approvals but Villalobos remains in his post but must appear before the Legislative Assembly tomorrow to answer uncomfortable questions about the matter put to him by some upset lawmakers.

by Rod Hughes

The alleged detainment for questioning in Miami of Costa Rica’s Chief Prosecutor Francisco Dall’Anese and several judges on an official mission to the United States sparked a hot debate in the Supreme Court here yesterday and a protest to Washington about their treatment.

According to a report submitted to the court by Dall’Anese, U.S. immigration officials subjected him and Judges Roberto Gutierrez, Victor Ardon Acosta and Luis Fernando Salazar to questioning despite their having passports identifying them as being on an official visit. (The report identified the detaining officials as being with immigration, but recently that function has been incorporated into Homeland Defense in the reorganization of the latter department.)

According to Judge Jose Manuel Arroyo, this kind of incident is typical of the brusque methods of U.S. immigration officials. In the debate yesterday, he told his colleagues, “The truth of this case is that this incident reminds many Costa Ricans that the same thing has happened to them. In every family able to travel, this type of anecdote is more and more frequent: a neighbor, a friend, a relative that is taken out of line for interrogation. This treatment is denigrating for anyone.”

But Judge Annabelle Leon, while not questioning the facts presented by the prosecutor, expressed doubts about their interpretation. “But what the American Embassy says in the press contains different details.” She asked if the incident was really an arbitrary detainment violating the Costa Ricans’ rights or whether it was a routine procedure.

Judge Alfonso Chavez answered this with a hot reply: “Are were trying to believe more an official of the Embassy who barely speaks Spanish and not believe our own functionaries? …This I can’t tolerate that they do this to four functionaries of our Judicial branch, who are not on vacation, but are functionaries performing their duties.”

Referring to Dall’Anese’s report, Judge Leon lamented deteriorating relations between the Costa Rican court system and the U.S. Department of Justice and the alleged lack of cooperation of U.S. authorities.

by Rod Hughes

Former lawmaker Ricardo Toledo was rushed to the hospital Sunday after suffering a heart attack as he played basketball at the Costa Rican Tennis Club He was the Social Christian Unity candidate for president in 2006.

Toledo must remain in the hospital for a week for treatment to dissolve a blood clot in an artery in his chest, according to Dr. Eduardo Saenz, his private physician. The clot will be treated with medicines to dissolve it and will not need surgery.

Demonstrating how tricky heart problems can be, two weeks ago Toledo had a complete checkup and was given a clean bill of health.

by Rod Hughes

For a century the standard foreign languages in public high schools have been English and French and in recent years, the emphasis has been on English. But now, two, San Luis Gonzaga of Cartago and at Poas in Alajuela province, have added the language as an elective.

Before, if a parent wanted his child to learn German he had to shell out for tuition at a private school, Humboldt in Escazu, which conducts all classes in that language. In addition, a private cultural organization, Instituto Goethe, offers courses in the language.

The new course indicates increasing interest in this country in schooling students to be citizens of the world. The German government is cooperating in the effort by providing educational materials such as German-as-a-second language texts. This is the second year the Colegio San Luis Gonzaga has offered the elective.

by Rod Hughes

For a long time, Osa residents on the southern Pacific peninsula have pleaded with Costa Rican health authorities for a new hospital to replace the antique they had. Now they do, the Tomas Casas Hospital in Ciudad Cores that opened Sunday.

“Now we don’t have to suffer in the rainy season when we had to evacuate (the old hospital),” 93-year-old Martina Espinoza told the daily paper La Nacion as she sat in her wheelchair during the inauguration. The new hospital is built on higher ground so it will not be likely to be flooded out like the old one.

Moreover, the new 50-bed facility doubles the capacity for patients and will be attended by a 361-member staff instead of the 206 of yore. It has three operating rooms of which one is apt for orthopedic surgery to serve traffic accident victims. The facility is the most state-of-the-art medical facility in the southern zone.

by Rod Hughes

Sometimes the best soccer matches in the country are not between those perennial powerhouses, Saprissa and Alajuela, but way down in the cellar. And so it proved Sunday when Cartago met Santos on the latter’s home pitch in Guapiles and they struggled to a 1-1 tie.

La Nacion sportswriter Roberto Garcis called the match “wrestling on the edge of the abyss” because both clubs are in danger of being dropped from the First Division soccer. It had all the drama, protests to the referee, suspense with a missed chance of as millimeter…

The first half went by scoreless and Cartago had not even a sniff of a clear chance. Then, at minute 66, Leornardo Madrigal, who had substituted for Jose Francisco Alfaro early in the first half, blasted one in on an assist by Leonardo Ocamica. Ten minutes later, Brazilian Eneas da Conceicao evened it up on a pass by Yeinor Santamaria. Cartago continued its attack and the pressure resulted in Santos defender Porfirio Lopez touched the ball with his hand.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Cartago’s Alexander Calvo placed the ball carefully for the penalty kick—and hit the horizontal bar. Despite an unusually long injury overtime (10 minutes) neither side seemed able to recover from that moment.

Other matches: Liberia 1, Perez Zeledon, 0 Liberia edged closer to the quarter finals of the so-called summer tournament by beating Perez Zeledon 1-0, placing the club now only a point behind that same P-Z club and Brujas of Escazu. They need only to beat Santos next Sunday.

The Guanacaste club’s goal came early in the second half when William Sunsing scored after the defenses of both clubs appeared invincible during the first half. Liberia goalie Alvaro Mesen stole the tying goal from Alexander Sequeira with only six minutes of play left.

Punarenas 1, San Carlos 0

Dario Delgado’s minute 54 goal on an assist from Jose Macotelo also put Puntarenas mathmatically within shooting distance of the quarter finals. It was obvious that Puntarenas, playing before the home crowd, was up for the match but was unable to score during the first 45 minutes.

As for San Carlos chances for the quarterfinals—well, you might try praying for a miracle…

by Rod Hughes

It’s official: By a 29 to 14 vote, the Legislative Assembly yesterday passed a bill to open up the insurance market which had been a monopoly of the National Insurance Institute (INS) since its creation in 1924. The bill is one of the original 13 pieces of legislation needed to bring Costa Rican law into accord with the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

Of the CAFTA implementation bills, this one and another to break ICE’s telecommunications monopoly had been the most hotly contested. Some bills have been passed, a couple were rejected by the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Chamber (Sala IV) for changes to articles, but slowly they are being cleared from the pipeline.

The new law sets up an insurance regulatory agency. National Liberation party deputy Maureen Ballastero told the morning paper La Nacion, “I’m totally satisfied. It’s an excellent bill. It creates an open market but very regulated, secure for customers, in accord with CAFTA and tries to preserve the principles of INS.”

One worry had been about the fate of the Fire Department (Bomberos), a branch of INS for 84 years. Now, the firemen will have more say in their affairs and will be financed by 4% of insurance premiums sold in the country.

Current INS CEO Guillermo Constenla had been lobbying the lawmakers hard for extra perks for his agency. INS still retains the sole source from which the government can buy insurance.

Chief opposition to the bill has been the Citizen Action Party (PAC) and leftist deputy Jose Merino, although no doubt existed that the President and his party had enough votes for passage. (PAC vigorously opposed passage of CAFTA in a nationwide referendum last October.) Final vote is scheduled for next Tuesday when 38 votes are needed for final passage. To accomplish this, all legislators from National Liberation, Social Christian Unity and the Libertaian parties will have to be mustered to overcome the opposition.