If you bought one of the new GSM lines in December and haven’t insured your phone, you are in luck.  INS has opened the time period from 30 days to 60 days from the date of purchase.  You may get the insurance from the place you purchased the phone, or from INS authorized offices.

The insurance costs 7.25% of the purchase price of the phone (7250 colones per 100,000 of value).  ICE estimates that between 8,000 and 10,000 phones are stolen each month.

The company GPS Satélite S.A, in conjuction with ICE, is offering a new service for parents who want to track their children’s whereabouts or spouses who want to keep tabs on their partner. 

The device is the size of a small cell phone and incorporates a GSM chip that can store 4 numbers for use in case of an emergency.  The person with the device may talk to those at the stored numbers.  The person who contracts the service may locate the device using a web site and the GPS capabilities of the device.  Another feature is the ability to activate the device and listen to sounds produced in the environment around it.

"Used in the right way, it could be a valuable tool, even for the police. ", said Rosalía Gil, president of PANI.

For Rogelio Ramos, minister of Security, "this service is an interesanting security measure that modernizes technology in service of security "

"Everything is legal, it is a complementary service to our customers", explained Orlando Cascante, Director of Mobile Services for ICE. "Here nothing is hidden", he added.

The device costs 150,000 colones and the monthly fee is 10,000, plus the monthly cell phone bill for ICE’s GSM service. 

Bishop Emeritus Monseñor Ignacio Trejos, criticized presidential candidate Oscar Arias in strong terms this week in a letter.  "Those who have dared violate the Constitution to please a certain person who is plagued by ambition"    Trejos is opposed to re-election "We must give others a chance to govern, the common good is above personal benefits."

He added that, "Democracy is in extreme danger, and my intention is not to criticize but to call Costa Ricans to vote responsibly for the good of the country."  He also criticized other ex-presidents: "those who sacked state monies from important institutions and a suspect person who hides overseas."

While all of the candidates are fighting hard to achieve victory on Sunday, and Oscar Arias makes plans for redecorating the President’s Manor, the 2nd tier candidates have discussed ïnformally" the possibility of making alliances in the event of a second round.

Otto Guevara ( ML ), Ricardo Toledo ( PUSC ), Antonio Álvarez ( UPC ) y José Manuel Echandi ( PUN ) all confirmed that they would ask for the other parties’ support in Round 2 of voting.

Arias responded that his rivals "have a lot of faith" because he plans on winning decisively on Sunday.

Otton Solís ( PAC ) kept to his latest campaign line, the "hidden" vote: "On Sunday,  the hidden vote will give me the victory.  The same thing will happen here as happened in Nicaragua when Violeta Barrios beat Daniel Ortega, despite the polls saying differently." Solis stated, however, that if there were a second round he would ask the support of the candidates left out. 

Otto Guevara revealed that "We have already outlined an agreement with Alvarez and Echandi, to mutually support whichever of us makes it to a second round. I would ask for the support of Solís to if I am in the second round. " 

With voter apathy at an all time high, the campaign organizers are focusing on transportation issues for election day more than ever.  The 4 major parties Libertarians, PAC, PLN, and PUSC plan on commandeering 40,000 vehicles to take 1 million voters to their polling places.  They will spend 575 million colones ($ 1.15 million) in reimbursing drivers for their fuel expenses.

José Manuel Agüero, chief of transportation for PLN, explains that "The intention to vote is just that, an intention.  We must make it a reality by taking voters to the voting booth. Imagine that, according to our calculations, 50 % of voters need transportation." For this the parties are utilizing all types of transportation: cars, trucks, minivans, busses, boats and even airplanes.  Here is the breakdown:

Libertarian Movement
Budget:  30 million colones. Also, "emergency funds" of 20 million colones.

They identified 12,000 drivers who will lend their vehicles. Each one will pay for  their own food and gas.

Of these, 10,000 are taxis and cargo trucks (formal and informal). There are 60 busses y minivans. Some transportation companies have given free tickets.

You may help by calling 211-0850.

PAC
Budget: 35 million colones for gas coupons.

They have 4,000 vehicles, all volunteers.

They will not hire buses and don’t have contracts with transportation companies.

They hope to mobilize 240,000 voters.

Call 281-2727 to help.

PLN
Budget: 350 million colones

They have 24,000 vehicles (10,000 hired and 14,000 are volunteers).

3,500 are mini-buses or vans. Also there are boats and 1 airplane. For cars who are hired, they pay 25,000 colones for 12 hours.

PLN wants to take 500,000 Costa Ricans to the polls.

To help call the toll free number 800-800-2021.

PUSC
Budget: 160 million colones

5,000 private vehicles and busses for certain. The expect another 10,000 vehicles to be volunteered.

They will hire 120 private busses and buy prepaid tickets from companies that serve commercial bus routes.

There will be 11 regional bus terminals which will make routes between provinces, within provinces, within  counties and between counties.

They hope to take 315,000 people to vote.

Looking back on the disaster that was this year’s Zapote festivals, the City Council of San Jose has voted to revamp the organization of the event and build permanent structures on the grounds in order to save the tradition. 

"This year the festival hit bottom, it is a sad fact." said Mayor Johnny Araya.  The City Council voted unanimously to contract via public concession the building of new facilities at the site, including a permanent bull ring, a capacity to handle crowds of 10,000 people, and underground parking. 

The terms of the concession will be that the winning company will build the facilities on the fairgrounds and have them to use during the entire year, except the last 2 weeks of the year and the first week of the new year. 

The next move will be for the council to consider changes to the way the members of the fair commission are named, which in the past has resulted in in-fighting, favoritism and ineffecient preparations.

The Catholic Church in Costa Rica has implemented strict measures on couples planning to get married and for priests performing the ceremony in an effort to stem rising divorce rates. 

Priests may only wed couples in chapels or churches, not in hotels, meeting rooms, event centers or open air sites. They will continue to interview couples prior to scheduling the ceremony to determine their readiness for marriage.

The other strategy is to lengthen the pre-marriage course that couples must take in preparation for the wedding.  Now the course will take 30 hours. The courses are free and deal with various topics like communication and fidelity.  Other topics are at the discretion of the people giving the course.

The 30 hours may be met in the following ways:

• A weekly meeting on a fixed day of the week that lasts 3.5 months.
• An intensive course that lasts 3 weeks with 5 meetings per week.
• A weekend course that lasts from Friday to Sunday over 2 weekends.
• A custom course may be taken, as long as there are 15 meetings that last 1.5 or 2 hours each.

Candidates this week are concentrating on hitting the streets in the most populus neighborhood as only 3 days are left for E-day.  

The Libertarian, Otto Guevara, visited Pavas and Hatillo. The rest of the week he’ll be in Purral de Guadalupe, Alajuelita, Sarapiquí y Desamparados. "The idea is to position Otto as the candidate that works hard and a man of hte people.", explained Danny Quirós, press spokesman.

Óscar Arias, of PLN, went to Lomas del Río and Rincón Grande, in Pavas. To reinforce the plea of voting a straight ticket, vicepresidential candidates will meet with residents of La Carpio.

Ottón Solís, of PAC, had a citizen’s meeting in San Sebastián, and then went in caravan with taxi drivers to Tibás.

Ricardo Toledo, of PUSC, went to the markets in San José and will close the campaign on Friday in the Northern Zone:  Los Chiles, Upala y Guatuso.

Heredia 1 - San Ramon 0
Saprissa 1 - Carmelita 1
Pérez Zeledón 5 - Santa Cruz 0
Brujas 0 - Santos 1
Liberia 0 - Puntarenas 1
Alajuela 2 - Cartago 1