To start a construction project in Costa Rica, a developer has to spend about a year getting approvals from some 30 separate entities by presenting some 107 documents, according to the minister to the Presidencia.

Rodrigo Arias, the minister and the brother of the president, called this situation a tragedy Tuesday as he issued emergency orders to speed up the process.

“Why are we inviting foreign investments to come to make big projects of tourism and hotels if we take years to process permissions,” he asked.

A big problem, he said is the Secretaría Técnica Nacional Ambiental, the agency in the environmental ministry that approves impact  statements for projects. The agency has neither sufficient personnel nor the resources, he said.

Minister Arias said an emergency decree has been issued to set up a committee to study the Secretaría Técnica and report within 15 days what can be done.

He said the problem was basically budgetary.

Among the ideas that have been proposed to make the agency more streamlined is to provide an extraordinary budget as well as divert funds from agencies that depend on the Secretaría Técnica and to ask those presenting plans for approval to pay the cost of the study.

Minister Arias made the statements as he met with representatives of the construction industry Tuesday at Casa Presidencial.

The Horseshoe Casino reopened Wednesday when operators decided to ignore what they consider an  illegal closure by the Municipalidad de San José.
Jaime Ligator, president of the casino corporation, Favitro S.A., said he fully expected the Policia Municipal to close the place up again. But they did not.

Jaime Ligator  He is counting on an appeal for relief that the corporation’s lawyers filed for Wednesday with the Sala IV constitutional court. They seek a high court interpretation of a section of
the municipal code. While the Sala IV appeal is in progress, municipal officials cannot close the place again, he noted. Ligator said the closings started Friday. He was closed down again Saturday and again Tuesday, all for different reasons, he said.

Municipal officials pasted notices of closure across the front entrance door.

The case is a complex one and involves patentes or business licenses going back to the 1980s.

The corporation has two licenses. One allows it to serve alcohol as a night club and another as a casino. Ligator displayed paperwork Wednesday that showed the licenses existed.

Ligator expressed concern for his 150 employees, which he sent home about 4 p.m. Wednesday. He said he was paying about $10,000 a day in expenses. But he said he planned to open up as a casino again today.

The casino is on the southwest corner of Avenida 1 and Calle 9.

The telephone company has been told to charge by the minute for information calls to 113. The service is expected to be cheaper for users, according to the regulating agency.

The service has been free because the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad failed to produce a telephone book for 2005. But the company, known as ICE, is being allowed to start charging again on Sept. 1 now that new books
are being distributed and telephone users  have the option of looking in the book or calling information. The current rate is only temporary because the company is going to present additional evidence about the cost of operators and seek an adjustment.

The previous rate was 28.8 colons no mater how long. Now the rate will be 4.1 colons per minute during peak hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and 2 colons per minute from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

A colon is about two-tenths of one U.S. cent.

By Amanda Roberson, Tico Times Staff

The five Central American countries that make up the Central American Integration System (SICA) didn’t involve Costa Rica when naming Nicaraguan Foreign Minister as its coordinator to negotiate an association agreement with the European Union, Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno said yesterday during a press conference following President Oscar Arias’ weekly Consejo meeting.

“At no time was Costa Rica consulted,” Stagno said, explaining that the presidents of Guatemala, Oscar Berger; El Salvador, Elías Antonio Saca; Honduras, Manuel Zelaya; and Nicaragua, Enrique Bolaños, signed an agreement placing Caldera at the helm of negotiations during the swearing-in ceremony of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe July 11.

Stagno offered no explanation as to why the four other countries would make a decision about the association agreement without consulting Costa Rica, which accounts for 60% of the region’s trade with the European Union.

Nicaragua, however, tells a different version of these events.

Caldera, an economist with a master’s in foreign trade and experience working with the World Trade Organization (WTO), was named coordinator because of his experience and not to represent Nicaragua, said Oscar García, spokesman for the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry. Each country will be represented during the negotiations by its own negotiating team, he added.

Caldera’s naming should have come as no surprise to Costa Rica, since Stagno and Caldera discussed the possibility during a recent meeting, García said.

Meanwhile, Costa Rica “laments that there was a meeting without Costa Rica’s knowledge,” Stagno said, adding that it has always been clear that an association agreement between Central America and the European Union would not be possible without the signature of the presidents of all five SICA member countries.

By the same token, Stagno said he does not see the naming of Caldera as coordinator “binding” since it has not been signed by President Oscar Arias.

By Leland Baxter-Neal, Tico Times Staff

A legislative aid told national media yesterday she is ready to name names and testify in what has so far been an unsubstantiated rumor of sexual harassment in the Legislative Assembly.

According to various local media reports based on anonymous sources, a legislator – who has not yet been publicly named – allegedly made unwanted advances toward a legislative assistant.

On a trip various lawmakers took to the Caribbean province of Limón approximately two weeks ago, the legislator allegedly flirted with and bothered the legislative aid, at one point forcing a kiss on her, La Nación reported. After the worker refused the legislator’s advances, she was dismissed from her position, the witness told the daily.

Before witnesses began talking to the media, some lawmakers had already brought the matter to the legislative floor. Alberto Salóm, a Citizen Action Party (PAC) legislator, called for an investigation into the alleged harassment on Monday.

“I reacted yesterday on the legislative floor because if the press says there is sexual harassment by some legislator, obviously this could fall on any one of us,” Salóm told The Tico Times Tuesday in an assembly abuzz with talk of the accusations. “This has to be investigated.”

However, Legislative Assembly president Francisco Pacheco said he cannot begin an investigation until the victim comes forward and files an official complaint.

Salóm said that even if harassment were proven, there is little that could be done because lawmakers have legal immunity.

“And even if the legislator renounced his position and immunity, there is no punishment in the penal sense,” Salóm said. “The only sanction would be a moral sanction, but I would do it.”

More… By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The sexual harassment case at the legislative assembly exploded into a full-fledged scandal Wednesday when a lawmaker admitted he was the one involved in the case and denied any improper action.

In response the supposed victim who has not been identified said via an intermediary that she was upset by the legislator’s statements made at a press conference and that
she was going ahead and filing a complaint.

Gloria Valerín, a former lawmaker, presented herself to the legislature shortly before 10 p.m. with a formal complaint. She said she was acting on behalf of the woman. But no one was authorized to accept the document. She said she would file it with the assembly today.

Meanwhile the leadership of the Asamblea Legislativa was facing accusations of arranging a coverup. The victim confirmed that she had accepted a deal, according to Ms. Valerín, The former legislator is identified with women’s issues.

The lawmaker is Federico Tinoco Carmona of the Partido Liberación Nacional, the ruling party. He gave a well-attended press conference earlier in the day in which he categorically denied allegations of having committed sexual harassment. He said he had been misunderstood.