Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said yesterday in Caracas that he is postponing the closure of an aluminum plant in Costa Rica while he re-evaluates his decision, reports Costa Rica’s leading daily, La Nacion, today.

The paper said he plans to send a commission to Costa Rica to investigate the plant, which employs 400 in the small town of Esparza northwest of the capital. Chavez had last week given orders to cease shipments of raw material to the Esparza facility, pending opening a new plant in another country, thought to be Nicaragua. The shipments are resuming, he said.

A great deal of speculation has circulated here about Chavez’s motivation for the closure, including that the threatened move was in retribution for strong criticism by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias directed at the Venezuelan president’s policies. It is also known that Chavez wishes to strengthen his ties with other socialist leaders, including President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua.

By Tico Times Staffeditorial@ticotimes.netSporting flags, banners, buttons and even pig disguises, thousands came out to march against the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) yesterday in downtown San José. Though the march was one of the largest in recent memory, drawing tens of thousands to the Legislative Assembly, the event was overwhelmingly peaceful.

Shouts of “ No al TLC, No al TLC ” (“No to CAFTA, No to CAFTA”) rang out intermittently as protestors made their way from La Sabana Park, on the western edge of the city, down Paseo Colón and Avenida Segunda to the Legislative Assembly, where the controversial trade pact will soon be discussed on the legislature’s main floor.

The colorful crowd was made up of union members, students, teachers, environmentalists and others, some of whom traveled from outside San José to march under the hot summer sun.

Former presidential candidate and leader of the Citizen Action Party (PAC), Ottón Solís, led a group of PAC politicians and party faithfuls, including the party’s president Epsy Campbell, a former legislator, and one of its most outspoken legislators Alberto Salom.

“This march is organized to influence the Legislative Assembly process; it has been called together on these terms, so it seemed appropriate to us to be here,” Solís told The Tico Times. He explained his absence during previous CAFTA protests by saying “sometimes marches have been called to substitute the Legislative Assembly process.”

Jugglers, dancers and music entertained the crowds, and speakers on a makeshift platform in front of the assembly included legislators José Merino, of the Broad Front, and Elizabeth Fonseca, of PAC, who expressed their joy in seeing so many Ticos speaking out against CAFTA in a peaceful manner.

by Rod Hughes from press reports

President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez said yesterday that he is closing a Venezuela-owned aluminum plant in the Costa Rican town of Esparza for “geopolitical, economic and technical” reasons, denying that he is making the move out of anger at critical statements made by President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica.
The Costa Rican president has distanced himself from Chavez since the former’s inauguration last May. The Costa Rican government expressed doubt that Chavez is giving his real reasons for the plant closing, claiming that Alunasa is a profitable concern. Chavez did admit to having been stung by some of Arias’s criticisms.
The plant closure would throw 400 employees out of work in the small town in which it is located.
Chavez has been taking special pains to court countries with socialist governments such as that of President Daniel Ortega in Costa Rica’s northern neighbor, Nicaragua. Some observers here speculate that he might relocate the plant in Nicaragua.

Remember those more than 2,000 cell phone lines that were supposedly on sale at outlets authorized by the national phone company, ICE? Well, following up its own story Wednesday, the daily newspaper al Dia says they are all gone.

ICE (a Spanish acronymn for Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad) had retained the majority of the lines to sell from their own offices. All told, more than 8,000 lines were sold in less than 24 hours. The overwhelming demand for new lines continues, seemingly insatiable in Costa Rica.

By Rod Hughes from news reports

At least 17 Legislative Assembly deputies are backing a bill to grant several hotel concessions in the mostly uninhabited Gulf of Nicoya islands but some critics worry that lack of water, sewage treatment and trash disposal may result in chaos and failure, reported Costa Rica’s leading daily, La Nacion.

The Gulf is bounded on the west by the Nicoya Peninsula and on the east by the country’s coastline including the port city of Puntarenas. One of the small islands that dot the Gulf, Tortugas Island, is already popular with tourists, visited by an average of 150 excursionists per day during the high season. It is a idllic place, white sand beach giving way to palm trees and a dry forest inland on the hills rising in the middle of the isle as if designed by a Hollywood set artist as a tropical paradise. It serves several carefully selected one-day excursion boats including, for decades, the prestigious Calypso Cruises.

But the influx is carefully controlled and the permits to use the island to land tourists is subject to cancellation. Solid trash (plastic containers, wrappers, and uneaten food) is carefully collected by the tour boats and carried back on the return voyage to Puntarenas, while restrooms are of the portable variety used on construction sites so sewage also leaves the island. The daily paper estimates that, if a hotel were built there, the isle could only support a 20-room hostelry due to lack of potable water.

For now, the pelicans and other shore birds are mostly free of human noise and interference with only excursion and fishing boats to disturb their wheeling.

By Blake Schmidt
Tico Times Staff | bschmidt@ticotimes.net

Government officials yesterday expressed concern over the potential closure of a Venezuelan state-owned aluminum plant in Costa Rica they say would be the result of political differences between President Oscar Arias and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

The closure of CVG Aluminios Nacionales S.A. (Alunasa) – which appears likely after the company stopped ordering prime materials for production and began making layoffs yesterday – could further freeze already icy diplomatic relations between two nations whose leaders are on opposite sides of an ideological rift in Latin America.

The future of the plant, which employs about 400 people in the Pacific-slope town of Esparza, was called into question after Arias criticized Chávez for usurping power and “negating democracy” in an interview that aired on Radio Columbia earlier this month.

In a letter last week to Arias, Alunasa workers said Chávez may have decided to close the plant due to Arias’ comments, though Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno said the government couldn’t confirm this since there is little communication between the two governments.

In attempts to find a resolution, Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias met yesterday with Foreign Trade Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz, Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno, Labor Minister Francisco Morales, Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) legislator Bienvenido Venegas and representatives of the company.

“We don’t know if they’re going to close operations, or if they want to move part of the plant or something else,” Arias told reporters at a press conference in the Casa Presidencial Monday.

Meanwhile, Alunasa employees sent a letter to Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez asking the socialist president to reconsider.

CUSCATLAN, EL SALVADOR–In a cliff-hanger, the Costa Rican All-Stars came from behind to tie Panama 1-1, then went on to win the UNCAF regional soccer cup. Following Panama’s regular game goal after 35 minutes of play, the red, white and blue warriors trailed until Kurt Bernard booted one into the goal with only five minutes of regular play left.

Then the spotlight shifted to goaltender Jose Francisco Porras who stopped the first two of Panama’s attempts during the penalty shootout. The Ticos made their penalty shots like clockwork: Walter Centeno, Rolando Fonseca, Carlos Hernanez and finally Michael Barrantes to put the cap on it for a 4-2 final in penalty shots.

 Ironically, the victory marked one of student over mentor–Panama was coached by former Costa Rican technical director Alexander Guimaraes who had led th All-Stars into two World Cups. The Ticos were coached by Hernan Medford, once a star under “Guima” as his former coach is affectionately called in Costa Rica.

Panama played extremely well and the Ticos were battling uphill during the entire game–right up to the heart-stopping final goal.

Costa Rica will soon step into the next generation of cell phone technology, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), the country’s state-run telecommunications monopoly, announced Friday.

The institute plans to acquire 1.3 million 3G cellular lines to be installed by April of next year, according to an ICE statement.

3G networks are long-range networks that were designed to facilitate high-speed wireless Internet access, massive e-mail use, video telephony and other services cell phone users can access in places with wireless connections. 3G networks can support more voice and data users than the existing technologies, especially in urban areas.

GSM and TDMA are the cell phone technologies now offered in Costa Rica. The new 3G lines would nearly double the amount of cellular lines nationwide.

The announcement comes after ICE decided earlier this month to cut short its $149 million contract with the multinational telecommunications firm Alcatel, which was operating 400,000 GSM lines for the institute. The announcement came amid allegations that Alcatel officals had dished out $9.6 million in bribes for the contract (TT, Feb. 9). ICE officials had been considering buying another 200,000 GSM lines from the company after Costa Rica ran out of these lines last October.

No company has been contracted as the provider of the 3G network. The institute plans to begin the public bidding process next month, the statement said.

-Tico Times

Guanacaste province, already a tourist mecca, is due to get up to 3,500 new hotel rooms within the next three years, reported the weekly The Beach Times based in the Tamarindo area.

A 38-mile (60 kilomenter) stretch of coastline on Costa Rica’s northwest Pacific coast will be the site of nine major hotel and resort projects, a front page story by Ralph Nicholson reported in the Feb. 9 edition. Most of the projects are up-scale and five-star and have either already broken ground or are well along in obtaining their building permits.

The projects are backed by such major world-wide chains as Hyatt Hotels and resorts, J.W. Marriot, Hilton Hotel Corp, Regent International Hotels, Rosewood Hotels, Ritz Carlton , Arman Resorts International and One and Only Resorts, reported the weekly, adding that, when finished, the building boom would create between 7,000 and 13,000 jobs.

The story said that a survey of 60 hotels last year by the National Tourism Chamber indicates that 45% of tourist requests for rooms were turned down during the high season for lack of space, also quoting the Tourism Institute as estimating that the nation needs 49,000 more rooms to fill the peak season demand.

By Rod Hughes

Minister of Public Education Leonardo Garnier is rolling up his sleeves to battle the triple-headed dragon of bureaucratic chaos, corruption and favoritism in the hiring of teachers, reports the English-language newspaper The Tico Times in an exclusive, in-depth front page article today. This is a serious subject in a country that prides itself on its public education system

Yesterday, Costa Rica’s leading daily, La Nacion, featured a front page story about a Civil Serice protest of alleged favoritism and corruption in the contracting of teachers, revellations that resulted in the hasty resignations of the two top officials in the ministry personnel department. But The Tico Times story indicates that this is only the tip of the iceberg.

La Nacion quoted Civil Service chief Jose Joaquin Arguedas in charging that the proliferation of temporary teaching posts, accounting for an amazing 40% of available classroom assignments, has been converted into a kind of “booty.” He alleged that the Ministry’s lack of controls allows “appointment by convenience” to classrooms, at the whim of a few officials. He added that often vacancies are not reported to Civil Service for oversight.

But antiquated procedures also account for serious disorder, reports The Tico Times. Teachers are notified of their assignments by telegrams sent only a few days before classes are to begin, according to the weekly. Some telegrams never arrive, some arrive late and teachers who do receive them on time have scant time to prepare for classes. And, if that were not bad enough, some posts go vacant through bureaucratic error while some teachers find themselves assigned to two different jobs, someimes in different areas.

And the really bad news for teachers is that the Ministry of Finance pays their salaries–but the ministry’s computer programs are not compatible with the Education Ministry’s that record teacher payment rolls, so this data must be laboriously hand-entered into Finance Ministry records. This results in errors, confusion and late payments.

Minister Garnier readily admits these defects and vows to bring order, unlike most of his recent predecessors who tended to gloss them over.