by Rod Hughes
In a drastic foreign policy turnabout, President Oscar Arias has established diplomatic relations with mainland China, ending six decades of cordial relations with Taiwan. Costa Rica has dropped out of a group of 25 countries with diplomatic ties to the island nation.
Arias made no secret that foreign trade moved him to take the step, sure to be a controversial one in Costa Rica. Mainland China has become a major market for this country as well as an important source of imported goods.
Taiwan’s relations with Costa Rica were automatically severed–China considers Taiwan a rebellious province and there is no middle ground in a choice between the two. The island nation has cancelled its cooperation projects here, ending a long string of projects that have benefitted Costa Rica, including the new bridge on the Gulf of Nicoya.
The president’s pragmatism also raises Taiwan’s fears that other Latin American nations will follow suit.
Meanwhile, the Promotion of Foreign Trade agency announced that a trade fair featuring Chinese products will be held in August in San Jose. (If this seems amazingly speedy work, one must remember that a cooperative trade agreement has existed for years with mainland China and Chinese goods have been sold here by importers for years.) The agency also said that Costa Rican products and produce will be displayed at a trade fair in the city of Canton next October.
On Saturday, the Web site of the country’s leading daily newspaper, La Nacion, contained many letters to the editor, the overwhelming majority decrying the president’s diplomatic course change. The adverse letters cited the long friendship with Taiwan and mainland China’s poor record of human rights. One invoked a spaghetti Western title, criticizing the morality of the change “for a few dollars more.”
A few echoed the president in saying that, no matter how sad it was to break old ties, one must be logical in matters of economy and pointing out that mainland China is one of the largest and fastest-growing markets in the world.

by Rod Hughes
The Costa Rican soccer All-Star team of which so much was expected fell to a Canadian team, 2-1, last night in a stunning upset.
This should not be construed as saying the Canadians are not strong this year. Often discounted in soccer in past years, Canada’s team brought a 23-man squad to Miami that has 16 players so good that they are contracted abroad to mainly European teams, a dead giveaway that they were no pushovers.
But the Costa Rican team had topped even Mexico in a FIFA poll as favorites to win the gold. Granted, Costa Rica is famous for starting out tournaments by tripping over their own feet and later redeeming themselves, but the lackluster performance on the field last night has their countrymen worried and puzzled.
During the first period, both teams sparred warily, seeking out their opponents’ soft spots. Occasionally, both would attack and at one point Tico goalie Jose Francisco Porras had to make a circus stop of a blast that would have scored. Generally, however, neither team showed any sterling marksmanship.
But Costa Rica, especially, did not seem to know what that odd construction of steel tubes and netting was down there at the end of the field. Ace striker Alvaro Saborío had a particularly dismal night, spraying the ball right and left with foot and head. The Ticos did not come alive until, at minute 55 in the second half, the ever-reliable Walter Centeno sank a pass from Leonardo González into the netting.
No time for euphoria—barely a minute later, Canada’s Julián de Guzman evened it up and at minute 72 did it again, proving the executioner of the Ticos’ hopes.
The All-Stars meet Haiti next Saturday by which time coach Hernán Medford hopes to have everything sorted out.
(If this report seems unduly harsh, please be advised that the writer is not satisfied unless the Costa Ricans win every international game by a 10-0 score.)

by Rod Hughes
The official mascot of the Judicial Investigation Organization (OIJ), is dead after 15 years of sniffing out wrongdoers.
Rock was a star, called in to investigate on more than 1,500 cases, a pure white Laborador retriever who was instrumental in May of 2001 in catching the disgruntled hunters who set fire to La Casona, one of the country’s most valued historical landmarks. He was interred with honors in a special place at OIJ’s Canine Unit grounds in Heredia. Indeed, he was the core of the modern Canine Unit, having been given to Costa Rica in 1994 as a gift from U.S. law enforcement officials.
Rock’s specialty was sniffing out hydrocarbon fuels used by arsonists, although he was also trained to detect narcotics. He investigated the fire site in Tilarán, for example, after a home for the aged burned, killing 17 residents in 2000. (He found no evidence of arson.)
He leaves a legacy, which one might call understandable nepotism–four offspring that have been incorporated into the Unit, which international experts call the most distinguished canine department in Latin America.
To underscore the difference between Costa Rican culture and a Latin America that generally lavishes little respect and affection for animals, one police official told the daily La Nación that he wept when Rock died quietly of causes related to old age.