by Rod Hughes

Last Sunday’s classic soccer game proved costly to the Saprissa soccer club. The bearers of the purple colors were hit by four separate fines totalling 204,000 colones for being unable to control the fans in Tibas’s Ricardo Saprissa Stadium. (Figure the colon at about 500 to the dollar.)

Either out of boredom (it was not one of the most exciting games of the traditional Alajuela-Saprissa rivalry) or overenthusiasm, fans threw trash on the field. Then at minute 20 and again 88 they did it again. That was three infractions noted by referee Randall Poveda and he added fans invading the field to his complaint. Every litter bit hurts.

Well, they, at least had fans in the stands. The Carmelita club has a worse problem. Even though they are the season’s surprise this year with 18 points so far and are second in the overall standings, there is hardly a stampede flocking to the stadium.

Last Saturday, they played before a cheering throng of exactly 38 fans. “That isn’t even enough ticket receipts to pay the referee,” grumbled club president Carlos “the Cannon” Gonzalez.

by Rod Hughes

Prosecutors here have dropped charges leveled against ex-President Jose Maria Figueres in 2004 in connection with the Alcatel scandal that snared another ex-president. Figueres has been living in self exile since and traveling to many countries—except his native land.

Figueres was suspected of having accepted $900,000 from Alcatel, the international communications giant, in exchange for his political clout to persuade the communications monopoly ICE to grant a $149 million contract to Alcatel for 400,000 cell phone lines. Prosecution is proceeding against former president Miguel Angel Rodriguez on similar charges.

But prosecutors say they have found insufficient evidence to formulate a similar charge against Figueres. When the charges were announced, they forced Figueres to resign his post on the World Economic Fund, based in Switzerland.

The charges against Rodriguez forced him to resign as secretary general of the Organization of American States. When he returned to this country, he found authorities waiting for him with handcuffs and a paddy wagon, something about which he still speaks with bitterness.

by Rod Hughes

A few people just can’t bear to throw anything away…

Some 34 years after the last case of poliomylitis in this country, some laboratories may still have saved samples of feces containing the virus and the Ministry of Health is searching them out. Only about 1% of the 558 Social Security (Caja), universities and private labs are suspect, but the ministry will comb them all, just in case.

If they do not, the World Health Organization will not certify this country polio-free, despite not having had a case since 1973. In some countries in the world, the disease still exists with all its tragedy.

Polio did not hit this country as hard as many others. In its heyday, the communicable disease left 1,000 disabled and 100 deaths, mostly babies, who were the most susceptible—hence the common name, infantile paralysis. The low toll was partly due to less population density in that era and a scarcity of centers of contagion such as public swimming pools then.

Any polio samples found will be destroyed at Inciensa, a level two biosecurity institution.

by Rod Hughes

Time was when folk wisdom urged savings in dollars as a hedge against high colon inflation rates. But that dollar popularity is on the decline during the past three years, according to the daily La Nacion.

In 2004, 51% of savings was in dollars. By last August, it had dropped to 43%. These figures include bank accounts, deposits by the Central Government and Banco Central. This figure includes only movement inside the country, not foreign banks or other investments.

Dollar credit is also declining. In 2004, it represented 56.5% of all credit granted here. Last August, the figure was 51%. According to Central Bank chief Francisco de Paula Gutierrez, the main reason is the change from mini devaluations of the colon to a fluctuating exchange rate.

De Paula Gutierrez explained that in the old system it was easy to predict what the exchange rate would be at any given time in the future. But, shortly after the system change on Oct. 17, 2006, the colon rapidly rose in value before dropping again as it stabilized, from more than 500 colones vs. the dollar to the high 400s.

Another factor in making the dollar less attractive, especially for companies paying back loans, is that the internal inflation rate has dropped from 14% in August, 2005, to 8.56% last August. That means that to pay back a dollar loan, one is not paying in cheaper colones as much as before.

Finally, executive director of the Costa Rican Banking Association Maria Isabel Cortes notes that the dollar itself is weaker against other foreign currencies. Although this reduction in dollar credit and savings may bode ill for some people, there is a bright side for the economy. The International Monetary Fund has warned Costa Rica repeatedly against high dollarization, especially for those paying back dollar loans with colon earnings.

With lmore dependency on the national currency, Banco Central gains more clout in controlling the number of colones in circulation—the more colones on the street, the higher the inflation.