by Rod Hughes

The Costa Rican power monopoly, ICE, has petitioned the utility watchdog agency, ARESEP, strong rate hikes for March 2008. ICE wants to charge half a million residences 20% more and asks of electrical companies a 32% increase.

At one time, ARESEP had the reputation of being a compliant body that never met a rate hike it didn’t like, but apparently those days are over. Last year, ARESEP flatly rejected electrical rate hikes after a series of power outages that underscored deficiencies in ICE’s infrastructure.

The increase to power distributors like National Power and Light (Fuerza y Luz in Spanish), JASEC and COOPELESCAoopelesca will mean that they will be forced to raise their rates to customers. ICE itself directly serves Limon, Puntarenas, rural areas of San Jose province, Cartago and parts of Sarapiqui as well as the Nicoya Peninsula, northern Guanacaste province and Nicaragua border communities.

As calculated by the newspaper La Nacion, a family consuming 200kws would pay 1,800 colones more in the dry season (January to May) when diesel generators are employed. Thus, their monthly bills would jump from 9,200 to 11,000 colones.

by Rod Hughes

The Central American Human Rights Commission has rejected a petition filed by former Costa Rican president Rafael Angel Calderon. The petition claimed his rights had been violated by his encarceration on corruption-related charges in October, 2004.

According to the Commission, Calderon failed to “exhaust all legal resources” in this country before filing for a hearing before the Human Rights Court. The organization confirmed to the newspaper that, “at this time, no petition exists” before the body, meaning that rejection is final.

Calderon was jailed briefly (before being released under house arrest) for his alleged role in the scandal that also ensnared a high officer of the Fischel corporation, an importer of medicines and medical equipment. The charges revolved around the import of public hospital equipment from Finland and evoked anger from the Finnish government that had approved funds for the transaction.

The expresident continued to influence his Social Christian Unity party even while under a cloud, but the party performed poorly in the 2006 elections. Part of the party’s woes stemmed from the court action against expresident Miguel Angel Rodriguez, also accused in a corruption case and also a member. Both former chief executives continue to protest their innocence and both have publicly played the victim to the press in an attempt to gain sympathy.

Calderon’s petition alleged that at the time he was jailed he had not been informed of the charges against him. His lawyer, Juan Carlos Rivero, maintains that his petition is not rejected but “suspended,” but the commission maintains it wiped the slate clean with a rejection.

by Rod Hughes

Costa Rica was saddened this week by news that tourism pioneer Andy Gingold had died of renal cancer last Sunday at his Ciudad Colon home at age 60. During his 33 years in this country, he and wife Avie established several companies that, in various ways, acted to promote Costa Rica as a tourism destination.

After a successful career in England as a clothing designer, Gingold came to this country and established a small factory of boutique wood products. But he was best known for the horseback riding tour Finca Ob-la-di Ob-la-da, a contemporary of other early tourism companies such as Calypso Cruises and Rios Tropicales, companies that placed Costa Rica high on the list of must-see destinations when few North Americans were certain where this country was located.

The tour was discontinued in 1990 but by that time the Gingolds had other projects going: Bandana Republic (sports wear and bandannas depicting Costa Rican wildlife) and a bilingual children’s coloring book promoting the country. At the time of his death, Gingold was managing a distribution firm for local crafts, begun at a time when local artisans were nearly swamped by cheap imports from countries ranging from Guatemala to Singapour. (More details will be available in The Tico Times this Friday.)

His remains will be cremated. An open house is planned in his honor for later.