by Rod Hughes

It was civic fiesta time in the Pacific port city of Puntarenas as they hosted Heredia’s soccer team yesterday, and they had all the bells an whistles— sporting new uniforms, a new name (Puntarenas Futbol Club) and a new logo, a shark. Then Heredia de-finned the club, 2-0, on goals by forward Jonathan McDonald.

For the first 25 minutes, it looked as if all this change might work, a sort of move much like the old Tico superstitition about fooling the evil spirits by wearing your clothing inside out. The club that has fared badly of late came out breathing fire and prancing around in the area of the Heredia goal. In fact, had it not been for Heredia goalie Ricardo Gonzalez, they might have been one goal up. Then the rot set in, as if they suddenly realized, “Oh heck! It’s just us, after all.”

Saprissa Takes Over First Division
Saprissa took over leadership of the whole First Division, the top soccer league, by bouncing a hapless Cartago 3-1. During the scoreless first half, the game appeared fairly even and it was not until shortly into the second that Alejandro Alpizar sent a penalty shot past Cartago goalie Jean Carlos Chacon. He was to grow accustomed to the feeling of watching Saprissa’s shots whizzing past.

Alpizar fooled him again with a fine personal play at minute 69 but Minor Diaz netted a penalty goal as Cartago battled back.’Twas all for naught. Armando Alonso took a pass from Alpizar to salt down Saprissa’s win and that was that.

Santos Back in Win Column

Santos of Guapiles, which has not won a match since their opener in the second half of the season, bounced back with a win over University of Costa Rica, a club sliding down the slippery slope into the Second Division. The score, 3-0, showed how bad UCR is.

Brazilian Eneas Conceicao brought in two for the Santos side, sandwiching Mario Arias’s goal. We’ll see if that gives the Guapiles boys the momentum to do the same job on tougher competition.

Perez Zeledon 1, Carmelita, 0

Perez Zeledon won a hotly contested and equal match with Carmelita on a disputed goal by Jewisson Bennett at minute 75 from a well-judged pass from Wilmer Lopez. Claiming offside in a frustrated fury, Carmelita’s coach Mauricio Montero was booted from the field by referee Luis Rodriguez. But the damage was done and the team from the southern zone held Carmelita for the rest of the match.

Saturday: Alajuela 3, Brujas 1

Alajuela had a fairly easy time over Las Brujas of Escazu Saturday. The first half an hour, fans settled down to watch an even match but Brujas seemed to collapse after suffering the first goal aganst them, a blast from Winston Parks with an assist from Eliseo Quintanilla. It was Quinanill’s turn at minute 63 on a penalty kick and six minutes later Pablo Herrera put even a tie out of reach. In injury overtime, Daniel Jimenez of the Brujas made a final effort for the only Escazu goal.

Saturday: San Carlos 1, Liberia 0

San Carlos hiked itself up the ladder to Group A’s number one with a victory over host Liberia. The winning goal came in the first 12 minutes with Victor Abelenda’s penalty kick. The game was marred by a blizzard of red cards: Abelenda, Juan Carlos Arguedas for San Carlos and Willy Eras for Liberia.

by Rod Hughes

An antiquated article of the Family Code that forbade women to remarry in less than 300 days after their divorce was struck down by the Fourth Chamber of the Supreme Court as being discriminatory against women. The high court noted that men were not subjected to the same requirement.

A woman was required to submit to a pregnancy test if she were to receive permission to wed within 300 days after a divorce. Prosecutor Ana Lorena Brenes had argued that the law did not forbid the woman’s remarriage but simply placed a requirement on it. The judges disagreed, noting dryly that better, modern means to establish paternity exist, making the article unnecessary.

by Rod Hughes

In the past months more than 200 Costa Ricans lacking proper documents have been deported from the United States by the Immigration and Nationalization Service, the dreaded “Migra” that is the bane of illegal aliens in that country. Most of them had stamps in their passports that simulated entry and exit from Costa Rica, visits that were never made.

According to the newspaper La Nacion, a small group of crooked Costa Rican immigration officials at San Jose’s Juan Santamaria International Airport are allegedly selling the stamps for between $100 and $200 to simulate multiple entry.This leads U.S. Immigration officials to believe that the Ticos stayed in that country for the six month limit, then returned to the United States legally.

Equally as horrified as his U.S. counterparts, Costa Ricasn Immigration Director Mario Zamora turned over to La Nacion a list of 22 officials being investigated for corruption. Last year, U.S. authorities canceled the entry visas of these officials but had no power to prosecute farther. As for the deported Ticos, they will not be able to legally re-enter the United States for the next five or 10 years. Zamora commented grimly, “I believe that there may be as many as 1,000 Ticos involved in this.”

Most of the illegal Ticos have never been in trouble with the authorities of any country. For example, Nieves Quesada, 49, of Siquirres chose the illegal route to work abroad to help finance her childrens’ educations. “When they arrested me,” she told the paper, “they handcuffed me and took my passport and visa. It was the worst moment of my life.”

Singer Ivan Vega, 36, merely shrugged. “This thing about the stamps is something that many Costa Ricans do to live in the United States. I paid $110 for a stamp but I don’t remember to whom and how. I was never contacted by Immigration agents.” Surprisingly, the newspaper published the complete list of names of the Tico agents under investigation. Those quoted in the article denied wrongdoing.

by Rod Hughes

In an unusual move, Costa Rica’s top prosecutor, Francisco Dall’Anese, launched harsh criticism of a Puntarenas judge who released 22 seamen arrested for fishing in the Cocos Island wildlife preserve. “This sets a bad precedent,” said Dall’Anese, “It says to international tuna fishermen that they can come to the island and and take all the tuna. Knowing these companies, Cocos Island is lost.”

The 200-ft.-long tuna clipper Tiuna carrying its own helicopter dwarfed the Costa Rican Coast Guard patrol vessel that captured her Jan. 29 as the Tiuna fished in forbidden waters near the Costa Rican island. Aboard they found 230 tons of tuna valued at tens of thousands of dollars, plus explosives. The island is not only national territory but a National Park and private craft are forbidden to even land people, let alone hunt or fish on it or its surrounding waters.

The judge even canceled an auction of the fish aboard as required by law. Dall’Anese said no written record of the hearing was made, although a video was made, so he has no idea what arguments persuaded Judge Marvin Orlando Cerdas to release the accused. The court did not release the video because of “technical difficulties. Dall’Anese, the equivalent of the Attorney General of this country, told the newspaper La Nacion that releasing the Colombian, Venezuelan and Mexican crew members would allow them to leave the country, depriving him of defendants to prosecute. Only one crewman was Costa Rican.

“We have to release the tuna boat to its owners,” he said. In the past, tuna clippers have been fined thousands of dollars for fishing in Costa Rican territorial waters without permits. But this case is even more heinous, ecologically speaking, because even Costa Rican-owned boats are prohibited access to the preserve, making the decision of this judge even more difficult to explain.