by Rod Hughes

Former public security minister Fernando Berrocal stuck to his guns in a hard-hitting report to the Legislative Assembly yesterday, presenting 36 pages of testimony that declared the deep penetration of the Colombian FARC guerrilla-terrorist-narcotics trafficking organization deep into Costa Rica. But lawmakers are still waiting for concrete evidence, including the names of Costa Rican politicians Berrocal claims have been turned by FARC.

In early April, Berrocal said he expected Colombian officials to turn up connections between politicians here and FARC terrorists from captured guerrilla records, raising a miniature political tornado. But no such definitive information was forthcoming from the Colombian government. President Oscar Arias reacted to the Berrocal statement was if stung, alleging demogoguery, even going on TV nationawide to disavow it. By mid-April, Berrocal was out on his ear.

But his statements were taken seriously enough to cause lawmakers to name a temporary investigative committee to seek the truth. Before his impolitic declaration, Berrocal had built up a tremendous credibility, his police forces in cooperation with U.S. agencies netting record hauls of smuggled narcotics. His report to congress was awaited with some hope of clearing up the whole affair, including his abrupt dismissal from the President’s cabinet.

Committee chairwoman Mayi Antillon of National Liberation Party expressed disappointment with the Berrocal appearance. “He hasn’t given us proof of (Costa Rican) contacts,” she said. Berrocal is expected to return Monday and Tuesday to answer the 16 committee members’ questions and, if Antillon is any example, they will be direct ones.

A sample of Berrocal’s eloquence in testimony: “All the drugs that pass through Costa Rica come from FARC. In this region 80% of narcotics is from FARC. Now, if that isn’t penetration, I don’t know what is!”

Yes, but as they used to say in the old U.S. TV commercials, “Where’s the beef?”

by Rod Hughes

Only two days after President Oscar Arias told Latin American nations of his plan to boost aid to farmers in the face of a worsening world food crisis, the government announced that it would give 50,000 colones per month to the most poverty-stricken women in the country.

The aid will go to some 16,000 single mothers of under 12-year-old children. The move is part of the National Food Plan announced yesterday by Minister of the Presidency Rodrigo Arias, Minister of Agriculture Javier Flores and Finance Minister Guillermo Zuniga. The plan is to go hand-in-hand with the Arias plan to stimulate production of corn, rice and beans.

In identifying mothers most in need of aid to buy food for their families, the government will rely on the lists compiled by the Mixed Social Aid Institute (IMAS), the country’s main welfare agency. (Traditionally, IMAS is one of the most underfunded and overworked agencies in the government, with client caseloads of several hundred per social worker.)

by Rod Hughes

MANAGUA, Nicaragua– President Oscar Arias pledged his government to spend $70 million in agricultural stimulus in the face of the worsening world food price crisis. He told the summit of Latin American respresentatives that he would present his plan to Costa Rican Legislative Assembly within the next few hours with a special tax proposal.

The rapid rise in food prices may be worldwide, but Arias is especially sensitive to the effects of the petroleum/food crunch on the meager pocketbooks of the poor in this country. This double blow endangers gains in his struggle against poverty made in the first two years of his current administration. Under his new plan, small farmers would receive $15 million in technical aid immediately.

Added to this would be $22 million in credit to basic food raisers as well as for financing of equipment and machinery. Basic food crops such as corn has been weighing on Arias’s mind for some time. In his State of the Nation address to the Legislative Assembly early this month, he made an indirect swipe at U.S. President George W. Bush’s scheme to convert corn into ethanol fuel, a move that has hiked prices on that grain all over the world. Corn is a basic foodstuff in most Latin American countries.

The “Security and Alimentary Sovereignty” summit was convoked by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. Only five presidents are attending the meeting but 17 countries have sent official high level representatives. The speeches have taken on a leftist cast with “anti-imperialist” addresses from Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Arias refused to sign a declaration against free trade–not surprising, considering his trade agreements with other countries including the U.S. and pending negotiations with the European Union and China.

By Rod Hughes

And other soccer tales. Two Alajuela stars spilled the beans on the Channel 7 TV sports section of the news program Telenoticias: Santos paid five million colones to the Alajuela club to beat Cartago in the final game of the regular season. They did handily, 2-0. For Santos, though,the money was wasted— Santos hoped to beat Liberia and avoid demotion to the Second Division, Santos only tied with the Guanacaste club. Bye-bye Santos.

Whatever the official ruling from FEDEFUT will be on the, shall we say, unique arrangement of bribing a club to help you avoid the cellar, it is bound to raise eyebrows. Of course if Santos had paid the club to lose, it would have raised an outcry that would have echoed throughout the rest of the century. But to Alajuela stopper Harold Wallace it was merely an “incentive” to win and to his teammate Pablo Herrera it was a “clean negotiation. Ummm…

But the Alajuela club directorate reacted like Pontius Pilate scrubbing his hands. In Guapiles, the Santos hierarchy also pleaded surpise. According to the daily paper La Nación, to receive such incentives to win carries no penalty.

UPDATE: Friday’s La Nacion published an interview with Guapiles businessman Mario Villaplana who admits he gave the Alajuela club a bribe to beat Cartago but now says he repents the gesture—especially since it did his beloved Santos no good at all. He said it was in a light-hearted spirit that he told the Alajuela players (in typical Tico diminuitive style) “Here, take this itty-bitty present from someone who loves his itty-bitty team and doesn’t want to see it drop into the Second Division.”

Villaplana says he paid up last Tuesday, the day after the telecast in which two Alajuela plaers revealed the “little gift.” The Guapiles loyalist said he visited the Alajuela players before the Sunday closing game and presented his proposal. He said they laughed and told him they would play to win, anyway, since they wanted to nail down their first place in the overall standings.

Meanwhile, the finish of the regular 2007-8 season claimed its first casualty. A disappointed Liberia directorate fired Colombian head coach Carlos Restrepo after the Guanacaste province club’s lackluster showing this year, in which Liberia won five, lost five and tied six. An unidentified source told La Nación that the directors are considering two Costa Rican and two foreign candidates to fill Restrepos’s shoes.

And finally, former Saprissa star Alvaro Saborío is having a fine time with the Swiss soccer club FC Sion, racking up 32 goals in two seasons, 17 of them this year alone. He ranks number three in Swiss league scorers and ranks with Paulo Cesar Wanchope’s best season when he played for Derby Country (England) in 1997-98 and not far behind Ronald Gómez for Crete in the Greek league in the 1999-2000 season. (FYI: Remember Shirley Cruz, the young lady who went with Olympique of Lyon in the French feminine league? Well, she has 10.

by Rod Hughes

Costa Rican Olympic qualifier Mario Montoya from the San Jose suburb of Uruca began swimming young in order to conquer his asthma. But the treatment has led him to be only the fifth qualifier so far for the Costa Rican Olympic team

The 18-year-old Montoya marked up his qualifying time in the 200-meter freestyle in the Copa Latin in San Marino. He holds the 200 freestyle national record, plus one in the 50-meter backstroke. He has competed in 15 countries, including in three world championship meets.

At least he will go to China in August, if the split in the National Olympic Committee is healed by then. Jorge Nery Carvajal, the embattled president, is still holding on to his post against the majority of sports federations that have wanted him long gone since January. The jury is still out.