by Rod Hughes

A strange fallout from the tragic fire that took 21 lives at Calderon Guardia Hospital in July of 2005 is now endangering the wellbeing of the hospital’s patients. Employees of the hospital went on strike yesterday to protest the firing of three top officials, stemming from the post-fire investigation. Worse, unions of Social Security (Caja) workers are urging walkouts at other medical institutions.

UPDATE: The Supreme Court’s Constitutional Chamber (Sala IV) reinstated the three dismissed hospital officials Thursday while the chamber mulls appeals filed by their lawyers, who allege that the officials were denied right of defense against the charges filed in the Caja report. Presumeably the two-day strike will end, at least for now, until the tribunal rules on the case. See background details below.

The Caja board refused union demands to reinstate medical director Dr. Luis Paulino Hernández, administrator Carlos Vílchez and chief of maintenance Fernando Roldán who were in those posts at the time of the fire. They were dismissed last week for “infractions of the law of internal control” but the Caja released no specifics. The post operative and intensive care unit of the hospital destroyed in the 2005 inferno was old and reports said that fire extinguishers did not function and certain improvements not made to ensure that patients could be evacuated in an emergency.

But Calderon Guardia is receiving no new patients nor are the laboratory and the pharmacy open, reported Thursday´s edition of the daily paper La Nación. Many patients cannot afford to buy medicines in private pharmacies.

by Rod Hughes

It was a neat little home situated in a green area of the Barrio de Jesus district of Escazu built at the foot of a clay cliff that sheltered it from the wind. But it proved the tomb of two women living there Monday when rains sent the cliff rumbling down from the 100 foot heights. It also injured five other people including two children.

This tragedy is a good case in point to pay attention to a home’s surroundings, geologist Julio Madrigal of the National Emergency committee told the daily La Nacion. No reliable real estate broker would have shown the house, let alone sold the lot on which it stood but Madrigal said that many homes are constructed in high risk areas in this country.

In some cases, noted the engineer, a landslide will be caused by deforestation above a home beyond the control of the homeowner but, in this case, it was a killer waiting to pounce as soon as heavy tropical cloudbursts saturated the ground sufficiently. It was inevitable that the family, of Argentine origin, would lose their house and someone his life, Both women were in the exact center of the home where nothing was left above ground. The lot had a retaining wall behind it but, according to Madrigal, such a precaution “counts for very little in a case like this.”

by Rod Hughes

A good talking point for lawmakers of President Oscar Arias’s party who favor the multimillion dollar loan from the InterAmerican Development Bank to shore up the country’s sagging infastructure is the partial collapse of the Villa Questada Bridge in San Carlos yesterday. No one was injured but passage of the 70,000 vehicles that transit the bridge daily will be definitely slow, reported the daily paper Al Dia.

Engineers say that the bridge will be closed during heavy rains that have occurred daily in the past weeks and were blamed for the undermining of the bridge’s foundations. A rapidly constructed metal Bailey bridge may be put up temporarily pending a permanent replacement. The bridge is located on route 140 between Ciudad Quesada and Aguas Zarcas.

Meanwhile, at Barreal de Heredia, Ministry of Public Works engineers hope to put two lanes into action today on a bridge severely damaged by the torrential rains this week. Bridges are especially vulnerable in tropical areas and engineers estimate that at least 70 bridges in the country should be replaced or extensively reconstructed.

by Rod Hughes

The Arias Administration has had to step in to call for–and obtain–the resignations of all the directors of the Social Protection Board (JPS) after four weeks of internal squabbling prevented disbursement of funds to major charities in the nation. JPS has a monopoly on lotteries here and distributes the earnings to hospitals, senior citizens’ homes and the like.

The feud that developed between JPS chairperson Celina Gonzalez and eight of the 10 board members over her conduct of the meetings completely froze the institution’s workings and resulted in Minister of the Presidency Rodrigo Arias meeting personally with the troubled board. Such a drastic step as calling for an autonomous institution’s board to resign is, if not unprecedented, extremely rare and, after hearing all sides of the deadlock, the top cabinet minister took it reluctantly.

But the board has been seething with a series of stressful incidents since 2006, reported the daily paper La Nacion. Throughout much of that year and all of 2007, the board wasted much time trying to fire General Manager Luis Polinaris who finally went to the Supreme Court’s Contsitutional Chamber to avoid departing. In April of this year, Board Chairman Sergio Ramirez resigned as chairman after demanding a salary, although the conditions under which he was named specified that the post was strictly honorary. That same month, two other board members resigned in the wake of more squabbling.

In July, Polinaris was finally fired after the court turned down his appeal. But Minister Arias wants his recent successor, Francisco Gonzalez, to step down as well, citing suspected irregularities in the manner he was named. According to Arias, Gonzalez is due to present his resignation today. Arias said he expects a cabinet session to name a whole new board next month, in order that JPS can get some work done.

by Rod Hughes

The fire at Calderon Guardia Hospital in July of 2005, costing the lives of 21 persons, continues to cause victims, even though it is only their livelihood. Hospital medical director Dr. Luis Paulino Hernandez was fired Wednesday, along with two other top officials in connection with the tragedy.

He had been director for 18 years. Also fired were non-medical administrator Carlos Vilchez and chief of maintenance Fernando Roldan. The report of the investigation conducted by the Social Security Administration (Caja) that manages all public hospitals, cited “violations of laws governing internal controls” but details were not made public about specific infractions.

The court condemned a male nurse, Juan Carlos Ledzema, to 20 years in prison for having set the fire which destroyed an intensive care wing, causing $20 million in damage. A total loss, the wing is to be rebuilt but its loss puts serious stress on Calderon Guardia Hospital which tended to be overcrowded at times even before the fire.

One of the reasons for charges of administrative malfeasance may have had to do with the irregularities of Ledezma’s hiring. Only after the fire, when police began probing, was it found that his documentation of his past scholastic and work records were forged or otherwise falsified. At the trial, the prosecution maintained that Ledzema had set the fire in a storage closet to direct attention away from his own nursing shortcomings. By contrast, one female nurse became a national heroine, giving her life in her attempt to save some of her patients from the roaring inferno.

Lawyer Moises Fachler, representing Hernandez and Vilchez, characterized the firing as “disproportionate and in violation of his clients’ rights.” He and John Rojas, representing the chief of maintenance, have filed appeals (writs of amparo, which charge unjust administrative caprice).

The destroyed wing had been old and was deemed deficient in modern fire standards, being difficult to evacuate patients in an emergency. Many of the patients who died were bedridden after surgery while others, semi-mobile, simply did not move fast enough to escape the fast-spreading flames. There were reports of fire extinguishers that might have combatted the fire when it was still confined to the closet but were empty. An investigation by the daily newspaper La Nacion turned up no fewer than four previous inspection signally deficiencies in the wing in case of fire.

by Rod Hughes

Remember that pesky generator that went off line in April and May of 2007, plunging the country into blackouts and electrical rationing? Costa Rica’s national power company, ICE, is now in a multimillion dollar dispute with the Japanese manufacturer, Marubeni, over the repair bill.

In order to get the country back on line when the $18 million, four-year-old diesel-powered unit broke down, ICE shelled out nearly half the generator’s original price, $8.5 million, in repairs to get it going again. Now Marubeni is telling ICE, “That’s tough, Kid!” Cause of the malfunction was diagnosed as a piece of metal that broke loose, severely damaging the turbine blades on the turbo-compressor. The generator is part of the Moin III plant consisting of two generators churning out 40 megawatts of power each.

This plant had suffered 95 breakdowns in its generators since their installation in 2003. Finally one of them went kaput. General Electric, the manufacturer, was called in to repair the unit, then handed ICE the bill. Marubeni says the warrantee ran out in 2005. ICE says the contract reads that the equipment is guaranteed for five years.

Now ICE is exploring legal avenues and hoping that the National Insurance Institute (INS) will pay for the repairs.

by Rod Hughes

On July 29, reader Jame H. Aldrich made an important and correct comment on this blog regarding the recent asylum granted to Chere Lyn Tomayko, wanted in Texas for having fled the United States with her daughter, violating a court order giving joint custody to both Tomayko and the daughter’s father. Aldrich pointed out that the father, Roger Cyprian, had not had a hearing before asylum was granted.

The current edition of The Tico Times, Central America’s leading English- language paper, delves into this issue. Since this blog is essentially a news digest, we will not go into the details except to say that staff writer Gillian Gillers interviewed the Texas judge, William Harris, who says he cannot understand on what grounds Security Minister Janina del Vecchio urged the Costa Rican court to grant asylum, simply of the basis of Tomayko’s alleging that Cyprian was guilty of domestic violence.

Cyprian denies the charge, which might be expected in a domestic violence case with no hard evidence. But, as any lawyer will confirm, it is extremely difficult to prove that something did not happen. Also, legal experts interviewed by the paper point out, it is not at all unusual for asylum seekers to lack hard evidence. Granting protection of a country or denying it often hinges on whether the judge believes the testimony of the applicant for asylum.

Usually, the asylum granted by this country in the past has been for political reasons so the case is unique. Obviously feminists hope this will send the signal that Costa Rica protects women’s rights while others fear that the decision will result in foreign women who want sole custody of their children, often to punish the fathers will flood into the country. Either way, Aldrich and The Tico Times should be congratuated on their fair-mindedness.

One point remains clear: After decades of violent machismo being bolstered by judges’ deaf ears, authorities in this country are taking domestic violence seriously. The domestic companion and children of a man are no longer regarded as essentially his possessions. Whether the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction is for the reader to judge.

by Rod Hughes

Some people just don’t seem to learn. Ricardo Alem, who once served time in La Reforma penitentary for international transport of narcotics, may be one of them. He is back in jail again on the same charge. And the daily paper La Nacion revealed that just four days before his arrest, he had purchased a car valued at something like $70,000, an Audi Q7.

Alem was living high off the proverbial hog before when he was put away. He had been known as a high-roller businessman but then luggage belonging to him was opened at airport inspection and contained bundles of cash, along with the flyers for a presidential candidate. But police had suspected him of laundering the money and the cash was confiscated.

But the cartel that owned the cash pressured him to pay it back and he went into the active drug trade to obtain the fast income, finally being caught, sentenced and sent to prison. But it was not long after he was released that judicial investigators (OUJ) began to suspect he was back at his old trade. Authorities say he invested half a million dollars or so to remodel a bar on the third floor of the building that houses his company, Corporacion Rical.

This building in San Jose’s La Uruca district is suspected of being owned by a band of drug runners. OIJ director Jorge Rojas says they suspect he had organized this gang while still in prison. Also arrested along with Alem were two Colombians and two Costa Ricans, one of whom is a former OIJ agent. Rojas said the cocaine being trafficked came from Colombia by was of Panama. “You don’t organize something like this overnight,” commented the lawman.

Confiscated also were two other extremely expensive cars, a luxurious home containing a “very heavy safe” which the cops suspect contains more drugs and money and Alem’s headquarters building.

by Rod Hughes

While condominium apartment houses are not viewed with disfavor by North Americans and Europeans, especially as a second home at the beach or by senior citizens who don’t want to be bothered by a garden, Costa Ricans say, “Don’T fence me in.” Or at least a recent study seems to indicate that, noting that only 28% of the building permits since 2005 have been for condos with 72% for private houses.

Ticos are territorial, according to a recent study, so they don’t feel as if they own their own piece of space in an apartment situation. And they miss the activity and pride of a flowery garden. Also they fear that living cheek-by-jowl with the neighbors may throw them into personal conflict with them, a cultural taboo Tico will go to any length to avoid. Then there is the usual condo prohibition on pets, and Ticos in the middle class and more affluent Ticos tend to dote on theirs. For younger couples, too, there is the realization they can’t build on if they have another child or two or if their aged parents need to move in.

But the study shows that the chief reason a vocal minority of Ticos favor condos is the sense of security a guarded entrance favors, along with the closeness of neighbors. Also some like the tranquility of a condo, since neighbors must control the noise they make under the rules. A Tico neighborhood can be pretty noisy and wild parties are not rare.

One woman surveyed by the daily newspaper La Nacion said she would rather not live in a high-rise because she would have to share the elevator and parking area. Others, not afflicted by acrophobia, favor a high rise for the view. In a separate house, she said, there are green areas and more privacy. But in the near future she might have to rethink her position due to the filling of vacant spaces in the metropolitan area.

A recent study program indicates that in 22 years the city will need some 400,000 to 600,000 more housing units to protect the increasing population under a roof. This will force real estate prices up so that building vertically may be the only option and the green areas will shrink drastically.

by Rod Hughes

Those tongue-tied high school English teachers, who essentially flunked a recent Education Ministry exam to test their fluency in the language, are going back to school. The Ministry has prescribed a 140-hour dosage of remedial instruction at the University of Costa Rica for them to cure the mute state of the 1,200 deficient teachers.

The UCR course will be spread over 14 weeks. The English program for full-time students at the university is known for turning out fluent graduates and uses a much more up-to-date methodology than the antiquated rote, copybook system used by public high schools here. The English-language weekly The Tico Times has employed a number of UCR graduates through the years in bilingual posts with excellent results.

Of 3,193 English teachers tested earlier this year, 1,212 tested out at the lowest level of proficiency with the language. This was a blow to the ambitious ministry plan to graduate 75% of public school students with the capacity to speak English with ease by 2017. But the investment of some ¢400 million was quickly budgeted to remedy the sad lack of competent teachers.