Costa Rica Digest, Oct. 14: GREAT NEWS ON THE IMMIGRATION FRONT!

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TODAY'S CONTENTS
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*Feature Article: Exciting News on the Immigration
Front!

*News Digest

*Other Latin American News

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FEATURE ARTICLE
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*IMMIGRATION ISSUES POSITIVE

It would seem that finally, after many months of
lobbying, we can finally
smile and relax a little. A few weeks ago I received
official news that if
the new immigration proposal does go through, the
category of Rentista will
be maintained. Later, and 'unofficially' a
representative of the Libertario
party, Jorge, informed us that there was also an
agreement now to keep the
required annual amounts the same for Pensionado and
Rentista, as well as
have it written into the law. Not wanting to jump the
gun, I waited to
confirm this at a meeting last week with Sr.
Echevaria, assessor to the
Minister of Security, who indeed confirmed this was
not only voted on, but
also approved.

This good news means that these two residency
categories, which we know are
very beneficial to the country, will continue to
attract the foreign retired
community to Costa Rica. Pensionados will still
require a pension of
minimum $600 per month, and Rentistas will have to
prove an income of $1000
per month, in addition to meeting the other
requirements such as the
appropriate documentation, and spending a specified
amount of time in the
country. With a large retirement sector expected
within a few years, it
could mean many retirees could be moving here,
providing a significant boost
to the economy through real estate, tourism, and
other necessary goods and
services. This at a time when the country can really
use it. The ARCR will
continue to keep people updated on the current
procedures for residency
through our website (www.arcr.net) and through our
offices in San Jose (Tel:
233-8068, 221-2053).

On behalf of the Association (ARCR) and the foreign
community, we wish to
express our gratitude to the Diputados for listening
to our concerns, and
especially those officials who took time out of their
busy schedules to talk
to us. To Carlos Avendaño who first met with us, and
the Libertario Party
who took on this issue with concern and energy to
bring all the individual
pieces together, thank you.

In our meeting with Sr. Echevaria, we also discussed
the problem of the long
lines at immigration, specifically in light of older
or handicapped persons.
We proposed that perhaps a special window to expedite
this groups waiting
time (such as banks have) would be a nice gesture on
behalf of the
government, and he promised to see what could be done
considering it an easy
task.

Ryan Piercy

General Manager

Association of Residents of Costa Rica.

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NEWS DIGEST
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*Immigration law goes to floor of assembly

A new immigration law got the approval of a
legislative committee
Wednesday and now will go to the full Asamblea
Nacional for discussion
and a likely vote.

This is the measure that concerns expats here because
an original draft

sought to eliminate the category of rentista.
Lawmakers have said that
this immigration category has been placed back in the
measure, but some
28 motions were passed Wednesday before the measure
won full approval,
plus the bill may be changed significantly on the
floor of the assembly.

The approval was in the Comisión Permanente de
Gobierno y
Administración, which has been studying the measure
for months.

For Costa Rica, the big changes would be to
criminalize the employment
of an illegal alien, create a stronger immigration
police force and make

smuggling illegal immigrants a crime.

Expats were more concerned by possible changes in the
amount of money

pensionados and rentistas had to prove they had in
order to obtain
residency here. Although legislative sources said
that no changes are
planned in the annual amounts of money expats must
change into colons,

nothing is certain until the measure finally passes.

Humberto Arce of the Bloque Patriótico Parlamentario,
a member of the

committee, said the proposed law is an advance for
Costa Rica. He said
he was satisfied with the draft the committee
approved. Arce said that

immigration in Costa Rica now is chaos and the new
law will inject order
into the situation.

Arce predicted that the measure would not face much
hostility in the
full assembly because he said lawmakers have reached
a consensus that

something has to be done with immigration.

The measure is listed as Expediente 14.269, Ley de
Migración y
Extranjería, but the changes wrought in the committee
in recent days
will not be inserted into the official draft for a
few days.

Under current law, rentistas of any age have to show
that they have at
least $60,000 on deposit at a banking institution and
are prepared to
change $12,000 a year into colons. Pensionados must
have a recognized
pension from a third-party source and must change
$7,200 a year.

Some lawmakers called for jacking up these amounts by
a factor of two
or three. In addition, some organizations that deal
with expats seeking

residency here were concerned by another aspect. One
draft of the bill
would have left the amounts immigrants must exchange
up to an
administrative committee that could make changes as
it saw fit. Expat

organizations preferred that the actual numbers be in
the law to avoid

confusion and blindsiding.


*Alcatel Total Payout To Date: us$4.400.000

Just when you thought the wave of corruption scandals
was calming down,

another revelation yesterday by television Channel
7's "Telenoticias"

confirmed that another former director of the
Instituto Costarricense de

Electricidad (ICE) got paid by Alcatel.

Hernán Bravo, who was a director between 1998 and
2004 received
us$800.000 dollars from the French telecommunications
firm, who was
awarded two multimillion dollar contracts in the last
three years, the
last being for us$149 million dollars to install
400.000 GSM cellular
lines.

Telenoticias confirmed that Alcatel had deposited
millions of dollars
into a bank account by the firm Intelmar, which is
related to Leonel
Barrios, a former Alcatel technical assistant, from
which various
payments were made companies which Bravo is a partner
or has ineterest.

One such company, Empaques Asépticos S. A, received
three payments:

us$162.000, us$149.000 and us$142.500.

Intelmar is belived to have drawn cheques through a
Panamanian bank,
Banco Continental en Panamá, to NCR Holding, a
company controlled by
Alfonso Guardia Mora, cousing of former president
Rafael Angel Calderón,
who is also accused of recieving payments from the
Corporación Fischel
with respect to the Finnish loan to the Caja
Costarricense de Seguro
Social (CCSS).

Bravo told Telenoticias that the payments and his
actions were made
on a personal level and nothing to do with his
partners and associates
and that he is expecting a call from the Ministerio
Público, who is

investigation the Alcatel corruption scandal.

He also said that "all his decision as an ICE
director" were correct and
is repentful of having accepted the payments later on
and "will return
every cent."

To date, Alcatel is known to have paid out:
us$2.400.000 dollars to
José Antnio Lobo, us$1.200.000 dollars to Joaquín
Alberto Fernández
and us$800.000 to Hernán Bravo, for a total of
us$4.400.000 dollars.

The La Nación reported today that two judges have
arrived in Costa
Rica, from France, to study the Alcatel "prize", the
payment of money
to ICE directors for the awarding of the GSM
contract. As well, the
Honduras government has begun an investigation into
the dealings of
Alcatel in that country.


*Where's My Car?

A list of parking lots with the highest number of
vehicles reported
stolen, according to complaints filed at the
Organismo de Investigacion

Judicial (OIJ), between January 1 and October 4 of
this year:

San José
Multiplaza del Este: 14
Multiplaza Escazu: 14
Hospital México: 10
Universidad Latina: 7
Price Smart Zapote: 7
Plaza del Sol: 6
Centro Comercial del Sur: 5
Burger King Zapote: 4
Universidad de Costa Rica: 4
Plaza América: 4
Centro Comercial de Guadalupe: 3
Perimercados Moravia: 3
Comercial de Desamparados: 2
Centro Comercial Novacentro: 2
Outlet Mall: 2
Plaza Mayor: 2
Universidad Fidélitas: 2
Centro Comercial del Oeste: 1
Mall San Pedro: 1
Maximercado Desamparados: 1
Plaza Colonial Escazú: 1
Tienda Aliss: 1
ULACIT: 1

Heredia
Comercial Real Cariari: 15
Banco Popular: 3
Bar Catamarán: 2

Cartago
Terramall: 5
Palí (El Tejar): 1
Banco Nacional de Costa Rica: 1

Alajuela
Mall Internacional: 12
Palí (Pacífico): 3
Perimercado de La Radial: 3
Pali (Grecia): 3
Policía de Tránsito: 3
Pali (Plaza Ferias): 2
Pali (Palmares): 1
Maximercado (Plaza Ferias): 1
Hospital de San Ramón: 1
Pali (Villa Bonita San Antonio): 1

Source: Jorge Rojas, director del OIJ



*Costa Rica to Host Private Sector Forum in San José

The fight against Corruption, the Promotion of
Transparency and Free
Trade are some of the themes that will figure
prominently in this year's

Business Forum at the IberoAmerican Summit of Heads
of State and Heads of

Government, according to the President of the
Inter-American Economic
Council Barry Featherman.

Featherman made the announcement in a press
conference in Washington,
DC, following his return from Costa Rica. The Council
is scheduled to
convene a Regional Meeting of Investors and
Businessmen on Nov. 18, 2004
in San José.

In a letter to Featherman, Costa Rican President,
Abel Pacheco, wrote,
"I take note of the interest of your Council in
organizing a Regional
Meeting of Investors and Businesspersons as part of
the XIV
IberoAmerican Summit of Heads of State and Heads of
Government scheduled
to take place in November in San José, Costa Rica. I
agree with you that
it is important to take advantage of international
meetings of high level

government officials to organize parallel activities
for the private
sector of the Hemisphere. Given the foregoing, it
will be an honor for
my Government to sponsor this event and collaborate
in every way possible
to ensure its success."

Featherman expressed his gratitude to President
Pacheco. Featherman
noted that this forum will serve as an important
follow-up to last
year's IberoAmerican Summit Business Forum that the
Council organized
under the auspices of the government of Bolivia in
collaboration with

President Mesa and Foreign Minister Siles.

Featherman noted that issues of importance to Central
America will
figure prominently, such as the U.S. Central America
Free Trade Agreement.
He noted that many Central American governments will
be pleased that they
and the private sector will have an opportunity to
interact with Members
of the U.S. Congress at the Forum.

The Council President noted that high level
ministerial delegations
from every Latin American Country plus Portugal and
Spain will begin
arriving in Costa Rica during the second week of
November. The Council
has asked President Pacheco to Inaugurate the Sessions.

"The Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and
Heads of Government in
Costa Rica is another key component of our
Organization's efforts to
bring more investment to Latin America," said
Featherman. "We are fully

committed to promoting democracy, fighting corruption
and realizing the

potential opportunity that the CAFTA and FTAA offers
the Hemisphere, by

providing a forum for Heads of Government and the
Hemisphere's Foreign

Ministers to ensure that the CAFTA facilitates
economic growth and

development in all the sectors."

This key meeting in Costa Rica will also enable the
heads of state
and government to hear private sector viewpoints on
trade and investment
in the hemisphere. It will be the only opportunity
for the private sector
and civil society to interact with the government
leaders at the summit
and therefore is a critical meeting for the region's
business and civil

society leaders.


*Pothunters make major archaeological find in Sarapiquí

Investigators are awaiting experts from Museo
Nacional at a site in
Sarapiquí where a trove of archeological artifacts
has been unearthed.

The experts were contacted by agents of the Judicial
Investigating

Organization which enlisted their help to date and
identify the
artifacts that were discovered on a farm Monday morning.

The archeological experts are expected to arrive
within the next week.
"We still do not know from what period in history
these items come from,
but we have found a lot, its one of the biggest finds
in a very long time"

said a Judicial Investigating Organization agent.

Francisco Corrales, head of the Museo Nacional in San
José, said that he
is very positive about the find and happy that the
authorities in
Sarapiquí have collaborated with his institution in
something which he
feels is of "immense cultural importance."


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OTHER LATIN AMERICAN NEWS:


*Crowds protest policies of ColombiaÂ’s Uribe

BOGOTA, Colombia — Thousands of Colombians have taken
to the streets as
part of a general strike to protest President Alvaro
Uribe's economic

policies.

Colombia's labor unions organized Tuesday's work
stoppage, which took
place here, in Barranquilla, Cali, Medellin and other
cities.

The protesters demanded an end to negotiations aimed
at reaching a free
trade agreement with the United States. They also
voiced their
opposition to having taxes raised.

Additionally, the demonstrators were protesting
potential changes to the

constitution that would allow President Uribe to seek
re-election. The

president is currently barred from running for a
second term.

Tuesday's mass demonstration came just days after a
new opinion poll
showed that the president's approval rating had
fallen to 72 percent
from 78 percent a few months earlier.

COMMENT: We find it interesting and instructive that
hemisphere wide,
the US is pushing governments to enact its policy
dictates, but the
people of the region utterly reject these
impositions. Impositions
like higher taxes, so called "free trade agreements,"
which are actually
a destruction of national sovereignty, and other
measures that people
worldwide are rejecting more and more. We suppose
Washington will only
listen when it has no friends left in the world and
is forced by force
to get out and quit sticking its nose in other
people's business where it
is not wanted. You should also note that the
kidnapping and US orchestrated
coup in Haiti is also coming apart at the seams,
leading only to total
anarchy, but the people of Haiti also reject this
meddling in their affairs.


*Mexico to support single Central American candidate
as OAS chief
Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Derbez said Wednesday
that his country would

support one single Central American as candidate for
the post of secretary

general ofthe Organization of American States (OAS).

"If Central America proposes a single candidate,
Mexico will certainly

support him," said Derbez.

He said, "Yesterday we had a chance to talk with the
presidents of El

Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica, who are
considering presenting a common

Central American candidate."

The Mexican government has told these heads of state
that Mexico does not

aspire to present a candidate of its own, said Derbez.

Derbez is scheduled to fly to Venezuela Thursday for
talks on candidacy of

the OAS post which was left vacant after Miguel Angel
Rodriguez resigned last

Friday. Rodriguez quit amid a corruption scandal
which dated back to his

presidency in Costa Rica in 2001.

Venezuela has voiced opposition to having another
Central American as

successor of Rodriguez. Derbez said he wants to
listen to the concerns of the

Venezuelan government.

Central American foreign ministers meet Thursday in
San Salvador, capital of

El Salvador, to choose the region's candidate for the
OAS top job


*Mexico to support single Central American candidate
as OAS chief

Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Derbez said Wednesday
that his country
would support one single Central American as
candidate for the post of

secretary general ofthe Organization of American
States (OAS).

"If Central America proposes a single candidate,
Mexico will certainly

support him," said Derbez.

He said, "Yesterday we had a chance to talk with the
presidents of El

Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica, who are
considering presenting a
common Central American candidate."

The Mexican government has told these heads of state
that Mexico does
not aspire to present a candidate of its own, said
Derbez.

Derbez is scheduled to fly to Venezuela Thursday for
talks on candidacy
of the OAS post which was left vacant after Miguel
Angel Rodriguez
resigned last Friday. Rodriguez quit amid a
corruption scandal which
dated back to his presidency in Costa Rica in 2001.

Venezuela has voiced opposition to having another
Central American as

successor of Rodriguez. Derbez said he wants to
listen to the concerns
of the Venezuelan government.

Central American foreign ministers meet Thursday in
San Salvador,
capital of El Salvador, to choose the region's
candidate for the OAS top
job.


*Paraguayan interior minister, police chief sacked

Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte on Wednesday
fired Interior
Minister Orlando Fiorotto and National Police
Commander Umberto Nunez
for deteriorating security in the country.

Duarte announced his decision in Germany, where he
was on an official
visit, just hours after a kidnapped boy of a tobacco
businessman was
found dead.

"The latest events tell us we have to act with
greater solidarity and

integration of our efforts," said Duarte in a
telephone interview with

Paraguayan television.

Attorney General Nelson Mora would be the new
interior minister and
Nunez would be replaced by his deputy Carlos Zelaya,
he said.

The body of the boy was found in an empty ground in
Luque, near
Asuncion, capital of Paraguay, with "strips of skin
torn away from his
face," Paraguayan media quoted the police as saying.

Police said the kidnappers had contacted the family
three times, but
refused to respond after proof of life was requested
by the family
as condition for paying a one-million-dollar ransom.

The boy's sister was kidnapped two years ago and
released after the
family paid a 50,000-dollar ransom.



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