Costa Rica News Digest, Oct. 1

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>>Costa Rica News Digest<<
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TODAY'S CONTENTS
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*Alcatel Scandal Widens, another Ex President Implicated

*Calendar: Published every Friday when there are
items to announce.

*News Digest


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FEATURE ARTICLE
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*Alcatel Scandal Widens, another Ex President Implicated

Yesterday, it was revealed that the other candidate
in the past
Presidential election, Rolando Araya, had received a
"campaign
contribution" of $100,000.00, just as did the
campaign of President
Pacheco. Such foreign "donations" to Costa Rican
political campaigns
are strictly forbidden, and, since both major parties
are guilty, there
appear to be growing grounds to annul the past
election, especially
when the fact that this was not an isolated case is
factored in.

Now, it has just been revealed that former President
Rodriguez, who was
just installed as OAS Secretary General, is now also
implicated.

Ex-President Rodríguez Implicated in Alcatel Scandal

José Antonio Lobo Solera, mid-day yesterday openly
talked to
television cameras from his living room of his
luxurious home in
Alajuela, telling reporters that his wife's sudden
departure on Tuesday
was for family reasons, a trip that had been
programmed earlier, and she

would return by the end of this week.

Former Costa Rican president, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez,
according to
former ICE director, José Antonio Lobo Solera, asked
for a 60/60 split
of the Alcatel "prize".

José Antonio Lobo Solera on his way to the
prosecutor's office, where
he was detained following his declaration. Lobo is in
the Goicoechea
court cells while a judges considers a request for
preventive detention.

He told reporters, with a sad tone, that his wife did
not receive any
payoffs and that she loved Costa Rica and would be
back. He talked
directly to the cameras and dared reporters to come
up with anyone at
ICE who can say that he intervened in the normal
procedure of the Alcatel

contract.

However, his tune changed somewhat in the early
evening, following an

interview with the Fiscalía, where he told
prosecutors that former
Costa Rican president Miguel Ángel Rodríguez had
asked for a 60% take
of the spoils from Alcatel contract.

"Alcatel was the winner, they contacted me to tell me
they had the
prize. I consulted with don Miguel Ángel Rodríguez,
asking what I
needed to do. He told me that I should accept and
that we would split
it 60% for him and 40% for me", were the words
declared by Lobo in
front of four prosecutors.

Lobo added that it was Edgar Valverde, general
manager at Alcatel,
who called him to tell him of the "prize".

According to a report by the Spanish daily newspaper
La Nación, Lobo
said that Miguel Ángel had called him by telephone
last week (the week
of 17 September 2004) and Miguel Ángel told him that
he would receive
a note that showed Miguel Ángel owed Lobo money. The
idea was to cover
up the Alcatel deal.

Lobo added "Don Miguel Ángel never had any debt with
me."

La Nación reports to have contacted former president
Miguel Ángel
Rodríguez in his office in Washington, where he was
officially installed
as Secretary General of the Organization of American
States (OAS)
last week, who admitted to reporters that he had
received monies from
José Antonio Lobo Solera, a total of us$140.000.

The money, however, according to Rodríguez, was a
personal load from
Lobo, that helped him pay to finance his campaign for
the Secretary
General post.

Rodríguez was emphatic that when he received the loan
from Lobo he had
no idea that the money originated or was tied to
Alcatel.

The Fiscal General, Franciso Dall'anese told La
Nación that the
Ministerio Público has enough evidence to contradict
the explanation
offered by the ex-president. Dall'anese added that
there is sufficient

evidence that shows the money was not a "personal
loan" as Rodríguez
claims.

Lobo was detained following his statement to the
Fiscalía and was taken
to the Goicoechea court cells, awaiting a judge's
decision on the
preventive measures that will used against Lobo.

The Fiscalía is asking for preventive detention for
Lobo.


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CALENDAR
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Please send your calendar announcements to
costarica@destiny-worldwide.net

Sunday, Oct. 10

Canadian Thanksgiving

Local Canadians will be holding their Thanksgiving
today at an Escazú

location this year. Thenoon dinner is at Big Mike's
Dining Club, Bello

Horizonte. The cost is 5,500 colons per person, some
$12.25.
Reservations and further information are available
from: Vicky Kieke,

203-3652, andreason@racsa.co.cr or Elsa Miller,
228-1250,
newremiller@racsa.co.cr or Joan Villalobos, 260-5067.



Every other Monday

Toastmasters
Toastmasters Club, an English-speaking, non-profit
club, meets every
first and third Monday of each month, at 9 a.m. in
Bello Horizonte. The

object is to raise the skill and knowledge for all
who speak, to have
fun and to meet others. Contact: Sam Butler,
289-6333/840-1529, E-mail:

samjcr@pobox.com, or Natalie O'Mara, 296-3059



Every Sunday

Newcomers coffee
Newcomer's Friendship & Connection Club English.
Coffee klatch 8 a.m.
to 2 p.m. every Sunday. Club Paso Fino, Santa Ana.
Call 249-4758 to RSVP.

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NEWS DIGEST
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*The Worst of the Rainy Season

It's October 1 and that means the start of the worst
of the rainy
season. October is the worst month, according to the
Instituto
Meteorológico Nacional (IMN).

Starting today you and continuing into the weekend
and the rest of
the month, the rain will intensify in the Central and
South Pacific
zones as well as the Central Valley.

Mountanous areas will also be affected, however, the
Atlantic zone
(Limon) will see normal conditions.

The IMN is making a call for an increased alertness
for mudslides,
especially in those areas where mudslides have a
tendency to occur.

Residents are asked to be on the alert for flash
floods and strong
river currents.



*Economy Grows

The rate of growth of the economy of Costa Rica has
been steady since
March.

According to Central Bank sources, the services
related to
telecommunications and tourism are the main driving
forces of the trend.

Official Mariam Cover explained that the continued
increased in the
arrival of tourists, 15 percent this year, places
tourism as the top

dollar-earner for Costa Rica.


*Madrid-Costa Rica non stop

The Spanish airline Iberia announced that four of its
daily flights
linking Madrid and Costa Rica will be non-stop.

These flights arrive in Costa Rica every Monday,
Wednesday, Friday,
and Sunday.

The carrier provides the service with Airbus A-340
jets with a 250-
capacity.

The Minister of Tourism of Costa Rica, Rodrigo
Castro, pointed out
that the new service places the Central American
nation in an
advantageous position for the arrival of visitors,
who now have nine
flights from Spain available, seven on Iberia and two
on Air Madrid,
which are also non-stop.


*Credit card clones tracked to restaurant

Since January investigators have been trying to stem
a wave of credit
card thefts. The crooks somehow were making clones of
credit cards and
then using them to make purchases.

So what did the victims have in common? They all used
their credit
card at a chicken restaurant near Juan Santamaría
Airport.

From there it did not take Sherlock Holmes to put the
rest of the
pieces together. So Judicial Investigating Agency
agents raided three
homes Thursday morning. They were located in Barba de
Heredia, San
Antonio de Belén and Ciruelas de Alajuela.

Two women, both Cubans in their 30s, were detained.
Investigators
estimate the loss to the phony credit cards at 20
million colons or
about $45,000.


*Power cut announced

The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad says it
will be making

improvements in the electrical network that might
cause the power
to be cut from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

The area likely to be affected the most is Coyol de
Alajuela, the
company said.


*New plant inaugurated

President Abel Pacheco presided Thursday at the
inauguration of the
CYTYC Surgical Products plant that employs 120
persons, 95 percent
women.

The U.S. company is making its NoveSure system here.
This is a device
that treats menorrhagia, or excessive menstrual
bleeding.

The plant here will be the principal producer of the
system for
Latin America, Pacheco said.


PARAGUAY --- Inter-American Court strikes down
criminal defamation
conviction

(This decision built on an August ruling in a case
involving the
Costa Rican newspaper, La Nación.)

In a decision with broad implications for press
freedom in Latin
America, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has
ruled that a
criminal defamation conviction in Paraguay violated
international law.
The court, in a decision handed down this month,
found that the criminal

proceedings themselves violated the American
Convention on Human Rights

because they were not "necessary in a democratic
society."

The court is an arm of the Organization of American
States (OAS) and
its decisions are binding on member nations. The
ruling, coupled with
an August decision overturning a criminal defamation
conviction in Costa

Rica, seems to signal a broad shift against criminal
defamation laws in
Latin America.

The Paraguayan case dates to August 1992, when
presidential candidate
Ricardo Canese questioned rival Juan Carlos Wasmosy
about ties to former

dictator Alfredo Stroessner. In statements to the
local press, Canese
said that Wasmosy, who went on to become president,
was Stroessner's
front man in a construction partnership known as
CONEMPA. The
partnership had been awarded a contract to build the
giant Itaipú

hydroelectric power plant on the Paraguay-Brazil border.

In October 1992, CONEMPA business partners whom
Canese had not named
in his statements filed complaints alleging libel and
defamation.
In March 1994, a judge sentenced Canese to four
months in prison and
ordered him to pay a US$7,500 fine. An appeals court
rejected Canese's

appeal in November 1997, though it reduced his
sentence to two months in

prison and a US$600 fine. The Supreme Court
dismissed an initial appeal,
and Canese took the case to the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights.

The commission is the human rights monitoring arm of
the OAS.

In June 2002, the commission asked the Inter-American
Court to declare
that Paraguay violated Canese's right to freedom of
thought and
expression, as well as other rights guaranteed by the
American Convention
on Human Rights. Paraguay's Supreme Court, fearing a
ruling against the

country, dismissed the case against Canese in late
2002, but the

Inter-American Court continued with its proceedings.

The Inter-American Court, in a decision made public
September 14, ruled
that both the conviction and prosecution itself
violated Article 13 of
the American Convention on Human Rights, which
guarantees freedom of

expression. The Inter-American Court, which is
charged with interpreting
the American Convention, also ordered Paraguay to pay
Canese US$35,000 in

damages.

The court found that the criminal proceeding and
sentence "constituted
an unnecessary and excessive sanction for statements
made in the context
of the electoral campaign, in reference to another
candidate for the

presidency and matters of public interest." Such
sanctions, the court
said, "limited an open debate on issues of interest
or public concern."

The Committee to Protect Journalists, which has
helped fight criminal

defamation laws in Latin America, hailed the court
ruling.

"This is a major step forward for freedom of
expression and the campaign
to decriminalize defamation from the Americas that
could have broad

implications throughout the world," CPJ Executive
Director Ann Cooper
said. "The legal logic of this decision requires
that governments in
Latin America refrain from prosecuting journalists on
defamation charges
and reform their defamation laws to eliminate
criminal penalties."

The Canese decision built on an August ruling in a
case involving the
Costa Rican newspaper, La Nación. In that case, the
court overturned
the criminal defamation conviction of reporter
Mauricio Herrera Ulloa,
and ordered the Costa Rican government to compensate
him. In a
concurring opinion, Judge Sergio García Ramírez,
president of the Court,

questioned the basic idea of criminalizing defamation
and suggested that
such laws should be repealed.

On September 10, Eduardo Bertoni, OAS special
rapporteur for freedom of

expression, convened a meeting at CPJ offices to
discuss the Herrera
ruling. A declaration ratified by the free press and
legal advocates

asserted: "Criminal defamation is a disproportionate
and unnecessary
response to the need to protect reputations [and] ...
civil defamation
laws provide sufficient redress for all those who
claim to have been

defamed."

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