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>>Costa Rica News Digest<<
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TODAY'S CONTENTS
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*News Digest

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FEATURE ARTICLE
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WHAT'S NEW AT THE COSTA RICA PAGE!
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Our real estate section has just been totally updated with lots of
new listings, mostly in the residential real estate section, but also
we have a new rental on the rental page and some new additions to the
land for sale section.

http://www.destiny-worldwide.net/costa-rica/real.htm

We are adding new things every day, and when our merger comes with
COSTARICACENTER.COM, we will have a fully operational Mercado Central
for you to buy Costa Rican products over the internet from local merchants
[if you have a reputable business here, and want to sell through the
Mercado, just let us know. We can help you to accept credit cards and
all the major e-currencies on the net! We break through the Great Barrier
that many Costa Rican merchants face getting their products on the net!].

Hotels and tourist businesses will be able to add their own links, and you
will be able to place your own online classifieds and MUCH MUCH MORE!

Watch this newsletter for our official launch, coming soon!

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DISCUSSION
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NEWS DIGEST
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*President Pacheco Gives Declaration

Legislative Deputies had hoped that yesterday's appearance before them by

president Abel Pacheco would clear up their questions surrounding the origin

of a us$500.000 contribution by the government of Taiwan and the us$100.000

contribution by the French telecommunications firm Alcatel to Pacheco's

presidential campaign in 2002.

Their hopes to the answers faded away when Pacheco skillfully declared

everything but told nothing to the commission investigating the financial

affairs of the political parties in the last presidential elections.

Humberto Arce of the newly formed political party, Unión Patriótica (UP),

asked that the president be censured at least until he decides to co-operate

with the commission regarding the financial donations that led him to the

president's chair.

Arce added that the only credible version of the events surrounding the

campaign contributions is that told by second vice-president, Luis Fishman,

that Pacheco had told him to deposit the Alcatel monies into his (Fishman)

personal account and which he later gave to the Pacheco. Arce added that this

to him is a crime, especially in the midst of political scandals a president

knew that he was accepting money from a foreign entity.

With respect to the Taiwanese donation, Pacheco again was evasive in his

answers. He again re-affirmed that it was not he would made the request for

the contribution.

"The president does not have any answers, sometimes he remembers, others

times not... his duty is to answer the questions. We know he is crafty in

evading answering." Said Arce on Pacheco's declaration.



*Italian Investors To Learn of Business Opportunities in Costa Rica

The Italian Embassy in Costa Rica and the Cámara de Industria y Comercio

Italo Costarricense, have organized the "Contatto Italia" promotion, with the

idea to promote Italy and Italian investment in Costa Rica and Latin America.

Also participating in the event are businesses from Nicaragua, El Salvador

and Honduras as well as from Venezuela, Colombia and Perú.

The hope is that Italian investors will have an opportunity to explore the

potential markets in the region and discover new business ventures.

Costa Rica currently exports to Italy 9.6% of all exports to Europe,

especially bananas, pineapple, coffee, melon and leather.

The Contatto Italia project is being hosted at the Italian Ambassador's home

in Curridabat and will continue well into next week.


*Higher Inflation

The president of the Central Bank of Costa Rica, Francisco Gutiérrez,

announced that the overall inflation for 2004 will be close to 12.5 percent,

the highest in eight years.

This is higher than the estimations included in the monetary program for the

year, which set inflation at 11 percent.

Gutierrez explained that the monetary variables - amount of money, interest

rates, and exchange rate - have not departed from what was expected, but that

the increase in the price of fuels and of some goods pushed inflation further

up than had been expected.

He added that the Central Bank will apply in 2005 a more restrictive monetary

policy, in order to bring inflation down, back to some 10 percent.


*Children Get AIDS From Moms

In Costa Rica, 43 children under 12 suffer from AIDS, and 38 of them were

infected by their mothers during pregnancy, said Dr. Solon Chavarria,

director of the HIV-AIDS Department of the Caja Costarricense de Seguro

Social (CCSS) - the Social Security Institution.

This way of infection worries health authorities, because the women to men

ratio of AIDS patients has changed: while in the 80s it was 1 woman for every

7 men, the figure is now 1 female for every 4 males who suffer the disease.

In order to stem the trend, health authorities have launched a campaign to

prevent AIDS in general and to prevent mothers from infecting children with

the disease.


*Costa Rica's Software Sector Expects Growth

Costa Rica's software sector should end 2004 with exports of us$90 million

compared to us$70 million in 2003, according to Adolfo Cruz, head of the

three-year Prosoftware program, which came to term this week.

The 2003 result means a 40% growth from the us$50 million registered in 2000

and it is worth noting that globally the sector decelerated during this same

period, Cruz told BNamericas. Prosoftware is part of a government initiative

that aims to build software exports to us$1.2 billion by 2010, which means a

goal of 15% annual growth on average.

Total IT industry exports from Costa Rica should grow to us$470 million in

2005 compared to us$410 million in 2003, Cruz added. The figures do not

include revenues on the part of Intel, which has a chip factory in Costa

Rica.

The us$2.5 million Prosoftware program launched in 2000 with us$1.5 million

funding from the Inter-American Development Bank. The rest came from Costa

Rica's technology and communication chamber Camtic, government export agency

Procomer, national high-tech center Cenat and the academic council Conare.

The program benefited 80 companies directly and played a part in helping the

pool of qualified IT professionals grow to 4,000 by year-end 2003 from 2,000

in 2000, Cruz said. More than 20 firms have achieved capability maturity

model or ISO 9000 quality certification, or are in the process of applying

for them as a result of the program, according to local press.

Prosoftware organizer Camtic is now designing a follow-up program for which

it will again seek funding from the IDB, among other entities. The aim this

time will be to help the original Prosoftware beneficiaries consolidate their

overseas sales, Cruz said. The program budget and full donor list have not

yet been defined, but there are signs of interest, he added.


*Conviction of American in Peru Upheld

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has upheld the 20-year-sentence of

Lori Berenson, a New York native convicted in Peru for terrorist

collaboration with Marxist guerrillas, President Alejandro Toledo said

Thursday.

Berenson's legal team, led by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, had

argued that her trial in Peru failed to meet international standards for

fairness, and that she faced hostile judges who relied on coerced testimony

and tainted evidence.

Peru is bound as a member of the Costa Rica-based court to follow its ruling

and a decision to release Berenson could have had explosive repercussions.

``It is undoubtedly a great satisfaction and tranquility for Peruvian justice

and all Peruvians,'' Toledo told Radioprogramas radio when asked about the

ruling.

He said the Costa Rica-based court had ``ratified the sentence and I once

again salute the court members.''

The court will not officially notify the two sides of its decision until

Friday, court spokesman Arturo Monge said in Costa Rica. ``The court cannot

control what people outside the court say,'' he said in response to Toledo's

comments.

Jose Luis Sandoval, Berenson's lawyer in Peru, told The Associated Press that

he also had not received notification from the court on Thursday.

But Berenson, in a telephone interview from prison, confirmed the ruling went

against her.

Berenson, 35, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology dropout, has spent nine

years in Peruvian prisons. Her scheduled release date is in 2015, just after

her 46th birthday.

Berenson denies any wrongdoing and maintains she is a political prisoner

whose concern for social justice was distorted by authorities to look like a

terrorist agenda.

She appealed to the Inter-American court as a last resort after military and

civilian trials in Peru ended in convictions. The civilian court conviction

was upheld by the country's supreme court.

Berenson was arrested in November 1995 on charges of being a leader of the

Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and plotting a thwarted attack on Peru's

Congress.

The civilian court that retried her case in 2001 ruled that Berenson aided

the rebels by renting the safe house and posing as a journalist to

reconnoiter Congress alongside a top rebel commander's wife, who pretended to

be a photographer.


*Professor to build program in Costa Rica

Next semester won't be a typical spring term for Gary Silverman.

The environmental health professor will be performing most of his typical

duties when school resumes in January, with one distinct difference: he'll be

in Costa Rica.

Silverman will spend four months in the Central American nation, courtesy of

the US State Department, which recently awarded the professor a prestigious

Fulbright fellowship. While there, he will work with students and educators

to build a world-class environmental health program at the Technological

Institute of Costa Rica (ITCR), one of the country's only universities.

The professor knows something about program development; for 18 years,

Silverman has served as director of the environmental health department at

Bowling Green, one of only 24 accredited programs in that field nationwide.

One goal for the trip, he says, is to "develop an environmental health

program equivalent to our program here."

The program will help prepare Costa Ricans to monitor the environmental

impact of changing dynamics within the nation. Industrialization and an

explosion of tourism have made the country more susceptible to negative

environmental developments, Silverman says. "Costa Rica is becoming a really,

really popular is a place to go. As there are more visitors, there are more

opportunities for environmental disruption. There is a real potential for

substantial environmental degradation."

Fortunately, Silverman says, Costa Ricans recognize the threat and are

working to divert it. "They're really interested in improving their country."

The professor has never visited Costa Rica, but this is not his first

experience working internationally. In 1996, Silverman spent six months in

Malaysia training civil servants on environmental health issues. That trip

was also funded through the Fulbright program, which supports American

scholars pursuing educational goals abroad and foreign educators visiting the

United States.

Previous stints in other nations have prepared Silverman for the challenges

he will face as a first-time visitor to Costa Rica. The professor says prior

travels have taught him the importance of cultural sensitivity. "You really

have to be in tune to variations in cultures," he notes. "People do things

differently and think differently in different parts of the world. You can't

just do things American style.

Silverman's next four months will be focused environmental health education

in Costa Rica, but he stresses that awareness of environmental issues is

vital at home, as well. "It's central to our modern society," he says. "As

population increases, there is more and more need for people to ensure that

the environment they live in is healthy."



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