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*The Ground Keeps A Shakin'

Two strong earthquakes caused alarm in most of the country, especially in the Central Valley where it was shake was strong.

The first hit at 9:25am with a magnitude of 4.3 on the Richter scale. The epicentre was located some 90 kilometers west of Tamarindo Beach with a depth of 10 kilometers. Most of Guanacaste felt the shock.

The second occurred at 11:45am and was felt in the Central Valley and throught the Northern and Southern zones. The Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica (Ovsicori) registered the quake at 4.2 on the Richter scale with the epicentre located 25 kilometres southwest of Jacó Beach and with a depth of 22 kilmetres.

Both quakes were caused by a clash between the Coco and Caribe tectonic plates. Experts say the movement is normal and that daily movements are registered between the plates, though not strong enough to be felt as they are all under 3.0.



*Water War in Monterverde

Monteverde, a quiet and tranquil location and one of the more important tourist destinations, is facing a fight between neighbours with protests and heated arguments on a regular basis.

What are they fighting about? Water.

The Guacimal river, one of the cleanest rivers in Costa Rica fed by streams and ravines, crosses Monteverde. And it is exactly at two of these ravines - the Cuecha and the Máaquina - were a group wants to build a dam.

Eight property owners of the area who operate hotels and restaurants say they need the water to use in the plantations, in an area where it rains more than 200 days each year. The project got underway in December.

Neighbours who noticed the construction decided to impede the machinery used in the construction by blocking their paths with cars and debris. They claim that the project puts at risk the purity of the water and endangers the wildlife in the area.

The builders of the project claim to have a permit by the Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía (Ministry of Energy and the Environment) and that their project will not harm the environment as critics say.

The decision now rests in the hands of the the Defensoría de los Habitantes. Ombudsman, José Manuel Echandi, is reviewing the case and getting information about the project and the impact on the environment and will hopefully be able to put an end to the "water war" of the area.



*Corrales Wants Arias To Quit

Another war is heating up closer to home, between former president and current presidential candidate for the Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN), Oscar Arias Sanchez and former presidential candidate, José Miguel Corrales, who left the PLN last week.

Following his leaving the party which he led to a stand off with president Able Pacheco in the last election, Corrales was asked to give his seat in the Legislative Assembly, now that he does not belong anymore to the green and white flag party. Pacheco belongs to the Partito Undidad Social Cristiana (PUSC).

Corrales has maintained strong that he now sits as an independent in the Legislative Assembly, though the location of his seat has not yet physically been moved as the PLN has requested. The Legislative Assembly has been on a five week hiatus and the re-location of Corrales' seat in the house is expected this week.

Corrales sent a message to the PLN that he will gladly give up his seat in the house if Arias steps down as party leader and does not run in the upcoming presidential election.

The former presidential candidate opposes the Arias nomination and candidature on several grounds. One, his election to party leader was one sided. The election was not done democratically and neither was the appointment of candidates who will sit in the Legislature if elected. Corrales says that a presidential candidate should have the ability to appoint several people but not the entire slate.

The other point of contention for Corrales is the presidential re-election. The Sala Constitucional - the Constitutional Court - voted in favour of presidential re-elections some time back, paving the way for Oscar Arias to run. According to Corrales, the court's decision is still being questioned, as the Constitutional Court does not have the power to amend the country's constitution.

Since 1948 presidential re-elections were not permitted. A president can occupy the presidential chair for a term of four years and then move on. With the changes, a president can now run for re-election, waiting out one election in between terms.

Oscar Arias, who is Nobel Prize winner for peace, was elected president of Costa Rica in 1986, following Luis Alberto Monge. Rafael Angel Calderon took the presidential chair in 1990, followed by José María Figueres Olsen in 1994, Miguel Angel Rodríguez in 1998 and in 2002 the chair was occupied by the current president who beat out Corrales in a first time ever in Costa Rican politics, a second presidential run off vote.

Both Calderón and Rodríguez are currently in La Reforma prison accused of corruption, while Figueres has been called before a Legislative commission on his role in the ICE-Alcatel scandal.



*German Tourist DID Have His Leg Amputated: CCSS and CIMA Doctors Confirmed

Several weeks ago we ran a story about a German professor who went on a dream holiday to Costa Rica woke up in an airport departure lounge to find his leg had been amputated. The professor said he had gone to see a doctor at a hospital in San Jose because his left foot was swollen. See original story.

Well, after receiving several letters of criticism, that the story could not be true, 'impossible to happen', 'it was all made up', authorities at the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) and the private hospital, CIMA, confirmed the amputation done on Roland Jursich.

CIMA director, Hugo Villegas del Carpio, explained that the hospital got the call by Jurisch the day after the amputation. Villegas said the man had his leg infected by gangrene due to the man's diabetic condition. The amputation was done at the Hospital de Alajuela.

Jurisch spend four weeks in intensive care at the CIMA hospital due to his delicate condition. The infection had been so severe that he trouble breathing and the infection had spread to his lungs, heart, kidneys and brain.

Kemly Picado, Medical Director at the CCSS, said the amputation was necessary due to man's life was in danger and consent was given by Jurisch before the surgery.

The facts of the case are as follows:
- February 23, 2004: Roland Jurisch entered the Hospital de Alajuela with gangerine in right leg. Doctors decided that the leg needed to be amputated.

- February 24, 2004: Jursich asks to be moved to the CIMA hospital, a private facility with better health care. On arrival he was placed in intensive care, where he remained for four weeks.

- January 2005: the German newspaper BILD publish the story and it hits the wire services.



*Gambling Sites Wait for Attacks

As reported by Wired Magazine: "As Super Bowl weekend approaches, Mickey Richardson, general manager of BetCRIS, an online gambling site based in Costa Rica, readies himself for the action. But there's also a cloud hanging over his, and other gambling sites' profitable Feb. 6 weekend.

An e-mail could come at any moment threatening to take down the site unless $40,000 or more is paid to an anonymous account.

Online gambling was, and still is, an industry ripe for the picking and extortion attempts like these are fairly common, not just around the Super Bowl. According to gaming analysts River City Group, estimated 2004 revenues for online gambling reached more than $7 billion. About 350 companies run at least 1,700 gaming sites.

It's also a largely unregulated industry -- many of these companies are headquartered offshore in countries without ample law enforcement resources to pursue hackers thousands of miles away, so the site operators often feel the pressure to pay.


*Looking for a job in Costa Rica?

Well, the Grupo Nación has launched it's elempleo.com website that will allow those looking for a job in Costa Rica and Colombia to see the recent positions offered. The website is for individual who are looking for work and for companies looking for talent. For now, it is only in Spanish, but it is expected to be offered in other languages soon.



*Comptroller's Office Suspends Tourism Tax Breaks

A lengthy tax battle between the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) and the Comptroller's Office took a turn against tourism industry as the institute was forced to rescind exemptions that have traditionally been granted to car-rental companies, hotels and other tourism-related businesses.

The exemptions, which have been in place since the 1980s, allowed for the tax-free import of products such as cars for rental companies, microbuses for travel agencies, and lamps and kitchen utensils for hotels.

The order by the Comptroller's Office to suspend these tax breaks could have significant consequences for the industry, according to private-sector leaders.

“We're astonished and annoyed,” Ana Gabriela Alfaro, executive director of the Costa Rican Chamber of Hotels, told The Tico Times yesterday. She said the Comptroller's handling of the decision is “almost perverse.”

“Many hotels would have to close” if the decision is not altered, Alfaro added. “Prices for the consumer would go up. The quality of tourist services would decrease.”

“This decision paralyzes the process of improving infrastructure and the quality of national tourism services,” said Carlos Roesch, president of the Chamber of Hotels, in a statement.

“Are we Costa Ricans truly conscious of the fact that tourism is the country's largest source of income, and consequently, do we believe that we must support it?” he added.

The disagreement at the heart of the conflict is whether the Tourism Incentives Law exempts companies from taxes indefinitely, or only for a defined initial period. The ICT has argued the former interpretation, but the Comptroller's Office has chosen the latter.

Roesch said the Comptroller's recent decision is all the more surprising given that in 1999, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) “concluded that the Tourism Incentives Law does not have an established time frame.”

Roesch's statement called on the Tourism Institute to consult the Ombudsman's Office for an analysis of the decision – an action the institute is already undertaking, Tourism Minister Rodrigo Castro told the daily La Nación. Castro also said the institute is analyzing whether the decision may be unconstitutional.

In 2004, approximately 1.5 million tourists visited Costa Rica, a number up nearly 20% compared to the previous year. Ensuring the sustainability of the industry requires significant improvements in infrastructure and the attraction of foreign investment – both areas the tax incentives were designed to protect.

COMMENT: The moment the Assembly comes back into session, they need to
appoint a new Comptroler, because it is quite clear that even with the
removal of Solis, his people left behind are causing havoc for the country
still, both with this case and their foot dragging on the cel phone contract
even after the Sala IV has acted. They just don't seem to care what happens
to this country. No cel phones for 2 years, no tourism incentives -- they
must really have a death wish for the business sector. We just wounder if someone is sliding them a little extra money?


British Citizen Accused of Fraud Found Guilty and Released

British citizen John Shimell was found guilty Friday of fraud, but hours after a Costa Rican court announced the decision, he was released from San Sebastián prison, south of San José.

The court decided that the three years Shimell had already served waiting for his trial was punishment enough. Although he faced up to 10 years in prison, Shimell, 62, was given a shorter sentence because of his age, his willingness to return from Spain to face the accusations, and the fact that some clients did receive the money they were promised under his alleged fraud.

Shimell maintains his innocence and claims he was unfairly held for nearly three years and found guilty only so the court would not have to pay him for the moral and material damage he accrued during his preventive detention in prison.

Cecilia Tristán, who according to prosecutors is a dual U.S.-Costa Rican citizen who managed Shimell's business, European Financial Services, was also charged with fraud, but absolved of all responsibility.

“I am extremely happy; there is justice in Costa Rica,” she told The Tico Times. “The past three years have been very hard for me, very painful for me and my family. I really believed in the business. I told my friends to take advantage of what he was offering. It was a big surprise to me.”

Shimell was taken into custody in early 2002 under suspicion of fraud in connection with the investment firm he owned in Costa Rica. He and Tristán were accused of offering fraudulent project financing that required clients to make an advance payment of at least $10,000, which was allegedly kept despite never providing the financing, according to prosecutor Carlos Meléndez (TT, Nov. 26, 2004).

Shimell and Tristán were accused of offering investment opportunities that promised false annual returns as high as 30%, Meléndez said.

Shimell said yesterday the business did provide such returns to some clients, and clients who did not receive these benefits had failed to comply with all the required regulations.

After Shimell returned to Costa Rica from Spain to address the accusations, he was arrested here because authorities considered him a flight risk after he made travel plans to visit his dying father – who died April 23, 2002, exactly three months after his arrest. He was placed in preventive detention, where he remained until Friday.

Shimell said the justice system imposed numerous unnecessary delays and continually lengthened his preventive detention order (TT, May 7, 2004).

He said he is considering bringing the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. However Shimell's lawyer said she is happy with the decision and will not take any further legal action unless the prosecutor appeals the ruling.

After being imprisoned since Jan. 23, 2002, Shimell said yesterday he is still getting used to being free.

“It hasn't really sunk in. The first night I only slept an hour because I was in a real bed,” he told The Tico Times.

This week he is visiting doctors and dentists to be evaluated for health problems that stem from being attacked by other prisoners one year ago in San Sebastián prison, he said.



*Lawmakers take a step to speed bill approval

Legislative deputies took a step to change their internal rules Monday in an effort to sidestep the Movimiento Libertario that has been blocking major proposals.

The change would allow 38 deputies, two thirds, to vote to give special treatment to certain legal proposals. This would let major legislation to be passed without continuous stalling and sidetracking that has characterized the debate strategy of the libertarians, a minority in the chamber.

Deputies Monday agreed to consider this change in the internal rules the whole time that they meet each day until there is a resolution. They placed the internal change in the No. 1 position in the legislative agenda. Otherwise, the measure would have received an airing for just an hour of the three hours the deputies meet in general session each afternoon.

If the internal change is passed, the majority
would be able to cut off debate and expedite a decision on certain key bills.

The most sweeping of these is the proposed new fiscal package that will impose $500 million in new taxes, by enacting a value-added tax and global income tax. The libertarians oppose the measure.

President Abel Pacheco, in a letter to the Movimiento Libertario deputies released Monday, blamed them for holding up the new taxes for two and a half years. The libertarians consider this an accomplishment.

Also considered key and likely to be considered under the new rule are the proposed changes to the immigration law and the proposed law of liberty of expression and the press. These, too, have been in the legislature for at least two years.

However, deputies Monday rejected a proposal by the libertarians that they meet in special session for the next three mornings at 8:45 a.m.

COMMENT: Considering that Pacheco's legislative agenda would ruin the country if passed, we have to say we hope the Libertarians win, and further, that the people of Costa Rica will have the sense to vote more of them into office next time! Both new taxes alone would cause capital, foreign companies, and expats to rush towards the exits. The new immigration law would do the same, as would all of the other items on the socialist demagogue Pacheco's agenda if passed. But, if the country has a death wish, they can go right on ahead. Panama and Nicaragua are just across the border, and doing things right!



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