Archive for December, 2008
Thursday, December 4th, 2008
Costa Rica has replaced two top intelligence officials because a government password apparently was used to loot private bank accounts.
Prosecutors have accused the deputy director of the Intelligence and Security Directorate, Roberto Guillen, of helping steal from private bank accounts after accessing credit reports through a government account with a private data company.
The president’s office on Wednesday announced that the agency’s director, Roberto Solorzano, had resigned after acknowledging the agency’s “negligence in the handling of the password.” Jose Torres, a top adviser to President Oscar Arias, will succeed Solorzano, who has not been accused of any crime.
Prosecutors say Guillen was part a ring that used falsified checks to steal at least $360,000 from Costa Rican businessmen. Guillen allegedly used the password to access credit reports on the victims.
Guillen was arrested in November but is free pending further investigation.
Cabinet Chief Rodrigo Arias said the government will propose legal reforms to the intelligence agency to better define its jurisdiction.
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Thursday, December 4th, 2008
Right on time for the holiday shopping spree, government officials have announced that gas prices will be going down. The first price reduction became effective Tuesday November 25th and there is a second price drop to take place starting December.
The new gas price was published in the official newspaper La Gaceta on Monday and was effective Tuesday at 12:01am. The price drop for Super gasoline was of ¢52 (US 10cents) and regular gas ¢46 (US 8cents). If a car owner is to fill a 45 liter tank, his or her total savings will be approximately ¢2,000 (US$3.63).
However, the Costa Rican Public Services Regulatory Authority (ARESEP) is in the process of authorizing a heftier price drop that will most likely be effective in December. The new price drop will be above the ¢200 (US 36cents) per liter of gas. This means that the total savings to fill up a 45 liter gas tank will be around ¢9,000 (US$16.36).
Diesel will also have its price drop although not as substantial as Plus, Super and regular gas prices. However, the price drop in diesel will have a direct effect on the public transportation rates as buses will lower their rates.
Costa Ricans have received the news with great relief as the holiday season is just around the corner.
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Thursday, December 4th, 2008
The first thing you notice about Costa Rica, in comparison with its neighbors in the rest of Central America, is its peaceful, orderly atmosphere, and the lack of hustle and bustle. Even in San José, traffic flows at a regular pace and there is little of the “overtake at any attitude found in other Latin American cities.
Costa Rica has 22,121 miles of paved roads which include almost 3,000 miles of highway, incorporating 405 miles of the Inter-American Highway which links San José with other provincial cities. The Pan-American Highway traverses the country from Panama to the Nicaraguan border. From San José to Panama, the Pan-American Highway passes through the old capital of Cartago.
From San José to the Nicaraguan border it continues past El Coco airport to Heredía and Alajuela. On some stretches the road is a dual highway and, as it is completely paved, travel through the country is fast and easy, with much of the highway passing through spectacular scenery.
Currently approved, is the new Escazu-Jaco Highway which will reduce the drive time to Jaco by over 50%. Currently this is a beautiful drive through mountain roads and small little towns, but the country’s goal is to make Costa Rica a country that is easier to maneuver and get around in.
It’s my opinion that this is part of the government’s plan to open up the southern region. The best way to open any area is to improve accessibility into that area and with a current drive time of 5 hours from San Jose to the Osa Peninsula, having that cut in half will make it a much more appealing destination.
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Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias is in Singapore to start talks on a bilateral free trade agreement.
The accord will cover investment, services, telecommunications and tourism, among other areas.
Arias has long lobbied for greater economic ties with Asia. He hopes the trade accord will encourage Singapore to invest in and develop Costa Rica’s Caribbean ports.
The president on Tuesday met with Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong.
Singapore has trade agreements with Chile, Peru and Panama.
Costa Rican exports to Singapore totaled $31.5 million and imports reached $26.4 million in 2007.
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Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
Costa Rica’s intelligence chief quit on Tuesday as police probed his deputy’s possible involvement in an identity theft
scam that broke into a database in order to drain personal bank accounts.
Department of Intelligence and Security head Roberto Solorzano resigned two weeks after police raided his department’s offices
over a nearly $400,000 bank fraud that affected around a dozen people, the government said.
Solorzano is not under suspicion, but deputy intelligence chief Roberto Guillen may have used his own password to a personal information database to create false identity cards that let fraudsters obtain checkbooks, public prosecutor Miguel Angel Navarro said. “The password assigned to Mr. Guillen was used to obtain personal information that was used to falsify ID cards that were then used to obtain personal checks from banks,” Navarro said.
The protected personal data was held online by Costa Rican information collection company Datum, Navarro said. Guillen, who was suspended from his post after the Nov. 19 raid, had been assigned a password to Datum’s website for investigative purposes, he said.
The scam is an embarrassment for Costa Rica, which likes to see itself as cleaner than its crime-ridden and often corrupt Central American neighbors, despite a string of corruption scandals in recent years involving former presidents. Solorzano acknowledged in his resignation letter that there had been negligence in security management, the government said in a statement.
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Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
An online gambling site that operates out of a shopping mall in Costa Rica has been embroiled in a cheating scandal, according to an investigation by the daily Washington Post and the TV program, 60 Minutes.
AbsolutePoker was forced to refund $1.6 million to cheated players after one gambler grew suspicious of a player who couldn’t seem to lose. After calculating that the man was winning at a rate 15 standard deviations above the normal rate, the suspicious gambler traced the player’s IP number back to a computer owned by AbsolutePoker. The cheater was allegedly an inside man.
A subsidiary of AbsolutePoker, UltimateBet is also now accused of cheating about $20 million from its players. The alleged offenders include UltimateBet employees.
The sites are licensed by the Kahnawáke Mohawk reservation, which did not return a request for comment. AbsolutePoker also did not return a request for comment.
The Kahnawáke Gaming Commission has fined AbsolutePoker and UltimateBet a combined $2 million for the cheating incidents, but would not disclose the name of the alleged inside man who cheated them, according to the Post.
AbsolutePoker told the Post that it fired the cheater, who m they described as a consultant in the Costa Rica headquarters, in Oct 2007, but did not turn him over to the authorities. UltimateBet has begun refunding the $20 million it owes to cheated players.
The online gambling industry generates about $18 billion a year, and the sites are banned in the United States.
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Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
Over 36,000 people have been affected by heavy rains and severe floods in Panama and Costa Rica since late November, the International Red Cross said Tuesday as it launched an appeal for aid funds.
“Many areas are facing blackouts and lack of water. More than 45 indigenous communities in remote coastal areas are surrounded by water and can only be reached by helicopter, which has proved challenging due to the non-stop rains,” said the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. (more…)
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Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
The Superintendent General of Finances (SUGEF) intends to pass a bill on December 18th highly limiting the operation of offshore banks in Costa rica. Such banks are considered to be foreign owned banks existing in Costa Rica that license their banking to a Costa Rican organization. Until now, these banks enjoyed a large amount of freedom in setting their own interest rates and were not obligated to pay a large tax to the Banco Central de Costa Rica, as national banks are.
The economic authorities voted to restrict the operational activities of offshore banks as they cannot supervise or oversee their monetary control. Currently Costa Rica has six offshore banks operating in Costa Rica of which Scotia Bank and BAC are two of the biggest. (more…)
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Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
Costa Rica is considering levying a $15 tax on international passengers arriving in the country, causing the airline industry, represented by IATA, to cry foul.
The law currently being debated would tax arriving passengers but would not apply to Costa Ricans. IATA, in a letter to the minister of tourism, says the proposed tax could be perceived as discriminatory.
Furthermore, IATA argues that the tax could be a disincentive for travelers to visit Costa Rica. But this tax could unravel years of work by turning visitors away and sending the wrong signals, IATA says.
Tourism will account for 13.5% of Costa Rica’s GDP this year, which suggests how important the sector is to the country’s economy, IATA says.
The proposed tax could siphon off passengers to other countries in the region. It also runs contrary to Costa Rica’s agenda to increase tourism to the country. Much like a tax on tobacco, the proposed tax will penalize tourism, and the government will see the collection of the tax decrease as tourism diminishes.
Argentina last month began levying a reciprocal tax on citizens of countries that require visas of Argentine nationals. IATA objected to that tax for much the same reason it objects to Costa Rica’s planned tax.
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Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
There are only 15 months to go before Costa Ricans vote on a new president and already 58 parties have registered with the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones (TSE).
Voters of the presidential elections to be held in February 2010 will probably never hear of most of the parties, as some are specialized to represent only certain sectors of the population, like the senior citizen’s party or the disable citizen’s party.
Luis Antonio Sobrado, president of the TSE, feels there is an “over population” of registered political parties.
Sobrado compares the political system in neighbouring countries like El Salvador with 6.8 million inhabitants and only 6 political parties, or Colombia with a population of 42 million and only 8 registered national political parties.
In Costa Rica there is no restriction of the number of political parties or any requirements based on percentage of voters. Many of the parties are provincial and cantonal. National parties, however, are required to have at least 3.000 signatures.
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Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
Over 4,600 people returned to their homes this week, while another 1,400 remained in shelters as the flooding and torrential rains subsided in Costa Rica’s Caribbean areas.
An estimated 46,600 people have been affected as strong rains flooded the Caribbean canton of Limón in Costa Rica since the storms began last week, according to the National Emergency Commission (CNE), and 28 bridges have been wiped out, among other damages.
The rains also have pounded western Panama, and landslides closed parts of the Inter-American Highway, cutting off the capital, Panama City, for 48 hours this weekend. Public Works Minister Benjamín Colamarco said the highway would closed at least until Monday, as repairs were made, according to the EFE news agency. (more…)
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Monday, December 1st, 2008
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Monday, December 1st, 2008
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in partnership with several Central American government entities and private companies; organized a convention to generate dialogue and find solutions to the lack of urban planning in different Central American countries — including Costa Rica.
Representing Costa Rica in this year’s IUCN is the Minister of Housing, Clara Zomer, the Deputy Minister of Housing, Luis Fernando Salazar and the vice minister of Environment and Energy, Jorge Rodriguez. (more…)
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Monday, December 1st, 2008
There is a highly regarded study abroad program which offers intensive Spanish immersion in one of the most biologically diverse countries on the planet. Take a good look at Costa Rica ¡Pura Vida! for the summer experience of a lifetime. Partial Scholarships covering two-thirds of all costs are available. Priority application deadline for these $3,466 grants is fast approaching:
Scholarship application deadline is Dec. 5; Priority application deadline is Feb. 6, 2009.
Costa Rica ¡Pura Vida! combines intensive language instruction, individual homestays and field trips to three areas of the country. Students will experience unspoiled national parks, a marine biology sanctuary open only to scientists, a village of 12 families in the midst of the Cloud Forest, and birds, animals and tropical flora beyond compare.
Who is eligible? High school students aged 15-17 with two years of basic Spanish and course in biology by June 2009.
Program dates:
June 26-July 22, 2009 and July 10-Aug. 5, 2009
Interamerican University Studies Institute is a non-profit educational exchange organization linking the Americas since 1986. More information at www.iusi.org or 800-345-4874.
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Monday, December 1st, 2008
A team of 48 U.S. military personnel and seven helicopters from Honduras-based Joint Task Force-Bravo deployed to Panama and Costa Rica this week, where they are working alongside local officials to help communities impacted by heavy rains and flooding.
The team, comprised of aviation and medical personnel, is supporting rescue and recovery efforts in coordination with national disaster response organizations from each country. (more…)
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