Archive for August 21st, 2009
Friday, August 21st, 2009
For years pilots have had to make the decision to not land at the Juan Santamaría (San José) international airport when weather conditions are less than optimal, especially during the rainy season when heavy fog can affect up to more than 1/3 of the flights coming into the airport.
But, that will all come to an end soon as the Consejo Técnico de Aviación Civil (CTAC) began work on installing the landing light system began yesterday, lights that will give pilots a clearer view of the runway, especially during heavy fog.
The Ministra de Obras Públicas y Transportes, Karla González, said that the installation of the lighting system guarantees better security, reduces the cost of operations of the airlines who are forced to increase costs with the detour of flights to other airports and most important the delays experienced by passengers.
The ministra added that the lighting system also improves night take off and landing at the airport.
The approach lighting system at the international airport have been inoperative for years. Pilots have had to constantly decide not to land in San José, choosing the nearby airports in Liberia and Panama, when weather conditions are such that landing becomes risky.
Frequent flyers to Costa Rica will at one time or another have had to circle the air in approach to the airport waiting for weather conditions to improve, while many others have had the experience of ending up in Panama or Liberia, arriving in Costa Rica hours late or the next day.
The new lighting system allows pilots to line the aircraft to the runway even in poor visibility conditions, allowing the landing.
The costs of the system is ¢1.5 billion colones and should be functioning by the end of September
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Friday, August 21st, 2009
A group of representatives from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, based in Costa Rica, visited Honduras this week to investigate allegations of police brutality and a press crackdown as the country’s political crisis nears two months.
The crisis was triggered when soldiers rousted President Manuel Zelaya at dawn June 28 at gunpoint and sent him on a plane to Costa Rica. The Supreme Court had ordered Zelaya’s arrest for defying the court’s orders to stop what the court said was his illegal push for constitutional changes.
Amnesty International released a statement, along with photos, on its Web site Wednesday, alleging Honduran police and soldiers have been roughing up protesters who are demanding Zelaya’s return to power.
“Mass arbitrary arrests and ill treatment of protesters are a serious and growing concern in Honduras today,” said Esther Major, a Central American researcher at Amnesty International. She said that detentions and beatings at the hands of police are being used “as a deterrent for those contemplating taking to the streets to peacefully show their discontent with the political turmoil the country is experiencing.”
The statement said that Amnesty International interviewed 75 protesters who had been detained at a local police station after a peaceful July 30 protest. It said that many of the detainees still showed bruises allegedly caused by police batons.
But not all protests have been peaceful. A demonstration turned violent last week when a group of protesters burned a bus and looted and set fire to a Popeye’s Chicken and Biscuits franchise in the capital city of Tegucigalpa.
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Friday, August 21st, 2009
Well it has happened again….I didn’t think it would ever pass but I was wrong. President Arias has signed the bill into law. On Wednesday the 19th of August the bill became a law changing the amount for Pensinado’s required to have in income and several other changes.
The amount that Pensinado’s must now have to file for residency has gone from $600 a month to $1000 a month. This is NOT retro-active so it will not affect those pensinado’s that have been in the country for years. A retro-active clause was deleted.
Rentistas will now have to show a steady monthly income of $2,500 but close family members are included in that requirement.
The law will not take effect until six months after it is signed and published, so expats seeking residency will have options.
Answers to many of the questions expats have on how the law will be applied will be contained in the regulations that have not yet been published.
With a requirement that residents join the Caja and a beefed up police force, the possibility of a crackdown on so-called perpetual tourists is a possibility. Some in government seek to restrict tourists to two 90-day visits a year.
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Friday, August 21st, 2009
Forty days before a new law goes into effect that would require every driver to travel with a first aid kit, the transport ministry is launching an effort to modify the requirement.
Given the difficulty in enforcing the law and the potential for medicine within the kit to go bad, officials are pushing legislators to make changes before the law takes effect on September 23.
“What we want from the new Transit Law is to protect Costa Ricans,” Transport Minister Karla González told the daily La Nación. Fining people who don’t comply “is irrational,” she said, explaining that medicine left for long periods of time in a car could pose a risk for people’s health.
“We would be causing injury to people,” she said.
The Public Works and Transport Ministry (MOPT) leapt into action after a study conducted by the Costa Rican Pharmaceutical School was brought to their attention by the daily newspaper La Nación. The study revealed the type of medicine used in a first aid kit should be kept at temperatures less than 86 degrees Fahrenheit, but internal car temperatures within Costa Rica can reach 122 degrees, causing deterioration of quality and effectiveness.
The law, which was part of a package of transportation reforms, would allow transit police to issue ¢80,000 ($137) tickets if drivers do not have a first aid kit in their possession.
“The intentions of health officials and legislators are good,” said Carlos Rivas, a lawyer with MOPT. “But medications within the kit risk spoiling if they are kept in certain climates or beyond their expiration dates.”
If the law does go into effect and includes the requirement to carry a first aid kit; drivers can purchase kits at the Red Cross, 100 meters west of Casa Presidencial for 9,800 colones ($17). They are also permitted to assemble their own, provided it has basic medical supplies, Rivas said.
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