Archive for September 16th, 2009
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
Yet anther load of cocaine has fallen into the hands of law enforcement. The security ministry said that its officers managed to capture a boat loaded with 700 kilos (1,540 pouns) of the drug after a chase Tuesday.
That brings to 88 tons the amount of cocaine seized by police during the Arias administration, according to the ministry’s accounting.
According to the Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública, the chase began along the Pacific coast when an aircraft of the Servicio Vigilancia Aérea spotted the fastboat and gave chase. Eventually the three-person crew headed the boat to shore, jumped out and began to swim to some mangroves.
The Servicio Nacional de Guardacostas at the Quepos station and the Policía de Control de Drogas came on the scene and began to investigate the boat. They found the drugs hidden in the 33-foot craft, they said.
The crew bailed out of the boat near Pueblo Real de Damas in the Cantón de Aguirre. That was about 8:30 a.m. Police set up roadblocks in an effort to find the fleeing suspects.
The crew must have recently refilled fuel containers on the craft, the Santa Patricia. There were 14 20-liter fuel containers and only one was empty. The three 75-horsepower outboards on the boat requires a lot of fuel.
Posted in Costa Rica News | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
Looking for that notary that signed off on the property deed now in question? Can’t find him or her? Probability he or she is dead.
That is one of the weaknesses of the Registro that is being evaluated by the Área de Fiscalización de Servicios Públicos Generales, Ambientales y Agropecuarios de la Contraloría General de la República, where a suspended or even dead notary is able to file a property registration and without any problems.
The Contraloría is evaluating the system known as Sistema de Bienes Inmuebles which is a database system for all real property registrations.
The report indicates that the system “presents an important degree of obsolescence”.
The report, numbers DFOE-PGAA-IF-14-2009, also says that the “integrity of the data is not 100% trustworthy”, noting registrations or changes registrations in the system permitted by suspended or deceased notaries.
The Contraloría investigation concludes that the system lacks controls to block out unregistered users and suggests a new system be adopted.
The new system being recommended by the Contraloría is called “Sistema Unico de Registro” which would modernize the information systems.
Until them the records of the Registro Nacionalm continue to vulnerable.
Posted in Costa Rica News | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
Costa Rican president, Oscar Arias, has not given up on a peace plan for Honduras. As the chief mediator in the Honduran political crisis, Arias, said on Monday that he will meet with the Honduras presidential candidates to emphasize that the upcoming elections will not be recognized if held under the government of Roberto Micheletti.
Arias is expected to meet on Wednesday at least four of the six candidates to the November elections in Honduras, in an effort to gain their support for restoring ousted president, Manual Zeleya.
Arias has been the leading negotiator for the US backed efforts to restore Zelaya.
Brazil earlier this week made it clear that it will not recognize any government other than that of Zelaya. Arias is expected to emphasize that the international community will not recognize any government formed before a Zelaya restitution.
As part of Aria’s multi point peace plan outlined during the last rounds of negotiations between Zelaya and Micheletti supporters was a new election in Honduras, but only after Zelaya is restored to power and with the promise that Zelaya would not run for another term.
Arias, a Nobel Peace prize winner, has been frustrated in his efforts to bring the two sides to a conclusion of a crisis that is now almost 3 months old. (more…)
Posted in Costa Rica News | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
The Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep) – regulator of public services – is looking for the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) – the state monopoly on electrical services – to give back electricity customers some ¢1.1 billion colones for the nine days it stalled the rate decrease.
On Monday, Aresep officials say they filed an appeal with the Tribunal Contencioso Administrativo to force ICE to reimburse customers for its stall tactics, when it filed an appeal with the same court to have the Aresep electrical rate decrease cancelled.
The rate reduction was to have taken effect on September 1. The Tribunal temporarily suspended the rate reduction while it hear arguments on a motion filed by ICE. The tribunal did not hand down a decision until September 9, voting in favour of the rate reduction, which took effect on September 10.
Thus customers were left to pay the higher rates nine days longer than they should have, and that is the basis of the Aresep filing, arguing that article 34 of the Autoridad sets out that any changes in public prices and services are effective on the day of publication in the official government daily, La Gaceta. The only exception to this rule are gasoline prices, that take effect one day following publication.
The reimbursement by ICE has also the support of the Defensoría de los Habitantes, who on Monday sent a letter to Fernanado Herrero, the regulador general, to take action.
Bothe Aresep and the Defensoría see no justification that legitimizes ICE pocketing the reduction amount for the nine days.
The rate reduction was published on September 1.
Posted in Costa Rica News | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
The unification of the GSM cellular networks of Saturday still has thousands without cellular service and the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) scrambling to restore their connection.
An estimated 30.000 to 40.000 GSM subscribers were affected by the unification of the networks, as their cellular phone units, for one reason or another, did not switch over automatically.
Well, at least that is the reason being given by ICE, while an unknown number of thousands are completely without cellular service still.
Cellular phones like the HTC, Blackberry, iPhone and Nokia e71 are known as “smarphones” and will adapt to any changes on any network, thus leading one to believe that the problems of the thousands of customers is not a cellular phone unit problem, but rather one of ICE’s failure.
According to ICE, GSM subscribers were asked to turn off and then turn on their cellular units on Saturday. This action would ensure an automatic changeover of the system.
For those who continue to have problems and have not contact ICE, they should do so by visiting the nearest ICE agency.
And if you continue to experience problems and without a solution in sight, there is always the Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep), the government regulator of public services.
As of Monday afternoon, the Aresep said it had not received any complaints. Yesterday, due to the Independence Day holiday, the Aresep, as well as ICE is closed, forcing subscribers to wait out one more day without service or a place to take their complaint.
Posted in Costa Rica News | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
Costa Rica fired coach Rodrigo Kenton on Tuesday following three straight losses in World Cup qualifying.Several possible successors surfaced, including Leo Beenhakker, Hans Westerhof, Jose Pekerman and Cruz Azul coach Enrique Meza.
Costa Rica, which once led the North and Central American and Caribbean region, is fourth with 12 points following losses to Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador. The United States leads with 16 points, one ahead of Mexico and three in front of Honduras.
“We thank Rodrigo for what he has done,” Costa Rican federation president Eduardo Li said in a statement. “But results are important and, despite his good work, the last three games have been costly.”
The top three teams qualify and the No. 4 team faces a playoff with the fifth-place nation from South America.
Costa Rica hosts Trinidad and Tobago on Oct. 10, then closes four days later against the United States at Washington D.C.
“In football, you know that in every game your life is on the line,” Kenton said. “It’s been a beautiful experience. … We’re still in the fight to qualify with games against Trinidad and the United States. We still have hope. But I’m telling you the toughest is yet to come.”
Posted in Costa Rica News | No Comments »
