Costa Rica information, activities and news
October 1, 2009, is not a good day for owners of homes categorized as “luxury”, as owners such homes, beginning today will have to pay a special tax for a period of 10 years.
The new tax will be applied in increments that range between 0.25% and 0.55% of the value of the property.
The tax is a way for the government to generate more revenue with the objective of financing “viviendas de interés social” – social housing.
Transportation officials will be closing the Costanera Sur for 30 hours starting early Saturday to do work on the Savegre bridge, they said Wednesday. There are no alternate routes.
Contractors are improving the bridge and will be pouring concrete. The route is expected to be closed until 6 a,m, Sunday.
The work is taking place about 20 kms. (about 13 miles) south of Quepos and cuts the route between Quepos and Dominical. Part of the delay is because contractors have to let the new concrete cure, transport officials said.
The two-lane, $1.7 million bridge is about 70 percent complete, said the officials from the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes. The bridge is 94 meters) 308 feet long).
In addition to the bridge work, contractors are continuing to put down asphalt between Quepos and Dominical, officials said.
Fighting the war on drugs is expensive and that is the reason behind the decision by the United States to give Costa Rica and additional cool million dollars to continue the fight.
The total amount allocated to Costa Rica by the US is us$4.3 million dollars that was received by the Costa Rican government earlier this year, which comes under the “Plan Mérida”, part of the us$465 million contribution by the United States to the region.
Costa Rica’s fight in the drug war has moved from being a problem in the seas, but also on the streets.
The initiative approved by the US Congress last year earmarks us$465 million dollars, of which us$400 million goes to Mexico and the rest to Central America.
Costa Rica has been critical of the US allocation, as it feels very lopsided that a country like Costa Rica, that is vulnerable to drug cartels and no army to defend its borders, is receiving less than 1% of the total.
The ministra de Seguriad, Jeanina del Vecchio, said that the extra cash will be earmarked to buy equipment for police officers and training programs in money laundering.
The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) says problems with cellular coverage and delivery of text messages will continue into 2010.
Adolfo Arías, head of services for ICE, says that the problems will continue while the institution continues to install some 300 new radio bases to improve coverage. The problems, according to Arías, is during peak periods. The ICE officials suggests making calls and sending text messages during off peak hours.
OK, it appears that using your cellular phone in Costa Rica is subject to when ICE says you can and cannot.
The Aeropuerto Santamaría showed off last night its new “early warning light” system that allows airplanes to make approaches even in bad weather.
The lack of the system has meant that for the last five years or more, fights had to be diverted to Panama, Liberia or Nicaragua in periods of heavy fog.
At 6:18pm, the ministra de Obras Públicas y Transportes, Karla González, flipped the switch.
The Ministerio de Hacienda (Finance Ministry) confirms that it doesn’t have the money to pay the aguinaldo (Christmas bonus) that is due in December, nor salaries of public employees and payments of the “pensiones del régimen no contributivo” (non-contributory pension),
The situation affects some 110.000 public sector workers and 58.000 pensioners.
The ministra de Hacienda, Jenny Phillips, who recently took over the portfolio confirms that the government coffers are empty and needs a cash injection to make good on its obligations.
The problem stems from a “financial hole” of ¢515 billion colones detected by the Contraloría General de la República (Comptroller’s office) during a financial check of the first quarter figures, which was caused by a decrease in tax revenue as a result of a slump in the economy due to the world economic crisis.
Ministra Phillips assures that her officials informed the Poder Ejecutivo (the administrative branch of the government) of the problem and confirms that it will need a loan of ¢414 billion colones to meet its obligation.
But, there is a catch. The government, by law “Ley de Presupuestos Nacionales” prohibits the government to get into debt to pay for current expenses, which alaries, bonuses and pension payments are deemed.
The only way to crawl out of this hole is to ask legislators to change the law. But, December is around the corner, and that is no easy task under normal circumstances.
According to Phillips, Hacienda will be looking for approval of a draft budget to allow it to finance the shortfall.
It is not kwon if the there is a “Plan B” as the ministra has refused to many any public statement.
Costa Rica bounced back from a first-round thrashing to rout Australia 3-0 Wednesday at the under-20 World Cup.
Diego Madrigal sent a shot through Australia’s defense in the 35th minute to beat Liverpool reserve goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis.
Costa Rica kept on the pressure after Australia’s Tahj Minniecon was sent off for a foul in the 60th, just five minutes after coming on as a substitute
Luke Devere then scored an own-goal in the 82nd to put the Australians behind 2-0, before David Guzman completed the scoring in injury time on a quick counterattack.
Costa Rica, which lost 5-0 to Brazil in their opening game, kept the Australians off-balance throughout the game with a string of fast attacks.
Costa Rica’s President Oscar Arias on Tuesday commended the interim president of Honduras for saying he will reverse an emergency decree suspending civil liberties in his country.
But he warned that the results of the Nov. 29 presidential election in Honduras would not be internationally recognized if it is held while interim President Robert Micheletti’s government is in charge.
Arias said Micheletti’s government “has not moved an inch” in negotiations to return ousted President Manuel Zelaya with limited authority.
He called the June 28 coup that propelled Micheletti to power a “dramatic, historical backward step” that needs to be corrected through free and transparent elections under Zelaya’s government.
“It’s the assurance of the continuity of democracy in Latin America,” Arias said. “The cost of failure of leaving a coup d’etat unpunished is setting up a bad precedent for the region.”
Arias spoke at the Americas Conference, a business and political forum hosted by The Miami Herald. Former President Bill Clinton, the U.N. Special Envoy to Haiti, is scheduled to address the conference at a suburban Miami hotel later Tuesday afternoon.
Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, brokered a plan to reinstate Zelaya, but Micheletti’s government refused to accept it. He said his San Jose Accord could be modified, but it was “the only thing on the table right now.”
“You could have remembrances of a bad Latin American past, insisting on elections under these circumstances and overlooking items in the San Jose Accord,” Arias said, addressing the conference in Spanish.
Micheletti said late Monday that he would accept congressional calls for him to reverse the emergency decree he had announced on Sunday. He also said he would allow an Organization of American States team, whose arrival was blocked this weekend, into Honduras. The OAS hopes to convince the coup leaders to bow to international demands to reinstate Zelaya, who was arrested and expelled from the country in June.
The interim government had said the decree suspending freedoms of speech and assembly was needed to counter calls for an uprising by Zelaya’s supporters.
Zelaya has been holed up at the Brazilian Embassy in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, since sneaking back into his country Sept. 21.
Arias said the June 28 coup was the result of Central America’s governments spending more money on their militaries than on their schools or on fighting poverty.
Also to blame was the Honduran constitution, he said. He called it “the worst in the entire world” and “an invitation to coups.”
It lacks an impeachment process, “so I imagine the only way of calling the president to account was to oust him,” he said. “This is something that will have to be resolved, and the best way to do this is, if we can’t have a constitutional election, is to have certain reforms so this Honduran constitution ceases to be the worst in the entire world.”
