Archive for February 8th, 2010
Monday, February 8th, 2010
Laura Chinchilla, a protege of Nobel peace laureate President Oscar Arias, won a landslide election victory in Costa Rica yesterday to become the country’s first woman elected president and claimed a historic victory.
Chinchilla, formerly Arias’ vice president, has vowed to continue his pro-business policies in the Central American nation, expanding free trade pacts and courting investment.
“I want to thank the pioneering women who years ago opened the doors of politics in Costa Rica,” Laura Chinchilla said Sunday to flag-waving supporters in the capital, San Jose. “My government will be open to all Costa Ricans of good faith.”
Second-place candidate Otton Solis of the Citizen’s Action Party had conceded defeat earlier in the evening, as the PLN — the Spanish acronym for the National Liberation Party party — forged its way to a nearly 2-to-1 lead.
Polls showed Chinchilla garnering 46.8 percent of the vote, with 84 percent of election sites reporting. Solis had 25.1 percent, while Otto Guevara of the Libertarian Movement had 20.9 percent.
Election day was festive throughout the nation, with video footage showing supporters of the main presidential candidates dressed in their respective campaign colors.
International observers interviewed on CNN affiliate Teletica compared the election scene to a festival.
The festivities included election sites where children could vote in a mock presidential vote. The educational outreach let the children pick their candidate on a digital ballot not unlike the ones the rest of the electorate cast their votes with.
Some 2.8 million Costa Ricans are eligible to vote.
In addition to voting for president, Costa Ricans cast ballots for two vice presidents, 57 Congress members and 495 council members.
The legacy of outgoing President Oscar Arias — a Nobel laureate who leaves office a popular, if polarizing, leader — has in many ways shaped the presidential race.
Although he has given Costa Rica a larger role in foreign affairs through his involvement in seeking resolution to the political crisis in Honduras, but his style has rubbed some the wrong way.
After casting his vote Sunday, Arias called the electoral process transparent and trustworthy.
“I would like to thank the Costa Rican people for filling the streets with color,” he said.
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Monday, February 8th, 2010
The New Orleans Saints have won their first Super Bowl in American Football, inspired by a city still rebuilding from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina five years ago.
Behind an MVP performance from quarterback Drew Brees, the New Orleans Saints captured their first ever title last night, defeating the Indianapolis Colts 31-17.
Brees, who completed 32 of 39 passes for 288 yards, threw two touchdown passes, including a 2-yarder to Jeremy Shockey with 5:42 left in the fourth quarter to give New Orleans a 22-17 lead. Brees then connected with Lance Moore for a two-point conversion that extended the lead to seven.
Future Hall of Fame Quarterback Peyton Manning then drove the Colts down the field, but with the ball at the New Orleans 30-yard line, his pass intended for Reggie Wayne was picked off by Saints cornerback Tracy Porter, who returned it 74 yards for the score. Down 31-17, Manning again took the Colts down the field, but with just under one minute to go his pass for Wayne fell incomplete on fourth down, giving the Saints the ball and the win.
“We play for so much more than ourselves,” said Brees after the game. “We played for our city. We played for the entire Gulf Coast region. We played for the entire ‘Who Dat’ nation that has been behind us every step of the way.”
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Monday, February 8th, 2010
Costa Rica and China’s top state oil company CNPC are hammering out the details of a planned refinery upgrade that could cost up to $1 billion, the head of Costa Rica’s national oil company said.
The project, which would triple the size of the Central American nation’s only oil refinery by 2015, is likely to be approved by the two companies sometime in 2011 after further engineering studies are completed, Jose Desanti, the head of Costa Rican state oil refiner Recope, said on Friday.
“We’re just a few weeks from bringing (the joint venture) to life,” Desanti told Reuters in an interview. “We think it will be 14 to 18 months to give the green light to start the project,” he added.
The deal with CNPC evolved out of conversations between the two companies when Costa Rica dropped its diplomatic recognition of Taiwan in favour of China in 2007.
In return for the switch, Beijing has already made low interest loans to the Central American nation and is building a soccer stadium in the capital San Jose.
Chinese oil companies have been expanding in the Americas as they seek to build up global businesses and secure new sources of supply for China’s rapidly growing economy. CNPC has a long-standing interest in Venezuela and most recently Petrochina, a subsidiary of CNPC, took over a strategic oil storage terminal lease in the Netherlands Antilles.
However, China’s entry into Costa Rica’s energy sector is unlikely to provide it with access to new reserves for the foreseeable future as public opinion in the environmentally conscious nation is strongly opposed to oil drilling.
JOINT VENTURE
Recope, which is Costa Rica’s monopoly oil refiner and distributor, has wanted to expand its existing 20,000 barrels per day refinery for some time to reduce its reliance on oil product imports, but has lacked the financial strength to do so on its own alongside other projects.
The refinery upgrade will be carried out by a 50-50 joint venture between Recope and CNPC that will then lease the plant back to Recope upon completion. The two sides hope to finance 70 percent of the cost of the upgrade.
“From feasibility studies, we estimate a range of $800 million to $1 billion,” said Desanti.
Financing from the project is likely to be provided in part by China at “attractive terms,” he added.
The expansion plan comes as global refining margins have fallen sharply, forcing the closure of several refineries in the United States and elsewhere. Recope is confident refining margins will recover in the medium term, Desanti said.
Recope is also working on a modernization of its terminal facilities in the Caribbean to allow it to receive tankers capable of carrying up to 80,000 tonnes of refined products.
A new crude oil loading monobuoy is also being studied.
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Monday, February 8th, 2010
Every time disaster strikes the world community, such as the earthquake in Haiti or the global economic crisis, a great many people become envious of Costa Rica, which has a reputation as one of the happiest countries in the world.
The sources of happiness in the Central American country, the BBC reported recently, are the facts that its army was abolished back in 1949, 90 percent of its energy comes from renewable sources, and its citizens have a high life expectancy of 78.5 years.
Costa Rica has a population of just 4.2 million on 51,000 sq. km of land, about half the size of Korea, and its per capita GDP of US$10,000 stands at around 80th in the world. However life expectancy and life satisfaction levels in the country are among the highest in the world, flouting the perception that happiness correlates with income.
The Happy Planet Index, compiled and released by the New Economics Foundation last year, put Costa Rica at the top among 143 countries, and the World Database of Happiness gave it 8.5 points out of 10, over runner-up Denmark which scored 8.3 points.
The nation’s commitment to the environment is also among the reasons it tops the happiness charts. In a Jan. 7 article titled “The Happiest People,” New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote, “Costa Rica has done an unusually good job preserving nature, and it’s surely easier to be happy while basking in sunshine and greenery than while shivering up north and suffering ‘nature deficit disorder.’” Costa Rica introduced a carbon tax in 1997, and it ranked third in the world in the 2010 Environmental Performance Index published last month by Yale and Columbia universities.
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Monday, February 8th, 2010
The Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) denounced that mob groups hire young people to kill for a price. The OIJ revealed these facts after detaining two 16 and 17 year old suspects allegedly involved in four homicides in September of 2009.
According to the Police the two had guns and drugs in their possession and offered no resistance to arrest. This is the first time that judicial authorities confirm full participation of minors in cases of homicides.
Authorities say that the minors are hired since Costa Rica’s laws allows for a maximum 15 year sentence for minors, including murder.
The OIJ says that the minors had been offered ¢12 million colones (us$22.000) for each crime.
After their capture the Fiscalia (prosecution) accused the two adolescents for qualified homicide and six aggravated thefts and that they be held in preventing detention for the next two months while the investigation continues.
Authorities say that organized crime feeds on the new generations of Costa Rica who are unable to have employment and are seeped in poverty. Experts consider that containing growing violence and creating work opportunities and relief from extreme poverty are some of the challenges for the government that will assume power May 8.
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Monday, February 8th, 2010
The first attempt to collect a new tax on luxury homes in Costa Rica has ended in failure, in spite of the fact that it is a solidarity tax entirely devoted to building social housing for slum-dwellers. The Ministerio de Hacienda (Finance Ministry) admitted that only one-quarter of the expected revenue was collected after extending the deadline for paying the tax from Dec. 31 to Jan. 15.
The tax is levied on homes valued above ¢100 million colones (us$180,000 dollars), according to Hacienda valuation methods that real estate experts regard as setting figures well below market prices.
After the deadline was up, the ministra de Hacienda announced it had only collected us$5.5 million dollars, instead of the expected us $22 million dollars. The Ministry announced that there are 10,000 luxury homes in Costa Rica, but only 3,000 owners paid the tax. “We will go after those who haven’t paid,” said ministra Jenny Phillips.
The tax was formulated in a special law and approved unanimously by the Costa Rican parliament. All revenue will be used to finance the Ministry of Housing and Human Settlements’ slum eradication program.
The tax is to be levied for a period of 10 years on owners of luxury homes, at annual rates that vary in six steps from 0.25 to 0.55 percent of the value of the house, rising according to its price. The rate to be paid will be based on appraisals of the houses updated every three years.
The ministra de Vivienda (Housing Minister) Clara Zomer said that the tax would be in place for 10 years, in order to eliminate slums and shanty towns in the country. It was conceived as a solidarity measure to provide decent housing for people living in extreme poverty.
But the driving force behind the tax, legislator Federico Tinoco of the ruling party, the Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN), says the tax should be reformed to last more than a decade, because “the slums cannot be eradicated in 10 years.”
The tax authorities have up to three years to oblige the home owners to pay up, but Hacienda believes it can do this within one year because it can identify the houses involved, and even has aerial photographs of each of them.
Taxpayers have the space of that year to appeal the payment before the Administrative Tax Court, challenge their tax rating, or bring a lawsuit arguing that they are not eligible for the tax.
In the view of real estate and tax experts, another reason for the failure to pay the first tax payment is that the Hacienda has established mechanisms that are unfamiliar to taxpayers, such as making declarations online, and the overall procedure is cumbersome.
“The trouble is that the amount collected has been much less than expected,” said Minister Zomer.
However, the Banco Hipotecario de la Vivienda, which is under the Ministerio de Vivienda, has already received the revenue collected, which will be immediately allocated to the “bono comunal” (community grant) program to cover the cost of paving, sanitation services, parks and playgrounds and other improvements in shanty town areas.
Zomer said there are 400 shanty towns in Costa Rica at present, housing 40,000 families. She added that the revenue from the tax collected so far will only pay for the “improvement of one precarious neighbourhood.”
But she said her ministry has other funds, totaling us$125 million dollars, for its program to eradicate shanty towns. The luxury home tax is “complementary,” she said.
This country of 4.5 million people has a poverty rate of 18.5 percent, according to figures from 2009. But local authorities and social agencies are concerned because the overall poverty rate grew by nearly one percentage point compared to 2008, while the proportion of those living in extreme poverty increased from 3.5 to 4.2 percent.
Although Costa Rica’s poverty rates are among the lowest in Latin America, the latest figures show that poverty has risen as a result of the global economic crisis, after a 2007 poverty rate of 16.7 percent, the lowest in the country’s history.
Previously an average of 20 percent of Costa Rica’s population were living below the poverty line, although in the early 1980s the rate shot up to 40 percent, said César Zúñiga, a professor of political science at the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR) – University of Costa Rica.
“Poverty in this country is different from that in the rest of the region, because Costa Rican social services have relatively universal coverage,” unlike in most of Latin America, he said.
The national housing system was created in the 1980s as part of a policy of social protection for the lowest-income population. “This is how the growth of poverty has been curbed,” Zúñiga said.
He remarked that the social protection plan has contributed to the paradox that the country’s middle classes have the greatest difficulty in achieving home ownership, as they have access neither to credits nor to the social assistance available to low-income groups.
“The (social housing) policy has been effective,” although administrative and political disorder have undermined the efficiency of the system, he said.
In Zúñiga’s view, the reluctance of the richest strata of the population to pay the solidarity tax indicates “a lack of solidarity, which is cultural and moral in character,” although he also blamed the ministry’s inefficient tax collecting.
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