Archive for March 22nd, 2010
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
The final results for Miss World 2010 Costa Rica, 19 year old Dayana Aguilera was crown winner Miss World 2010 Costa Rica by Angie Alfaro, Miss World Costa Rica 2009 during the beauty pageant held at the Beacon Escazu in San Jose last week.
A beautify 1.75 m. currently is living in Liberia for study. Dayana Aguilera will represent her country in Miss World 2010 beauty contest.
While Alejandra Alvarez was elected Miss Earth Costa Rica, she has 24 years, measures 1.68 tall and psychology student finalists Krysia Ortiz & Maria Fernanda Arias, and will go to Miss Earth 2010 pageant to be held in Vietnam.
Finalists Krysia Ortiz and Maria Fernanda Arias, finished in third and fourth place.
Just as the young Mariela Aparicio was appointed as the new Miss International Costa Rica and will go to Miss International 2010 this November in Shanghai, China.
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Monday, March 22nd, 2010
The annual police sweeps of night clubs and bars in San José was on schedule Friday night, when a special task force descended on a number of bars and nightclubs, primarily looking for illegal workers, drugs and minors.
The concentration of the task force was on the Atlantis club located in La Uruca, where immigration officials found a hidden compartment beneath the floor of one of the change rooms used by illegal employees to hid from authorities.
The ministerio de Seguridad explained that under the floor of the woman’s change room, they found a compartment where two women and two men, both illegally working in Costa Rica, were found. One of the women was a Nicaraguan national, the other Venezuelan. One of the men was from Colombia, while another, the club’s bartender, was wanted on a warrant on allegations of sexually abusing a minor.
The task force that included members of the Fuerza Pública, agents of the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) specializing in the trafficking of persons, the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (immigration service) and the Policía Municipal de San José (municipal police).
The police operation also included a visit to VIP’s, Monca, Nicoles, Bella Mansión and Alcázar.
In total some 150 people, employees and patrons, were asked to provide identification. The majority were foreigners who were asked to provide proof of their legal stay in the country, which included checking immigration entry stamps on passports and legal residency cedúla, which resulted in 50 people asked (ordered) to report to the immigration service to clear potential irregularities with their status.
Typically between the beginning of the new year and Semana Santa, police do sweeps of bars and centers of adult entertainment (clubs, massage parlous, etc).
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Monday, March 22nd, 2010
Guns N Roses has now confirmed that they will be performing at Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Puerto Rico.
Axl comments “Our shows in these countries were originally announced without our knowledge n’ dates were put up for sale that weren’t confirmed. We’re also attempting to reschedule Rio for Apr 4. We’ll let you know asap when this is confirmed.”
These are the latest tour dates:
Apr 4 – Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, Apoteose
Apr 7 – Panama City, Panama, Estadio Figali
Apr 9 – San Jose, Costa Rica, Estadio Ricardo Saprissa
Apr 11 – San Salvador, El Salvador Estadio Cuscatlan
Apr 13 – Guatemala City, Guatemala Estadio Del Ejercito
Apr 15 – San Juan, Puerto Rico Roberto Clemente Coliseum
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Monday, March 22nd, 2010
The Instituto Costarricense de Turismo says that 426.000 visitors came to Costa Rica during the first two months of the year, 37.000 more than the same period last year.
The announcement was made by ICT minister Allan Flores based on immigration records of entries into Costa Rica.
“The numbers are a good sign of a recovery”, said Flores.
Flores explained that there are still regions affected by the downtown in tourism due to the economic crisis. Flores did not name the regions.
According to the immigration service records, the San José airport continues to be the main door into Costa Rica, with a total of 227.000 visitors entering through the airport during January and February. Last year the number of visitors through the airport was 208.000.
The airport in Liberia also saw an increase in visitor arrivals, recording a total of 50.427 visitors during January and February, 9.000 more than the same period last year.
The number of visitors entering by land at the various border posts with Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south increased to 149.000, 7.000 more for the same period in January and February 2009.
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Monday, March 22nd, 2010
While Costa Ricans continue in total confusion over the new Ley de Tránsito, here is a one problem that has been pointed out by the Cámara Nacional de Turismo (Canatur), what about the many foreigners who visit Costa Rica each year?
According to Canatur and in conjunction with the Asociación Costarricense de Autorrentistas (ACAR), the controversial reforms to the Ley de Tránsito does not correct the problem of foreigners coming to Costa Rica, committing traffic violations and in effectively getting away without consequences or penalties.
Foreigners driving in Costa Rica can do so with a drivers license from their country of origin, if and when they are within their “visa” period – 90 days for North Americans and Europeans and 30 days for most other nationalities – after which they are expected to obtain a Costa Rican drivers license.
Foreigners who commit and are ticketed for a driving offense in Costa Rica are expected to pay the fine before leaving the country. But, what if they do not?
Federico Barquero, president of the ACAR, explains that each year there are a number – a small number, he emphasized – that do such that, get a ticket and the leave without paying it.
The ACAR says that the new Ley de Tránsito does not include provisions for foreigners leaving the country without paying their traffic ticket, nor does the controversial reforms before legislators.
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Monday, March 22nd, 2010
The ferry that runs between Puntarenas, on Costa Rica’s central Pacific, and Paquera, on the Nicoya Peninsula, will be out of service for at least a week.
The closure was ordered on Wednesday after an access ramp on the Paquera side of the Gulf of Nicoya collapsed. The Public Works and Transport Ministry’s (MOPT) maritime division is in charge of repairing the ramp.
Meanwhile, at least 4,000 daily ferry users will be affected and the company that runs the ferry, Naviera Tambor, expects to lose approximately $10,000 each day business is interrupted, according to the daily La Nación.
Those wishing to cross the Gulf of Nicoya may take an alternate ferry, operated by Coonatramar, that runs from Puntarenas to Playa Naranjo, about 25 kilometers via a gravel road from Paquera. The ferry will leave Puntarenas daily at 6:30 a.m., 10 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The ferry from Naranjo will leave daily at 8 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Coonatramar said it could increase the frequency of ferry trips according to demand.
According to La Nación, the poor condition of the ramp had obligated a reduction in heavy traffic since early January and, beginning last Friday, only people, bicycles and motorcycles were allowed to pass on the ramp.
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Monday, March 22nd, 2010
Dole Food Company, Inc. announced today that Dole’s division Standard Fruit de Costa Rica has introduced a new system that will dramatically reduce the environmental impact of its banana harvesting and packing operations. The innovative process, called the New Millennium Packing System, specifically targets reducing the use of water by a factor of 10 and energy use by 50%, compared to a traditional packing plant.
“This new achievement demonstrates Dole’s commitment to address water use, one of the most crucial agricultural issues for the years to come. The concept has recently been extended to a Dole operation in Honduras and an additional farm in Costa Rica will begin with the New Millennium system by the end of the year,” said Roberto Vega, Dole’s Corporate Social Responsibility Manager who represents Dole in the Water Footprint Network.
This new system is especially significant due to the fact that the banana packing process requires extensive water use, in particular for holding fruit prior to selection and providing a residence time for latex removal. In 2009, Standard Fruit de Costa Rica embarked on a complete redesign of its banana harvesting and packing process in order to substantially reduce water and energy use.
The renovation began with a holistic analysis of the flow of bananas from field to packing. The harvesting and product selection process were substantially revamped allowing many of the packing tasks to be done closer to the field. As a result, by the time the fruit reaches the packing location, approximately half the activities required to prepare the bananas for packing have already occurred. This dramatically reduces the need for water and energy.
“The total impact of this system, if implemented on a regional level, would allow the banana industry to save over sixty million cubic meters of water used in packing. As climate change affects water availability in the developing world, solutions such as our New Millennium Packing System have the potential to free enough water to provide for the needs of a population of over 30,000 people per year,” said Danilo Roman, General Manager, Standard Fruit de Costa Rica, and main sponsor of the program.
Hal Hamilton, Co-Director of the Sustainable Food Lab (www.sustainablefoodlab.org), recently visited Dole’s banana plantation in Costa Rica during his organization’s annual summit last week. “There are two things that make this project quite unique. First of all, the development team includes people from all backgrounds from field workers to supervisors. Secondly, most innovation projects focus just on productivity. In this case, the search for beneficial environmental impacts such as water and electricity use is driving the innovation.”
Dole, with 2009 net revenues of $6.8 billion, is the world’s largest producer and marketer of high-quality fresh fruit and fresh vegetables, and is the leading producer of organic bananas. Dole markets a growing line of packaged and frozen fruit and is a produce industry leader in nutrition education and research.
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Monday, March 22nd, 2010
A man who provided legal advice to 10 American Baptists accused of kidnapping 33 Haitian children after the earthquake there was arrested Thursday night in the Dominican Republic and accused of human trafficking, the country’s anti-narcotics agency said Friday.
The man, identified as Jorge Torres-Puello, is linked to a network that trafficked in Haitian and Central American children and is wanted in the United States, El Salvador and Costa Rica, the National Drug Control Agency said.
Torres-Puello had been hiding in the Dominican Republic after he was accused of using the country to take Haitian children to North America, it said.
Members of the drug agency took Torres-Puello, also known as Jorge Torres Orellana, into custody without incident at 8 p.m. in the parking lot of a McDonald’s restaurant in the capital, the news release said.
Torres-Puello is a Dominican who was born in New York, it said. “According to documents of authorities in the United States, the Dominican Republic as well as El Salvador and Costa Rica, this person is an important part of a network of traffickers of undocumented people, especially women and children from Central America and the Caribbean,” the news release said.
Torres-Puello faces charges in the United States of conspiracy to take foreigners into the country illegally, it said. In El Salvador, he and his wife, Ana Josefa Ramirez Orellana, face charges of presumed sexual exploitation of minors and women, it said. Ramirez Orellana is jailed in El Salvador. The drug agency said Torres-Puello forced Nicaraguan and Dominican children to work as prostitutes in El Salvador.
Torres-Puello is also wanted in Vermont on alien smuggling offenses and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for probation violations for fraud, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said. He is also wanted in Canada.
Shortly after the American missionaries were arrested in Haiti on kidnapping and abduction charges, Torres-Puello contacted their church in Idaho, identified himself as a legal authority on Haitian and Dominican law, obtained a retainer and began representing himself as their attorney/spokesman, the U.S. agency said.
But Torres-Puello is not registered in the country’s College of Lawyers, implying that he was practicing without a license, the Dominican drug agency said.
In February, law enforcement authorities in El Salvador suspected that the missionaries’ legal adviser looked like a man they were seeking, and asked Interpol to help. The international police agency coordinated the efforts of various agencies that resulted in Thursday’s arrest, the ICE statement said.
In a phone interview last month with CNN, Torres-Puello acknowledged he is the same man wanted by Salvadoran authorities but denied the charges against him.
“I never did anything,” Torres-Puello said. “I started helping a Dominican pastor helping a lot of people who were stranded to get back to their home countries. We once gave some Nicaraguan and Costa Rican women some money to return home and instead they went to the authorities and put in a complaint against us. I never had anybody against their will.”
He also denied Salvadoran allegations that he and his wife ran a brothel out of their home. “I know I am innocent and I want to clear my past,” he said.
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