Weekly review

59 years without an army

President Oscar Arias attended the ceremony held at the National Museum to commemorate the 59th anniversary of the abolition of the army. Costa Rica did away with armed forces on December 1st, 1948, by the President Jose Figueres-Ferrer. Ever since then, the nation only has civilian law-enforcement corps to maintain order in the society. In the ceremony, Dr. Arias made a special mention of some of the men who partook in the 1948 civil war and who attended the celebration of the abolition of the army.

Inflation 1.24 percent up

	Imprimir		Recomendar
	Disminuir		Aumentar

In November, the Index of Consumer Prices recorded a 1.24 percent increase, which took overall inflation for December 2006- November 2007 to 10.09 percent. According to the National Statistics and Census Bureau (INEC in Spanish), the cumulate inflation for January-November this year was 8.98 percent. The Central Bank was aiming at an overall 8 percent increase for the year 2007. The INEC pointed out the increase in food, beverages, and education as the main culprits for the upward trend of inflation.

Rate of exchange

The Central Bank of Costa Rica decided to modify the limits for the dollar-colon rate of exchange. For that reason, a 4 percent drop is expected in the next few days. According to analysts, the drop already recorded below 500 colones per dollar is in line with the true value of the local currency. They added that the true value is closer to 400 than to the 519 it had reached recently.

Customs union

The Chamber of Industry of Costa Rica urged the acceleration of the process aimed at unifying the Central American customs system, because the region’s market is basic for sector companies. According to Chamber chairman Jack Liberman, the slow progress in unifying the system is a source of worry for the organization.

$87.5 million for forests

Costa Rica will invest $87.5 in the preservation of forests during the next five years. The funds come from three main sources, a $30-million loan from the World Bank, a $10-million donation from the Global Environmental Facility, and $47.5 million contributed by the Government of Costa Rica. Currently, Costa Rica’s green cover is 51.4 percent of the territory, 25 percent of which is already made up of national parks and protected areas. There remains another 25 percent with the potential to be protected, according to official sources, and that could be achieved by paying environmental services to the current private owners of that land.

Monitoring volcanoes

Universidad Nacional (National University) –UNA in Spanish– is developing a program to monitor all active volcanoes en Costa Rica. The idea is to set the guidelines for prevention in case of disasters. The project involves establishing a special network aimed at early warning and prompt attention of any emergency resulting from the activity of volcanoes.

Drug relays

A US Coast Guard cutter seized Costa Rican commercial fishing boat Yorleni II, while engaged in transferring 4.5 tons of cocaine to the Mexican fishing boat Jurel IV. When they spotted the US vessel, the Tico one tried to reach Costa Rican waters, but it still had 1.6 tons of the drug in her hold. Meanwhile, the Mexican boat already had 3.1 tons onboard. The operation took place some 80 miles off the Pacific coast, according to Minister of Security Fernando Berrocal. He said that the local boat was part of a relay system in which fast Colombian boats take the drug to Costa Rican fishing vessels, somewhere between the Galapagos and Cocos islands. Then the local boats transferred the cocaine to Mexican ones. So far this year, confiscation of cocaine has reached 60 tons, Minister Berrocal added.

Drier weather

The National Meteorology Institution announced that the hurricane season is over, and that so is the rainy one in most of Costa Rica, excepting the Caribbean and the Northern Zone. In the Central Valley area and in the Pacific Coast, the dry season usually extends from December through May, when the rains return.