Weekly review

Security Minister resigns

After a surprising agreement with President Oscar Arias, Public Security Minister Fernando Berrocal left his post vacant. The decision was made 24 hours before the former Minister was to appear before Congress to explain his words about alleged links between Costa Rican politicians and the FARC guerrillas in Colombia. Mr. Berrocal said that the President and he agreed that it was better for him not to discuss the issue before Congress. “I was planning to attend the hearing and to continue at my post, but I understand there are state reasons for my not doing so,” Mr. Berrocal explained. These were part of the events springing from information obtained from the computers of one guerrilla top leaders, killed in a recent raid by Colombian forces in Ecuadorian territory.

U.S. passports

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An average four U.S. passports are stolen in Costa Rica every day, according to a report from the American Embassy in San José. Criminals take advantage of a vast array of tricks to steal these documents because of the high price they command in the black market –$5,000 to $7,000 each–. According to local authorities, this is so because Costa Rica is a bridge for people from all parts of the world who are trying to reach the United States or who engage in criminal activities and need to move with ease from one country to another, particularly in South America and the Caribbean. Costa Rican passports are also targeted by criminals. Recently a Tico allegedly involved in the robbery of a diamond necklace in Holland had been dead for six years, but a Colombian was using his passport. Local authorities are developing strategies to stem the robbery of passports in Costa Rica.

Space cargo

Alliant Techsystems (ATK), world leader in the launching of cargo to space and in chemically fuelled rockets –whose systems are used in the launching of space shuttles–, entered an agreement with the local AdAstra Rocket, led by Costa Rican-born former NASA astronaut Franklin Chang, to carry the latter’s plasma engine to space. “It’s an agreement for the development of technologies,” Dr. Chang told the daily La Nación. He added that this would make possible carrying to space AdAstra’s plasma engine, which would eventually take man to Mars and other places. If everything goes as planned, the plasma engine will be tested in the International Space Station in 2010.

Forest fires

During the last two weeks, over 600 hectares (1,482 acres) of the Guanacaste National Park in the Costa Rican northwestern Pacific have fallen victim to four fires, allegedly started by poachers. Dry tropical forests in four different areas of the park were the victims of the fires. There is no idea currently about the identity of the culprits, officials at the Prevention and Control of Forest Fires Unit of the Ministry of the Environment said. Unit spokesman Luis Roman said that there were no registered visitors in the areas affected by the fires and that natural causes are discarded because of the absolute absence of lightning, the main source of forest fires here.

More turtles

The Las Baulas Marine National Park in the Costa Rican northwestern Pacific saw a larger arrival of spawning turtles, from 58 in the preceding season to 78 in the most recent one. The Park’s director Rotney Piedra reported 450 nests and 60 percent of births. These indicators point to a greater need of protection for the Park; however, the non-profit organization Mar Viva, which operates the sole boat that patrols the area to protect the turtles, has threatened to quit, because the Ministry of the Environment has not clearly enforced the boundaries of the Park.

Food skyrockets

The prices of food increased 22.7 percent during the last year. The figure is more than double that of the increase in the overall price index, reported at 11.04 percent. According to official sources, the steep increase is due mainly to the rise in the international prices of rice, corn, and wheat, mainly. The Central Bank had set 9 percent as the top increase of inflation for this year, but the year to year one was 9.9 percent in March, pointing to the fact that it will surpass said goal.

Non-stop New York-Guanacaste

Delta Airlines non-stop flights to Liberia, Guanacaste, from Atlanta and Los Angeles have reported an 80 percent occupancy, which prompted the carrier to add another such service linking New York and the tourist hub on the Costa Rican northwestern Pacific. Currently, Delta has 33 weekly flights to Costa Rica, 21 to Juan Santamaria International Airport and 12 to Liberia’s Daniel Oduber International Airport.