Weekly review

Contacts with Cuba

The months of tension between the governments of Oscar Arias and Raul Castro seem to have come to an end. There is frequent and growing dialogue between the ministries of Foreign Affairs of the two nations, even though the absence of diplomatic relations remains. Minister Bruno Stagno has met several times with his Cuban peer Felipe Perez. The Costa Rican official discarded any formality in those meetings, even though he admitted that the Ministry keeps open dialogue with Cuba and permanently watches over what is going on in the Island. Dr. Arias, who is for democracy and trade opening, endured attacks from Cuba early in his current term. He was called “a lackey of Yankee imperialism” by Havana. According to analysts, the changing trend is due to an apparent new order of things in Cuba, where Raul Castro took over his brother Fidel at the helm.

Food concerns

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The Government of Costa Rica is resorting to the Central America Economic Integration Bank for the funds needed to finance a program to stimulate the growing of basic grains. This is so because of the regulations that do not allow the national banking system to provide the required funds. Minister of Agriculture Javier Flores said the Bank will lend $60 million for Costa Rican farmers to grow rice, beans, and corn, the three leading grains in a state program aimed at countering global shortages and the high prices that those goods are commanding in the world market. This is part of the National Food Program, which also includes social relief to the most vulnerable sectors and to which some $86 million have been allocated. While in the past Costa Rica even exported surpluses of the three staples, now it depends mostly on imports, and the Government aims at changing that trend.

Protection of turtles

A group of volunteers from different countries worked for a month and a half to build a nursery designed to protect turtle nests at Matapalo Beach, in the Costa Rica Central Pacific. This is the second such facility built there, since the useful life of the first one had come to an end. Also, groups of volunteers patrol the beach during the spawning season –June 1st through November 30th– to prevent the action of poachers, among other predators. As an average, 500 turtles come to nest at this beach, according to Gustavo Gamboa, the Matapalo coordinator for the Association of Volunteers at the Service of Protected Areas (ASVO in Spanish).

Coffee to Czech Republic

The Foreign Trade Promoter disclosed that a Czech-Costa Rican company, NAVCAFE, will market coffee in the European nation. The firm, which was established in 2006, specializes in premium coffee, has operations in Costa Rica, Europe, and North America and is known for its motto “Walk among perfection”. The beans destined to the Czech Republic are grown in the Los Santos area, which excels for its high quality.

Fewer flights

United Airlines is going to halt operations in Guatemala next September 2; Spirit Airlines postponed flights to El Salvador from Miami due to start in August; American announced that it is canceling flights from Puerto Rico to the United States and to Caribbean islands. However, Costa Rica will not be affected by such cancellations, sector sources said. The increase in the price of fuels and the more expensive operation costs are quoted among the reasons for the cancellations.

Drop in remittances

Costa Rica’s income from remittances dropped to almost $108 million this year’s first quarter, the smallest quarterly amount recorded since early 2006. That income had grown steadily since 1999, when the Central Bank started keeping a record of it. The remittances play a major role in fighting poverty, since they are mostly destined to poor families who have a member working abroad, and their dimension is such that they reached $580 million in the year that ended last March. Finance Minister Guillermo Zuniga said that the drop is most likely due to the difficulties of the economy of the United States, the source of 71 percent of the remittances to Costa Rica.

Another 400 unemployed

Established here in 1988, VF Corporation employed 4,000 workers at one time, but now is halting its operations in Costa Rica and will lay off its last 400 employees. VF operated here under the name WR and assembled Wrangler and Lee jeans. Company sources said that the decision to shut down the plants here is due to a drop in the sale of jeans in the United States. Costa Rican exports of textiles have dropped by 26 percent, from $811 million in 2002 to $429 million in 2007, according to the Foreign Trade Promoter.

$200-million scam

Cuban-American Luis Milanes, 57, was arrested at the international airport in El Salvador and deported to Costa Rica, where he was wanted for a $200-million scam which affected some 2,600 investors, most of them from the United States. Milanes, the head of Savings Unlimited, which paid unusually high interest rates on “investment”, had fled Costa Rica in 2002, when the scandal surfaced. Upon arrival here, Milanes claimed innocence.

Fighting AIDS

Costa Rica asked international organizations to maintain their financial support for the struggle against HIV-AIDS here. The Vice-Minister of Health Lidieth Carballo did so at the United Nations high-level conference on AIDS held in New York.