MANAGUA (AFP) – Ex-president and leader of the Sandinista opposition movement in Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, on Tuesday demanded that President Enrique Bolaños shed light on his alleged participation in electoral crimes during the last electoral campaign.

“If we want stability (in the country), we need to create respect for the law, and most importantly, that you clear up and explain situations like this,” said Ortega, leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), during a meeting of supporters in Managua.

Ortega alluded to a denunciation made Tuesday in the newspaper La Prensa, according to which Bolaños and two members of his campaign team received approximately $350,000 from the Nicaraguan Democratic Front, a party linked to ex- President Arnoldo Alemán (1997-2002), found guilty of defrauding the state out of millions of dollars in public funds.

Bolaños and Nicaraguan Vice-President José Rizo were accused by the public prosecutor, at the end of 2002, of financing the electoral campaign of 2001 with illegal money, a denouncement the Supreme Court of Justice would process if Congress lifts the immunity of both.

Bolaños on Tuesday denied the La Prensa accusation.

GRANADA, Nicaragua – After more than a week of tense political brinkmanship between the ruling Liberal Constitutional Party (conservative) and the left-wing Sandinista National Liberation Front, the Liberals last Friday agreed to back off their controversial attempts to pardon incarcerated former President Arnoldo Alemán (1997-2002), currently serving a 20-year sentence for fraud and money laundering.

But the gridlock in the Legislative Assembly appeared far from over this week, as President Enrique Bolaños met with congressional leaders Monday morning to try to mediate a solution to the political crises sparked late last month by the Liberal’s amnesty efforts.

The amnesty decree was introduced Feb. 25 by the congressional directorate, which is controlled by members of Liberal Party who remain loyal to Alemán.

WHEN the motion was introduced, 47 opposition lawmakers from the Sandinista Front, Azul y Blanco (an eight-member minority voting bloc, including six Liberal congressmen loyal to Bolaños) and the three-member Christian Path Party walked out of congress, breaking quorum. The minority lawmakers argued that the decree was presented illegally and in violation of congressional norms.

The eight-day stalemate escalated when the Sandinistas, who represent 38 of 90 congressional seats, called for the removal of the four Liberal lawmakers serving on the congressional directorate – including Legislative Assembly president Carlos Noguera – for abusing their power.

THE Sandinistas warned that if the Liberals did not resign their directorate posts they would be voted out of power by a new alliance formed between the Sandinistas and Azul y Blanco. But at week’s end, the threat had not materialized because the new alliance represents only 46 lawmakers – one vote shy of the 47 majority needed to oust the congressional directorate, which was voted into power just two months ago.

Without a clear majority of votes, the Sandinistas resorted to threatening the Liberals with a judicial motion calling for Alemán to be transferred back to a jail cell from his current house arrest in his private hacienda compound, known as “El Chile,” outside the capital Managua.

THE Liberals, however, ultimately acknowledged that they too did not have the 47 votes necessary to pass the amnesty decree and attempted to withdraw the measure March 4 in hopes of introducing a similar amnesty initiative in the form of a bill, to avoid doubts about the jurisprudence the proposed decree.

The proposed law, the Liberals said, would call for reforms to the current Anti-Drug Law (Law 285) by providing a clarifying clause that states that money laundering is only illegal when it involves drug money.

The Sandinistas, however, refused to allow the Liberals to withdraw the ill-fated decree, arguing that it was not introduced legally to begin with and therefore could not be legally revoked.

“We Sandinistas are against any form of amnesty (for Alemán) and will oppose any such initiative,” Sandinista congressman Nathan Jorge Sevilla told The Tico Times last week.

CONGRESSIONAL president Noguera and other Liberal leaders insist they did not abuse their authority or the law by introducing the decree.

But after a week of a paralyzing political crisis that sparked new concerns about the country’s institutional governability, the Liberals announced March 5 that they would drop the whole issue – at least for now.

Under Nicaraguan law, if a legal measure fails in congress, a similar bill cannot be presented until the following year.

Political observers are blaming the most recent political crisis on the Liberals for introducing such a divisive proposal without the required votes to pass it through Congress.

Analyst Rene Vargas said part of the Liberal’s strategy, in addition to freeing their party boss, appeared to be an attempt to send a message to the United States: If you don’t agree to a pardon for Alemán, don’t count on our votes to ratify the Central America Free-Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States.

THE U.S. government has been an enthusiastic supporter of President Bolaños’ anti-corruption campaign, which resulted in the charges and criminal proceedings against Alemán.

But the President’s perceived courting of U.S. favor has backfired at home by splintering his own Liberal party into two groups: those loyal to Bolaños and larger faction of those loyal to their incarcerated party boss.

Despite the Liberal’s apparent attempt to globalize the Alemán issue with the amnesty proposal, the fatal flaw of their strategy was that it did not work with the Sandinistas, who are opposed both to CAFTA and freedom for the former President. It also backfired in the sense that opposition lawmakers expressed concern about the possible international repercussions of loosening money-laundering laws in Nicaragua to serve Alemán at a time when the U.S. is attempting to tighten money-laundering enforcement around the globe to battle terrorism.

ALEMÁN, along with four of his relatives and six of his former cronies, were served with criminal charges late last year for bilking the government out of $100 million.

The former President still faces additional charges for allegedly embezzling $1.3 million from a state-run TV station.

While the crisis surrounding the amnesty measure paralyzed the already polarized congress from attending to any other work last week, some lawmakers put the situation into a less-alarmist historical perspective.

“The National Assembly has always had problems, and each one is different,” said Sandinista congressman Sevilla. “The Alemán faction lost this round, but in national terms, it is the Nicaraguan people who win when the government stands firm in its fight against corruption.”

ANTONIN Dvorak is considered the greatest of the Czech nationalist composers of the 19th century, and his works continue to enjoy wide international popularity.

Dvorak was successful in bringing together music that derived from folk origens with the classical traditions which were being continued in Central Europe by Johannes Brahms. This year marks the centenary of Dvorak’s death, and Costa Rica’s National Symphony has programmed several of his compositions for this season.

Chosei Komatsu, the musical director, selected the A Minor Violin Concerto for last weekend’s opening concerts at the National Theater. Misha Keylin, a Russian violinist now based in the United States, has previously played here; he was vociferously applauded for his virtuosity in the final allegro movement with its complicated contrasting episodes. He obliged the audience with an encore – a Capriccio by Wieniawsky.

The program opened with Eddie Mora’s Cantata for Soprano and Chamber Orchestra, a short six-part composition written in 1998 to commemmorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Federico García Lorca. Several of the poet’s poems for children provide the texts, which were sung by soprano Marianela Rojas.

MORA, a Costa Rican composer, had one of his works presented last season by the orchestra and Komatsu, and it was a pleasant surprise to hear another of his pieces instead of the Verdi overture, which was initially pencilled in for the season’s opener.

The familiar Brahms First Symphony was the final offering, and the capacity audience gave a standing ovation to the orchestra.

The rapport and affection of the orchestra and its musical director were evident to the enthusiastic listeners throughout the concert.

Komatsu will conduct half of this year’s series of 12 concerts; his next appearances are scheduled for March 19 and 21.

THE current season runs through November, with a break in August when the National Lyric Company takes the stage for eight repetitions of Verdi’s Rigoletto.

Baritone Guido LeBron sings the title role, and tenor Scott Piper returns as the Duke of Mantua. Both were acclaimed in last season’s Carmen, and details of the upcoming opera will be available shortly.

IN a moderate environment, three things only are needed to sustain life: Air, Water and Food. We lost control of the least of these, food, long ago.

The demand for food is constant. Every four hours or so, we are hungry. The supply is easily controlled by Agriculture Giants whose government puppets, congressmen and other high-level officials control prices through subsidies. Family farms in the United States and other countries cannot compete and must sell out in desperation.

Rice and beans, when they can be had, become the daily fare of the average poor, while lobster and exotic ripe fruit are jetted back and fourth to the privileged. “The people complain that they have no bread. Let them eat cake.”

The above quote is mistakenly attributed to Marie Antoinette, but it doesn’t matter who said it, the sentiment prevails in the World Trade Organization, the Green Giants of the world, Monsanto and their ilk.

SITTING at a polished conference table on the hundredth floor, one cannot hear a starving baby whimper, cannot smell the diarrhea that comes from eating things not meant to be eaten, can not taste the muddy gruel that passes for drinking water. One sees only the bottom line, smells only French Cologne, tastes Perrier and hears sweet music.

People are routinely sent to prison for stealing water from a privatized water company. Countries no longer own this most precious resource; it is owned by whatever company can control it, fence off a river, dam a stream, pipe the water and build cement aqueducts.

No matter that your family drank freely from this river for generations beyond recall. It is forbidden now.

Thousands of homes in one Michigan town have been taken because of property liens won by private water companies – the residents could not pay their exorbitant water bills. The town is situated on Lake Erie and just below the greatest freshwater lake system in the world. Here, water flows uphill to money.

FOR every 1,000 people on earth today, there were only 30 two thousand years ago. Because of the insatiable thirst of industry and agriculture and the profligate use of our most precious resource, we have less clean water today than ever before. The demand is increasing exponentially. We are running out, and they know it. The glamour stock on Wall Street today is water.

Desalination by today’s methods? Sure, about a buck a gallon. Towing an iceburg to warmer climes to harvest it? About the same price. Cheaper to capture what’s near at hand.

When is the last time you saw a public drinking fountain, the last time a waiter brought water to your table unbidden? When asked for water, the waiter brings a bottle of commercial water, not a glassful from the tap. We seldom complain. The young take it for granted.

THE last of the essentials, air, without which we would die in about four minutes, cannot be sold in tanks or bottles, but… The government can lie to us about the safety of the air we breathe. A glaring example occurred after the bombing of the TwinTowers. The government declared it was safe to return to work in the area to keep the wheels of commerce turning and the Stock Market open, when in fact the air was saturated with powdered glass, aluminum oxide, burned pvc and aircraft fuel.

Carcinogens and toxins filled the atmosphere and the people were encouraged to return to work.

What can We the People do about all this?

Nothing. The above is but an impotent catharsis, another example of a little man blowing off steam, like a boiler tripping a safety valve.

That’s what the First Amendment in the United States is all about – we can talk about it, but like the weather, there is nothing we can do to change it.

(George H. Prosser is a longtime resident of the Southern Zone, who says his bio and epitaph should read “Dead fish go with the flow.”)

GUATEMALA (AFP) – The Guatemalan Prosecutor’s Office announced Wednesday it will appeal the house arrest of ex-dictator, former Presidential candidate and retired general Efraín Ríos Montt.

The house arrest was ordered Monday after a judge opened a case against Ríos Montt for the death of a journalist during violent protests in 2003.

“We are not in agreement with what the judge decided,” said Prosecutor Juan Florido in a press conference. The house arrest is too weak, he explained.

The judge sentenced the former dictator, who is 77, to a house arrest that consists of freedom of movement and requires only that the general show up to sign upon request.

The appeal will be based on the weakness of judge Victor Hugo Herrera’s resolution, Florido explained.

Herrera initiated the process against Ríos Montt on Monday for his “probable participation” of three crimes: preterintencional homicide (a death caused by intent to harm without intent to kill); coercion and threats.

Florido said he planned to meet with the prosecutor of the case, Nancy Paiz, to define the type of preventive measures he will request in the appeal.

When judge Herrera issued the house arrest, he announced the measure took into consideration the “poor investigation and lack of evidence presented by the prosecutor.”

The former dictator is accused of having organized thousands of supporters in a violent protest June 24-25, 2003, in an effort to be allowed to run in last year’s Nov. 9 Presidential election.

During the first day of the protest, 60- year-old journalist Héctor Ramírez died of cardiac arrest while being chased by a hooded mob.

A day after Herrera ordered the arrest of Ríos Montt, he opened a case against former legislator Jorge Arévalo for the same crimes. Arévalo posted $12,500 bail.

Seven other people are being investigated for the same incident, including former Minister of the Interior, Adolfo Reyes, and former chief of the National Civil Police, Raúl Manchamé.

This is the first time Ríos Montt (1982-83) has gone to court after losing his immunity Jan. 14, when his period as legislator and president of Congress ended.

The retired military officer also faces another lawsuit for the crime of genocide, which he allegedly committed when he was dictator.

THE Panama Canal Authority will soon begin using a new system to share crucial data with vessels planning to transit the 51-mile waterway.

The Automated Data Collection System (ADCS) is to be launched April 1, with full implementation scheduled by July 1. The idea is to eliminate the current process of data collection via paper, substituting it with an electronic exchange of information between canal authorities and their customers.

José Carrasco, project manager of the authority’s ADCS division, said the new system will save time, lessen human error and reduce costly delays.

“The objective behind the development of ADCS is to improve the way we collect data from our clients in order to perform risk assessments,” Carrasco said in a phone interview from Panama City. “Before, the information was collected on paper, it took a long time to key it in, and sometimes mistakes were made.”

THE impetus for the new system is the threat of international terrorism, Carrasco said.

“Security regulations are being set up all over the world by the IMO (International Maritime Organization),” he explained. “You need to have a general idea what kind of risk a vessel might pose to your facility. We’ll be requiring the use of harmonized codes so we can have an exact idea what you’re carrying, where in your vessel the cargo is located, where it’s coming from, where it’s going and who your passengers are.”

Vessels transiting the canal will be required to report all necessary data at least 96 hours before arrival. ADCS is designed to comply with the new security requirements included in the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS).

A fact sheet on ADCS says it offers convenient access via the Panama Canal Authority’s Web-based interface.

THE ADCS is divided into two main components. The first is an electronic data collection system, which receives all preliminary information required for security and operational purposes. The second is a mobile data collection system, which allows wireless communication between the Enhanced Vessel Traffic Management System database and handheld computers carried by Panama Canal Authority boarding officers and inspectors.

“Our boarding officers will be able to access this information via a wireless link using a Pilot PC,” Carrasco said. “They’ll be able to look at your information while you’re out there, doing spot checks. In case of errors or discrepancies, they’ll be able to provide an immediate response.”

Carrasco said implementation of ADCS implementation will be done gradually over the next three months.

“WE need to let the users get acquainted with it before it becomes compulsory,” he said.

In the 2003 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, 2003, the Panama Canal Authority reported 12 maritime accidents from a total of 13,154 transits. It also posted revenues of $921 million, an average transit time of just under 23 hours and volume of 242.5 million tons.

Last year also brought a substantial increase in the number of Panamax ships – vessels that utilize the maximum width of the canal to carry the most possible cargo.

The tonnage increase can be attributed to a growth in transits of ships measuring 900 feet or more in overall length.

According to the Panama Canal Authority, 980 of these vessels transited the canal in fiscal year 2003, compared with 715 vessels in fiscal 2002.

“THIS trend toward Panamax ships as the preferred mode of transport is likely the result of a dramatic rise in the container segment of the shipping industry,” said a Panama Canal Authority press release.

“Other goods that registered an increase in 2003 were grains, automobiles and auto parts, chemicals and petrochemicals, refrigerated products and coke carbon.”

Significant capital improvement efforts last year have also contributed to the Panama Canal’s ability to handle increased traffic.

According to authorities, these include the deepening of the Gatun Lake channel; the acquisition of new locomotives and rehabilitation of the locomotive tracks; the addition of new tugboats; improved aids to navigation; a training and research maritime simulator center; and the implementation of the Automatic Identification System, a sophisticated vessel tracking system.

ORGANICALLY grown foods are no longer the fruits of the labors of idealists, hippies with gardens or impoverished farmers who cannot afford to chemically invigorate their fields.

Reports in Costa Rica of pesticide poisonings linked to cancers, sterility and death (TT, Feb. 6), are prompting farmers and consumers toward organic alternatives.

A drive through coffee plantations in Frailes, an hour south of San José, is a case study in the difference between chemical-free and conventionally grown crops.

The hills bristle with coffee bushes, some grown in the shade of poró trees, others in the sun, but intermittently between vaguely defined plots of land there are oases of towering bushes.

Their leaves are much darker than those of neighboring plants, which look frail and isolated in comparison, and their growth, in straight lines, is as dense as a maze of shrubbery.

THESE are the plantations of one of Costa Rica’s first organic coffee farmers, Emilio Marín.

Marín’s coffee flaunts the conventional wisdom that organic farms produce less than others. While his neighbors cultivate their fields under pesticide sprays, poison weeds among their coffee bushes with herbicides and scatter chemical fertilizer pellets to nourish their battered soil, he spends money only on manure to fertilize his fields.

Birds, attracted by the fruit trees he planted among the bushes, eat the insects that can ruin harvests, and in the rich soil and protective shade of poró trees, the plants are strong enough to ward off disease on their own, he said.

“PEOPLE around here don’t understand,” he said. “They don’t want to understand – it’s easier to spray chemicals, but it’s more expensive.”

Twenty-five years ago he stopped using chemicals on his crops. He said they turned the plantation that his father had given him into a rocky waste of struggling bushes.

Converting his plantations from conventional to organic was an arduous process of three years and long hours with a machete cutting the weeds that herbicides used to kill.

Now, he said, he spends less money each year than his neighbors, produces more and, thanks to new markets for organic coffee, earns about 50% more money.

ORGANIC plantations are not uncommon in Costa Rica, though the overwhelming majority of crops are grown conventionally.

The government has implemented some plans to promote organic farming education and encourage farmers to reduce the use of pesticides.

The National Program of Organic Agriculture (PNAO) promotes the development of organic agriculture in Costa Rica through measures such as the instruction of farmers in organic farming techniques, consumer education, the creation of new laws that help organic farmers with tax incentives and credits, and the coordination of organizations involved in organic production – from government offices to universities and non-governmental organizations.

According to PNAO, the latest statistic on the amount of land in Costa Rica under organic cultivation is from 1998, and was 9,000 hectares.

In 2000, more than 3,500 organic producers were registered with certification agencies, and in 2003 that number increased 13% to nearly 4,000.

SOME of the most commonly exported organic crops are bananas, cocoa, coffee, blackberries and orange juice.

Because there is a growing international market for organic products, farmers can sell their crops for more than what conventional crops can fetch.

Organic coffee, for example, sells for 30-100% more than conventional beans.

Felicia Echeverría, manager of the PNAO program, said “to produce environmentally friendly food isn’t just a fad, it’s a necessity and it’s shaped in national politics. We need consumers to join us, for people to notice what they are eating and for them to know that if they choose organic lettuce (for example) it’s not just any lettuce, but a vegetable that did not harm the environment and will not affect their health.”

TEN women in San Miguel de Chires de Puriscal, southwest of San José, run an association for organic cashew farming with financial aid from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock.

They dry the nuts in the sun and package and label them for sale in markets throughout the country. To increase profits, they diversified their business to include other kinds of nuts, raisins and wine using the raw grapes and nuts from farms in their community and others nearby.

Their effort has created jobs in that economically depressed region, where the average monthly income for a family is ¢25,000 ($59) according to the Foundation for the Encouragement and Promotion of the Research and Transfer of Agricultural Technology of Costa Rica.

Families involved in their association earn an average of ¢40,000 ($95).

The women, who do not have telephones, were unavailable for comment, but Orlando Jiménez, regional director of the Ministry of Agriculture, said the project “promotes sustainable systems of production that reduce the application of agrochemicals.

It seeks to increase the value of the cashew to those involved by putting its preparation for the market in their hands.”

WHAT effect has the rise of organic farming practices had on Costa Rica’s overall use of agro-chemicals? Rodrigo Mora, director of the Chamber of Agricultural and Livestock Materials, says not much at all.

“In general terms, the amount of money spent on chemical imports has decreased lately,” he said. “We could say by about 10% between 2001 and 2002. But the organic market doesn’t even have 1% of the national market.”

He attributes the decline to poor sales and a decrease in production.

Coffee sales have decreased, for example, so less money is spent on the chemicals used to grow coffee, he explained.

ORGANIC fruits and vegetables are not readily available to consumers in Costa Rica. The newly opened AutoMercado in Santa Ana, west of San José, offers locally grown organic vegetables and a few fruits. Más x Menos supermarkets have a paltry selection – its branch in downtown San José near the Plaza de la Democracia offers only organic carrots, for example.

Organic produce is available at some weekend farmers’ markets, including those in Pérez Zeledón, Moravia and Turrialba, and through Comercio Alternativo (see separate story).

Despite food-labeling laws in the United States that do not allow organic foods to bear statements about their effects on health, the health benefits of organic foods have been documented.

The United Kingdom-based Soil Association, for example, reviewed more than 400 research papers and determined there is substantial scientific evidence to support the claim that organic food is safer and healthier for the body than food grown with chemicals.

Where to Buy Organic, Transitional Products

BIOLAND: Prepared organic foods (snacks, soy products, etc.) personal-care products with organic ingredients (see separate story). Info: 279-1111, bioland@bioland.org

Alfaro Ruiz Association of Organic Vegetables: Organic produce orders by phone. Juan Paniagua (463-2960) or Henry Guerrero (463-3057).

Finca La Esperanza, Platanares de Coronado, offers cheese, sour cream, pork, worms and organic fertilizer. Info: Anselmo and Patricia Rodrí-guez, 292-2158, 229- 1310.

Finca Los Nacientes, 500 meters south of the Berlín School of San Ramón, Alajuela, coffee, tomatoes, chiles, jams and sauces. Info: Efraín Sánchez, 453- 4655.

Finca La Armonía (Toledo de Acosta): Medicinal plants, oranges, limes, lemons, mandarins, Saturdays. Info: Francisco Sibaja 226-8791.

Comercio Alternativo S.A., in San Rafael de Guachipelín, Escazú: offers delivery of organic produce and products, (see separate story) orders by Internet (www.comercioalternativo. com) Info:

Noel Payne, 253-5507, 393-5314.

Hiedras Orgánicas S.A.: Organic products importer from the United States, also sells products from certified local producers. Info: Laurel Anderson, 383-0407.

Pérez Zeledón, at the market around the corner from the Red Cross post. Thursdays 11 a.m.- 8 p.m. Info: 737-0043, 771-4737, 741-1460.

Tico Orgánicos S.A., diagonal from the western side of the regional campus of the University of Costa Rica, behind El TremedalChurch in San Ramón. Fridays 1 p.m.-8 p.m., Saturdays 6 a.m.- noon, Info: 445-7585.

San Isidro de Coronado, at the market under the roof of the Centro Agrícola Cantonal, 75 meters west of the bus station. Sundays 6 a.m.- noon, Info: 292-1516.

Turrialba, beside the Catholic Church. Saturdays 6 a.m. to noon, tel: 556-6438, 556-5293

Guápiles, at the farmers’ market Saturdays 5:30 a.m.- noon, Info: 824-0446, 710-3153, 710-2749, 226-8791.

Zarcero, the Santa Lucía shop, on the highway in front of the Tajo El Espino. Monday through Sunday 8 a.m.- 5 p.m. Info: 463-3648.

Bioproductos Oro Verde, in El Trueque fair ground, Barrio El Carmen de Paso Ancho, San José. Monday through Saturday 7:30 a.m.-noon, Info: 226-8791, 227-5332. www.cedeco.or.cr.

Vegetable stand, downtown Cartago, 50 meters north of the Pharos restaurant on the highway to Paraíso, plans to reopen in April. Info: 591-6538.

Finca San Luis, in San Luis de Grecia, 1.5 km northwest of the school. First Sunday of each month: 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Info: 494-4523.

Centro Cultural Ecológico Gaia, in front of Playa Chiquita Lodge, 5 km south of Puerto Viejo, Limón. Saturdays 10 a.m.- noon, Info: 750-0385.

Organic foods catering service: ALISERSA Catering Service (Alimentos Servidos S.A.). Info: Alexandra Praun or Allen González, 236-9456 or e-mail: alisersa@racsa.co.cr

A land dispute in the remote southern Pacific beach town of Pavones has pitted a group of Costa Rican fishermen against foreign residents who have obtained a government concession for a 13-hectare coastal property there.

Similar territorial conflicts in Pavones, compared by some residents to the “Wild West,” have flared into fatal shootouts, arson and a string of court battles in the past 20 years.

The latest dispute began when Patrick and Anne Weston received a concession from the Municipality of Golfito for 13 hectares of coastal property, including a two-kilometer stretch of shoreline, east of the village of Río Claro de Pavones.

The land concession was granted to the U.S. couple in late 2002 for forest preservation and scientific research.

A group of area fishermen has been trying to claim one of those hectares along the coast to build a pier and a storehouse for the fishermen’s catch.

Convinced that the concession awarded to the Westons was granted under unfair circumstances, the fishermen and their legal advisor, former Golfito Mayor Jimmy Cubillo, have appealed to the Supreme Elections Tribunal in an attempt to remove Municipal officials from office because of that decision.

Their case prompted the visits of two Puntarenas province congressional deputies from the Libertarian Movement party last year and has snagged the attention of a San José-based lawyer. All three have expressed sympathy with the fishermen’s plight.

THE Westons, according to their lawyer Marcos Araya and his documentation, went through the proper legal channels to obtain the rights to the land.

The couple submitted a proposal in 1990 for a new municipal zoning plan that designated much of the area as a protected forest. The Municipality of Golfito passed the plan in 2000, and the Westons received their land concession two years later.

Before applying for the concession, Anne Weston said she and her husband, who have been a part of the community there for 16 years, took into account the livelihoods of the area fishermen, asked them which part of the beach they wanted to use, and recommended they apply for a concession to guarantee their access.

Later, she said, once the process was  under way and the maps, land studies, and approvals were passing under the stamps and pens of local authorities, a group of fishermen organized to oppose the Westons’ concession and claim part of the beach for themselves.

THE organization, called the Association of Fishermen of the Bay of Pavón (APEBAPA), founded in 2001, represents 20 fishermen and their families. José González, a member of the association, said local fishermen are worried because at any moment they could be evicted from their current base and denied use of their storehouse in the village of Río Claro.

He said they are unable to obtain the legal right to use that land because its proximity to the town prevents the municipality from granting them a concession there.

The rocky coast and the rough sea, González claimed, limit their options for a dock in the area. The area within the Westons’ land is suitable, he said, because of the relative calm of the waves there.

APEBAPA and the group’s legal advisor contend the fishermen were excluded from the process of zoning and doling out the land, and that something is amiss in the way the municipality granted the concession to the Westons.

One year before the municipality approved the zoning plan, APEBAPA had sent a letter to the municipality requesting that the plan grant them permission to build a facility on the beach.

Nobody responded, according to Cubillo. That and other attempts to gain a part of the land were ignored, according to APEBAPA, which has documents that verify those attempts.

“We find ourselves without the financial resources to fight our cause. We seem weak, but we’re not – we will fight because this is our livelihood and we must protect our families,” Gerardo López, president of APEBAPA, told The Tico Times.

THE association recently contacted Victor Lobo, a San José-based lawyer who is examining their case.

Lobo told The Tico Times that the Municipality of Golfito approved the zoning plan in violation of the Constitution.

“The government received the documents but did not respond or consider them. That is a violation of the due process of law,” he said, explaining that the Constitutional right to due process guarantees involvement in the legal process.

Golfito Mayor Mauricio Alvarado assured The Tico Times there was nothing illegal about the zoning plan or the concession.

“When the plan was passed there was a public audience, but nothing was heard from the fishermen. It was only afterward that they began to complain,” he said.

HE cannot alter the concession now, Alvarado said, but he can try to help the fishermen obtain land on the edge of the Westons’ property.

Former Mayor Cubillo said the reason there was no opposition is simple – the municipality did not notify APEBAPA of the public hearing. Rather, Cubillo said, they held a hearing alone and approved the concession immediately.

Mayor Alvarado responded that the government followed the legal procedures and did not hold an unannounced public hearing.

Cubillo has submitted a ream of documents to the Supreme Elections Tribunal that he claims will prove there were shenanigans not only in the public hearing, but also in other aspects of the municipality’s land concession process.

AS an example, he showed The Tico Times a copy of the contract for the Westons’ concession, which was signed at 8 a.m. on Dec. 16, 2002. The public hearing to field opposition began at 10:30 a.m. that same day, two and a half hours after the contract was signed, and APEBAPA was not represented.

Gerardo Soto, former Golfito Mayor who signed the concession contract, told The Tico Times that, though he did not have the documents before him, he did not think that there was any wrongdoing.

“I believe that we signed it after the public hearing and after all the proceedings had gone through,” he said.

Rigoberto Nuñez, president of the Municipal Council, who also signed the concession contract, told The Tico Times “we would have to look into it, but it seems to me that we approved something that had already met all the legal requirements.”

Cubillo is confident that the evidence he has will be enough to annul the contract and possibly topple Mayor Alvarado, Nuñez and others in the municipality “within four or five months,” he said.

LAWYER Lobo said the fishermen have not yet taken the case to court properly. “They don’t know what they’re doing. They need to present their case to the Criminal Court or the Constitutional court or both… I believe they have the right to work like you and me, and they don’t have too many options for work there. If this concession remains, it jeopardizes the entire culture of those people,” Lobo said.

Mayor Alvarado, Nuñez and the Westons all said they want the fishermen to have a piece of land, but an independent study proved the land in question is unsuitable for a pier.

Geologists from the University of Costa Rica (UCR) carried out the study and concluded that the beach is prone to such severe erosion that building there would require a large investment.

THE Westons stressed they have followed the letter of the law throughout the entire process.

“What we’re doing is absolutely vital to the community,” Patrick Weston said. “We want to bring marine biology research here because the gulf is threatened.”

Patrick Weston was a lifeguard in the United States before moving to Costa Rica with his wife, who teaches English to children in Río Claro and writes children’s books.

Some area residents told The Tico Times they have long been frustrated by the actions of Patrick Weston in the community, especially regarding land use. To avoid what they claimed would be Weston’s retribution, many requested that their names be withheld from publication.

ONE of those with complaints against the Westons who did not speak on condition of anonymity was Billy Clayton, who had permission to use some of the land that is now in the concession, but lost it when the municipality awarded the land to the Westons.

Allan Weisbecker, a neighbor of the Westons, left the country recently after an argument with Patrick Weston in which Weston accused him of selling land illegally over the Internet. In a letter that

Weisbecker delivered to The Tico Times and the U.S. Embassy in San José, he wrote, “Patrick Weston has the community of Pavones – expats and Ticos alike –cowed. Weston is feared.”

Weston, however, said people are upset because he and his wife try to ensure that residents follow the land-use laws, and file complaints against people who sell land illegally.

“All the things you hear about us are from people who have an axe to grind,” he said.

SOME of the players in the recent controversy are veterans and witnesses of past Pavones land battles, some that ended in tragedy.

In 1997, Jimmy Cubillo was the Mayor of Golfito and gave permission to a cooperative called Coopeatur to build an ice factory in Pavones.

The site encroached on the ranch of Max Dalton, a 78-year-old U.S. citizen who was shot to death shortly after. Dalton and one of his alleged attackers, 55-year-old Tico Alvaro Aguilar, died of bullet wounds in a gunfight after Dalton contested the municipality’s authorization to build the factory on his land (TT, Nov. 21, 1997).

Cubillo later said he had made a mistake in granting the permission (TT, Dec. 19, 1997).

LAND disputes in Pavones also have roots in the demise of the United Fruit Company in the 1980s. The company pulled out of the area after debilitating strikes by unionized workers, leaving hundreds unemployed and opening the land to foreign speculators.

One of the buyers was U.S. fugitive financier Robert Vesco (TT Nov. 25, 1988), who later sold some of the land to Danny Fowlie, who has been imprisoned in the United States since the mid-1980s, convicted of drug trafficking.

The Westons own another 100-hectare property they bought from a corporation that Fowlie owned, Rancho del Mar; although they made the purchase through a legal representative of Fowlie and say they never knew Fowlie.

“Four-fifths of Pavones was owned by corporations in Fowlie’s name,” Anne Weston said.

Though the press often casts the southern region as a prickly mess of drugs and gun fights, Anne Weston said there is a positive side that is often overlooked.

That is partly what they are struggling to protect through their reforestation project, she said.

AFTER a sensational first-round play, the Costa Rica women’s soccer team’s Olympic dreams ended Wednesday afternoon following a 4-0 loss to the United States in the Pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

The United States dominated the game from the beginning with an early goal in the fifth minute. From then on, the Costa Rican team hardly touched the ball, taking less shots on goals than the number of goals the U.S. women made.

The absence of Megen Chávez, the Ticas’ leading scorer in the tournament, due to an injury sustained during the Costa Rica-Canada match on Monday, made the gap between the two teams more visible.

Despite their early exit, Costa Rica’s technical director, Ricardo Rodríguez, said he was proud of his team’s performance during the tournament.

“We’re going out with our heads held high,” he said. “We demonstrated we have the potential to play at this level.”

Rodríguez also said he is looking forward to the 2008 Olympics by working hard to develop younger players during the next four years.

THIS was the third meeting between Costa Rica and the United States in just over a year. Each time the United States has won, but U.S. technical director April Heinrichs said she has seen a real evolution with the Costa Rican women’s team.

“They’ve made remarkable improvement,” she said about the Costa Rican women. “They had a fighting spirit this tournament that they didn’t have six months ago. They had the organization and the commitment they didn’t have six months ago and I was extremely impressed with them.”

The United States will advance to the Olympics for the third time in a row, making it the only team in the region to compete in every Olympics in which women’s soccer has been an event.

The Mexican women’s team will advance for the first time. After defeating Canada 2-1 Wednesday afternoon, Mexico also secured a berth to Athens this summer.

“IT is hereby resolved that we Democrats will be sending George W. Bush back to Crawford, Texas,” said an impassioned Dorothy Sagel, as she kicked off the Democrats Abroad Election Extravaganza on Saturday afternoon.

Her words were met with a rousing cheer from the audience at the Gran Hotel in San José. Potential voters turned out for a variety of reasons, but all share a common goal – defeating U.S. President Bush in the November elections.

Sagel, president of Democrats Abroad in Costa Rica, said the organization was gathered to get that message across.

“I hope that people who are here and who read about this event will know that there’s a large group of people who are unhappy with George W. Bush and his administration,” she said.

Jerry Ledin, regional vice-chair of the Americas, agreed. “Democrats Abroad have empowered themselves around the world to defeating Bush and (U.S. Vice-President Richard) Cheney,” he said.

The event had a turnout more than double what the regular Democrats Abroad meetings usually generate, leading members to become optimistic about the upcoming Presidential race, organizers said.

Voter registration helped draw the crowd – more than 80 people registered that day and another 20 took applications to fill out and return later.

“WE’RE trying to offer a viable alternative for Americans in Costa Rica who are not aware of the fact that they can register and vote and that their vote will make a difference,” said organization vice-president David Sagel.

Member Francis Chavarría expressed satisfaction with the afternoon’s events.

“I hope this creates a momentum of enthusiasm that keeps growing as we near Election Day,” she said.

Past co-president Jerry Karl said he feels it is important to have functions like the Election Extravaganza where Democrats can speak their minds.

“We’re here discussing important issues occurring in the United States and abroad and want to have our opinions voiced,” he said.

Jerry James said he attended because he believes getting Bush out of office is a matter of personal as well as national security.

“GEORGE W. Bush has upset all nations of the world, so much so that Americans need to fear for their safety when they’re overseas,” he said. “We need to get rid of a guy like this. I’m here to get him out of office.

“I wasn’t going to vote ever again until I read we had a chance of beating Bush. Now here I am,” James added.

Democrats Abroad members spoke on behalf of potential Presidential candidates and an unofficial straw poll was taken, with John Kerry coming out as the winner with 39 votes. The next closest candidate was Dennis Kucinich, with 11 votes.

DEMOCRATS Abroad is organized into three regions: Europe-Africa-Middle East, Asian-Pacific and the Americas.

Democrats Abroad plans to send 22 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Boston this July. Two of those delegates will be representing Democrats Abroad for the Americas.

Democrats Abroad will continue its voter registration drive during the next three months. For more info about registering or on Democrats Abroad Costa Rica, call 249-1856, 494-6260 or visit www.cr.democratsabroad.org.

The Republicans Abroad of Costa Rica held its annual membership drive event on Feb. 21, including the participation of visiting leaders of the U.S. Republican National Committee (TT, Feb. 27).