The Public Works and Transport Ministry (MOPT) expects to complete the last remaining stretch of the

, which will connect the central Pacific coast city of Quepos to Playa Dominical in the Southern Zone, by December 2006, the daily La Nación reported.

Local residents, many of whom have been waiting 40 years for a paved highway connecting the Southern Zone to Quepos and the rest of the country, are optimistic, but still have doubts the project will be completed on deadline.

MOPT estimated it will cost approximately $1 million to build each of the highway’s remaining 40 kilometers. The high cost is the result of the additional work the highway will require.

According to Carlos Acosta, chief engineer of the project, the highway will be raised and drains will be constructed on its sides to protect it from flooding.

Four layers of rock, stabilizing mixture and asphalt will be placed on the highway’s surface to ensure it stands the test of time.

The project will be financed through a $60 million loan from the Central America Economic Integration Bank (BCIE).

Once completed, Costanera Sur will serve as the country’s main connection to Panama. The highway is part of Mexican President Vicente Fox’s controversial Puebla-Panama Plan, which aims to create a highway between Panama and Southern Mexico.

WHAT began as one community’s struggle to keep an incinerator out of the neighborhood has grown into a national fight against this method of treating infectious hospital waste.

With cries of public health concerns, residents of La Aurora de Heredia, just north of San José, have issued a call to arms to environmental groups, municipalities and other communities, and it appears the first battle has been won.

Last year, Fénix Médica de Costa Rica, S.A., proposed the construction of an incinerator in the northern San José neighborhood of Tibás. After the proposal was rejected there, the project, which proponents said would have treated 300 kilograms of hospital waste per hour, was proposed for an industrial zone in Barreal de Heredia, 1.5 kilometers from the community of La Aurora (TT, Oct. 24, 2003).

ALTHOUGH the Ministry of Health approved the preliminary plan in November 2003, the Municipality of Heredia later rejected it. No proposals to build incinerators in Heredia currently exist, Mayor Javier Carvajal told The Tico Times.

However, the support of the Ministry of Health for this project has sparked renewed concern among those who oppose the incineration of hospital waste. A group has formed that would like to see the Ministry do for the country what the Social Security System (Caja) has done for the country’s public hospitals: prohibit the use of incineration as a treatment of medical waste.

Lead by Agenda Local 21, of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, the fight against incineration has grown in recent months to include more than 100 environmental groups and is at least 300 people strong, according to Agenda Local 21 executive committee member Francisco San Lee, an environmental education advisor to the Public Education Ministry.

THROUGH workshops, community meetings and e-mail correspondence, residents in La Aurora initially brought their fight to the surrounding communities of San Francisco, Belén, Lagunilla and San Joaquín de Flores.

The crusade has since been carried to the cantons of Esparza and Montes de Oro in Puntarenas province, and some regions of the Atlantic zone and northwestern Guanacaste province.

The crusaders’ message is that toxins released from incinerators can cause cancer, respiratory damage and birth defects.

The ashes created when medical waste is burned are often mixed with heavy metals and can contaminate water and soil if not properly disposed, according to Sonia Torres, of the Association of Ecological Community Users of the Golf of Nicoya (CEUS).

“People are surprised that they are promoting this type of technology,” Torres said.

HOWEVER, the Ministry of Health says research shows incinerators that burn waste at more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit are not dangerous, as long as controls on temperature and gas emissions are monitored.

“If a company has good control, we accept them, if they don’t have good control, we don’t,” said Arturo Navarro, an industrial chemist for the Department of the Protection of the Human Environment at the Ministry of Health.

Fénix Médica representatives declined requests by The Tico Times to comment on their incinerator proposal, saying articles published by the paper last year on the subject contained “misstatements.” Details were not provided.

The Ministry of Health does prohibit burning materials containing chlorine because cancer-causing toxins can be released, Navarro said. Many plastics contain chlorine molecules.

Navarro said the Ministry often refers to information from the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States, and cites the use of thousands of incinerators in that country.

However, according to Agenda Local 21, only a handful of the incinerators used in the United States are monitored for the release of diotoxins.

BEYOND medical waste, environmental groups are concerned about the treatment of waste as a whole in Costa Rica. They hope to create a nationwide system for the management of all waste, including treatment of toxins and separation of recyclable materials, far beyond what is currently being implemented by the Caja (see separate story).

“The problem is not the trash, the problem is the management of the trash,” said San Carlos Deputy Mayor Wilberth Rojas.

“There needs to be a solution of the same intensity as the problem,” agreed Maria Fournier, president of the environmental group Yiski, which works primarily with waste treatment.

“If we humans have had the ability to create such a serious problem, we also have to have the capacity to resolve it,” she concluded.

IN what each team hopes will be only a stop on the road to Athens, Greece, the first-ever women’s Olympic qualifying event held by the Confederation of North and Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) is taking place in San José and Heredia through the end of next week.

In total, eight teams are competing for the two berths to this summer’s games in Athens.

“This is a historic event,” CONCACAF press officer Steve Torres told The Tico Times. “This is the first time there has been a women’s qualification for the Olympics in our region and it’s the first time that we will send two teams to the Olympics.”

Costa Rica’s male Under-23 National Soccer Team qualified for the Olympics, for the first time since 1984, earlier this month (TT, Feb. 13).

Since the inauguration of women’s soccer as an Olympic event in 1996, the United States has been the only team from the region to compete. The U.S. women received an invitation to play eight years ago and qualified for the Sydney games based on their FIFA World Cup performance in 2000.

BECAUSE of their past Olympic and World Cup performance, the U.S. women are a favorite to qualify. However, with two spots available, Canada and Mexico have a good chance of advancing as well.

Mexico defeated Haiti 5-0 and the United States dominated Trinidad and Tobago 7-0 in the opening games Wednesday at the National Stadium.

Last night at press time, Costa Rica took on Panama in the team’s first game of the tournament. The Ticas will face off against Jamaica tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. at the National Stadium in San José.

The tournament was originally scheduled to take place in Mexico at the same time as the men’s Olympic qualifier.

“Unfortunately, Mexico could not accomodate the women’s competition so it was relocated,” Torres explained.

“WE needed to find a host to stage the women’s Pre-Olympic event and Costa Rica was the first country to ask,” he continued.

“The decision was approved by the executive committee and the dates were modified so it wouldn’t conflict with the men’s competition.”

Although the Costa Rican women’s team failed to qualify for last year’s World Cup, they received entry into the tournament as a result of being the host country.

The Ticas’ last major win came in 2001 at the Central American Games.

In the early rounds, teams are grouped together and face off against each other before advancing to the semifinals, which will take place on March 3 at National Stadium in San José. The final will be played March 5 at Eladio Rosabal Cordero Stadium in Heredia.

Group A consists of Canada, Costa Rica, Jamaica and Panama, while the United States, Mexico, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago make up Group B.

THE crowd was sparse for the first game, although those in attendance were dedicated soccer fans who had come from around the United States, as well as Mexico and Haiti, to support their teams. Lauren Krueger and Nancy McDaniel came from Arizona to watch the games.

“Nancy wanted to go on vacation and I said I’d come as long as we could plan it for the end of February so we could come to the games,” Krueger said.

Humberto Rojas, from San José, was there Wednesday – even though the Costa Rican team would not compete until the next day.

“I’m just a really big fan of the game,” he said.

“This is an important championship and I want to see the best teams in the Americas – the United States, Canada, Mexico and Costa Rica – play,” he added.

RESPONDING to ongoing concerns about teenage pregnancy and AIDS transmission in Costa Rica, the Ministry of Public Education is once again trying to bring clarity and universality to sex education in schools.

At the start of the school year, the ministry distributed policy guides to teachers throughout the country, which attempt to address issues ranging from emotional aspects of sexuality to sexually transmitted diseases and pornography by teaching selfrespect, responsibility and life vision.

The new “comprehensive” guides focus on values and ethics, mentioning teenage pregnancy only once and AIDS twice.

ACCORDING to the official curriculum set by the ministry, sex education has been a part of science, religion, and achievement classes since 1990, and in some cases earlier.

But it may not be enough.

“Because there are so many pregnant girls these days, I think teachers have realized they must talk about contraceptives,” said 20-year-old Karen Mejía, at a recent meeting of Recycling Hopes, a support group for teen mothers. Mejía has a 2-year-old son.

“But what girls really need to learn is how to apply the information they have,” she said.

Detailed lessons about sex begin in fifth and sixth grades, according to Rita Sandí, biology advisor for the Public Education Ministry.

In eighth grade, lessons continue on birth control and abortion. Students don’t learn about AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases until the ninth grade.

Sexual education continues through the eleventh grade.

DESPITE this official policy, the issue of discussing sex in schools has a long history of controversy in Costa Rica, where 90% of the population is Catholic, the official religion.

Unlike mathematics, sciences and social studies classes, there are no standardized books used by students for sexual education. Instead, teachers can elect to distribute photocopies of material from the Didactic Guide for Education in Population in the Area of Human Sexuality, published in 1993.

Most schools throughout the country have at least one set of the books, unless they have been lost, Sandí said.

The guides were released after a nearly two-year controversy in the early 1990s. First published in 1992, objections by the Catholic Church resulted in changes – primarily the removal of photos and detailed drawings and a reduction of information on birth control – and a second publication (TT, Feb. 5, 1993).

The new 22-page policy guides were released without approval from the Catholic Church. The Episcopal Conference was consulted after the Council of Superior Education had already approved the guides, so the suggestions of religious leaders were not taken into consideration, according to Federico Cruz, director of the Department of Religious Education for the Ministry of Education.

“IT seems that students are given a lot of information, but they need to talk more about it, about what it is to be human and reinforcing values,” said Nubia Chávez, who teaches orientation classes at Liceo del Sur high school in San José.

Orientation classes are taught to seventh, eighth and ninth graders once a week and include sex education.

Sexual education should include discussions on giving and receiving affection, strengthening mutual respect and living happily with a partner, according to the new guide. A link should be made between human sexuality and emotion and instruction should be offered on problem-solving methods for concrete problems, it states.

TO bring clarity to this vagueness, a 40-hour series of instructive workshops will be given in each region of the country.

A staff of 30 people, trained by the Department of Integral Education of Human Sexuality and director Patricia Arce, will provide instruction.

Because of the complexity of this task, only about half of the regions in the country will institute the new sexual education guidelines this year, Arce said.

The Council of Superior Education originally approved the new sex education guidelines in June 2001. However, lack of funding to print the manual prevented its distribution until this year, Arce said. She hopes to have the new program guidelines implemented at every school in the country by 2006.

Areas in Costa Rica with the highest rates of teenage pregnancy will be the first to be trained, Arce said.

She pointed to a 2002 State of the Nation, which said fertility rates are particularly high in the San José suburbs of Tirrasas-Río Azul, La Carpio-Pavas, León XIII, Tuetal Sur de Alajuela and southern neighborhoods of San José such as San Sebastián, Hatillo, San Antonio, San Felipe and Concepción de Alajuelita.

Teenaged women between the ages of 15 and 19 who live in these areas are 50% more likely to become pregnant than those who live in other neighborhoods of the greater metropolitan area.

“CHILDREN having sex at 12 years old and younger is a reality, it is our reality,” said Patricia Quesada, who teaches Education to Achieve classes at Liceo del Sur. “We teach a little about contraceptives, but the reality is these methods are necessary. We need to talk to young woman about protecting themselves, and about the thousands of consequences that exist.”

Quesada is aware of one pregnant 15-year-old girl at her school. She said last year at least four students at the school became pregnant.

Statistics on teenage pregnancy from the Social Security System (Caja) are available only through 2001. From 1997 to 2001, the annual number of pregnancies in women ages 10 to 14 increased from 578 to 593, peaking in 2000 with 684, according to the Caja. For women ages 15 to 19, the numbers rose from 14,475 in 1997 to 14,701 in 2001, peaking in 2000 with 15,765.

A study by the Center of Central American Population at the University of Costa Rica shows that 52.7% of all births in Costa Rica in 2000 were by unmarried mothers, up from 38.5% in 1990. In addition, 31.2% of births in 2000 were to unknown fathers, up from 21.1% in 1990.

THE new sexual education guidelines will attempt to address the issues behind these statistics, according to Arce. Like pregnancy statistics, records of HIV and AIDS cases are also limited in Costa Rica.

According to the Ministry of Health, since 1983 there have been 2,455 cases of AIDS. The annual number of cases peaked in 1998 with 295. In 2002, the ministry reported 90 new cases.

However Minister of Health Rocío Sáenz said health officials believe that “for every known case of AIDS, there are ten unknown (TT, Nov. 28, 2003).”

“THERE are people (infected with AIDS) who don’t go to the Caja, who don’t go to the AIDS control department, who don’t go to anything, so there are not any official numbers,” agreed Carlos Alfaro, president of the Association for the Movement to Fight Against HIV.

“No one can officially say how many there are, there could be 15,000 (HIV-positive cases), there could be more, there could be less,” he said.

“THE coming era of the sun will be marked by flood, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes and heavy storms,” said Maya elder Alejandro Pérez Oxlaj, as unseasonable rains poured down over Costa Rica’s Central Valley on Monday evening.

Pérez, a solar priest from Guatemala, was at the School of Ballet in Santa Ana to perform a traditional Maya ceremony as part of the celebration of the Maya New Year, which began Wednesday.

The ceremony was cancelled as a result of the downpour. Pérez instead spoke to the dozens crowded onto the school’s porch about the Mayan New Year and the approaching end of the current era.

THE Maya Calendar year is made up of 18 months that are 20 days long and an additional month of five days, during which the New Year is celebrated.

According to Maya beliefs, it takes the earth 360 days to rotate around the sun. The earth then slows for five days before beginning its rotation again. These five days are for reflection, celebration and reconciliation, according to the Mayas.

“The fourth era of the sun is ending,” Pérez said, explaining how the Maya calendar consists of eras lasting 5,200 years. At the end of each period, he said, “The earth enters the central magnetic axis, which controls the movement of all stars and planets, and during this time undergoes a long night.”

In the Maya calendar, the end of every era is marked by complete blackness for 60 to 70 hours.

THE fourth period is to end sometime between December 2012 and 2015. The exact dates are uncertain, because the Gregorian calendar currently in use does not correspond exactly to that of the Mayas and because all books with direct reference to dates were burned during the colonization of the Mayas, Pérez explained.

“All over the world people are talking about the year zero,” Pérez said, referring to the beginning of the fifth era of the sun. “Some people might believe, others may not, but it is my duty to tell you what we see is going to happen.

“This time it is different,” he continued. “Global warming, pollution and the depletion of the ozone layer will effect this era more than any other era that has come  before.”

HOWEVER, Pérez emphasized that he was not trying to scare people and that the public should not worry. He simply was informing them about what will happen.

He also said there was hope.

“It will be the work of everyone. Rich and poor, black and white, indigenous and non-indigenous people must work with cities and governments to improve the world,” he concluded.

LEADERS from the U.S. Republican National Committee (RNC) say approximately 15,000 U.S. citizens in Costa Rica are eligible to vote in the upcoming U.S. Presidential elections, and they view every single one as a potential vote for George W. Bush.

Such was the message RNC Co-chair Ann Wagner brought to a meeting of the Costa Rica chapter of Republicans Abroad last Saturday.

The 2000 election was decided by less than 1,000 votes in Florida, she said, pointing to the impact the expatriate population can have with their absentee votes.

“Elections are being won by small margins lately,” she told the audience of several dozen people at the Republicans Abroad annual membership drive event, at the Doka Coffee Estate in Alajuela.

WAGNER, who was reelected cochair of the RNC in 2002, is anticipating “one of the dirtiest elections ever,” based on statements already made by Democratic party candidates. She said she believes the difference between candidates will be very distinct.

“This war on terrorism is the calling of this President’s time,” she said. “His doctrine of preemptive self defense is one that will continue. We will fight this war on terror in places like Kandahar and Baghdad, not in my hometown of St. Louis, or Washington, D.C.…”

This preemptive policy and free trade are the two main issues that will decide the votes of U.S. citizens living in Costa Rica, according to Wagner.

“The President is going to continue opening up markets for American goods,” she told The Tico Times. “He is a big advocate of free trade.”

FACILITATING voting from overseas is one of the primary objectives of Republicans Abroad. More than 6 million U.S. citizens live outside the United States. Of those, the RNC estimates that about three million are adults and one million will actually vote.

Lobbying by the organization has helped mandate that every state have an election official who is responsible for overseas votes, according to JoanHills, vicechair of Republicans Abroad International.

Wagner’s visit marked the beginning of a drive by Republicans Abroad Costa Rica to help people register to vote, “no matter what their political party is,” said Frances Givens, chairwoman of the organization.

Information about registering to vote and absentee ballots is available at www.fvap.gov

MEXICO (AFP) – Mexican president Vicente Fox and his Costa Rican counterpart Abel Pacheco have issued a statement saying they believe it necessary to reform the United Nations Security Council.

“The Security Council, the international organization with the primary responsibility of maintaining international peace and security, should be reformed to operate in a democratic, efficient and transparent manner,” said the joint statement, issued Tuesday after the two Presidents met in private at the start of Pacheco’s two-day visit to Mexico.

The statement also said they will join forces to strengthen institutions such as the Organization of American States (OAS), the Plan Puebla-Panama and the Free-Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

EDUCATION Minister Manuel Bolaños on Wednesday introduced new guidelines encouraging school administrators to search the bags of students suspected of possessing drugs or weapons.

A student’s backpack, fanny pack, briefcase or any other kind of bag can be searched from the moment the student steps onto a school campus, according to the guidelines.

No law prohibits such searches, according to the Education Ministry. The only laws addressing the subject are broad rights to privacy, according to ministry spokeswoman Carolina Mora.

“The right to life and safety in schools is the most important, more than privacy,” Mora said. “You have to prevent problems before they happen. When you enter a bank, or the courts, or the stadium, they search your bags.”

Although constitutionality concerns have prevented similar provisions in the past, Bolaños said he was motivated to take the action after a school shooting last week left two 11-year-old students injured (TT, Feb. 20). The gun used for the shooting was found two days later in the urinal of the school in Tibás, north of San José, where the incident took place.

The Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office has opened a case against a 17-year-old student at the school whose backpack show ed traces of gunpowder, according to police.

President Abel Pacheco responded to last week’s shooting with an announcement his administration would reintroduce legislation to reform the child welfare code and allow school authorities to search student’s belongings. However, no such legislation had been introduced by press time this week, according to a spokesman at the Legislative Assembly.

The new Ministry guidelines stipulate that if any illegal materials are found, “the presence of the parents or those in charge of the student should be requested immediately and the judicial authorities and administrative police contacted, with the goal of taking the suspect and his goods into custody and filing an appropriate re-port, according to the Penal Process Code.”

The guidelines will go into effect in approximately eight days, according to Mora, once they have been distributed to the country’s approximately 4,000 elementary and high schools.

BUCKETS of rain threatened to wash the summer out of San José on Monday afternoon.

The first torrential shower of the year came much earlier than anticipated and broke a nearly 40-year record for a February day, according to meteorologists.

The National Meteorological Institute reported that 47.4 centimeters of rain soaked San José that day, breaking the previous record of 35.4 cm on Feb. 21, 1968.

Werner Stolz, meteorologist and forecast specialist with the institute, said the rain was a freak occurrence that is not likely to be repeated soon.

There was a pressure drop in the seasonally high-pressure system over the Gulf of Mexico that shoved rain clouds into Costa Rica, he explained.

He said the end of February and first week of March are usually a transitional period into the hotter and less breezy weeks of the summer season